Here are some shots of last weekend's project (other than diving, natch). Behold the PVC drysuit rack, complete with mounted leaf-blower for reducing drying time and making it look cool.
KTB, NAR, and I spent the afternoon on Saturday building three of these (one for each). The first was the toughest, even using NAR's excellent parts list and photos / diagrams of Aaron's unit down at Tacoma Scuba. By the third one, we were putting them together in about 30 minutes from first cut to test. Still, it took awhile.
The parts before we started cutting...
Overview Shot
Front lower close up
Rear lower close-up
Arm and Neck or Hood Dry Vents
Now all I need to do is get my drysuit back from Bare (hopefully fully repaired so it doesn't leak)!
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In the immortal last words of Socrates..."I drank what??"
Life isn't like a box of chocolate's, life is like a box of chocolate and horse bisket's and no matter which one you get you have to keep on chewing...
Seriously, though, it looks really nice. Does the leaf blower blow too hard? (I have visions of gloves and hoods flying across the garage when it's turned on.)
If I had one, I'd probably be inclined to hose out the inside of my suit periodically....
I'm going to look like a moose on rollerskates. -airsix
... my Mom caught me fenestrating once. -lavachickie
And I get so tired of fainting and peeing all over myself when the hammer falls on an empty chamber! -Nailer
scottsax wrote:Wrong.... There were supposed to be 5 of them!
Seriously, though, it looks really nice. Does the leaf blower blow too hard? (I have visions of gloves and hoods flying across the garage when it's turned on.)
If I had one, I'd probably be inclined to hose out the inside of my suit periodically....
Line forms behind Geek. Heheh.
As for the leaf blower power: one very important tip -- buy the continuously variable model of leaf blower, not the two or three speed model. The ones we picked up at Home Depot were $70 and can be adjusted from very soft to "Wendy, I can fly!" speeds.
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In the immortal last words of Socrates..."I drank what??"
I'm also considering extending mine to add dedicated spots for my gloves and hood. That way the suit, neck, arms, gloves, and hood could all be dried at once. I would just add a second set of arms to the front and poke them full of holes. Hmmm...wonder if Nick wants to break out the reciprocating saw and our left-over PVC... :biggrin:
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In the immortal last words of Socrates..."I drank what??"
That looks really cool. I have heard (but have no idea if it's true) that running electric motors near latex seals can be bad for the seals. Something about ozone or sumsuch. Anyone know if this is true or an urban legend?
Those pictures make me want to run over to Home Depot in short order.Nicely done.
"The She-Ps didn't work for either one of us, however- we accidently glued one to Dan's cat, and the other one ended up in a DEA evidence locker somehow." - Joshua Smith
Mattleycrue76 wrote:That looks really cool. I have heard (but have no idea if it's true) that running electric motors near latex seals can be bad for the seals. Something about ozone or sumsuch. Anyone know if this is true or an urban legend?
Those pictures make me want to run over to Home Depot in short order.Nicely done.
Good ventilation + small electric motor should be a non-issue. Just don't store your suit in the same closet as your HVAC blower.
"The place looked like a washing machine full of Josh's carharts. I was not into it." --Sockmonkey
scottsax wrote:If I had one, I'd probably be inclined to hose out the inside of my suit periodically....
you could just turn the suit inside out to dry like the rest of us do. :biggrin:
That just takes too long.
Oh, and my socks never get really dry. :biggrin:
Yeah, I had been envious of Aaron's "PVC man" for a while, but I finally forced the issue when I rinsed my suit last week and after two days of "drying" the inside of my neoprene socks were still soaking wet. And my front-zip tri-lam isn't that easy to turn inside out, so . . . a trip to the Home Despot was in order.
Although I must admit, I let the guys have their fun with the power tools while I "supervised." Sometimes it's nice to be a girl.
Here is my version, everyone has a different take on how to make a drier. It was modeled after a Peet shoe drier. It dries suit gently overnight using the heat from a couple of low wattage light bulbs. Makes a great night light too! Its silent for those who are noise intolerant and it is in Diver Black.
Sorry for the fuzzy pic, it was grabbed from instructions I put together when I built the drier over 5 years ago.
4ster wrote:Here is my version, everyone has a different take on how to make a drier. It was modeled after a Peet shoe drier. It dries suit gently overnight using the heat from a couple of low wattage light bulbs. Makes a great night light too! Its silent for those who are noise intolerant and it is in Diver Black.
Sorry for the fuzzy pic, it was grabbed from instructions I put together when I built the drier over 5 years ago.
I like it! I use a peet dryer, but have to turn my suit inside out to get the feet to fit over the tubes. How does the whole light bulb thing work? You are not worried about it melting the plastic?
I put low wattage bulbs in the drier, I think they are 25 watt, no more than 40. Convection circulates the air in the drier so heat doesn't build up around the bulbs. It hasn't melted yet.
Anyone interested in building something like this pm me with an email address and I will send a pdf with instructions and a materials list. It takes less than 2 hours to put together.
Last edited by 4ster on Thu Mar 11, 2010 7:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
I'm going to look like a moose on rollerskates. -airsix
... my Mom caught me fenestrating once. -lavachickie
And I get so tired of fainting and peeing all over myself when the hammer falls on an empty chamber! -Nailer
4ster wrote:Here is my version, everyone has a different take on how to make a drier. It was modeled after a Peet shoe drier. It dries suit gently overnight using the heat from a couple of low wattage light bulbs. Makes a great night light too! Its silent for those who are noise intolerant and it is in Diver Black.
Sorry for the fuzzy pic, it was grabbed from instructions I put together when I built the drier over 5 years ago.
That one is cool! More ideas for my next go around.
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In the immortal last words of Socrates..."I drank what??"
More ideas for my next go around. 
