diy bcd wings

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Spoon

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Location
Philippines
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guys i was wondering if anyone has attempted to make their own bcd? im just curious becasue all the supplies can be purchased separeately like the denier outer lining and the inner inflation tubes and only job i see is stitching the outer shell of the wings. anyone?
 
Spoon,

I thought about it very seriously, costed the parts and bought one off John at Ne scuba supply... I figured the savings did not justify the outlay of time.

That said it seems to be rather plug and play!
I see no problems with building your own... and you can get a nifty colour too!

R
 
When I priced the parts out I came to the same conclusion - it was about a $50 difference... and no guarantee that mine would work well...

Aloha, Tim
 
Spoon:
guys i was wondering if anyone has attempted to make their own bcd? im just curious becasue all the supplies can be purchased separeately like the denier outer lining and the inner inflation tubes and only job i see is stitching the outer shell of the wings. anyone?


I made my own :wink:

Several different ones, infact a couple new ones a few weeks ago.

Seriously, you need a lot of parts. If you break it down the "Bill of materials" for our typical wing it has a total of 36 parts, 23 different ones. This does not include the various pieces of fabric for the outer shell or the individual parts making up the power inflator.

I doubt there'd be any real savings after you find out what you are missing and make multiple trips to the store.

Tobin
 
cool_hardware52:
I made my own :wink:

Several different ones, infact a couple new ones a few weeks ago....

Do you by any chance know of a way one could homebrew a Urethane heat sealing device for building a simple single bladder wing design? I may have access to an old bcd for parts and was thinking of experimenting... Perhaps a clothes iron on the right setting? Or is this a trade secret? :wink: (though not yours since you don't do single bladder designs eh?)

Just thinking out-loud (dangerous isn't it?)
Tim
 
kidspot:
Do you by any chance know of a way one could homebrew a Urethane heat sealing device for building a simple single bladder wing design? I may have access to an old bcd for parts and was thinking of experimenting... Perhaps a clothes iron on the right setting? Or is this a trade secret? :wink: (though not yours since you don't do single bladder designs eh?)

Just thinking out-loud (dangerous isn't it?)
Tim


Tim,

If there was a viable alternative to RF welding I'd be using it. An "entry level" RF machine is ~$10k(used) A 20 kw like mine is a bit more than that.

Heat sealing or RF welding is also very much a "cut and try" process. Tuning the machine requires test welds, and some destructive testing of sample welds.

Ultimately RF welding works because it heats the material until it melts, and therefore you could perhaps duplicate it with just heat (like a iron) but I'd guess that you would not be able to control the process well enough. In other words part of your bladder might be ok, and part might split open.

Regards,


Tobin
 
cool_hardware52:
I made my own :wink:



I doubt there'd be any real savings after you find out what you are missing and make multiple trips to the store.

Tobin

thanks. who says im trying to save though:) if its easy to make i was thinking of making my own brand hehe
 
who says that you have to rf weld the bladder?
sure it's a nice way to go if you intend to make a bunch of them, but there are other ways to make a low pressure differential seal in fabric... check out your drysuit for example....

Ok so I've said it before but an innertube seems to me to be the ideal starting point for a bladder... easy to obtain.... pre-sealed... rugged as all h**l.... easy to repair... vulcanise parts to.... long proven for air holding applications... made out of a material that seals well to mechanical fittings...

If you then sew a ballistic fabric shell over the top.. .vis a vi the diverite approach, I can't see why it would be any worse than the commercial product.

I would advise THOUROUGH and REPEATED testing bin a controlled environment as I do with ALL gear, home made or commercially derived.
 
FatRob:
who says that you have to rf weld the bladder?

I never said RF was the only way either, just the most reliable and repeatable. Repeatablity is the key. If you don't have a repeatable process, you cannot be assured that the next one you make will perfrom like the one you destructively tested.

FatRob:
sure it's a nice way to go if you intend to make a bunch of them, but there are other ways to make a low pressure differential seal in fabric... check out your drysuit for example....

Is it more common for a Dry Suit or a wing inner bladder to have a seam leak?

FatRob:
Ok so I've said it before but an innertube seems to me to be the ideal starting point for a bladder... easy to obtain.... pre-sealed... rugged as all h**l.... easy to repair... vulcanise parts to.... long proven for air holding applications... made out of a material that seals well to mechanical fittings...

All true. How exactly do you plan to create seams if needed?

FatRob:
If you then sew a ballistic fabric shell over the top.. .vis a vi the diverite approach, I can't see why it would be any worse than the commercial product.

Sewing ballistic Nylons is beyond the capabilities of most consumer sewing machines, not to mention sewing down webbing to reinforce the center section.

FatRob:
I would advise THOUROUGH and REPEATED testing bin a controlled environment as I do with ALL gear, home made or commercially derived.

So do I.

I'm not a kill joy. If you want to try and build your own BC, good luck. I think a clever, motivated DIY could do it. Would it be worth the effort? Would you save any money? Would it perform as well?


Tobin
 
Spoon - don't listen to these nattering nabobs of negativism. You're right there in the PI - go up to the nearest rubber plantation and kinda borrow a few truckloads of sap so you can make your own rubber.
Then find some nice fabric, brush on the rubber nice and thick, get a tire repair kit so you can vulcanize the rubber, and glue it all up neatly.
You'll have to scrounge up an inflator and a couple of stainless steel grommets, but that shouldn't be too much trouble.
I'm just worried that if enough people start doing this, Tobin is going to wind up down in Imperial Valley picking lettuce. He'll have to dive in the Salton Sea on his one day off per month, and with the salinity levels there, he'll just flop around on the surface no matter how much weight he packs on.
Yeppers - the stuff of nightmares.
 

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