I’ve made an amazing discovery that I am positive will prove to be quite useful for a large percentage of you guys to hear about.
The basic idea is to use the heat/UV light that is emitted from a blacklight bulb to reduce the time required to achieve fully cured silicone.
I thought of this idea because one half of my Draupnir had grabby response, so I had to replace it, and I wondered if UV rays/heat could speed up the process. At about 11:00 PM, I ripped out the old response and poured in some fresh RTV. This stuff is what most of you are already using; it smells like vinegar when curing and takes 12-24 hours to dry.
This blacklight is one I found at Home Depot in their lighting section. I believe it cost somewhere around 8 USD.
The result…
11:15 PM - Outer layer of silicone already dry, rubbed the excess off
11:40 PM - Most of the vinegar smell is mostly gone, looks good!
12:00 AM - Hour of truth, no trace of vinegar smell, couple of test throws…
Plays perfectly, doesn’t rip out. I unscrewed it again and poked at the older, fully-cured silicone on the old half and the brand-new, 1hour-cured silicone on the new half. They felt exactly the same in terms of toughness and solidity. Nothing oozed out from under the pad, nothing broke or ripped… I have to say, I’m quite amazed at the results.
Now the only thing that could top this is if I could acquire a stronger blacklight bulb. That could speed things up even more, and I’m hoping to get total curing time under 20 minutes.
Incandescent black light bulbs don’t emit much UV light, they do however emit a lot of heat, which is what dried your silicone. It would be best to follow the instructions on the tube, and not burn your house down.
With a hotter bulb, the more likely flame risk is the string. BUT, even then… his goal is FAST curing. No plans to let it sit overnight or the whole approach is pointless. Since these items will be monitored for 20 minutes or so, I don’t see too much of a problem.
I do believe it is the heat. Try doing 2 halves of your next yoyo, one with the blacklight and the other with a regular incandescent bulb. Or an even hotter regular incandescent. See if there’s a difference, or in the case of the hotter incandescent if the heat cuts even more time.
Me, I have lots of jojos. I just wait the 24 hours without too much sweat.
There are 12 hours 20 minutes between 11:40PM and 12:00PM. You may want to fix that in your post.
And I feel the same way as Greg, I dont mind the wait. In fact, I usually leave my yoyos for too long because I just forget about them (Well, this depends on whether or not the group of yoyos is large or if it is just one yoyo. Also there is the factor of whether or not I am particularly fond of the yoyo or if I just thought it might need some new response for the purpose of bringing the yoyo to club or trading it)
Glow-in-the-dark strings. Which do in fact benefit from UV. But you don’t wanna leave them there for long so close to the bulb or they’ll get ruined. I imagine he only puts’em there for a moment.
Those black incandescent lights get hot and explode, it has happened to me. don’t be mad at me because you don’t have a clue how silicone or lightbulbs work.
I think the best way to test this out is to try at least in three controlled variable, normal lightbulb mode, UV light mode, and normal.
It could be the rtv, it could be the heat, it could be the uv.
“Normal” incandescent bulbs and blacklight incandescent bulbs both have a filament that resists current and emits light and heat energy as a result. The only thing making the blacklight what it is is the colour of the glass…
A 60W blacklight and a 60W “normal” incandescent will emit the same amount of heat.
But why not try to speed it up? If you don’t like the idea then why are you wasting your time posting in the thread? have you nothing better to do then to be negative about someones knew idea they are sharing?
thats not true at all. i could explain it a million ways but were talking middle school science here
theres nothing negative about telling someone to follow the directions. you must be awfully young guessing by your level of reasoning. go do your homework.
i will say again: anything that HAS A CURE TIME has a cure time for a reason.
the end product of a fully cured silicone job will be different than a speed dried slop job. i dont care if you guys want to do things the wrong way, but advertising this as a viable option is wrong.
I wasn’t referring to your last post I mean all the posts you have posted on this thread. Why are you wasting your time telling him he is wrong when He has just stated that it worked for him. Yes many other people would have to go through the trial and error phase to see if it was a “Viable” option but if it works for him then it works for him. No need to get rude about it. All I was trying to say is that why are you wasting your time on this thread telling the OP that he is wrong after he just did the experiment and said it worked haha? It seems kind of stupid to tell someone hey are wrong when they just did it and it worked. Yes he needs to try many more times and possibly many different types of silicon but if it worked the first time props to the OP. all I’m saying.
oh and last bit. Judging on the way you present yourself and how your being rude well posting on a site to help people you may not be young but you have a lot to learn my friend.
Since these items will be monitored for 20 minutes or so, I don’t see too much of a problem.
