I don't mind the adjustment needed to set the wing and plate in place. But having the wing and plate unsecured meant that transporting between dive sites and with each tank change, the wing would drop away from the plate, moving down the cam band. This was a hassle. Not yet ready to drill the plate, I found a simple temporary solution was to use a large cable tie looped through the rail and wing slot. It worked beautifully. The wing was held tight against the plate in correct orientation and even the vertical movement was limited, making placement a breeze during my 3 to 4 dives a day trip to Bonaire. After diving was done for the week, I easily snipped the ties and separated the sections for the flight home.
What wings are you using with your Freedom Plate?
- Thread starter Eric Sedletzky
- Start date
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OP
Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
It depends on what the texture is of the surface of your plate is now. What I mean is, how much grain is in the surface of the metal that needs to be removed before it can be scotch brited.
After I get through tooling I have to orbital sand the surface with 220 grit on a DA sander (dual action), then go to 320 or 400 to get the 220 scratches out. Each plate is slightly different, sometimes I have to get more grinder marks out with 80 grit first then go to 180, then 220, then 320 etc.
After the plate is final sanded I have a choice to either go for the ultra shine with a cotton buffing wheel and rouge, or keep it more practical and industrial and use a scotch brite on it to give it a nice sheen but a usable finish. The Contours are not what I'd call a pristine shine, they are more of a smooth satin sheen that is way more maintainable than a mirror shine.
Mirror looks cool but is difficult to achieve and even more difficult to maintain.
My idea was to find an attractive finish that is somewhat easy to get and doesn't look like hell after so much as a D-ring grazes across it. Anybody can get a grey scotch brite and bring back the surface to an acceptable finish anytime they want too. It's not like they have to go back to a chrome shop to get re-polished.
Other plate companies agonize over finish all the time. Where do you stop? How much man hour time do you put into finish?
Everybody is obsessed over proffesional looking uniformity. It's one detail that the consumer never thinks about, but the manufacturers are constantly trying to find a simple solution to.
Back in the day line sanding with 180 seemed to be pretty standard. At least it made the surface uniform so it would just go away and not attract any attention. I have an old OMS plate that was done this way. The more the surface shines the more crap you start seeing and the more the consumer questions the finish and begins to obsess over it.
Electro polishing seems to be the most practical method now, but I'm way to small potatoes to go that route.
Electro polishing is nice for the shiny finish but doesn't do squat for the sharp edges. Manta has gone to tumbling the plates and while not something you can see yourself in, the overall finish and nice rounded edges of all the slots, holes, and sides are more than worth it. I for one was very glad to see the change.
Another item on the electro polish is how much time does someone want to spend cleaning up the edges before the electro polish? Or get a nice electro polished plate only to have to spend hours with a file or emery stick dressing the holes and slots, no thanks.
Another item on the electro polish is how much time does someone want to spend cleaning up the edges before the electro polish? Or get a nice electro polished plate only to have to spend hours with a file or emery stick dressing the holes and slots, no thanks.
OP
Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
To round over the slots I use a cone shaped burr on a die grinder. It's messy, loud, and tedious. I have full getup I wear when I do it including face shield, full coverall suit with hood, gloves, ear plugs, etc.
The amount of nasty little razor sharp shavings that come off will drive you nuts if they embed in your skin.
This is the quickest way I found to do it. The outside perimiter is the easy part, all I do is run a flap disc grinder around it and it's done, well maybe a little more than that, but at least it's easier with a 4 1/2" 80 grit flap disc on a 10,000 rpm right angle mini grinder.
After I run a burr around the slots I use a brown 2" roloc metal conditioning disc on another right angle die grinder. This seems to clean up the burr marks really well. Those things are expensive though, they run about $3 a piece and sometimes I was using 2 or 3 on one plate.
So, as you can see it's a sh_t load of work and takes hours.
All this is before any shaping starts. The contouring is another whole ordeal.
I wasn't making a lot of money on these.
But when I hear about the guy in Monterey that went to Indonesia for three months and the divemasters there loved his small Contour so much they wouldn't let him leave with it. He had to leave it with them. As soon as he got back he called me and ordered another one. He said it was the best piece of gear he'd ever owned in almost 40 years of diving. Stories like this are what keep me going.
Soloist
Contributor
When I ordered one of the few remaining Freedom Plates from Eric recently, I already knew I would drill the plate for consistent wing placement and quick changeovers. It's a no brainer when dive off cattle boats in 4 and 5 foot swells. We are strictly warm water divers, so the plastic book screws work fine. A standard 5/16 drill produces the perfect hole for a nice press fit to hold the screw post in place. Moreover the integrity of the plate is not impacted by the additional hole.
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ams511
Contributor
You need to be a tad more specific according to McMaster-Carr there are three types of grey pads:
For Soft Metals, Plastics, and Soft Woods
Gray Aggressive cleaning and blending.
Dk. Gray Light cleaning and finishing.
Lt. Gray Light cleaning, finishing, and polishing
OP
Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
Soloist
Contributor
I am also curious about the design iterations, materials and evolution of the original Freedom Plate to the new Contour. I believe my plate was fabricated just prior to the latest Contour design because it has the 5/16 rod tank stabilizers, but does not have the rolled outer lip. When I ordered mine a few weeks ago I knew it was one of the few remaining "older" plates, so I was extremely pleased to open the box and see the plate was equipped with the welded tank rods.
ams511
Contributor
Reading on how you make these, they are more like a sculpture than a backplate. You are an artist.
Maybe you should consider broadening your product line with metal items that are less time consuming to make. For example a flat backplate like the old jet plate, single tank adapters or side mount plates.
P.S. Thanks for the clarification on the Scotch Brite.
OP
Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
Actually, what you got was a plate from the most current run. It came from the same sheet of S/S as all the Contours so it's 316 throughout. I made a few non contoured models just in case somebody didn't want to spend the money on a Contour but still wanted a Freedom Plate and didn't mind a retro model.
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