Gaskets

[Crafted]

What do most use for a gasket? I have built a clean out box with an old cabinet door with clear glass in it that I can open up on a piano hinge. I used the thick closed cell weather stripping as an idea for a gasket but I got a leak! Is it best to use some sort of rubber or what?

Also what kind of gasket should I use on the bin? I am using the 55 gallon drum I got from the car wash and need to build a lid for it and I'm not sure what to use for the gasket in there.

Many Thanks!

[JJohnston]

For my lid, I routed a groove in the MDF top with a router & circle jig, and put self-adhesive weatherstrip in it - the simplest 1/2" wide strip I could find at the big box store. For my transitions and filter stack, I used self-adhesive foam sheet gasket from McMaster-Carr:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#8722k24/=51ay9n

I had a lot of waste with this, cutting rings out of square sheets, and one-piece rectangles where applicable, to avoid leaks.

I cut the ends of the lid weatherstrip in a scarf joint to avoid leaks. It seems to have worked.

You can see both in my gallery pictures. Look for a thin white layer between the filters and the end plates.

[Crafted]

Hey JJ, the link you sent is an email link.

So really weather stripping should work? Or is it best to get some gasket type material that is mostly a cushy rubber?

Thanks for the reply!

[JJohnston]

Well, the weatherstrip was a cushy rubber (or rubberlike material). It's flat on the bottom (the adhesive surface), and I think the upper surface had about 4 lengthwise ribs on it, like corrugated roofing. It was the closest thing I could find to a plain rectangular cross section. It was 1/2" wide and about 1/4" thick.

The link should be to the McMaster-Carr catalog entry for part no. 8722K24. Or, if you like, it's catalog page 3507. It's 1/8" thick, 24" square, adhesive backed, closed-cell polyethylene foam.

Edit: if you use this foam, be careful when you pull the adhesive backing paper off. The foam likes to double over, and if it sticks to itself, it's game over. The adhesive is stronger than the foam. I was never able to salvage a single piece when this happened.

[misterwippy]

Hey there,

I did a similar thing to JJohnston for the seal between my bin and cyclone.

If you bought the filters you have to pull of one of the seals when you stack them together. I used this seal for the clean our box I created. Seems to work well so far. The clean out box will have to be about a foot high to accommodate it which suited the hight that I mounted to VC.

Cheers,

Rowan