Silnylon Repair

[spotly]

The corner of a package of Mountain House food put a nice clean one inch cut in the silnylon fabric of my pack. Of course, duct tape wouldn't work nor did the repair kit from my sleeping pad - nothing would stick. Any experience with repairs to this type of fabric? Thanks.

[AR_Guy]

First, sear the edges of the cut carefully to keep it from shredding further. It doesn't take much and be careful to not light the stuff on fire - it's easy.

 

If you can, sew on a doubler / patch. The stuff is really slick, as you discovered, so it's a little more difficult to work with than standard nylon fabrics. Use a fine needle in the sewing machine. Seal the stiching / edges with the material mentioned below.

 

If you're not willing / able to sew on a patch, you can try the standard home made sil-nylon seam sealer as an adhesive, although I wonder on the strength / durability of this type of repair. Dilute silicone caulking (Lowes / Hope Depot) with paint thinner / mineral spirits to get a thinner consistency and glue on a patch with this stuff. I'd suggest a double sided patch for increased durability. For a second coat, painting the edges of the patch with the sealer should help keep the edges from peeling up. You could also probably use the commercial sil-nylon seam sealer - more or less the same as the home made stuff.

[spotly]

Thanks for the response. I hate answering my own post but I just got a reply back from Montbell and they're recommending this. I think your suggestion on sewing for extra dursbility is a good idea too. I'll surely bring something for field repairs on the next trip with it. I was envisioning the thing ripping all the way out then scattering gear from Aasgard Pass all the way down through Perfection Lake.

[genepires]

I tried the glued on patch thing with the sil-nylon glue stuff and it eventually opened up again. a temporary and not very durable solution.

[rbw1966]

On a small cut I just stitched the two sides together, added some seam sealer and then sprinkled a little baby powder on the dried seam sealer to prevent it from sticking to the rest of the fabric. Its held up well so far.