Brands that sell bent corner backplates

[RobPNW]

As someone who is new to BP/W, I'm curious if there's a consensus (I know census? LOL) on this style of plate. And when I say style of plate, I mean ones with the bent bottom corners. I can see the possible issue with a flat plate kind of digging into the kidney area, but I have no 1st hand experience so I'm wondering if it should be a factor in looking at plates. In the water, it seems the system would kind of float there on your back and probably not be a big deal. On the boat or land, with gravity pulling it down, maybe it matters? Or maybe it only matters if carrying it on your back for longer distance like on a shore dive where you're walking a ways?

 

[Jcp2]

As someone who is new to BP/W, I'm curious if there's a consensus (I know census? LOL) on this style of plate. And when I say style of plate, I mean ones with the bent bottom corners. I can see the possible issue with a flat plate kind of digging into the kidney area, but I have no 1st hand experience so I'm wondering if it should be a factor in looking at plates. In the water, it seems the system would kind of float there on your back and probably not be a big deal. On the boat or land, with gravity pulling it down, maybe it matters? Or maybe it only matters if carrying it on your back for longer distance like on a shore dive where you're walking a ways?

It seems that most plates share a common width, and the bent corners would be helpful for divers wider than this width.

 

[RobPNW]

It seems that most plates share a common width, and the bent corners would be helpful for divers wider than this width.

Are you saying people with exceptionally endowed love handles?

 

[happy-diver]

Put your plate in a vice and bend your corner and then the other corner in the same vice, with soft jaws
make your own
cardboard
sticks
tape

 

[Eric802]

Put your plate in a vice and bend your corner and then the other corner in the same vice, with soft jaws

That’s what I did. My HOG plate now has bent corners. Took about two minutes. Another couple minutes with a sander took care of any sharp-ish edges (none were truly “sharp“).

 

[NaCl H2O]

I bought a wing with a non branded plate with straight corners.
There were no issues in the water but I did feel them digging in when walking on a beach dive.
Would have put it in a vice but there was some sort of coating or finish on it.

Picked up a SS Hollis plate, corners are bent. Didn't think about on my next beach dive so problem solved.

 

[RobPNW]

I'm going to look into the vice plan. I got a 6mm SS plate with the hopes of doing some cold water diving. It's a super smooth finish and no coating so hopefully, I don't eff it up. But for shore dives with that much weight, I imagine I would appreciate a very slight bend. I have a travel aluminum plate that's black so I'm kind of worried about destroying the finish.

 

[rob.mwpropane]

I'm going to look into the vice plan. I got a 6mm SS plate with the hopes of doing some cold water diving. It's a super smooth finish and no coating so hopefully, I don't eff it up. But for shore dives with that much weight, I imagine I would appreciate a very slight bend. I have a travel aluminum plate that's black so I'm kind of worried about destroying the finish.

In the end though all the scratches and bruises build character... don't worry about keeping things pretty. Make them more comfortable.

I have a DSS backplate, it had the bends at the corner. It also has some charachter scuffed on it.. as do my tanks, lol.

 

[SubseaSports]

6mm SS in a vise is kinda doable and would take some force.
Its already been suggested, but tape the area first, measure and draw a line on the taped area where you want the bend. A square helps here. If you don't have a soft jaw vise, use thin strips of plywood against the jaws you have.
If you plan on hammmering the plate to bend, use a piece of wood between the hammer and the victim (aka plate). Not using a hammer and brute force may create an arc in the plate.

 

[Nemrod]

Sandwich the corner of the plate in a heavy vice with pieces of hardwood on either side and bend to your desired angle. You only need to bend it a few degrees. I used a sheet metal brake to bend mine but I no longer have access to one having retired. Try to keep the applied force adjacent to the area you want to bend so that you get a sharply defined bend.