Quality Plastic Buckles? Want to Switch from SS to Something Lightweight

[buddhasummer]

Personally I'm looking for a plate made of depleted uranium for local diving, and a have commissioned an artisanal travel plate hand-crafted using only 17th century hand tools and made out of reclaimed barn lumber, non-GMO flax seed, and hemp.

Sounds cool, count me in, maybe we can get a discount if we buy two at the same time.

 

[RJP]

If they were the same price as steel do you think things would have been different?

Now you've gone from "practically silly" to "absurdly hypothetical."

Seriously.

 

[cool_hardware52]

Personally I'm looking for a plate made of depleted uranium for local diving, and a have commissioned an artisanal travel plate hand-crafted using only 17th century hand tools and made out of reclaimed barn lumber, non-GMO flax seed, and hemp.

DU is kinda brittle, and the lead lined undies might cause you to be a bit over weighted.



Tobin

 

[buddhasummer]

But more importantly will it flex or fatigue over time? I'm worried about it cracking.

---------- Post added September 17th, 2015 at 09:38 AM ----------

I love this board, ask a genuine question out of curiosity and get smart ass replies. I'm sorry my question was so silly.

 

[RJP]

Sounds cool, count me in, maybe we can get a discount if we buy two at the same time.

Sorry, forgot to mention that the travel plate is being made by vestal virgins who will be cast into a volcano as soon as my piece-unique plate has been delivered.

---------- Post added September 17th, 2015 at 10:41 AM ----------

I love this board, ask a genuine question out of curiosity and get smart ass replies. I'm sorry my question was so silly.

I never said it was a silly question. I said it was absurd.



But seriously, to add an impossible condition ("if it cost the same as steel") into your question makes any attempt at a meaningful answer impossible.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I'll come back to this thread later when I am sitting at my desk eating lunch with my titanium spork.

 

[cool_hardware52]

But more importantly will it flex or fatigue over time? I'm worried about it cracking.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you will need to find something else to worry about…...


Tobin

 

[buddhasummer]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you will need to find something else to worry about…...


Tobin

That shouldn't be too difficult, that is something I excel at.

 

[RJP]

DU is kinda brittle, and the lead lined undies might cause you to be a bit over weighted.

Generally speaking, I think I have that covered:

I plan to dive double steel Heiser 190's. This way if I find myself so overweighted I can't get off the bottom I'll simply purge all my gas! The swing from full to empty will give me an additional 32lbs of positive buoyancy.


Or even better, I could side-mount two sets of tripled AL100s. The swing from fully draining all six would result in a gain 44lbs of buoyancy!

 

[ams511]

Perhaps a separate thread is in order to discuss the fact that the material itself is more expensive than steel or aluminum, that it is harder and therefor more difficult and expensive to work with, and provides no meaningful benefit in this application.

Other than that, it's a fine choice.

It is $30 a pound. So while expensive it is not cost prohibitive if you only need a pound or two. I am not sure how much harder it is to work with but titanium regulators are about twice the cost of a plain brass one. So I think they a mark it up quite a bit.

---------- Post added September 17th, 2015 at 10:54 PM ----------

Now you've gone from "practically silly" to "absurdly hypothetical."

Seriously.

There is nothing silly about it. A Halcyon plate is $205 while other plates sell for half. So a titanium plate could sell in the $200 range but in the scuba industry someone would try to sell them for $500 and wonder why no one would buy them.

---------- Post added September 17th, 2015 at 11:10 PM ----------

Ti shines in applications that require:

Hi temp resistance

Very High unit stress

Very hi corrosion resistance, often at elevated temperatures

Scuba requires none of these.

That leaves "more money than sense" i.e. silly IMO.

I think you are missing the point. Titanium was not brought up because it was thought that a stronger backplate was needed. It was brought up because a lighter more easily packed plate is needed. Maybe titanium is not the answer maybe kydex, nylon, or something else is the answer.