So today I mixed up the silicon and mineral spirits and waterproofed my poncho/tarp, some rain pants, and a couple of bags.
Things I learned...
1) "Odorless" Mineral Spirits has a really really strong odor! Guessing the odorless part applies to after it has dried. Sheesh, the Silicon reeks and the mineral spirits reek even more. Definitely an outdoor
project.
2) Tie down your tarp including the bottom coroners! As it starts to dry it is like a glue trap and if the wind blows it will stick to itself and be difficult to separate.
3) Keep pets out of the area, not only is the smell horrid but every tiny dog/cat hair, or tiny insect, gets stuck to the wet silicon as it dries. Doing this in winter when there aren't many insects around is also a good idea.
I only had a little of the mixture in a bucket and stirred until all the silicon lumps were gone. Then I put the tarp in and squished it around for a while until every bit was saturated. The latex gloves I was wearing stretched and almost disintegrated but ultimately did the job. After doing the tarp I threw 3 smaller items in and squished them around too.
It is drying now and seems to be doing okay. The smaller items that were mixed around with the tarp got a much lighter coating and don't seem to stick together as much (but the tarp itself needs more since I want it to handle an extended downpour if needed and not leak). If I were waterproofing something that had to look "pretty" I would probably put this stuff in a spray bottle and use that instead just to minimize the bugs and such.
FYI the tarp/poncho was homemade out of 60" x 90"' lightweight ripstop nylon (lighter than similar ponchos). It has metal grommets on each corner and metal snaps down the sides along with a draw string hood. Never used metal snaps before but I really like them! Bought a little kit with 100 snaps and the tools for $10 on ebay. Definitely will be using these on lots of projects in the future.
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