Hey my tube of flowable silicone dried out even if I put a screw in it. Any other way to preserve the silicone?
Same thing happens with me. It gets so frustrating that I’ve just started using silicon pads…
When you’re done using it, if you kind of squeeze the tube so it widens, it will suck must of the silicone in the tube into it. Then you can use the cap. Except the cap is a really cheap plastic that normally cracks, making big clogging globs of hard silicone in the tube. Which is hard to get out. Really.
On my last silicone I made a little paper funnel, squirt silicon into the point and then using that as a kind of cap. Hopefully that should make a seal outside the tube I can just pry off.
So, there really is no easy way to store silicone in the tube. But what if you took it out of the tube? Dump it in a ziplock bag, seal it, then just squirt it out a corner when you need to apply it? I haven’t tested that, but it sounds like it would work. Maybe. It might be hard to reseal the bag once silicone has dried on it.
I’ve tried numerous ways over the years, none seem to work well. Sealing it well and putting it in the refrigerator does extend it a bit.
I’m glad I’m not the only one with this problem. I’ve tried putting saran wrap around the opening and then putting the cap on and that doesn’t even work.
^^ Thanks for the tip about the fridge. That is something I’m going to have to try.
I thought I was the only one that did that. I used sticky notes to make disposable cones to apply silicone.
I just used the silicon and it didn’t really work. I still got a glob in the the point. I could of gotten it out pretty easily, but I just poured the silicon backwards out of the point. Then I just sealed it by putting the point, still with its silicon blob, back on. I think that’s what I’ll do from now on.
Just out of curiosity, but may seem like a dumb idea, could I use duct tape to seal off the silicone?
I’ve used tape and it didn’t work any better than the original cap, maybe worse.
The problem is that some of the silicone is going to have contact with the air and it’s going to cure.
So the best way I’ve found to preserve most of it (actually, credit goes to my dad on this one) is to put some aluminum foil over the end, and squirt silicone into the foil. The idea is that what’s in the foil will cure, but it won’t cure back far enough to cure what’s still in the tube. So you waste some every time, but you hopefully don’t waste the whole tube.
Next time you use it, just peel the aluminum foil and cured silicone off, and hopefully what’s in the tube should be liquid still. Always keep it in the refrigerator, that also helps.
Ill try that later on.