homemade tubeless sealant

just used the last of my stans bottle which is a few years old now anyway, and looking at stocking up.
ghetto/gorilla/guerilla ive seen it called all of these, but after googling away i can only see threads from a few years ago, and wondered what we’re all using lately to keep the costs down and give ourselves that smug warm feeling….

ive read the old threads which all seem to imply the best homebrew mix is….
1 part Latex mold builder
1 part Slime tubeless
2 parts cheap antifreeze

also seen recommendations of glitter and (short) human hair to help plug the gaps 😯

anyone making their own these days, and if so whats yer ingredients/ratios etc? and where are you buying from?

cheers

That’s what I used to use ‘back in the day’.

I’ve tired both making my own and several other manufacturers stuff…only Stan’s seems to stay liquid for 6months plus and then seal when needed. Accept no substitutes.

Well i currently use a ghetto sealant consisting of equal parts liquid latex (from ebay and used to make masks) and screen wash and then a large pinch of childrens play pit sand (its very fine stuff). I have only been using this for a few months and i dont think i have had a puncture yet and not checked to see if its still liquid but i am sure i can hear sloshing. Tyres have lost very little air and only topped them up once in a couple of months.

may be a bit of a daft question, but if slime itself is a product for sealing holes, why is it just one ingredient in homebrew sealant? why are we not just using it on its own without latex and antifreeze?

Those mixes look a bit strong in terms of the amount of craft latex, Here’s mine

500ml water
200ml propylene glycol
ALLOW TO COOL – its a bit exothermic
100ml household ammonia
80ml rubber crumb
200ml latex

Propylene glycol is use in vaping fluids, available on the internet, You need to add ammonia (from a hardware store) to keep the pH up as latex polymerises if things stop being alkaline and the pH will drop as you are diluting it. I also add some rubber crumb (used by model train enthusiasts), about 1/2 a cup, and thicken the water first with a smidge of xanthan gum, but I have idea if that makes any diff. Stan’s original patented recipe used cornmeal as the filler – ie polenta to us Europeans. His claims for his latest recipe are that it contains “crystals”, so he possibly has a secret ingredient.

I find my tyres start going flat after about six months, when upon inspection they are dry inside. I assume it has been working in the meantime. So really I should do a top-up mid-season (I change tyres summer to winter, not otherwise). I guess the dilution helps with the longevity, discourages polymerisation in the tyre. The propylene glycol is an antifreeze for cold conditions, but will also limit evaporation in hotter conditions.

I looked at the price of 500ml Stans in the bike shop yesterday – f*** that.

Whatever is in it, it’s pretty nasty.
My stans injector exploded on me yesterday showering me in the stuff.
I was vomiting for a fair proportion of the evening. Lovely.

trying to find some of these ingredients from my armchair. would some of these links be the right stuff to buy?

latex?

propylene glycol?

slime?

BMX inner tubes with removable core for ghetto tubeless. i used these before on 26″ wheels with success, would you just buy 26″ tubes for 29″ wheels?

not having any success finding small quantities of rubber crumb or play pit sand…..

thanks

Yes. I can’t find the rubber crumb I used either, it was 0.5mm size and sold specifically for model railways (to do landscape stuff).

I used to make my own. But why would you want to now as Stan’s has dropped in price.

Whats the cost of your ingredients? A 946 ml bottle of stans is £20.00 at nextday tyres.

been using joes no flats stuff recently, does the job and lasts well. i think 1L is about £15

I used to make my own. But why would you want to now as Stan’s has dropped in price.

Whats the cost of your ingredients? A 946 ml bottle of stans is £20.00 at nextday tyres.

well that was nice while it lasted, thanks a lot for f**kin me thread up chaps 😆

decided that £20 really is ok to spend for less faffage. sealant plus a spare valve core (needed to spend at least another penny to avoid postage charges) on its way from nextday tyres. never heard of em before, thanks for the heads up. hopefully the thread will still be of use to anyone still thinking its worth having a bit of a play around.

cheers

I used to make my own. But why would you want to now as Stan’s has dropped in price.

Well if you can’t see the fun in mixing up loads of chemicals in the kitchen, then you have a point.

Well if you can’t see the fun in mixing up loads of chemicals in the kitchen, then you have a point.

Well it was Mrs asbrooks that put an end to it really.
I have to say that my DIY stuff was good, I went for almost a year without having to top up. When it did need topping up I was out on the trail with no chance of doing so. Getting the gloop off the inside of the tyre was challenging as it had completely cured off. Hours of soaking ensued.

I tried the more complex mixes and now just use 1 part mold latex with 1-2parts water. Works fine on flints and thorns locally and comes to ~£5 a litre. Larger nicks and holes get a dab of superglue or a worm. Lasts OK, 4-5 months between top ups or peel-offs. The only real difference with Stans is that it’s easier to remove after a while as most of it forms a lump. The latex+water mix peels off ok with the right technique.

A useful breakthrough would be if someone could figure out what to wipe the inside of the tyre with so the dried latex didn’t stick to it as much but once past its useful life that mostly-dry layer seems to remain a better flat fixer, at least for thorns, than the Stans lump.

What jameso said, Stan’s is a rip off

I don’t really understand why it dries out. I can’t ever remember having to top up a car tyre.

can i just ask why youre all cleaning the dried gunk from the inside of the tyres? why not just leave it there, its maybe covering a few holes anyway?

rotating weight 😀