Tamiya & Deans Connectors - Page 2

Ian · 10-08-2006

Barry,
I went to my local car dealer, he said P40 is better, there is glass fibre in it and it's harder than P38.

Me wifey thingie has gone shopping and I gave her strict instructions not to forget to get me a tube of P40. I'll be trying it on one Dean's shortly and of course I'll post back.

Those that I did with epoxy yesterday are spot on, but I got a bit messed up, my own fault of course.

P40 is £3 approx. 30 minute epoxy is about £9. If P40 works .........

Ian · 10-08-2006

I have just tried P40, nope, not good.
It's just like epoxy with the glass fibres wanting "to go their own way".
It's either let the fibres stick out all over the place and trim them off later or just use epoxy.
but, I'm going to try the P38 on Staurday, I'm as sure as I can be that it will be much better, it's a paste so it will be easier to apply and not nearly as messy.

**Bunkerbarge** · 10-08-2006

I think the advantage of using an epoxy resin in the form of either Araldite or Davids Fibreglass resin (without the glass) is that it would fill the tape around the connector and flow nicely into all the nooks and crannies. When you remove the tape you will have a neatly moulded resin block.

The trouble with the P.38 is that you will have to push it into the nooks and crannies, as it doesn't flow, and then you wil have to dress it up afterwards with all the potential hazards of damaging the wires.

When I get home and fit one of these to my boat I will wrap tape around it to a level just over the cable sheaving fill it with araldite until it is just proud of the tape and has a neat convex contour to it and it should require no further attention when the tape is removed.

**wonwinglo** · 10-08-2006

You could also use the Clear Casting resin,this is easily obtainable from art shops,its normal use is as an escapsulating resin for embedding trinkets etc.

That P40 stuff is a really messy material,strands of glasscloth go in every direction,this is used when repairing structures.

Ian · 10-08-2006

So far what I've done is wrap masking tape around the plug, from the bottom of it so I don't mess the plug and it covers connections adequately, then I used epoxy resin by letting it flow down into the connectors and about 1/2 an inch up the cables.

I let it harden & dry, carefully removed the masking tape after two hours or so, left for a further hour and carefully wrapped black insulating tape around the plug from the base of the plug body, and giving approx 3 layers.

Then I held a match under each side of the plug underneath the tape, let it get nice and warm then pressed on it, doing this on all 4 sides of the plug. The tape is now nice and tight.

I might just stay with the 5 minute epoxy, it's easy to use now Iv'e got the hang of it after doing a couple of plugs.

**wonwinglo** · 10-08-2006

Well nothing is going to move there Ian ?

Ian · 11-08-2006

I didn't mention that I posted all the above in the event it may have been usefull to someone.

I know how gratefull I feel when I read of interesting things in members posts, you could call it, returning the help.

duncan · 11-08-2006

I wonder if RTV (room temperature vulcanisation) rubber might have applications here too. Advantages are flexible, insulating, heat-proof, mold-able using box method described in previous post for Isopon. (Just grease the mold with Vaseline). Bath sealant is basically the same and comes in colours which might be useful. The latter is 24 hour curing but craft shop ( or Tiranti ) RTV can be quicker to cure. I have never used any of these for this purpose but worth a try ?

**Bunkerbarge** · 11-08-2006

Good point Duncan and maybe in a situation where the cable is being regularly flexed such as a battery terminal it would reduce the high stress at the point where the flex enters the resin.

Probably lots of possibilities here with pro's and con's for each.

jankers · 11-08-2006

I've not used the RTV stuff but have used the "hot melt" type of compound. The RTV will probably be ok but is expensive and has a limited shelf life , about 6 months IIRC.

J.