Full DIY Gear

[www.scubamazing.com]

Hey I was just wondering if anyone dives fully in do it your self gear. I imagine not. In fact, I think I'd have to be suicidal if I were to do it. But I just wanted to know.

 

[O2BBubbleFree]

Interesting question.

'Fully DIY' is hard to define. There are lots of DIY rebreather divers out there. They geberally assemble units using factory parts like regulators, tanks, etc.

I have an old Popular Science article that tells how to build your own 'diving lung' using CO2 tanks and an O2 regulator from a military fighter aircraft.

I doubt if anyone is going to make tanks, but a good Mechanical Engineer/Machinist could make a regulator.

It would be interesting to see just how far a DIY type has gone.

 

[Rick Inman]

I think THIS diver did it.

 

[Green_Manelishi]

I think THIS diver did it.

With all due respect to Jacques, he had more than a bit of assistance from Emile Gagnon.

 

[RockPile]

Gagnon helped...but Cousteau was the man!

 

[Creed]

As mentioned before, it depends on what you mean by DIY. Tanks, for example. Cousteau used preexisting tanks. And the Aqualung was a derivative of a demand valve Gagnan designed for use in a charcoal fume motor, if I correctly recall.

 

[RockPile]

Here's an incomplete list of what can be (if, of course, done correctly) DIY'ed:

Lights
Fin Straps
Stage harnesses
Jon lines
Neck bungies
Hogarthian harnesses
Tank carriers
Knifes and sheaths
Reels

I've only heard rumors but it's certainly possible:
Packplates
DPVs

And what isn’t really possible:
Wings
Tanks
Regulators

And you can't really list all the little "fixes" and ad hoc adjustments that can be done.

Feel free to add or subtract from my list fellas.

JB

 

[Creed]

Here's an incomplete list of what can be (if, of course, done correctly) DIY'ed:

Lights
Fin Straps
Stage harnesses
Jon lines
Neck bungies
Hogarthian harnesses
Tank carriers
Knifes and sheaths
Reels

I've only heard rumors but it's certainly possible:
Packplates
DPVs

And what isn’t really possible:
Wings
Tanks
Regulators

And you can't really list all the little "fixes" and ad hoc adjustments that can be done.

Feel free to add or subtract from my list fellas.

JB

Regulators aren't really in the same class as tanks. Tanks require some pretty heavy duty machinery to crank out. A talented machinist could make a regulator with a lathe. While I would imagine that the number of people actively trying to do so is very small, it is not zero. I don't see what is so difficult about wings, though. A sealed neoprene bladder, some nylon fabric, and some valves. I've "made" a compact wing out of an older Seatec jacket before.

 

[RockPile]

If you can pull it off, shoot, more power to you. But wings, tanks, and regulators are for real cowboys.

Just because it's possible to make doesn't mean it should be. I can deal with a broken John line or my stage falling off. Heck, I can deal with my harness breaking but I won't test fate or the "talented machinist" who lives next door and his lathe.

I sort of get what you're saying about wings (not at all about the reg) but talk about risky. Certainly you aren't diving that wing without a shallow floor?

JB

 

[jonnythan]

And what isn’t really possible:
Wings
Tanks
Regulators

I've seen home-brewed regulators and wings. I see no reason you couldn't do a wing. Just waterproof nylon, stitching, and aquaseal. Regulators are obviously harder but not at all impossible.

Tanks, of course, cannot be home-brewed.