DIY Dry Glove Rings/Gloves for $18

[PacketSniffer]

I took advantage of a page from the Airspeed Press - "Wetsuit and Drysuit Maintenance and Repair". Sometimes its trial and error on finding the exact items you need to do these projects. Here's a rundown on my dry glove rings/gloves for latex seals that I put together this week.

Materials

Home Depot
$6.98 Quickie brand Professional latex gloves
$1.12 3" PVC Coupling
$3.97 Hoover vacuum cleaner belts No. 31130
------
$18.07 :-)


I went the extra mile and added Thinsulate gloves and wicking wristbands to keep my hands and wrists as warm as possible.

Bass Pro Shop
$4.95 RedHead thin shooting gloves with 40g of Thinsulate (take latex gloves with you for fitting)
SportsAuthority
$7.99 UnderArmor 3" wicking wristband. ...ok, I splurged here. hehe
------
$12.94

Grant total for my dry glove rings and gloves equal $31.01.

Construction

I started by cutting the 3" PVC coupling in half to give me a section for each arm. Then, I simply cut a slot wide enough on each 3" PVC ring to accomodate the vacuum cleaner belt. The depth was roughly 0.05" into the PVC which should keep the vac belt in place without accidentally coming off. Smooth all rough edges. I used a Dremel tool for all cutting, sanding, and deburring. Now you can slide the rings inside your seals. Push them (sideways first and then rotate them) just far enough so they are completely in the wrist seal. Slide the latex gloves on over the rings and then slide the vac belt onto the ring and into the groove. I removed the excess length from my gloves. The 3" width for the wrist bands works out perfect for me. And the Thinsulate gloves are a perfect fit inside the latex gloves and keep them nice and taut. The non-slip dots on the Thinsulate gloves seemed to prevent them from sliding around inside the latex.

Note: The belt size that I used seemed like a good compromise between being taught and easy to pull on/off. There are smaller belts for those that want them super tight. I don't know if that is necessary yet. I don't think so, but we'll see.

Benefits to this DIY Setup
1) Cheap initial cost
2) Readily available components from practically anywhere in the world.
3) Very easy to don/doff by yourself
4) Cheap cost of replacement components to justify having plenty of spare gloves, belts, etc. for any dive trip.
5) Can easily/quickly move rings from one dry suit (w/latex seals) to another.
6) Can easily/quickly change out Thinsulate and latex gloves as conditions change.
7) Not tied to a specific glove; can use practically anything waterproof.
8) Easy to make


I get to use mine tomorrow in ~ 50 degree water. I've tested them in a bucket and everything worked well. Let's hope they pass the final exam.


Richard

The Airspeed Press books are definitely nice to have on the bookshelf. http://www.airspeedpress.com/

[spectrum]

How do you think this would work for neoprene seals?

Nice design and great presentation.

Thanks,
Pete

[Green_Manelishi]

Originally Posted by spectrum

How do you think this would work for neoprene seals?

Nice design and great presentation.

Thanks,
Pete

Pete,

I think you'd need to use a small enough vac-band to completely compress the neoprene into the slot and leave no room for slippage.

[Uncle Pug]

Good job.... and it will be interesting to see if they keep your hands dry.

[PacketSniffer]

Originally Posted by spectrum

How do you think this would work for neoprene seals?

Nice design and great presentation.

Thanks,
Pete

Pete,

I think it's going to depend on what type of neoprene seals that a person has on their suit. I have never owned a suit with neo seals so can't speak from any experience. However, I would think one would need the cone, rolled cuff, or tapered neo seal in order for this to work. The rolled cuff is supposed to work with ring systems.

The project doesn't cost much. Give it a whirl.


Richard

[Snowbear]

Good work, Richard! Please update us as to how the field test went

[Bob_B]

PacketSniffer,
Thanks for the DIY tip on the dry gloves.
They looked good to me,so I made a set. They were simple to make. I'm going to try them tomorrow at our New Years Day Dive.

[Jason B]

Well, I don't have a pair (yet) but I was diving with Bob B. (from the post above mine) today and we did 2 dives and his performed flawlessly. He was a happy camper!

[Bob_B]

The setup worked great. Dry warm hands are a great thing in 49deg water. The only thing I changed was the inner gloves. I went with the $2 fleece gloves from Wally-World. Total cost of the setup was $20.18.

Great tip PacketSniffer, thanks for posting it.

[PacketSniffer]

As others are reporting, my set was dry as a bone too. However, I'm starting to realize that I must be really susceptible to the cold. Even though I had the 40g Thinsulate gloves, my hands still got a little chilled. I found myself raising my hand to get air up in the glove to warm it up. I should also add that my core was a chilled also. That is probably the culprit here. I'll be trying out a DUI 400g suit next. I think I might try removing the Thinsulate gloves and putting on a pair of 5mm Henderson Insta-Dry gloves. That might do it also.

For those people that get cold wrists, all I can say is that the UnderArmor 3" wicking wristbands were AWESOME. I didn't experience cold wrists at all!

I'm slowly chipping away at my remaining cold water issues.

I must say that the tighter vac belts would be murder trying to don yourself. Also, they are NOT needed. There were no leaks from the set listed above in the materials section.

Bob: I don't know how you made it with gloves more thin, in water that was more cold, than I had today. I was in 52f for about an hour and 49 minutes. Nice job!


Richard