Silicone!

[bixaorellana]

I love silicone. It's truly a miracle of modern science and has zillions of uses. It's very common here to tile the entire bathroom or kitchen, making it pretty hard to put up a much-need towel rack without damaging the tile. Silicone to the rescue. I put up a towel rack tonight and found that the masking tape wouldn't stick strongly enough to the tile to hold the rack while the silicon dried. The rack needed some temporary support, thus:

cassette cases to the rescue!













But the absolute best was finding out Friday about liquid silicone. I have a pair of tabbed curtains I bought because I wanted plain curtains. Imagine my horror when I got them home & found they had a flounce sewn to the top. There was no way to cut it off invisibly, so I used them as is. However, the other day it occurred to me to cut the flounce off, then disguise the cut place with trim. I bless forever the saleslady who turned me on to the liquid silicone. It took mere minutes to neatly and permanently attach the trim.

[spindrift]

I wait to hear whether the silicone bonding will be strong enough to hold to the wall when you hang heavy bath towels on the rack

I'd do anything to avoid sewing so I'm particularly pleased you've shown me the trick of using liquid silicone to glue on trim.

Does liquid silicone come in smalll bottles? I'll look out for it the next time I'm in the hardware shop.

[bixaorellana]

I already have total confidence in the towel rack. The only thing that would break it would be the same sort of thing that would break any towel rack. If an adult were to grab one of the rails to break a fall, for instance, the rail would be more likely to break than for the whole rack to come away from the wall. I've had that towel rack for years -- it was built expressly for the purpose of siliconing it to a tile wall. Let me tell you, it's no easy feat to detach it when it's time to move!

Uck ~~ I hate sewing, too!

I think the place to look for the liquid silicone would be either in a fabric store or in a crafts store. I don't know what brands might be available elsewhere, but this is a little squeezable plastic bottle about three inches tall. You cut the tip off, and away you go.

This would be a great product for making repairs on things such as the edges of a ripstop bag or backpack.

[Deleted]

And here I thought this was a thread about enhanced mammary glands.

[imec]

I have to admit to being somewhat deflated too.

[bixaorellana]

I see you boys are still on the rampage.

Imec -- the deflation & inflation kind aren't silicone.

[imec]

Either way, I wouldn't mind gettin' me hand on some o' that.