Putting a Finis Foil in a Silicone Fluke

[Jessica]

I'm making a dragonskin silicone tail and I have my two halves of my fluke. I'm using a finis foil and I'm not exactly sure how to put the fluke together. Silicone doesn't stick to rubber and I'm a little concerned that the rubber might prevent the silicone from curing. I also want to avoid having gaps in my fluke where air or water might cause wrinkles to form.

Any ideas? Here's a picture so you can see what I'm talking about:

[Mermaid Oshun]

Construction adhesive or the caulking even. There are gaps I see and you need something that will stick to everything involved and be thick enough to fill the gaps. My suggestion would be the Alex clear caulking or construction adhesive. E6000 adhesive would not work so well here because one tube would not fill even one of the gaps I see around the foot area in the photo above. A couple tubes of clear Alex Plus silicone/latex caulk plus or PL Premium construction adhesive in the caulk gun might be the ticket.

Can anyone else confirm whether these will stick to the rubber fin?

PL Premium Construction adhesive is a flexible rubber based adhesive. Takes a long time to dry. The Alex has contains both silicone and latex rubbers so presumably it will adhere both.

[Firemaid]

This has been one of my biggest challenges in my tail making!!
I would LOVE to know what other people do!

[Jessica]

Hi Golden Pearl,

i don't think I can use Alex because its tin cure and dragonskin is platinum cure. I can use more silicone to seal the gaps on the sides and the two halves together, but I'm trying to figure out what I can use to glue the silicone fluke directly to the monofin. I'm not exactly sure if this is necessary since silicone kind of clings to most surfaces anyway, but I don't want to wind up with a pocket of air or water between the monofin and the fluke when I'm swimming.

E6000 might stick to the rubber monofin, but I don't have any idea if it can be used with silicone.

[Mermaid Cascada]

I'm not really sure if you're supposed to seal the fluke near the monofin. If I were you I'd make sure it was sealed around it and the add some small slits for drainage of the water. You could always ask a tail maker to make sure. You could also poke some small holes around your monofin (all the way through) so the silicone can go through the holes and bond to both sides and seal the monofin in the fluke.

[Mermaid Danielle]

The fluke looks amazing!

[Mermaid Lorelei]

In my experience, E-6000 and silicone don't play well together.

[Theobromine]

You don't need to bond the silicone fluke pieces directly to the monofin as long as you sandwich it in on all sides. You just need to add a couple of small drainage holes or slits. My Finfolk tail has two small drainage channels in the very bottom edge of the fluke, and they're almost impossible to see.

[Jessica]

Thank you all so much for your advice! I will definitely all drainage slits in the fluke and I'm considering drilling a few holes in my monofin. Has anyone ever done this with a foil?

Theobromine,
your tail is incredible! If I remember correctly, I think you have a wave monofin....correct me if I'm wrong! I love my wave that I have for my sequin tail and I'm considering switching the foil for a wave for this silicone tail. If you do have a wave...how does the wave hold up in the water with the weight of the silicone fluke? Does it impact how much power/ speed you have while swimming?

[Theobromine]

Thanks! My tail actually has a Competitor, not a wave. The monofin I have that I swam with before I got my tail is a Rapid, which is similar to the Wave but just a little bigger. The Wave will defnitely propel you more than the Foil, but the Competitor is another story entirely! I thought I could swim fast with my Rapid...until I tried the Competitor.

[Jessica]

I would LOVE to have a competitor. I think my next tail will have to have one. I can swim really fast with my wave so I can't even imagine how awesome a competitor would be.

[MerCat]

I cannot wait to put my Competitor monofin in my silicone tail when It's all said and done. I've cut it to shape so far and I test swam in it....boy that thing is powerful!

[Firemaid]

Thank you all so much for your advice! I will definitely all drainage slits in the fluke and I'm considering drilling a few holes in my monofin. Has anyone ever done this with a foil?

I drilled holes in my foil!

[Mermaid Livou]

Hey,
its an old thread but I found finally, I dont wanted open a new about same question ) (searching in google adding 'mernetwork' to the subject really does help in filetring the threads here ^^)

So did anyone find a glue that actually stick to this yellow natural rubber called foil monofin? I tried everything, I ordered special glue for shoemakers wich suppose to glue rubber, I tried the rubber solution thing for repairing bicycle wheel rubber, construction caoulk and silicone (tough not yet tried aquarium silicone), so far SilPoxy works best but still peelable.. or is it enough for the power mesh method? I glued a small piece of fabric, and with a bit more effort but still peelable from the mono..
if anyone can advise a brand accessible from Europe, please... Im going insane.. or just lets change my entire idea about monofin-fluke construction XD
Thankie, happy tail-building days

[Mermaid Livou]

phew. I came up (*gave painful birth*) with a very forced method but I think it might will work...
So from what I have acces here, still Sil-Poxy is adhering best to this yellow rubber. But its expensive right? Would need a lot to fill up the gaps on the monofin till it meets with the silicone fluke.
BUT: translucent saniter caulking silicone DO adhers very well to Dragon Skin and SilPoxy (NOT AT ALL to the foil)
>> I will put thin SilPoxy layer on the foil, to attache the power mesh. Where else more thickness is needed but dont wanna waste D.Skin or SilPoxy, I add this caulking thing over
Well it might be alredy expressed somewhere in other ways XD but yeah.. I tried ^^