DIY wing tutorial - very picture heavy.

[raftingtigger]

@raftingtigger After having made and used your wing, how well do you think the 300X600 fabric is holding up? I noticed that many commercial wings are using 1680 denier polyester. Do you think the 600 is thick enough? I don't know what my snorkel vest is but it's probably less than 600 and so far it seems fine.

Seems to be holding up fine. It feels like 1000 denier.

 

[JamesBon92007]

Seems to be holding up fine. It feels like 1000 denier.

While attempting to order some fabric (I just got back from 3 weeks on Cozumel ) I mentioned "airtight" and was told that the 600X300d PVC coated polyester is not airtight. What is your experience with it holding air? It seems like it would have to be more airtight than my snorkel vest. I'm thinking it should be just fine and they were being over-cautious.

Once again, nobody really said anything about my snorkel vest BC but I did hear someone refer to it as "minimalistic." We did the Coral Reef Conservation course via PADI and one of the required positions is to be feet up, head down while working on the coral and my BC did a fine job holding me in that position. The largest part of it is at the bottom so I think that helped to hold me in that position, which makes me think I'll make the lower section of my new DIY wing a little bigger at the bottom.

 

[raftingtigger]

While attempting to order some fabric (I just got back from 3 weeks on Cozumel ) I mentioned "airtight" and was told that the 600X300d PVC coated polyester is not airtight. What is your experience with it holding air? It seems like it would have to be more airtight than my snorkel vest. I'm thinking it should be just fine and they were being over-cautious.
.

I only have experience with the unmodified coating on 2 products. The first was a heat sealable one and that is designed to be airtight. I found that the coating broke down over years and with abrasion. This was fixed with an application of thinned AquaSeal (I now prefer SeamSeal from McNett for this). The second is a PVC coated Polyester (IIRC) that I linked the source in the first post. That one has less time on, but have seen no coating breakdown.

 

[JamesBon92007]

I think it's about time I reported my results using the HH-66 vinyl glue. The glue itself held great but when I used my power inflator the PVC coating let go of the fabric, causing a bad leak. I repaired the leak and tried it again and it let go again. I have two over-pressure valves installed--one dump valve and a pull-to-dump inflator hose. Both dump valves are in good condition and properly lubricated. I see no alternative but to add a seperate bladder when using this particular PVC-coated 600d fabric. Meanwhile, the back wing that I made from the Blue Reef snorkel vest still works great and has held up on many dives. I did have a tiny pin-hole which I think occured while it was inside my carry-on bag. I tried various adhesives and sealants and I found that epoxy worked the best to repair the tiny hole.

 

[jhb337]

Do you ever sell these?

 

[raftingtigger]

No, too much liability .

 

[211ratsbud]

I'm actually using the iron method to make my own BMCL for my rebreather.

I have a rough shape and volume and running some test strips now.

 

[Narked_Muffin]

Wow! It never even occurred to me that something like this might even be possible!
I might have to look into making my own DIY wing to go with my DIY harness!

Amazing work!

 

[berndo]

I've made a bunch of sm wings but with the lift on the side rather than on the back to prevent balooning. This is what I would do differently when making a bladder or CL.
Use PU coated cordura instead of the vinyl/PVC coated stuff. The PVC stuff is likey not going to last very long.
Make an outer shell that's smaller that the bladder so there is not stress on the welded seams when fully inflated (that's really important). That way the inner bladder doesn't need any seams and just needs to be welded.

I'm actually using the iron method to make my own BMCL for my rebreather.

I have a rough shape and volume and running some test strips now.

Vinyl coated one shell? If yes, consider what I wrote above... especially for CL, I would not use PVC coated fabric. I'm not sure I would wanna breath from a PVC or vinyl bag.

 

[diveKi]

Using PVC pipe glue

Doesn't PVC pipe glue (or cold welder) let the PVC get stiff after curing? I've read, that some cold welding agents do harm the softening ingredient of the PVC and that you have to get a special PVC cold welding glue that was made for soft materials – most of them were made for pond foils made from PVC.

Anyways, thanks for the great inspiration!