alchemysa
Veteran Member
Working around a demolished corrugated iron shack, and ripping out some nasty box thorns, I've been particularly concerned about punctures from nails and thorns in the tyres of the tractor and ride-on mower. So you may be interested in my home-made puncture goo. My first attempt was made using a thin mixture of water and 'rubberised' tiling cement. A very 'thin' half pint of this in each tyre worked very well, but I discovered the left-over mixture 'set' in the storage bottle after a month so i guess the stuff in the tyres might do the same thing . (No problem really - if it does it will just roll around and form little marbles). My next step was to find something that was finely powdered, non soluble, and slightly flexible, that wouldnt 'set' in the tyre. Powdered rubber would be an ideal base but I couldnt think of where to get it. But I found a place that had powdered plastic that they use to 'plasticoat' wire-ware, and that has so far proven successful. I bought a couple of pounds of plastic for $5, which is probably enough for a couple of dozen tyres if I use a handful of plastic in each tyre. So all this puncture goo is then, is a mixture of powdered plastic and water. Ultimately the amount of water in the mixture is not important, its really just there to splash the plastic around inside the tyre and get it to the puncture hole. Water and plastic don't 'mix' so to create a slightly thicker slurry that was easier to pump in I added a little bit of 'No More Gaps' water based acrylic gap filler to the mixture. This might also provide a bit of (probably unneccessary) extra adhesion in the puncture hole.
The principle is simple enough. In a revolving tyre, the water washes the powdered plastic toward the puncture. Escaping air pressure then jams the plastic deep into the hole. The larger particles bridge the hole first, then the smaller ones get jammed in behind to fully seal the hole. In practice this whole process takes about a second or two. It will plug some pretty big holes too. If you dont pump it in at a nice slow speed it will plug the valve stem quick smart even though the plastic is almost as fine as table salt. (Its easily cleared again with water). I used an old hand operated oil suction pump to put it into the tyres but theres probably a few better ways of doing it. In fact the dry powder can probably be pumped or blown directly into the tyre, and the water added later. So far it seems to be working nicely. I havent noticed any new punctures, and it plugged a particularly large and difficult one that I couldn't mend with puncture plugs alone. In theory it should even work in sidewall punctures too as I imagine that, in a slowly revolving tyre, water is continually running down the inside walls of the tyre.
The principle is simple enough. In a revolving tyre, the water washes the powdered plastic toward the puncture. Escaping air pressure then jams the plastic deep into the hole. The larger particles bridge the hole first, then the smaller ones get jammed in behind to fully seal the hole. In practice this whole process takes about a second or two. It will plug some pretty big holes too. If you dont pump it in at a nice slow speed it will plug the valve stem quick smart even though the plastic is almost as fine as table salt. (Its easily cleared again with water). I used an old hand operated oil suction pump to put it into the tyres but theres probably a few better ways of doing it. In fact the dry powder can probably be pumped or blown directly into the tyre, and the water added later. So far it seems to be working nicely. I havent noticed any new punctures, and it plugged a particularly large and difficult one that I couldn't mend with puncture plugs alone. In theory it should even work in sidewall punctures too as I imagine that, in a slowly revolving tyre, water is continually running down the inside walls of the tyre.
Sounds like someone has a nice scam going to me.