Cheap way for buoyancy?

[Chasin' Tales]

We just got an Ikelite housing for our 5D. It is currently set up with a port for the 100mm macro lens. It is quite negatively buoyant. I have cut 12" pieces of PVC and capped each end using both 1" & 3/4" PVC. I wire tied these to the bottom of the housing. It has helped, but I still need to add another for a total of three, 12" pieces zip tied to the bottom. They are not in the way of anything. Can anyone think of a reason why this won't work? Has anyone done something similar to add buoyancy?

Thanks!

CT

 

[diversteve]

IDK if this would work with your housing/port but it's an option:

Manufacturer :: Stix :: Stix - FB-AQ Float Belt for Nauticam/Aquatica - $45



Backscatter sells this one also: http://www.backscatter.com/sku/sx-fb10.lasso?

And the full Stix line - http://www.backscatter.com/hostedstore/products/stix.html

I assume Optical Ocean Sales does as well. My buddy buys his Stix stuff from Reef Photo also.

 

[James R]

I have that stix float on my macro port and it works OK as delivered, though I improved it a lot by removing the velcro strap it comes with and feeding bungee cord through it.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

I use foam pipe insulation around the port and strobe arms, that is until they shrank while underwater and floated away. I had a zip tie going thru the one for the on the port and it only floated away on a deep dive where it got so compressed that the zip tie was not doing much holding anymore.

I was going to use those spray foam and fill in a cylindrical container like pringels can or 1 liter soda bottle, drill a hole thru and fit it over strobe arms. Those spray foam should be less compressible than the foam pipe insulators.

 

[James R]

Stix floats are not expensive, Lwang.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Yeah, but home made gears that's brought to dives are more interesting, as long as it is to solve a problem, instead of things like putting a polaroid camera in a ziplock bag.

 

[the_dragon_no1]

I use foam pipe insulation around the port and strobe arms, that is until they shrank while underwater and floated away. I had a zip tie going thru the one for the on the port and it only floated away on a deep dive where it got so compressed that the zip tie was not doing much holding anymore.

I was going to use those spray foam and fill in a cylindrical container like pringels can or 1 liter soda bottle, drill a hole thru and fit it over strobe arms. Those spray foam should be less compressible than the foam pipe insulators.

Forget about it... i have made floats from harder foam stuff than that, and it will shrink! Tried many kinds aswell.. go with stix or use some fishing net bouy's, they are hard enough

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Forget about it... i have made floats from harder foam stuff than that, and it will shrink! Tried many kinds aswell.. go with stix or use some fishing net bouy's, they are hard enough

I thought about that, but since they come in odd sizes, thus requiring alot of cutting. Maybe if I use a bigger plastic bottle like 2 liter soda for spray foam, and it once I bring it to depth, it will be squeezed to the right size.

 

[danvolker]

We just got an Ikelite housing for our 5D. It is currently set up with a port for the 100mm macro lens. It is quite negatively buoyant. I have cut 12" pieces of PVC and capped each end using both 1" & 3/4" PVC. I wire tied these to the bottom of the housing. It has helped, but I still need to add another for a total of three, 12" pieces zip tied to the bottom. They are not in the way of anything. Can anyone think of a reason why this won't work? Has anyone done something similar to add buoyancy?

Thanks!

CT

My wife Sandra used 4 large PVC's with her Canon 5 D mark II in Sea & Sea Housing for 2 years.....now she has 2 of the PVC's, and two of the new wide volume carbon fiber floats Reef Photo is selling...the reality is that the PVC floats are BETTER underwater than the very expensive Carbon fiber wide body floats..but the carbon fiber ones weigh less on land.

 

[danvolker]

We just got an Ikelite housing for our 5D. It is currently set up with a port for the 100mm macro lens. It is quite negatively buoyant. I have cut 12" pieces of PVC and capped each end using both 1" & 3/4" PVC. I wire tied these to the bottom of the housing. It has helped, but I still need to add another for a total of three, 12" pieces zip tied to the bottom. They are not in the way of anything. Can anyone think of a reason why this won't work? Has anyone done something similar to add buoyancy?

Thanks!

CT

New Friend for Sandra - YouTube
[video=youtube_share;xv1hPqmWAfY]http://youtu.be/xv1hPqmWAfY[/video]
CT,
You can see Sandra's rig with both types of floats in this vid.,