Adding ditchable weights

[Flycaster]

have you done a weight check with your new equipment? I'd do that first. You may well be surprised at how much less total ballast you need.

No more inherently buoyant Jacket BC often means quite a bit less total ballast.

Tobin

Ha!
As soon as all my new DSS stuff gets here.
Tracking says I'll have it Tuesday.

 

[Rred]

I also used a 30# belt with an Alu80 and a 1/4" farmer john. Yes, 1/4", I'm pre-metric.(G)
Switching to a steel hp tank let me take 10# off the weight belt and turn it into a "pie plate" that is glued onto the bottom of the Alu80, to counteract the 8# positive buoyancy it has when empty.

More recently, I put the old weights on a postal scale. A 3-4# weight was usually off by 2-6 ounces! So much for math.

 

[cool_hardware52]

I also used a 30# belt with an Alu80 and a 1/4" farmer john. Yes, 1/4", I'm pre-metric.(G)
Switching to a steel hp tank let me take 10# off the weight belt and turn it into a "pie plate" that is glued onto the bottom of the Alu80, to counteract the 8# positive buoyancy it has when empty.

More recently, I put the old weights on a postal scale. A 3-4# weight was usually off by 2-6 ounces! So much for math.

The typical al 80 is ~+4 empty, and about +3 @ 500 psi.

Home cast weights are notoriously in accurate. I have 2 "4 lbs" weights that are 2lbs 12 ounces each.

Apparently you can make more weights if you don't fill the mold to the top.

Tobin

 

[Rred]

Tobin-
Not so long ago, "all" weights were bare lead, and "home cast" by the dive shops, even if they didn't cast them personally. Vinyl-clad weights were the radical expensive new thing, and shot bags unheard of. So, these were normal commercial weights. Getting more weights by not filling the mold...Nah, a dive shop would never cheat their customers, would they? (sigh)

You made me look, you're right, 4-41/2 pounds. The 8+ was to compensate the whole difference, between the positive buoyancy of one and the negative buoyancy of the other, to make them both equal.