It's not expensive to repair rubber gear in terms of materials, but it is time consuming and takes some patience. But before I describe the ways I've been able to repair my gear, let's take a look at the types of gear you may be in the position of wanting to repair.
In general, molded rubber gear is more difficult to repair successfully, since the damage tends to be rips and tears, instead of popped seams. Also, when using adhesive on the thinner gauge latex, it tends to curl during drying, making the repair process more difficult.
But, I have had success in repairing some of the molded items. Also, most of the manufacturers of rubber gear refuse to repair molded items, so attempting the repair yourself is a no-loss situation (the gear is already toast, so what can you lose in trying to fix it?)
If you have the money and the time, it is also possible to send back the gear to the manufacturer and have it repaired at a price much more reasonable than buying a new one. (Slimwear of America SOA has an excellent rep. on this.) But, sometimes the money is not going to happen, and you need that gear now! right? So, with patience you can be quite successful repairing this type of heavier gauge latex gear.
| Scrap Latex | Hopefully of about the same color, gauge, and finish as the gear you're fixing. You may want to scavenge this from rubber gear that is completely beyond repair, or that you don't care for anymore. Try to find latex that hasn't been hardened by rubber unfriendly lubes, etc. Although you can recover some of this corrupted latex using a technique described below. |
| Bestine Thinner/Solvent (contains Heptane) | Get this from your local art supply store (Aaron Brothers around me). It's the same cheap stuff used to cleanup paste-up rollers and brushes, and thin paint. |
| BestTest Paper Cement, White Rubber | This stuff is usually sitting right next to the Thinner in the art supply store. Used traditionally for paste-up art board work, it's the perfect adhesive for repairing your gear (you weren't expecting something exotic and expensive were you?) A nice bonus, one can goes a long way, since thin application of the adhesive is recommended. |
| Sharp Scissors | Find these in your favorite Emma Thompson/Kenneth Branaugh movie, or at your local drug store. |
| Drywall/Wallpaper Seam Roller< | Paint stores/Home Depots/Home Base/Home repair stores a the place to find this little baby. Typically a really cheap tool (its just a metal rod with a plastic handle attached to a small white plastic roller, usually nylon.) this is a great buy. If you can find one, really you just need some hard rolling surface you can press down repeatedly over your repair seams. |
| Soft/Clean Cloths or Rags | You'll be using these to cleanup and prepare the latex before gluing it. |
| Pencil or Pen | If you can't find these, stop now, the rest will be too much for you! |
| A Small Piece of Card Stock | A business card, 3x5 card, or anything of heavier weight paper is good for this. But nothing you'll regret throwing away! |
| A Stapler (optional for molded gear repair) | That's right, get a regular office type stapler. We'll get to how this will be useful later, but it should be one which opens up so you can staple flat against a surface. |
| Needle Nose Pliers (optional for molded gear repair) | Any pliers will do, but needle nose will make the work go quicker. |
| Heavy Corrugated Card Board (optional for molded gear repair) | This stuff is crucial to working on the thin latex of molded items successfully. It should be the approximately 1/8" (3 mm) thick. If you have the box your stereo came in, it's the right stuff! |
| Heavy Exacto Knife (optional for molded gear repair) | Used for cutting the card board, any heavy blade will do (e.g. a pocket knife, art knife, etc.) |
If you got the money, the original manufacturer is willing (who knows, maybe they'll even do it for free like warranty repair...) and you can wait for the gear to go and come back, definitely send it back to them. They got the best setup to fix this stuff, not you.
But, if you want to give it a go yourself, here's how:
There's two general types of repairs you'll need to do, seam repair, and patching. We'll cover seam repair first.
Using the thinner and a rag, soak the rag and rub the old rubber glue on both sides of the seam interfaces till they are clean. You may have to pick and pry strings of the old glue away with you fingers (don't scrape it with anything sharp!) This is a real important step in creating a new strong bond. Don't skip this part!
This will soften hardened rubber somewhat, and is important in creating a good fused bond of the rubber.
Before applying the glue, you want the seam pressed apart, laying open so you can coat both faces with the rubber cement. You'll have to wait for it to air dry, so make sure its situated where it won't be knocked, fall down (this stuff is slippery) or get disturbed. You can use some heavy (non-sharp!) objects (books are good) to get everything secured down. Also, it's probably a good idea to do this on a smooth hard surface (e.g. a table top works well).
Usually the rubber cement comes with a brush cap. Use this to put down a thin layer of glue on the seam faces which will be pressed together. Having a thin smooth layer of glue is the best for a strong seam. Use the card stock to (a business card?) to spread and smooth the glue over the rubber. Try to avoid spreading glue too far outside of the seam area (although a little is okay, and will actually make a stronger seam.)
Don't be impatient on this step! If spread thinly, the glue tends to dry fairly quickly (10 to 15 minutes). You touch it lightly with a clean finger tip to test it. It should be tacky, but not wet when sufficiently dried. Be careful to not disturb it while it's drying, it's really disappointing to have a seam flop over and adhere to something you didn't want it to!
