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No diving for me this weekend so I thought I'd stick some pockets to my drysuit. I bought the pockets and glue from Hammond Drysuits. After a question posed on here, I settled for velcro types. The pockets are cordura, and the adhesive is Bostik 2402 with D.10 accelerator/hardener. I shoved a 12L cylinder down the drysuit leg to a) give a bit of form to work with, and b) I have what's laughably called a "comfort zip" fitted to my suit, so it's difficult to lay flat when side-on).
The first step is to figure out where you want to put your pockets. No point in debating which is best here, as it's not Friday, and frankly it's not relevant (although anywhere other than front or side-thigh would be utterly ridiculous). I opted for sidemounting, as it's all the rage at the moment.
Mark out the position with tailor's chalk or crayon.
After keying the surface with some fine-ish (180 grit) sandpaper, clean the area with thinners or Cotol (if you can get it). It's a good idea to mask off the area to be glued with tape to keep everything neat.
Bostik 2402 was used, mixed with D.10 accelerator/hardener. Hammond supply this in a 250ml tin, with a pre-measured vial of hardener. The datasheet suggests mixing these either in the ratios/quantities supplied, or 100 parts glue / 6 parts hardener. I'd asked about this, and it turns out you need about half a pot of glue per pocket, so as I was doing two pockets I chucked all the hardener into the tin, replaced the lid a shook it all up for a few minutes. Apply a thin coat to each surface.
After the first coat is dry (the datasheet says 10-15 mins, but it was a nice day with a bit of a breeze so it was about 5 mins here) apply the second coat, but just do about an inch around the edges and two lines across the diagonals. Wait for this coat to dry and repeat as per second coat.
When the final coat is dry to the touch, remove the tape.
At this point I would advise sitting down for a few minutes, perhaps have a smoke/beer/whatever to gird your loins for the next step...
Take a piece of paper (I found greaseproof paper/baking parchment to be better than the slice of A4 pictured) and put it between the two prepared and aligned surfaces.
As you withdraw the paper, the idea is to progressively stick the two parts together - a very strong bond will happen in a very short amount of time, so the chances of you aligning pocket and suit in one shot are practically nil. Go over the edges and inside the pocket with a seam roller.
And hey presto! you have a pocket, stuck to your suit, ready to be used in anger after around 12-24hrs curing time.
Use up the rest of the tin of glue by doing the same on the other leg, and you'll have two pockets. If you want to be super-neat, you could tape the edges, or at least clean up the overspill, but I'm sure your lives are too short.
Cost: about £40/side, inc glue.
Thanks for reading!
The first step is to figure out where you want to put your pockets. No point in debating which is best here, as it's not Friday, and frankly it's not relevant (although anywhere other than front or side-thigh would be utterly ridiculous). I opted for sidemounting, as it's all the rage at the moment.
Mark out the position with tailor's chalk or crayon.
After keying the surface with some fine-ish (180 grit) sandpaper, clean the area with thinners or Cotol (if you can get it). It's a good idea to mask off the area to be glued with tape to keep everything neat.
Bostik 2402 was used, mixed with D.10 accelerator/hardener. Hammond supply this in a 250ml tin, with a pre-measured vial of hardener. The datasheet suggests mixing these either in the ratios/quantities supplied, or 100 parts glue / 6 parts hardener. I'd asked about this, and it turns out you need about half a pot of glue per pocket, so as I was doing two pockets I chucked all the hardener into the tin, replaced the lid a shook it all up for a few minutes. Apply a thin coat to each surface.
After the first coat is dry (the datasheet says 10-15 mins, but it was a nice day with a bit of a breeze so it was about 5 mins here) apply the second coat, but just do about an inch around the edges and two lines across the diagonals. Wait for this coat to dry and repeat as per second coat.
When the final coat is dry to the touch, remove the tape.
At this point I would advise sitting down for a few minutes, perhaps have a smoke/beer/whatever to gird your loins for the next step...
Take a piece of paper (I found greaseproof paper/baking parchment to be better than the slice of A4 pictured) and put it between the two prepared and aligned surfaces.
As you withdraw the paper, the idea is to progressively stick the two parts together - a very strong bond will happen in a very short amount of time, so the chances of you aligning pocket and suit in one shot are practically nil. Go over the edges and inside the pocket with a seam roller.
And hey presto! you have a pocket, stuck to your suit, ready to be used in anger after around 12-24hrs curing time.
Use up the rest of the tin of glue by doing the same on the other leg, and you'll have two pockets. If you want to be super-neat, you could tape the edges, or at least clean up the overspill, but I'm sure your lives are too short.
Cost: about £40/side, inc glue.
Thanks for reading!
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