Smoke gasket material supplier?

Find some rubbery foam that is glycerin proof?

I have used cut pieces of felt weather stripping as replacement gaskets on steam locomotives.  Not sure if this will work in your application

Gunner runner recommended self adhesive sticky back foam. I found it at Michaels.

I only found 2 thicknesses. So, to achieved height I stuck one on top of the other and cut gasket.

john, would know the long term performance of the foam! John?

  I don't know about long term reactions because I haven't done it with plastic, just one cast steamer.

But a pal does it (I'll try to remember to call & ask about reactions)

A bead of high temp silicone on the unit, let to sit until it skins over rather thickly, then poking a strategically placed weap hole in the skin, lays plastic wrap as drop cloth/mask, the loco is assembled, squishing it to shape before it sets fully, pulls the shell, cleans excess weaping, then does full assembly. He mostly runs RSs, GPs and FM TMs.

   I can see it might not work well for some assemblies because once it is set there isnt much rebound.

  I'd test any foam for fluid reactions for week or so at least. You never know when a substitute foam might get used in production. All foam is not created equal.  One bad quarterly report at a tape factory and you might have a gob of foam goo on your "leaky" unit

Felt for furniture leg tips might work too if you have circular cutting punches (leather wood, & gasket tools)

  After thinking about it, most of the materials stick to both unit and shell eventuallly, but not the red silicone. A coat of silicone on felt would stop or cut down on the sticking and destruction on disassembly.

I don't know the long term performance of the self-stick foam, but since every locomotive I take apart that has one of those gaskets they are falling apart and/or off, I figure it's a once-and-done deal anyway.

I use soft rubber vacuum hose. Takes a couple tries to get the perfect length, but holds up quite well.

He was modding old FM TM & GPs , the tube might make shells crack at the screws from the tube pressure.. But seems tubing would sit nice on the outlet lip present on smoke unit covers...silicone tube is really soft and comes win high heat version.

igive up,, something needs an update; Im fighting to keep my type on thx pag3

Dave Zucal posted:

I use soft rubber vacuum hose. Takes a couple tries to get the perfect length, but holds up quite well.

Dave, we're making gaskets, not hoses.

Next time I repair one I'll be sure to take photos.

Disassemble you smoke unit.  Use Isopropyl alcohol to clean and dry up all the oil.  Use a high temp RTV like the ones used for wood stoves or even the RTV used for valve cover/oil pan gaskets. A thin bead, and assemble.  Should be good until you need to replace the wicking again.  Just scrape off, repeat above and your done.

Yeah I need a square one with cutout for one of my SD40's. Maybe lionel could point us to where they get the material? I'd buy a sheet of it.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

I don't know the long term performance of the self-stick foam, but since every locomotive I take apart that has one of those gaskets they are falling apart and/or off, I figure it's a once-and-done deal anyway.

I think what he is doing is slicing the tubing down it's length. Then placing in

it along the rim of the smoke flute. So, self holding. I actually have a steamer I'm going to try it on..

They do this on 19" rack openings or electrician cuts into metal where a lot of low voltage wire may pass through.

  I  pictured a very stubby cylinder of tube. An insert would work to some extent but narrows a flue and wont seal as well.

  I thought about this thread while in Wallyworld a couple days ago. I could find suitable there felt anymore, I would have walked out with the foam tape  The dollar store had some a while ago, but their stuff changes.

Michaels, sticky back foam! Put , back to back for height then cut.

I'll second the High temp silicone.  Permatex  High Temp RTV Silicone Gasket maker, (Usually in an orange tube), should be available at most auto parts stores.  Carefully installed, the silicone should hold up to the heat and the oil/solvent nature of the smoke fluid.  IMO.

Hi guys, thank you for the wonderful ideas.  I stopped by my local ACE Hardware.  They showed me a tube of Permatex Non-hardening Form-a-Gasket Sealant. My only concern is if it is plastic safe. Will do some research since it does not say on the packaging or tube.  It is oil and gasoline safe; so I figured the smoke fluid will not bother it..  Thank you everyone!  Hank

I found a foam type road bed material at the LHS. 

The real solution, IMHO, is getting a funnel down there so the smoke fluid never touches the underside. For me that's helped significantly.

I found a sheet of 1mm gasket material that I make gaskets if I can't get them.  The small one-resistor MTH smoke unit is one example, no gaskets available for that one.