DIY wing. Critique and Comments.

[Ed Palma]

Oh yeah, the OPV seen in the pictures above is the original OPV that came with the horesecollar. I attatched a new one (not clearly seen in the picture) to the hole where the original CO2 inflation canister and valve used to be attached.

By the way, I did think of other materials. I was thinking of an inner tube (I even bought one already!) but it wouldnt deflate flat, and it was soft as heck, and everyone I asked said that if it wasn't encased properly, butyl rubber pops easily (I think the term used in this board was "fail catastrophically"). I also bought one of those toy inflation rings kids play with in pools. It was better - RF welded vinyl that deflated flat, but alas it was just too thin. In the end, I opted to stick with this BCD bladder. At least it was nice and thick. But if I ever find a pool toy made of thicker material... who knows?

I'll update this if I ever get my aluminum plate.

 

[FatRob]

Awesome effort,
I like the metal seals, they make these commercially too. I expect that McMaster has them, but I have not looked. They sell very similar things for repairing RIB's they are oval though normally so that they pass through a tear, then are rotated. I would be careful to watch the Al plates and Stainless hardware, the stainless will make the Al anodic, and will cause corrosion in the long run. This will be accellerated by warm water. Note that the mechanical clamps resemble closely both drysuit valve sealing methods and BCD hardware methods, thus the methodology works well.

Not sure I agree with the comments on innertubes bursting, I think that any bladder will burst catastrophicly if subjected to a high enough differential pressure, hence the need for the outer cover, and the dump valve (acts like an OPV). This is true up to and including scuba tanks...!!! (hence the rupture disks) I accept your point about laying flat though. Not sure if that is desirable or not... hmmm

Good effort, take care as always and keep some dumpable weight handy just in case!

R

 

[Ed Palma]

Well, since a whole month or two of Scubaboard magically disappeared, I thought that I'd re-update this thread.

Because I acknowledge that 99 cent horesecollar BCDs are not soemthing you see everyday in eBay, I decided to use something more available. I needed something lightweight, strong, affordable, and preferably flat-packing. The solution was an inflatable toy boat that can be bought in many toy stores.

It is lightweight. As for strength, I tried rolling on top of it with my full weight to see if I could get it to pop. It passed. and since I've put it in an outer sheath that's smaller than its maximum inflatable size, I expect the differential pressures to be taken up by the shroud and not the boat- i mean bladder . It deflates flat, and oh yeah, it was cheap: around 4-5 dollars.
I've used it on several occasions. It works like a champ. As stated earlier, i can still swim my kit up even with no air in the bladder, and still do carry dumpable weight (in the form of a DIY can light ) just in case.

 

[Couv]

I'm impressed....please keep the post coming.

 

[fishb0y]

Don't know what kind of diving you do.....sounds like you saved yourself alot of money. Since you have your flamesuit on, I'll say I hope you have excellent craftsmanship since your life is in your hands. Looks pretty good though, not sure I'd wanna dive with it, but hopefully it all works out for ya.

It's a BC... not a regulator. If you depend on your BC that much, you should take some swimming lessons.

 

[Sea Spartan]

Well, since a whole month or two of Scubaboard magically disappeared, I thought that I'd re-update this thread.

Because I acknowledge that 99 cent horesecollar BCDs are not soemthing you see everyday in eBay, I decided to use something more available. I needed something lightweight, strong, affordable, and preferably flat-packing. The solution was an inflatable toy boat that can be bought in many toy stores.

It is lightweight. As for strength, I tried rolling on top of it with my full weight to see if I could get it to pop. It passed. and since I've put it in an outer sheath that's smaller than its maximum inflatable size, I expect the differential pressures to be taken up by the shroud and not the boat- i mean bladder . It deflates flat, and oh yeah, it was cheap: around 4-5 dollars.
I've used it on several occasions. It works like a champ. As stated earlier, i can still swim my kit up even with no air in the bladder, and still do carry dumpable weight (in the form of a DIY can light ) just in case.

ok, the picture dosnt show up. any way, what is it s name. id like to look for it on the internet. Does walmart carry it?

 

[Slonda828]

I'm curious as well, I'd love to try this. Where can we get this pool toy?

 

[Ed Palma]

I'm curious as well, I'd love to try this. Where can we get this pool toy?

I just used an inflatable raft. The small one. For kids. I used it because it was already oval, but in a pinch, I guess a ring type inflatable would do just as well.

 

[Ed Palma]

Here's a photo of the wing in action. Can you see it? See... Low profile

 

[Ed Palma]

Oh. Here's a picture of the bladder:

The bottom used to have an extra layer and holes for kids legs. I cut out the entire section.