Although if this happens, you can pull the seam off, and use the thinner to clean it up and start again, so all is not lost.
This is the part where extreme caution and care should be used. Once the seam is dropped together, the dried rubber cement will grip like you wouldn't believe (remember the Monkey Grip bicycle tire repair kits?) Take your time and carefully lay one side of the seam down on top of the other, gently pressing them into place (they won't slide, so get it right the first time.)
Take the nice seam roller you bought just for this, and apply as much pressure as you can down on the seam you just glued. Roll it back and forth until you've gotten your aggressions out, and the seam is pressed tightly together. You may have some edges of glue sticking past the the seam edge, you can take the thinner and wipe it to cure it and remove any excess. The kind rubberman how told me how to do this thinks this strengthens the seam even more (and I believe him, he has some wonderful gear he's made.)
You'll most likely want the patch on the inside of the garment instead of outside, so that the original look (smoothness/line) is not disturbed too much. Or, maybe not, it's your choice.
I usually cut a pattern from a piece of regular paper first. This way you don't go hacking into your (possibly limited) supply of scrap rubber without knowing the exact shape you want the patch to be. You can trim the paper down, laying it on the area to be patched until it looks just right. Then lay the paper template on the the scrap latex, and using the sharp scissors, cut the patch out.
You'll want the patch to have smooth curved edges, and avoid knicking the rubber edges when cutting it out (the knicks can be potential stress and rip points later.)
See step (2) in seam repair.
Follow the same steps above for seam repair (step 3 through 7).
That's it. Patching is a little easier than seam repair, because you get to lay the entire patch down in one movement, and aren't fighting a seam that's attached on one side or the other. Flip the garment rightside out, clean the edges of the new seam with thinner (light swab only) and you should have your gear ready to use again (after talc of course!)
Here's how I've had success in repairing several pieces of my molded gear:
First of all there are no seams in this stuff. If you're trying to repair a garment with seams, see the Handmade Rubber Gear section for details. Almost all the repairs to molded garments are patches. Patching rips, patching holes from stressed rubber, patching tears. The general steps are the same for those used in patching Handmade gear, but we need to take some extra steps in order to work with the thinner latex molded pieces are generally made out of.
Just a note. I was fortunate to receive a Gear, full hood (molded) from a rubberman acquaintance of mine, and it is of heavy latex. So, I'm really generalizing when I say that molded is lighter latex. If the molded piece you've got is a heavy gauge latex, you can avoid the procedure below, and use the Handmade gear patching instructions instead.
Just like most repair work, you'll want to preserve the original look of the garment if at all possible. So, we'll apply the patch from the inside.
We'll be using the cardboard as a base to fasten the thin latex to for our repair (it will be removed at the end.) So take your box, pencil in the rough form of the garment slightly larger (1" [2.54cm] or more) than the area you are patching. Cut it out with your Exacto (art) knife.
For example, if you we're fixing a muscle shirt, you would slide the cardboard support >between< the two layers of rubber.
Don't panic! Regular office staples will can be removed from the rubber without leaving noticeable holes (the rubber seals around the tiny punctures with cleaning.) Staple at fairly close intervals, without using excessive force. You want the staples to penetrate the cardboard support without folding their legs (easier to remove,) and not go through to the other side of the garment (if the cardboard is thin, you may want to put two layers of it in as a support.)
Using the paper template technique (or just eyeballing it) cut a patch which will overlap the repair area to create seams from your scrap latex. The patch should be large enough to cover the staples. You may be wondering how we can get these out if we glue over them. Well read on!
Follow the steps from Handmade Gear above (steps 2 through 7).
We need to get at the legs of the staples to remove them, so flip the garment over so you can see the cardboard.
Carefully pull the repair area (fastened by staples to the cardboard support) off of the cardboard. If you used to much force in putting the staples in, you may have to use the pliers to unbend the legs of the staples.
Take this slowly. Bend one leg of each staple so its flat, in-line with the lon portion of the staple (the back?) Grab the upright leg (the one you didn't bend) with the pliers and gently pull the staple out, pulling in the same direction as the back of the staple. The staple should slide out after a little tug. Do this with each staple (I told you this was harder than the heavy latex repair!)
This will clean up and strengthen the seams, and soften the latex so that the staple punctures aren't visible.
You're done! Now, you're asking yourself, "Self, why did I have to go to all this trouble stapling this stupid thing down!" Well, let me tell you. With the thinner latex, the instant you apply rubber cement to the edges of the repair, the rubber curls! Aaaagh! If you haven't secured the edges down, they will curl up wetly, bunching up against themselves and creating an ungodly mess. The elaborate staple dance is a good way to avoid this, and create a reasonable strong and clean repair.
That's it. I've used these techniques myself, so I'm fairly comfortable recommending them, but remember, molded wear is fragile, so these repair techniques may not work in all cases.
Also, if you can, always send handmade gear back to the manufacturer for repair (or someone else experienced) this is always the safest, but not cheapest way to get your gear back in working order.