Is Plumber's GOOP available in Australia?

[gwalker Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gwalker]

Anybody used this or know of an Australian source?

[zigparacingtadpole Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zigparacingtadpole]

Re: Is Plumber's GOOP available in Australia?

No its not available here (plumbers here generally do things properly). Depending on what you want you want to seal Araldite can do wonders (small pin holes), and its resistant to quite a bit of heat. Failing that, crash repair 'bog' might be the go.

Hope that helps

Adam

[Chris Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chris]

Re: Is Plumber's GOOP available in Australia?

Hi All
I am not so sure what you mean by plumbers Goop but a very good product to use for plumbing fittings is a product called "Stag"
It has been around since "Adam was doing plumbing as a boy"
It is available from any plumbing joints and it comes in a squeeze tube or a metal can It is red in colour and it can be used with Hessian, teflon tape or on it's own I have used it for the last thirty years and sware by it
Cheers
Chris

[gwalker Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gwalker]

Re: Is Plumber's GOOP available in Australia?

Hi All
I am not so sure what you mean by plumbers Goop but a very good product to use for plumbing fittings is a product called "Stag"
It has been around since "Adam was doing plumbing as a boy"
It is available from any plumbing joints and it comes in a squeeze tube or a metal can It is red in colour and it can be used with Hessian, teflon tape or on it's own I have used it for the last thirty years and sware by it
Cheers
Chris

'Plumbers Goop' seems to be a product that many in the US recommend, including the BD community, but I haven't come across a hardware store that will ship internationally.

Thanks for the info about 'Stag'. I'll check it out.

...and I found this

"Stag joining compound" - can also recall it made one hell of a mess if it was spilt anywhere's - especially on carpets and the like!!!!
Only problem we had and still have when we come accross this stuff is that once the joint has been disturbed the glass like finish cracks and bingo we got ourselves a leak!!!!"

[Chris Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chris]

Re: Is Plumber's GOOP available in Australia?

Hi there
You are on the mark man that is the stuff, if you do want to clean up the mess you can use Metho or since you will have enough methanol you can use it as well to clean up the mess if you make any
The beauty of the product is just that it does not alter it's composition with time
You can clean it up with metho even ten years after you have used it, any way it is cheap enough to give it a go and no I am not connected in any way with it, it is just one of those things that I have stuck with as it is a good product
Cheers
Chris
By the way I do not understand why you want to disturb a joint, once you have tightend it down it should be left alone
If it is left loose of course you will have movement therefore leaks no matter what you use as a sealant
Fittings that are correctly tightened up should not move
The threads on plumbing fittings are tapered so they only seal in a small area where the tapers of the male and female parts cone into contact, that may be an area of thread and a half or so
That is why one uses jointing compound to fill the gaps in the threads behind the contact point, the selant once in there sets hard or semi hard forming a seal so they do not leak
Cheers

[gwalker Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gwalker]

Re: Is Plumber's GOOP available in Australia?

Chris, will Stag 'stick' or seal a brass fitting in polypropolene?
G

[Chris Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chris]

Re: Is Plumber's GOOP available in Australia?

Hi
Stag to the best of my knowledge is suitable for metal fittings only
I have never used it for plastic fittings so I cannot talk from experience
As a guess if you are using metal to plastic it should be OK for plastic to plastic I will not hazard a guess
Why don't you try it out and see what gives anyway it is only a few dollars a tube it lasts for ever if you keep the tube sealed and I am sure it will not go to waste in the shed if you tinkering away with things
Cheers
Chris

[zigparacingtadpole Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zigparacingtadpole]

Re: Is Plumber's GOOP available in Australia?

Hi all,

Excuse me for wanting to state the obvious here but if you are trying to seal threaded joints why not use teflon tape. The yellow stuff used by gas fitters is good for pressure and temperature well inexcess of what we are trying to use it for and its cheap. A 50m roll will cost about $6 if you get ripped off really badly and will provide enough tape to seal the average reactor about 10 times over. Also very suitable for use betweeen metal and plastic fittings. Just remember to wind it on to the male fitting in the right direction.
If you still wish to use a jointing compound, use Permatex 'Form a Gasket' its designed for automotive use, is resistant to high temperature, pressures to about 3 Bar (42psi), fuel and other chemicals (like coolants and antifreeze compounds (most of which contain methanol or ethanol based substances)), but best of all, remains pliable and will tolerate small amounts of vibration and movement. Costs about $15 a tube which should be enough to seal your reactor two, maybe three, times over.
If you wish to use the ultimate in joint sealing coumpounds then go to your nearest Caterpillar Machinery dealer and get a pot of Cat Hydraulic jointing cement. Same attributes as above but desinged for really expensive earthmoving machines, also somewhat more expensive (if my memory serves me correctly this stuff is about $40 for a small bottle (think hardware store pvc glue size) but it will seal your reactor about 40 times over).
Now if you have money to burn, go to your local Cessna or Piper aircraft distributor and buy a tin of the sealant they have on offer. Its exactly the same as the stuff made by CAT (infact I think it was even made by CAT at one stage), but it comes with an aviation use release certificate, accordingly it costs a fortune but this is offset by the fact that if your reactor ever falls out of the sky you wont have a problem with the Air Transport Safety investigators.

