Help with TG-5 UW housing set up

[GoinDivin]

Here’s what I did:
Thread all three screws into the housing loosely
Push the housing to the lip on the plate and at the same time tighten the thumb screw all the way down
Once the housing is tight up against the lip, tighten the two Phillips screws

I “screwed around” with this for quite a bit and I totally feel your frustration. The same issue happens with the strobe. The thumb screw is the single point that holds it in place and it wiggles. I’m half tempted to spray some Great stuff into the gap between the two pieces.
View attachment 514231 View attachment 514232

So you switched the strobe over to the other side and flipped the tray's lip to the front?

 

[seaseadee]

The strobe is in my left hand and lip is up front. The housing is up against the lip. One question: do you have a black plastic spacer that the screws go though and then into the housing? If that’s missing then it might explain why the housing is loose.

 

[ThatDogDontHunt]

I believe it is actually a design 'feature' as it keeps the housing squared on the arm and doesn't allow it to rotate at all while diving and manoeuvring the flexible part of the arm. Thus no chance of working loose and coming apart.

This is the correct answer.

S&A created a number of different compact camera trays with a "rear lip" feature. This lip provides 2 benefits:
1) anti spin: your camera can be held (loosely?) by a single thumbscrew and will not spin on the tray. Other compact housings feature 2 bolts or a set of pins to prevent spin.
2) external secondary door lock: once mounted you can not open the housing door. Accidentally or on purpose. You must unscrew the housing to get your camera out.

The downside of this tray design is that you must unscrew your housing to open it... Not a big deal of you have a proper thumbscrew. The S&S trays provide a huge thumbscrew that is easy to turn (see the pics in a post above).

If you do not like this feature then I claim it makes sense to either hack the tray to remove the lip or just buy a different tray. Screwing around trying to raise the housing above the lip is silly.

If anyone likes this feature I have a bunch of S&S trays that I can part with for $5 plus postage. PM me.