Wrestling with bouyancy issues on G10/Ikelite

[skynscuba]

Looks good. Whatever your total rig weighs, it will be about 2.5% of that amount more buoyant in salt than in fresh. e.g., if it weighs 3#, it will be about 0.025*3*16 = 1.2 ounces more buoyant.

 

[Banon]

Woodman,

Have you been diving with this yet? I like how clean it looks, but I'm curious about whether the foam compresses at depth and allows the zip ties to slip free. It seems like you might need to drill a hole through the middle and feed the zip ties through that instead of running them around the outside.

Thanks,
Banon

 

[WOODMAN]

Woodman,

Have you been diving with this yet? I like how clean it looks, but I'm curious about whether the foam compresses at depth and allows the zip ties to slip free. It seems like you might need to drill a hole through the middle and feed the zip ties through that instead of running them around the outside.

Thanks,
Banon

It goes to Roatan in 3 weeks, and we will soon see. As to the foam compressing under pressure, the stuff is noted for it's ability to resist that, and I can well believe it. This stuff is as stiff as a pine board, and actually machines much like softwood. I doubt it will change dimension enough for the zip ties to slip, but we will soon find out. Woody

 

[billvi]

I went a different route, I took about 6 inches of 2" inch PVC pipe and capped the ends. Actually I made two, one 4 inches and one 6 since I was not sure what it would take to neutralise the weight. The six inch tube makes it almost neutral, just a hair negative. I attached it to the strobe arm with zip ties. I also painted it flat black just so it did not look as obvious. I had tried wine corks before but could not get enough bouyancy with them (and I had alot).

 

[col4bin]

subscribing to this thread. I may need to add this to my setup.

 

[Banon]

Woodman - Sounds great. I'll look forward to seeing your Roatan pics and hearing how the bouyancy worked out. We're headed down to Roatan's neighbor island Utila in a couple of months. Crossing our fingers that we are lucky enough to run across a whaleshark while we're there. (We got lucky last year with a whaleshark, spinner dolphins, and pilot whales all on our last day!)

 

[WOODMAN]

Hokay, update to this situation. We recently got back from Roatan, and I gave this system a real workout. At first the four arm float setups were too much, and I took off two of the float pairs. That was not enough, so I put half of a float pair back on each side, and that was just about perfect. Just a tiny bit of negative bouyancy, which is what I wanted. The zip ties worked great, by the way, and held things in place without a hint of slippage no matter how deep I went. The thing looked a little weird with only half a float on two of the arms, so I will have to machine these floats down to about half their size (on the two float pairs in question) and then they will fit back on and look better. One slightly odd thing I noticed. The entire camera rig seems to want to rotate slightly backwards in my hands, and I was able to compensate for this somewhat by pulling the strobes way back on their arms to position them a little behind the camera. I had the full floats on the bottom arms (next to the camera) and the half floats on the upper arms, next to the strobes. I think that if I had reversed this, I would put more floatation out with the strobes and help increase the effect of positioning the strobes back a little. I bet this would have helped improve the tilting issue, but I will have to wait for the next trip to test this out. Overall, however, this was a resounding success, and these foam floats did the job very nicely. They came off with a small wire cutter to the zip ties, and packed away separately in my other baggage (as there was no more room in my camera case for these bulky little fellows). A fairly cheap solution to a nagging little problem. Woody

 

[Titanite]

Quick Question....Any reason the 6lb/cubic foot foam (H100) as selected over the lighter weight foam? Was it for its compressive strength?

Only reason I ask is there is a H45 that has a 0.6Mpa or 87 Psi compressive strength which would be more than adequate down to 140 ft. Im pricing it out now, Im guessing it will be a lot cheaper than the higher spec foam.

Was there some other product attribute that made you go with the H100 or maybe the H100 was the only thing available??

Thank you in advance!

 

[WOODMAN]

I had no idea that anything else like this was available. If I had not been clued into Aircraft Spruce, I wouldn't have known about the 6# foam. Something with about half the density you say? A lot depends on the cost and the physical characteristics of the stuff. The 6# material is pricy, but it sure handles and machines well, and the flotation is excellent. Let us know what you find out. Woody

 

[Mullet Spearer]

I sure am glad ya'll posted this information. I have the same camera, same housing and 2 Ikelite Strobes and have had the same issue.
I will be ordering the same thing which was suggested unless told otherwise!
Thanks again.