DIY thread

[Alexitt]

Thanks, I'll probably go with the xs pockets
Cheers,
Alex

[Anthony]

So do any of you have any advice on how to make a kydex sheath? I found an Ocean Master knife the other day and it cleaned up well but to buy a new sheath from OM is $35. I found some kydex knife kits for about 10 bucks to make your own, but don't really know what I'm doing.

[Nwbrewer]

So do any of you have any advice on how to make a kydex sheath? I found an Ocean Master knife the other day and it cleaned up well but to buy a new sheath from OM is $35. I found some kydex knife kits for about 10 bucks to make your own, but don't really know what I'm doing.

Youtube is your friend. It's pretty easy, just heat it up (I use a heat gun) and some old towels to press it into shape. Buy extra kydex, you'll screw up 1 or two when learning how to do it. You can get rivets, but I just use #4 SS screws and nuts to hold things together. Make sure and make the belt loop wide enough to take 2" webbing double thick with a little slop or it's going to be too tight.

[Aquanautchuck]

Here is a picture of my latest DIY project. I know it's not scuba but still cool. Made out of recycled parts except the stainless steel top.

Next project is a garden Bell or Gong. Oregondiver gave me a old failed al80 and I already have it cut up and modified. Now I need to make a base and stand.

[airsix]

Nice work, Chuck! I've been missing this thread. I love to see this stuff scuba or otherwise.
-Ben

[Burntchef]

Here is a picture of my latest DIY project. I know it's not scuba but still cool. Made out of recycled parts except the stainless steel top.

Next project is a garden Bell or Gong. Oregondiver gave me a old failed al80 and I already have it cut up and modified. Now I need to make a base and stand.

badd ass piece of work, i have wanted to make something like that for a while, what are you using for water lines for the sink? and drain

[vlad]

Here is my first attempt at canister lights. It is LED, supposedly 1200 lumens, with LiMnNi 7.4v 4Ah battery pack. I took it to 80 feet, so far so good. Most plastic and stainless steel parts are from Lowe's. Head is converted underwater light from E-bay. Cable is PC power cable. Body is slightly modified electrical PVC piece that joins two pipes together. Battery and charger are from batteryspace.com, LED assembly is from dealextreme.com.

So far I'm quite pleased with the results.

--Vlad

[Norris]

NIce work Vlad, that looks like a pretty nice light!

[Aquanautchuck]

It is always a hoot to see how creative divers are. Did we all grow up on Macgyver or just love to tinker. The garden gong/bell I hope to be done with by the end of the weekend. The hard part is finding stuff to recycle for the base.

[Aquanautchuck]

[quote=badd ass piece of work, i have wanted to make something like that for a while, what are you using for water lines for the sink? and drain[/quote]

I just put a Y on my hose nib and ran a black underground sprinkler line along the edge of the house (above ground) to it. This way I just turn it on when I need it. As for grey water, I goes into a 3 gallon waste bucket inside the cabinet. I may plumb the sink into the large potted tree behind it. Its not like I am going to be washing dishes out there.

[Nwbrewer]

Been a while since I had something to post here, but I recently completed another project.

When i bought my drysuit I wanted a neoprene neck seal, both for the reported longevity and warmth. Unfortunatley this would have required either having it sent to the manufacturer, having the brand new seal removed, and a new Neo one put on ($$$) or, having the suit custom ordered. ($$$$$) So, since a stock suit fit me, I just dove the latex seal for the last 2.5 years.

The Latex finally started to degrade to the point where I wasn't comfortable relying on it, so time for a new seal.

I picked up a remnant of 3mm 1 side smooth neoprene from Seattle Fabrics (this place rocks) for ~$25, and a tube of seal cement for ~$7.

I carefully cut off the old neck seal right where it's glued to the suit.


I then used the old neck seal as a template to create the neoprene template, extending it some in each direction.


I then made a second template and layed them both out on the neoprene to make sure I had enough.


Cut out the neoprene, and carefully glue the edges together using seal cement (contact cement). It can be thinned with Toluene, so keep some of that handy too.


Use a small roller to roll the seam and ensure it's got good contact and will glue tightly.


On the fabric side I brushed on some more seal cement just to make sure it sealed up well.


After that, a little seal cement on both the old latex seal that's still on the suit, and on the fabric side of the new neck seal, Press them together with the roller, and done!


When I first made the neck seal, I extended the "top" of the seal to far, and it got WAY to small. Luckily it's tapered and was way to long, so I could cut it back and it fit perfectly.

I haven't gotten to dive it yet, but I put the suit on and blew myself up like the Michelin man, and couldn't detect any leaks. Hopefully I'll be testing it this monday at MMM.

Jake

EDIT - Finally ripped this on in July 2013. I elected to replace it with 2mm neoprene, which so far has proven to be more pliable, and seal better.

[spatman]

great job, jake! looking forward to hearing how it dives.

[Burntchef]

by any chance did you get a price from dc for them to install a neo neck seal, looking to go that route as well.

[Nwbrewer]

by any chance did you get a price from dc for them to install a neo neck seal, looking to go that route as well.

I think it was like $50 for shipping and $100 for a pressure test, I think the seal was $60+ labor to install. Tacoma scuba's price was much less, but not quite as cheap as this (assuming it works out).

