waterproofing servos

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  • Occupant
    Ensign
    • Jan 2025
    • 8

    #1

    waterproofing servos

    Have watched Bob's videos on waterproofing servos along with several others all informative with most having common threads. From Bobs approach like filling with olive oil (hard for water to intrude if theres already fluid int he cavity. i pulled a couple screws diagonally and flushed with a syringe several times filling the internals then tightened all the screws down. i noted it slowly leaks from the wiring strain relief - added RTV local to seal there. sealing the seam on the body didn't really want to glue with CA or JB weld in case i ever want to open it up. putting an o-ring with grease between the servo horn and body - great idea, done. to seal off the body and potentially the wiring if the RTV doesn't seal everything. changed the servo mount into a cup and potted the servos in RTV molding compound. The cup has two areas to fill, the body side and the connector strain relief area. I used a gap filling CA to draw around the cup to the servo as a temp seal so all the potting material doesn't flow out the bottom after pouring the body side. once cured flip it over and do the connector side. wost case a servo goes bad you can dig out the silicone and repot with a replacement servo.



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    best i can do blowing up with 2mb pic limit

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    Last edited by Occupant; 05-04-2026, 06:56 PM.
  • Albacore 569
    Captain

    • Sep 2020
    • 767

    #2
    Could you enlarge the top image please?

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    • RCSubGuy
      Welcome to my underwater realm!

      • Aug 2009
      • 2003

      #3
      I'll be pulling the servos from the test facility later on today or maybe tomorrow afternoon when Ed gets here. It would be good to not have to fill them with oil, which is a pain. Also, the bigger servos seem to not like the oil, working perfectly, but slowly.

      Potting is viable if a reliable seal on the output shaft can be achieved. I'll continue to play with this as it's something our hobby would definitely benefit from.

      Comment

      • He Who Shall Not Be Named
        Moderator

        • Aug 2008
        • 13763

        #4
        Originally posted by RCSubGuy
        I'll be pulling the servos from the test facility later on today or maybe tomorrow afternoon when Ed gets here. It would be good to not have to fill them with oil, which is a pain. Also, the bigger servos seem to not like the oil, working perfectly, but slowly.

        Potting is viable if a reliable seal on the output shaft can be achieved. I'll continue to play with this as it's something our hobby would definitely benefit from.
        You got to hydrostatically balance the goo on the inside with the water on the outside. Otherwise, over time, water will infiltrate within and gobble up the feed-back potentiometer resistive element. Some form of very flexible diaphragm on the servo case will do the trick.
        Who is John Galt?

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