The New Hotness

After doing the second batch of quilting pin caps, I dropped the newly opened silicone caulk tube into a jar with some desiccant, which worked wonderfully well. Unlike the usual situation where the caulk under the cap hardens into a plug after a few weeks, the tube emerged in perfect condition. In fact, even the caulk in the middle of the conical nozzle was in good shape, with just a small cured plug on either end; it had been sitting inside a cloth wrap with no sealing at all.

Here’s what it looked like after finishing the last of the most recent caps:

The indicator card says the humidity remains under 10%, low enough to keep the caulk happy and uncured. Well worth the nuisance of having a big jar on the top shelf instead of a little tube next to the epoxy.

Although I thought the desiccant was silica gel, it’s most likely one of the clay or calcium desiccants.