New silicone tubes

[Jamied]

Apparently the regular silicone tubes are being phased out over the next few years. All them plastic empty tubes are not good for the environment I'm told.
The new tubes are like a French market sellers salami stick.
But they are slightly bigger and cheaper.
Screwfix have a good deal on them, buy 5 tubes of mixed colours and you get a free gun worth £15.
I've tried them and I'm impressed, you have more control with flow and get nearly everything out of the package.
I'm a kitchen fitter so I'm going to take advantage of the deal and have a different gun set up for most of my different colours and caulk and grab adhesive.

 

[sunnybob]

But is anyone ever going to invent a nozzle that actually seals the damn tube after youve only used 1/10th of it? :roll: (hammer) (hammer) (hammer)
I ve had to throw away at least a quarter of all the silicone i have ever bought, and thats a LOT of tubes!

 

[Bm101]

Squeeze a bit out Bob. Plastic bag corner cut off. Pull the dried 1st cm bit out next use.
Works. =D>
Or:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/123026219311?c ... gJ_q_D_BwE

 

[Suffolkboy]

Just put masking tape over the end of the nozzle.

I've never thrown out a half tube in my life and i'm pretty sporadic with it's use so half an opened tube might sit for 6 months, on the odd occasion you get a plug you can usually extract it with a screw.

 

[Rorschach]

I tape up the nozzle and leave it on the tube. Next time I want to use it I remove the nozzle and put on a clean one.

 

[Lazurus]

iF THE SILICONE DOES GO OFF ITS GREAT FOR USE AS A BELT AND DISK CLEANER

 

[Trevanion]

How does it work? I assume you've got to separate the foil from the sealant before you pop it in the tube or do you just open one end? Is it quite messy to work with and do you have to clean the gun out if you want to change sealants?

Makes a lot of sense though, I quite oftenly go through 10+ tubes of silicone when glazing a few windows or doors. Builders go through even more!

 

[sunnybob]

Ive used masking tape, electrical tape, cut the nozzle smaller, cut the nozzle larger, put a screw in it, and at least another few I cant remember.
The only tube I have ever had that does not go solid on me is high temp 360c red oven sealant.

 

[JSW]

Must say I'm impressed, someone's done a decent job of designing this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bn7CAvHsPw

 

[rafezetter]

I tape up the nozzle and leave it on the tube. Next time I want to use it I remove the nozzle and put on a clean one.

This

or my trick is when you cut the tip off to make it larger, keep the cut end, invert it and shove it back in the nozzle, the excess comes through the hole and forms a plug, which also makes it easier to pull out the bit that goes hard in the nozzle - seems pretty reliable for me when I'm using more expensive sealant / adhesive and I don't want to waste a nozzle's worth of it.

iF THE SILICONE DOES GO OFF ITS GREAT FOR USE AS A BELT AND DISK CLEANER

and this - I've got about a dozen as I share a house with a builder who is less than fastidious about sealing silicone tubes.

Just don't stand them upright in group on a shelf it looks...... wrong. :wink:

also - old used nozzles (nozzels?) keep them all in an old large margerine tub, when you've got a spare 10 minutes grab a beefy nail and push all the set silicone out - you'll never run out of nozzles.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

It is a brilliant innovation. Some Sika products have been using this 'sausage' mehod for a while. The sooner it becomes the norm - the better!

 

[boardgamer]

Seems like a sensible way to go. Although the guy in the video claiming that you'll use less space in a skip seems a little tenuous. How many tubes is he planning to use?!

 

[Rorschach]

also - old used nozzles (nozzels?) keep them all in an old large margerine tub, when you've got a spare 10 minutes grab a beefy nail and push all the set silicone out - you'll never run out of nozzles.

Definitely keep the nozzles. I set mine aside until the silicone is completely cured and then I use my air blower and launch the plug of silicone out of the nozzle, great fun :lol:

I also keep a few tubes, use a long screwdriver to push out the plunger, then leave to dry. When the silicone is cured you can pull it out of the tube and use it as a sandpaper cleaner. The tube is wiped out and kept. If I get a split tube of glue or silicone I can transfer it to an empty tube, I can also fill the tube with my own mixtures such as wood glue, filler or thin mortar and use the caulk gun to squirt it into tight gaps or deep holes.
I probably have 20 or more clean nozzles on hand and 3 or 4 tubes at any one time.

 

[Doug71]

What do you do if you only use part of the foil pack? Can you reseal them or is it a case of having a separate gun for each of the products you use the most? I can see a lot of part packs getting wasted if this is the case.

 

[PUtcvNqa]

Used the Sika flooring adhesive 'sausage' on a parquet flooring repair.
Absolutely bloody awful mess - maybe the 'gun' was really bad but ended up chucking it.
Would imagine it would be a right pita cleaning up guns and can't see how you'd avoid wastage on part used.