My Rig: I have an Oly-5050Z, PT015, Inon D-100 and dome port, ULCS arms, Inon D-180 strobe and an Ikelite dual handle tray that acquired over last winter. When getting into the water for the first time with this last May I felt like I was hauling around a boat anchor.
After a number of failed attempts at cutting the weight (milled down the Ikelite tray) and adding floatation (use of different sized PVC tubes and end caps attached to the tray) I about gave up all hope of having a "slightly negative" rig. That was until I got in touch with BobF on Digitaldiver.net Bob had built some floatation arms out of a material called core cell. This material is very light, very bouyant and does not compress at depth.
Bob sent me his plans and a sample of the material he had. I built a set of arms to his specs and tried them out. Well, my rig was still very negative (the UWL-100 is HEAVY). So I then made a floatation ring out of the material to fit over the UWL-100 barrel.
My first try with this new rig was a few weeks ago in Curacao. The floatation material really did the trick. The rig was only "slightly" negative in sea water. The salt has no negative effect on the material nor does the additional pressure at depth (max depth was 70').
You can see additional pics of the rig by going to clicking on "View Gallery" below and going to the "My Rig" folder.
If anyone has any interest in trying something like this I would be glad to share my experience in more detail. Just send me a PM.
After a number of failed attempts at cutting the weight (milled down the Ikelite tray) and adding floatation (use of different sized PVC tubes and end caps attached to the tray) I about gave up all hope of having a "slightly negative" rig. That was until I got in touch with BobF on Digitaldiver.net Bob had built some floatation arms out of a material called core cell. This material is very light, very bouyant and does not compress at depth.
Bob sent me his plans and a sample of the material he had. I built a set of arms to his specs and tried them out. Well, my rig was still very negative (the UWL-100 is HEAVY). So I then made a floatation ring out of the material to fit over the UWL-100 barrel.
My first try with this new rig was a few weeks ago in Curacao. The floatation material really did the trick. The rig was only "slightly" negative in sea water. The salt has no negative effect on the material nor does the additional pressure at depth (max depth was 70').
You can see additional pics of the rig by going to clicking on "View Gallery" below and going to the "My Rig" folder.
If anyone has any interest in trying something like this I would be glad to share my experience in more detail. Just send me a PM.