None of the avid hunters and fishermen need to explain that an inflatable rubber boat is a wonderful and comfortable thing. However, despite all its undeniable advantages, the “gum" is a rather impractical thing. Any snag sticking out of the water, severe overheating in the sun - and your beloved “rubber friend” turns from an assistant and a prey into something shapeless and useless. That is why the topic of today's article is the repair of a rubber boat with your own hands. After all, unfortunately, not every novice angler knows how to do it right and at no particular cost.
Boat inspection
Self-repair of a rubber inflatable boat begins with a thorough inspection for damage. First you need to thoroughly pump all the compartments with air and carefully inspect the craft, listening to the likely hiss of air coming out of the gap.
If it was not possible to detect damage by sound, you need to step by step cover the boat (all) with thick soapy foam: where there are holes, the soap will “bubble up”. If a damaged area is found, circle it with a marker or ballpoint pen.
Repair of rubber boats - a simple matter, but very painstaking. Even if it seems to you that you have already found all the damage, do not rush. Inspect absolutely the entire surface of the boat - there may be scuffing, scuffing, peeling of suture ribbons and other damage that could be put out of action by an inappropriately repaired craft. So if you decide to repair the rubber boat yourself, the stitched seams and the bottom also should not be left without your attention. After you are convinced that you have discovered all the possible damages, you can "bleed" the air and proceed with repair.
What will be needed for work
To make repairs easy, and the boat served for a long time, you will need:
- a piece of patch material similar to that of which the craft itself is made;
- fine-grained "sandpaper" for cleaning surfaces;
- glue for repair of rubber boats - 4508, 4NBuv, 88NT, SV-1-5M, 4010 and others;
- a clean brush for applying glue;
- solvent for degreasing the surface (alcohol, acetone, Kalosha gasoline); attention: car gasoline cannot be used - it contains oil;
- scissors;
- ruler;
- kapron threads;
- thick needle;
- pencil, marker or crayon;
- building or household hair dryer ;
- a rolling roller or any other rounded object - a spoon, a knife handle, a bottle, etc.
We seal the punctures
As already mentioned, repair of rubber boats begins with a thorough inspection and detection of damage. If a small flaw is found in the form of a puncture, then proceed as follows:
- measure the diameter of the damage with a ruler and cut out the patch of the appropriate size; note - the patch size should be at least 2.5–3 cm larger than the damage site and have rounded corners;
- apply a patch to the place of damage and circle with a marker;
- with a fine emery cloth carefully, but carefully clean the marked place and the pad itself;
- carefully remove all formed debris and dust and degrease the surface well;
- glue both parts.
There are two ways to glue - hot and cold, let's look at each of them.
Hot:
- with a brush, gently apply glue to the patch and the puncture site; under a patch it is best to put a sheet of paper or cardboard, then its edges will not twist into a roll;
- wait 15-20 minutes until the glue dries a little, and apply a second coat;
- we again maintain the set time, usually 10–20 minutes, and heat both surfaces to 50–60 ° C;
- Now we connect the heated surfaces together and strongly press them to each other;
- with the help of a roller or any rounded object, we roll the entire surface of the patch in order to eliminate excess air;
- we clamp the place of repair into the clamp or press down with any even and heavy object and leave it to dry completely for at least 24 hours.
Cold
This method is almost no different from hot, except that the surfaces do not heat up, but stick to each other cold. This method is used only in cases where it is not possible to produce heating.
Sew cuts
As you can see, repairing rubber boats is really a simple matter. However, if your rubber assistant is torn seriously, then you will have to make a little more effort to “treat” her.
In the event that the gust or cut on the boat is quite large, then after sanding it must be carefully sewn up. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that the edges of the cut do not tighten too much.
If the rush has torn edges and it is not possible to sew it up, then gluing must be carried out both from the outside and from the inside. We have already figured out how to apply an external patch, but you will have to tinker with the internal patch. To work more conveniently, you need to do this:
- we smear the patch with glue not completely, but only up to half - this is done in order to make it more convenient to introduce it into the gap;
- gently place the patch inside the gap, after which it needs to be pressed, and roll the place of gluing with a roller;
- after a while, with the help of a brush, we coat the second half of the patch; so that the edges do not interfere - they must be carefully lifted and held with a ruler or knife;
- repeat the gluing procedure;
- Now paste the upper patch in the usual way.
We glue the oarlocks
No rubber boat repair can do without a thorough revision of the oarlocks. The fact is that this unit is subjected to the greatest load during operation and gradually begins to peel off over time.
The gluing process itself happens exactly the same as with patches, but there are some subtleties:
- in order to easily tear the oarlock, it must be heated with a hairdryer;
- it is necessary to stick on a new spare part with a deflated cylinder, otherwise the connection will be loose and will not last long.
Replace tape
In order to repair a rubber boat at the seam you will need a special tape. It is also easy to glue the protective tapes on the cylinder. This is done in a hot way to better connect surfaces. Here, too, have their own little tricks:
- the rubber boat repair tape should be cut out at an angle of 45 ° and made of rubberized fabric ;
- it is best to replace the tape when the balloon is full - this will prevent deformation after drying, and the boat’s seams will not “lead”.
We repair the bottom
Sometimes it happens that your “rubber girlfriend” requires serious, thorough “treatment”. Repair of the bottom of a rubber boat can be attributed to such works. We divide this rather laborious process into several stages:
- First of all, it is necessary to fully inflate the cylinders and mark with a marker the place of gluing the tape and carefully remove it from the outside and from the inside.
- With the same marker, mark the location of the bottom and carefully remove it. To make the process as efficient as possible, you need to start from the bow, and for easier separation of the parts, you can use a hairdryer.
- Now you need to carefully clean and degrease the surfaces marked with a marker, thereby preparing them for gluing.
- We turn the filled cylinders upside down and start gluing a new inner tape. Please note that only half of the area between the marker marks needs to be smeared with glue. Since the boat is upside down, you need to start from the bottom mark and apply glue with a strip to the middle. According to the familiar technology, the adhesive is applied twice with an interval of 15–20 minutes. You need to start gluing the tape from the bow of the boat, and do it only half its width.
- Now we begin to attach the bottom. Since you need to glue together fairly large surfaces, you can divide the work into several stages. First, we connect the surfaces on the bow and stern of the boat, and after that we go to the sides. The glue, as you recall, is applied twice, with a short break. There is one more small nuance - when gluing the bottom, you need to carefully monitor that part of the inner tape, left free, also sticks to the bottom.
- The last step is to stick the protective tape on the outside. Here it is necessary to ensure that the boundaries of the adhesive layer correspond to the width of the tape.
Small subtleties of the process
As you can see, repairing a rubber boat with your own hands is not such an overwhelming task, nevertheless there are some nuances here that are worth remembering:
- the work must be carried out with good ventilation, but do not do this on the street - there dust and dirt will always get to the place of gluing all the time, the quality of repair in this case will not be too good;
- do not start repairs when the air humidity exceeds 60% and the temperature is 25 ˚; if the temperature has dropped below 15 ˚ - you need to additionally heat the room;
- if you have to carry out repairs in the field, move the boat into the shade, and it’s better to build something like an “operating room” out of the tent, this will help protect the place of damage from dirt and dust.