Monofin for Silicone Tails in the Ocean

[Finny]

. Does that make me crazy? Most likely.

I mean... I'm trying to go full handmade silicone tail for a first tail and then trying to take it in the ocean... I can't judge @_@
(Gonna practice in pools and lakes before jumping in the ocean like a maniac).

And I imagine the silicone tail is going to be an absolute nightmare to wash... such is life i suppose.

Are there any fins you've had good or bad experiences with? I think right now I'm looking at the Waterways Model 3, Leaderfin Junior Sport and something from Special Fins. The Finis luna is also appealing from a comfort (and price) perspective but I'm concerned with it not being strong enough for my needs.

[K Swim]

My first tail is a fabric tail from the2tails and it comes with it's own design of monofin. My second tail is a silicone tail from Mertailor and the monofin is just thickened silicone that is fused into the tail. The fabric tail is easy to wash, the silicone is much more difficult. Here's a sample of my effort:

https://mernetwork.com/index/showthr...tail-wash-rack

[Mermaid Enma]

Hello, my name is Enma, and I´m trying to make my own silicone tail but I´m from south europe, here as you may know that is harder than in USA because of the materials and because people that doesnt know about this things so I have a few questions that I really hope you can help me with.

-How can I paste the monofin to the silicone? and the fluke to the rest of the tail? with more silicone?
-Another important question that I have is about the dreinage system, how do I do that? Do I have to make drain channels while pasting the monofin ?
-And my last question is how the hell do I attach both parts of silicone scales (front and back) ? I have no idea becase the scales in one side have to fit the ones in the other side and even if i achieve that, how do I paste them together

Thank you so much,
merkisses

[Finny]

-How can I paste the monofin to the silicone? and the fluke to the rest of the tail? with more silicone?
-Another important question that I have is about the dreinage system, how do I do that? Do I have to make drain channels while pasting the monofin ?
-And my last question is how the hell do I attach both parts of silicone scales (front and back) ? I have no idea becase the scales in one side have to fit the ones in the other side and even if i achieve that, how do I paste them together

So I've never personally made a tail before - take what I say with a grain of salt. I do have experience with other silicone work though.

Pasting in monofin:
Often times monofins will cause cure inhibition with the silicone in the tail, so it's suggested you wrap it with something like plastic wrap before applying the silicone, then pull the plastic out later. I've also heard of people sealing it with spray primer. It's not a bad idea to do a test on the monofin you're planning on using to see if it causes problems with the tail silicone. I read somewhere else that people tested a few finis monofins and a luna (if i'm remembering correctly) and had no cure inhibition. If that's the case, you should be good to just glue as normal, but just don't expect the silicone on the tail to stick to the monofinl.

Gluing in fluke:
Most people I"ve seen do use more silicone or silpoxy to glue everything together.

Drainage:
I feel like most times I read about this, it's people suggesting adding a ruler or other thin, flat object between the two halves of the tail and then just removing it after it's glued. You shouldn't NEED to build anything into the halves of the fluke unless you're going for a specific effect.

Attaching scales:
For the scales that will cover your legs you should be good to just smear a bunch of silicone on the back of them and tack them into the powermesh. Just make sure you get silicone worked into the powermesh or they are at higher risk of falling off later.
For the fluke/fin pieces, sculpt both sides of the piece, then cast and then you should be able to just smush some silicone between them, smack the pieces together and clip it down. Just beweare if you get lots of silicone near the edges of the piece, it might ooze out the side and you'll need to wipe it off later.

Hope that helps!
this instruct able also seems pretty good from everything i've been reading: https://www.instructables.com/id/Silicone-Mermaid-Tail/

[Mermaid Fenicia]

https://mermaid-fenicia.blogspot.com...maid-tail.html <= this is how I made my tail

[Mermaid Enma]

Thank you so much Finny for replying to aaaall of my novice questions!!
But there are a few things that I didn´t understand completly even translating them.
About the scales, I´m not sure if you were talking about the single scale method or the one that I´m following, scale sheets, in this method, I don´t really understand yet how to do the seam between the front and back sheets and another problem, how to paste them together, I mean, where do I have to put the glue ?
The other thing is about assembling the monofin, so you mean that the silicone is not going to stick to the monofin but if I add glue yes, I undestood correctly?

And also I take this oprtunity to open a new topic about creating an integrated full silicone monofin made up from shore A30 or A40 silicone. What do you think(specially those of you with experience)? I´ve heard that some tails, as the spellbound (mertaylor´s silicone tails) have this kind of "monofin", does it work well in the water ? Also, are the two types of silicone going to stick together or will I have to paste them?

THANK U !!

[Finny]

About the scales, I´m not sure if you were talking about the single scale method or the one that I´m following, scale sheets, in this method, I don´t really understand yet how to do the seam between the front and back sheets and another problem, how to paste them together, I mean, where do I have to put the glue ?
The other thing is about assembling the monofin, so you mean that the silicone is not going to stick to the monofin but if I add glue yes, I undestood correctly?

And also I take this oprtunity to open a new topic about creating an integrated full silicone monofin made up from shore A30 or A40 silicone. What do you think(specially those of you with experience)? I´ve heard that some tails, as the spellbound (mertaylor´s silicone tails) have this kind of "monofin", does it work well in the water ? Also, are the two types of silicone going to stick together or will I have to paste them?

No problem It gets me away from my other work for a bit.

Scales: I was talking about individual scales. I think with scale sheets people will often times either cut straight down the sides and live with the seam OR they'll cut along the edges of the scales so they have a zig-zag seam and then glue them together with some power mesh to reinforce the seam.

monofin glue: silicone doesn't stuck to much except silicone, so the monofin will be sealed into the fin by the shape of the fluke but not glued in. almost like a sandwich in a bag or your foot in the fin, where they aren't physically attached, but they stay in place.

30-40A silicone: never looked into what mertailor used for their fins, but I know the Luna is 70A & 50A, but it's a different type of silicone that's shaped with industrial molds and heat. Since mertailor is less industrial, I imagine they use the silicone commonly available to the public, and they also have a visible pour spour near the ankles, which leads me to think they have a 2 part mold for the fins and pour it like most 'hobbyists' pour stuff in silicone. I was also thinking it would be cool to do an integrated tail and it seems like it should work if you're not going for speed. Most people use 10A because it's the stretchiest silicone, so it's good for the bit around the legs. I was considering getting a bit of stiffer silicone for the ridges in my fluke/fins to give it a bit more rigidity. Using different types of silicone also means you need to buy more different stuff and test them with each other, which may be a bigger concern to some people than others.

General silicone: The only way to know if silicone will stick to other silicone is to do tests (or know what they use in the first place and get the same type of silicone). But in general, I've found that a lot of smoothon products will stick to other smoothon products.

[Finny]

Also just to update the thread, I ended up going with the Leaderfin Junior Sport monofin with a medium stiffness blade in a yellow color. It should theoretically get to me by Thursday
Out of the 3 companies I emailed (special fins, leaderfin, waterway), they were the only ones that responded to any of my emails :P Plus the slightly smaller size appealed to me since I'm a tiny person and this thing is still going to be massive on me.