[airsix]

by any chance did you get a price from dc for them to install a neo neck seal, looking to go that route as well.

I think it was like $50 for shipping and $100 for a pressure test, I think the seal was $60+ labor to install. Tacoma scuba's price was much less, but not quite as cheap as this (assuming it works out).

That sounds about right. Whites charged me $200 round-trip.

[Nwbrewer]

First dive was WET. But warm. I think the neck seal is too loose, or I screwed it up when taking off my hood. Temps shallow in the lake were warm, so 1/2 way through the dive I took off my hood. I think maybe I screwed it up at that point? When we were deep I think I would have felt the water running in, as it was I didn't know I had a leak until I took it off.

Blew it up in the garage at home tonight, but couldn't find a leak anywhere, so I guess that means it leaked around my neck. Anybody have an guidance on how tight this thing needs to be?

[renoun]

I had the line inside my spring straps break and allow me to over stretch the spring last week. Hopefully XS Scuba will replace them once I get around to mailing them back. In the mean time I wasn't going to stop diving or switch back to my split fins.

This is certainly easy enough to do as a save-a-dive repair. I think it could work as a semi-permanent installation but the shock cord should probably be replaced on a regular basis. I used some orange 1" tubular webbing (in my ongoing quest to not look other divers) but many spring strap systems have webbing or hose that could be reused. The 10mm shock cord I used seems to be about right for elasticity and physical size. I used about 1' of webbing and 2' of shock cord. The shock cord is joined with a lover's knot after it passes through the hardware I left on the fin. In a pinch you could probably pass cave line, seizing wire, or a cable tie through the hole in the fin or las to post if you have a fin with a post.

[fmerkel]

I did a similar thing when spring straps first came out and were very expensive. I made a back chafing plate out of a rubber thing for a shoulder strapI found at Seattle Fabric (love to look though those gizmo drawers) and a 2" plastic D-ring for a pull tab. It worked fine for over 2 years before I found some reasonably priced spring strap. FWIW the springs don't work substantially better, just look neater.

[Nwbrewer]

I did the same thing also, but used .5in vinyl tubing, worked pretty well, when I bought real SS springs I threw the bungee and tubing in my SAD kit.

[Nwbrewer]

DRY! FINALLY DRY!

After several iterations of shrinking the neck seal down, convinced it was leaking past my neck, it got to the point where I couldn't make it any tighter without turning a rather unflattering shade of blue. A more thorough pressure test revealed several small leaks where the seal was glued down to the suit. Several layers of Seal Cement thinned with Toluene (nasty stuff use caution!) on both the inside and outside of the seal/suit seam and last night I was finally dry. And warm. And comfortable. Neoprene seals rock.

If I had it to do over again I would have thinned the Seal cement when I put it on the fabric side of the seal, laid a piece of wax paper over it while wet, and pressed it in with the roller. I think the problem was that the fabric did not fully impregnate with the cement, allowing leakage. I would also use 2mm neoprene instead of 3mm. I think it would be a little easier to work with, cheaper, and be a little less bulky on my neck.

Lastly, if anybody is wondering how big to make the seal around their neck, measure your neck, and subtract ~8-9%. My neck is a little more than 17", and a 16" diameter neck seal seems to be about right. I got only one other data point from someone on DMX, with a 12" neck and an 11" seal.

Anybody who wants to try it let me know and you can have a pattern.

Jake

[Dusty2]

Well I finally have a dive light design that I'm happy with. Version 1 did very well and I'm using that one myself but it was a bit of a project making one totally from scratch. Version 2???? well it's in the shop for repairs. The cheap switch boots I bought online failed miserably. I now am using silicone boots and nickle plated brass cable glands. Much more expensive but a small price to pay for the comfort of knowing they won't fail

Ver 3.0 is a keeper! small, light, and very portable. 1200 lumen light head, mfg listing, probably not that bright but it has a very tight bright beam that does awesome at depth. The mag head is machined to accept the light head and fitted with oversize o-rings and a 1/4" thick unbreakable lens. I tested it to 200 ft (pressure pot) without incident. Lasts about 3 hours on a charge and the battery packs are inexpensive and only take a couple of minutes to change. Oh and it comes with a diffuser that makes it a great movie/photo light. I removed my strobe and dove with only this light last week and it does an awesome job with no drain on your camera battery's.

[Burntchef]

only take a couple of minutes to change.

??? are these lipo or li ion? just curiuos as i was reading about how fast charging of these types of batteries have led to massive failures in them as in fire. apparently r/c people use steel ammo boxes to charge there packs in ( outside of course) . ive been doing lots of research on this battery chemistry as i am about to get a massive one delivered soon


oh and very cool light too.

[Dusty2]

No Lipo's for me. To expensive and downright dangerious. You can buy 3 of these NiMH's for what a lipo would cost and just change out when ever it's needed. No problems with airlines or commercial carriers and no fires or worse explosions if you short one out or charge it too long.

[Nwbrewer]

Looks really nice Dusty. Did you buy the tap for the agro glands? ($$$Ouch!)

[Dusty2]

Looks really nice Dusty. Did you buy the tap for the agro glands? ($$$Ouch!)

Yes I did but I found one on ebay at a reasonable price and the agro glands are the only way to go!

Now that I am set up and have all the right stuff I can offer these to to club members at a great price. Xmas gift anyone???

$350 as shown.