Floater fix

[303Brit]

So the season is over and you got a couple dekes that rattle. If you water swat or sea duck that odds are high that you have undoubtedly shot at least one deke especially if you shoot from a layout. So what to do with them??? Well if you are handy or cheap or both, this is something that is easy and should prove to be a permanent fix. As it is one thing to have a deke sink on a longline but something completely different to have a single sink. Doesn't cost a lot, about $10 per doz stormfronts. As I am a budget hunter and can't afford nice foamers or carved blocks, I have repainted stormfronts. I use to buy a doz every time they came on sale at CT. As the paint started to rub off or scuff badly I would put them aside, didn't take long for me to have 30 dekes ready to be repainted them as sea ducks.

Here's a few of them pre-hunting them.
AND...

A few post season, I put holes in 10 dekes a couple took more than one pellet.

So what do you do with these??? Well for them to float they need to keep the water out right, so plug the holes and they will float again.
But then I got to thinking, this will happen every year and every year I will have to plug holes. Also plugging the holes only works as for as long as the material holds up or until you rattle the deke again. So I've decided to foam fill the dekes, what's the quickest and easiest way to do that? Well expanding foam, I grabbed the econo can of great stuff the large gap stuff. One can did 10 dekes, with a lil trial and error and some waste. I figure I should be able to do a doz per can. The idea is not to fill it till spills out, but rather provide enough foam inside to float even if rattled. Here' the materials used


So I drilled out the plugs in each deke



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[303Brit]

I trialed filling from each end, so the a couple dekes that had holes in the front got them enlarged

So you fill away as you draw the fill tube out of the deke when it's about 1" from the end stop filling, and let it sit for about 30-40secs and give it one more quick shot and let it sit again for another 30-40seconds and then pull it out.
I found when I filled from each end your best bet is to tape over the front hole once filled, then any excess will press to the back of the deke and ultimately leak from the plug.


Let it sit for a while and expand and harden, then cut any excess off with an exacto knife.


So that's done, I wanted to make sure that even with a deke mostly full of foam it would still float if I rattled it, so I haven't plugged any holes yet and here is the water test.
filled with water till the bubbles stop


and this is how she floats, a lil heavy but she floats


Next step will be to clean up the holes and seal them with a product called RTV, Room temperature Vulcanizing Silicone. and then they will be ready for paint touch ups



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[SingleShot]

Great work. Nice to see a guy so ingenious and passionate about his gear.

[d6dan]

Great idea Kiel. Cheap is good.

[wingmaster]

thats how I fix mine up, only suggestion i would make is to fill them up in 3 or 4 stages to let the foam fully expand, it results in the decoys being significantly lighter as there isnt a dense glob of unexpanded foam trapped in the middle, they should sit higher as well,

the repaints look great!

[f350ps]

Nice job but paint won't stick to silicone, use a paintable caulk. K

[303Brit]

thats how I fix mine up, only suggestion i would make is to fill them up in 3 or 4 stages to let the foam fully expand, it results in the decoys being significantly lighter as there isnt a dense glob of unexpanded foam trapped in the middle, they should sit higher as well,

the repaints look great!

Thanks man I'll try that next round. It's not suppose to be as big of a problem with the big gap stuff that I got. That decoy sits heavy as it still a 1/4 full of water (guessing based on how long it took to fill)

Thanks, they were a pretty quick paint job overall so I could hunt them. But I will prolly use the compressor ad a spray gun next time.

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[303Brit]

Nice job but paint won't stick to silicone, use a paintable caulk. K

Thanks Kelly, I would agree but RTV is a special breed of silicone, the stuff we got at work we paint all the time on the outside of airplanes so I think it will hold up on my cheapo dekes.

It also never dries out, adheres to pretty much anything and stays pliable. Plus the stuff we use is black

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[f350ps]

Cool, as long as it's paintable yer golden! They look good, nice work. K

[303Brit]

Cool, as long as it's paintable yer golden! They look good, nice work. K

Again thanks Kelly, just trying to grow up to be a real waterfowler

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