I read a tip somewhere that o-rings are good for temporarily attaching guides for static placement. They're cheap and easily available. The ones that I bought may be lubricated with (the evil) silicone. Are they safe to use? If it's silicone, what will remove it? Alcohol? Laquer thinner?

I believe that most of the o-rings used to secure guides are cut from surgical tubing or model fuel tubing. If there is a silicone coating present on the rings you have I would think alcohol will remove it.

Stan Grace
Helena, MT
"Our best is none too good"

OOPS!

Stan Grace
Helena, MT
"Our best is none too good"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2005 05:34PM by Stan Grace.

Does aquarium tubing work? Is it the same as model airplane fuel line tubing?

Where would you find those o rings?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2005 06:21PM by warren commander.

I bought a length of surgical tubing from Mudhole. Works great. Way better than masking tape. I just slice off 1/16 inch pieces and now I can move my guide around and get them just where I want without removing and replacing masking tape each time. Works great. So much of a time saver over tape; makes static guide placement much, much faster.

I like using amber surgical latex tubing because it seems to grip better & slide less than other types of tubing. I was having trouble finding really small ID latex tubing until Galen Briese directed me to an amber surgical latex tubing which is 1/16" ID and 1/8"OD. I'm pleased with this tubing on the skinny portion of a blank. It holds well up to .300" diameter and maybe ever further. For small guides, cut lengths of about a quarter inch, or less, seem to work well

As far as I've been able to determine none of the sponsors has this particular tubing in that small sized ID. I got it at Reef Scuba Associates, Inc (www.reefscuba.com). Item Number is RS125-RA10 (Amber Surgical Tubing). 10 feet of tubing for $4.50 + $1.50 shipping.

For test casting, I still add a small strip of masking tape as well. Hope this helps. Thanks Galen for that tip.

Stan





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2005 07:17PM by Stan Gregory.

Neither should be lubricated with anything. Latex tubing will stretch easier and farther, although it will tend to dry-rot a bit over long periods of time. The silicone tubing will last for years. Latex is far less expensive but neither would run you more than just a few pennies per rod set-up.

..........

This stuff works great, listen to these guys!!!!

Bill in WV

Use tiny rubber bands used one hair, avail at most drugstores.

Lou

Some dental rubberbands or ordinary office rubberbands in the smaller sizes can work well for lashing guides to the rod blank while doing your guide layout and testing. IMO, Rubberbands have the correct range of elasticity for this application, which may be several times their original length. ... Just loop one end of the rubberband over the ring & truss of the (double- footed) guide, then over the guide feet & around the rod blank several times, and bamm, it's on. No need to pre-load the rod blank from the rod-tip, as with the O-rings or the surgical tubing slices. But you may like the surgical tubing or O-rings better.

O-RINGS (and surgical tubes) are almost always designed to have a much narrower range of elastic "stretch", (~ 10% - 25%), of their original diameter, than a "rubber band". So having a larger variety of sizes and thicknesses would be needed for sliding up the rod blank. But O-rings roll up & down, and on & off, the rod blank very well, and are definitely re-usable. Hardware stores still carry them, but these may vary a lot in price. (I don't know which Sponsors, if any, carry O-rings, per se.)

Surgical tubing stretches more in length than in diameter, but when cut narrowly can behave more like an O-ring, to strap down the guide foot.

Choosing among these 3 elastic devices, and choosing the correct sizes, depends on the size of the line guides and the diameter of the rod blank.

Mud-Hole Catalog 2006, page 100, at the top, has LATEX Tubing in 3-foot lengths for $4-5 per coil, in three different diameters.

Peace out, -Cliff Hall+++, Gainesville, FL-USA*****

O-rings may be MADE OUT OF a silicone-based rubber, but usually they are not heavily lubricated against prevention of dry rot during storage. Sometimes they are powdered. The more translucent or softer material O-rings may be more prone to oozing whatever plasticizers are a part of their matrix. The harder black rubber O-rings tend to be quite sturdy.

IF you do find that your O-rings are lubricated or powdered, wash them off before your first use in a clean 16 oz wide-mouth jar, half full of VERY soapy water (~ one tablespoon of dishwashing detergent in 8 oz of HOT water.). Former glass instant coffee jars are great for this. Just be sure to remove the lid’s liner so that no wax or glue residues get dissolved and adhere to the O-rings.

Close the lid and shake to agitate aggressively for a minute or two. Pour off the soapy water, then refill with fresh hot water as a rinse. Agitate and repeat until satisfied. You can clean dozens if not hundreds of the smaller O-rings this way in just 5 or 10 minutes. If the first wash cycle does not get all the lube off, just repeat this process with fresh soap and fresh rinse until you are satisfied. Rinsing off the soap is accomplished the same way. Just batch wash & rinse, until no suds remain. When you handle the clean O-ring ring, it should feel dry and squeakie clean. THAT O-ring will not leave any residue on your rod, and can be re-used until the elasticity has been lost, which would take many dozens of uses.

In my experience, any heavily greased O-ring is very hard to ever get clean. Alcohols don't seem to keep the sludge suspended off the rubber as well as a thick detergent solution in HOT water. Your luck may vary. Stronger solvents may attack the rubber, and you don't discover it until about 2 days later, and you go to stretch them aagin, and they all snap, and all are destroyed. Cleaning O-rings by hand or scrubbing individually is a major tedium and gain-time for Purgatory. That is why this batch method of wash & rinse is recommended.

-Cliff Hall+++, Gainesville, FL-USA*****

Jim Benenson [December 8, 2005 05:47PM] asked: "Does aquarium tubing work? Is it the same as model airplane fuel line tubing?"

AQUARIUM TUBING is usually a clear poly-vinyl product that has a wall thickness that is so great and a formulation that is so stiff that it has NO ELASTICITY for our application. It has FLEXIBILITY, but is virtually incapable of stretching. It is capable of resilient deformation but not elastic recovery. If you stretch it beyond its range, it will remain deformed. You would have to have a diameter that is almost exactly the same as the rod blank for it to work as you intend.

I am not familiar with model airplane fuel line tubing. Since expansion in a fuel line could cause a vapor lock, I suspect that this fuel line is also flexible, but not elastic.

Cliff Hall, Bachelor of Science, Chemistry (UF), 1983.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/2005 11:31AM by Cliff Hall.