Sorry guys, I couldnt resist poking a little fun.

Adam

[farmer puddles Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close farmer puddles]

Re: Is Plumber's GOOP available in Australia?

recently plumbed a farm boomspray with Permatec Aviation forma gasket. Compared to stag, the best thing about it is it stays soft so its not so hard to pull apart. In the past I've used large amounts of thread tape and they still sometimes leak, but this stuff is great. Just get it from autoparts places.

[Chris Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chris]

Re: Is Plumber's GOOP available in Australia?

Hi All
Well this is good Everyone here has a good idea All those things work of course The interesting thing is that all of us that have done some fitting type work seem to have our favourite sealant
I have over the years used just about all of the things mentioned in this thread including the Cat stuff (which by the way is made by Loctite for cat) as well as aviation form a gasket etc
I do remember some thirty years ago buying a tube of Dow gasket forming material for $10.00 odd dollars when the average wage was about $65.00 per week
I treat it that stuff like it was gold and only used it for really important jobs
It was amazing stuff at the time in particular for english made motorbikes that where specifically produced to leak oil
The tube was about 4 oz It is now called silicon and the average tube is worth about $4-5.00 for about half a kg the average wage now being about $600.00 Times have changed indeed
The funny thing is that I still use Stag but instead of hessian it is now teflon with the stag in between layers on bsp fittings
Just reminishing a bit We also used to make a good sealant for flat surfaces out of shellac melted with metho which is still available today also called aviation gasket sealant
cheers
Chris

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Re: Is Plumber's GOOP available in Australia?

Hi All
SNIP
Just reminishing a bit We also used to make a good sealant for flat surfaces out of shellac melted with metho which is still available today also called aviation gasket sealant
cheers
Chris

IIRC, it is also used as French polish.

[EcoPower Biofuels Forum Newbie Find all posts View Profile Close EcoPower]

Better bonders

There are a range of sealants available, all filling their own special niche.
Stag: works well for any joint that will remain very rigid. Stag cracks as previously advised and so is not suitable for most plastic to metal joins. Suits joins that mate fairly closely (<1mm).
Permatex: there are at least two main grades; 3 & 4. 4 goes hard and falls into the same category as Stag. 3 remains soft and suits joins that will flex which is why it is such a good automotive sealant. Both suit relatively close mating surfaces (touching).
Loctite 567: Teflon gas pipe-fitting sealer works excellently in threaded joints and doesn’t set hard.
Silicon: there are so many silicon based sealers on the market that fill almost every circumstance. They generally can fill wide gaps and some have incredible heat tolerance. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking all silicon sealers are the same. Most will seal your fish tank but will fail to adhere to some surfaces (plastics). 3M make a product for the automotive industry specifically tailored for oil tolerance, very high temperatures and remains flexible under all but the most extreme conditions. If the join includes plastic, make sure the plastic is very clean (metho) and is roughed up with sandpaper to allow the silicon something to hold onto.
Araldite (and other epoxy resins): good for midrange gap filling but most are designed to set hard. I’m not aware of any 2 pack resins that will remain flexible although almost all are much more resistant to fracture than Stag.
Urethane: these are my personal favourites. They remain flexible and stick to every solid I can think of (with the possible exception of Teflon) **** to a blanket comes to mind. Selley’s make small tubes of urethane bonder and 3M make a product called sikaflex.
I’m sure there are many others I am not aware of.

[gwalker Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gwalker]

Re: Better bonders

There are a range of sealants available, all filling their own special niche.....
..
Urethane: these are my personal favourites. They remain flexible and stick to every solid I can think of (with the possible exception of Teflon) **** to a blanket comes to mind. Selley’s make small tubes of urethane bonder and 3M make a product called sikaflex.

WOW!
This is just what I was looking for. Detailed, comprehensive and practical, along with personal experience and preference.

Thank you so much!
G

[zigparacingtadpole Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zigparacingtadpole]

Re: Is Plumber's GOOP available in Australia?

Choose your products carefully, a lot of silicones dont like heat or oil, some urethanes are intolerant of substances outside the range of pH 'normal'. Some products will work well at room temperature but soften with heat. I use the flexible setting Permatex product mentioned earlier as its designed for use in a hot oily environment.

Rgds

Adam

[Chris Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chris]

Re: Is Plumber's GOOP available in Australia?

Ok All
Here is the final word on this interesting interlude on biodiesel
Is any one out there going to argue against good old fashion Hessian with a good coating of diluted glaziers putty it will seal just about anything with a thread for a few cents?
The hessian will expand when it gets any kind of liquid on it the putty will stay flexible under just about any conditions
We have millions of plumbing joints that move with expansion contraction on a daily basis in every sprinkler installation spanning 80 years
A living example of a good old low cost sealant used even today, even after all of the fine examples of sealants available in the market
So where do you get it from The local plumbing supplier will sell you a roll of hessian for about 10 bucks as well as the putty that gasfitters use
This is really diluted glaziers putty, unless your local glazier will sell you some out of his 20 litre bucket for a few bucks, which you can dilute with a bit of linseed oil to the consistency of soft butter
That should be enough to see you through a life time of plumbing joints
Of course it all comes down to how careful you are in spending your hard earned money
Cheers
Chris