DIY Full Face Mask for Diving

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

I have also thought modifying a snorkel FFM to a scuba FFM. I bought one best sold snorkel FFM, and when I received it I gave up the idea. The construction quality of the snorlek FFM is far from any scuba mask or gear. The thikness of the plastic walls was very thin. I have access to an Ocean Reef Neptune FFM, and as mentioned before, the engineering behind that mask is complex enough to avoid free flow, correct breathing effort, air circulation and so on, so getting all that with a cheap snorkel FFM could be hard.
 
The specs of this FF mask says 10meters which is what I dive mostly. When I trial this mask out I definitely will be monitoring how the nose pocket is flexing and be looking to see if the area outside the nose pocket area maintains a pressurized environment for my eyes.
 
Yes, I'm aware that there has been incidents of users of these snorkel full face mask have experience dizziness, passing out or even drowning. The mask I'm getting has no snorkel but again I'm not saying it's perfectly safe.

What are your contingency plans in the event of catastrophic failure? A bunngeed octo would be wise.
Yes I plan to rely on my Octo and an AIR2, my dive mask would be in my extra large BCD pocket. The 2nd BCD pocket would hold my Spare-Air.

The Pool tests at 12feet depths isn't duplicating where I plan to dive but I should get an idea of what it feels like.
Bailout practice is planned for during the pool sessions
 
The specs of this FF mask says 10meters which is what I dive mostly. When I trial this mask out I definitely will be monitoring how the nose pocket is flexing and be looking to see if the area outside the nose pocket area maintains a pressurized environment for my eyes.

Another thing to consider, is that most FFMs, worth the name, are safety-rated for five times the depth of that plastic novelty; and that should tell you something about its watertight capabilities, if any . . .
 
Yep, you are so right. What I'm looking at is a toy novelty. But I see potential uses for my other activities; when dredging for gold my lips get really cold from the river in 3-6ft of depth. If this toy FF mask fails I'll try out the IST M37 FF mask $90-130, it's been around for decades.
 
Yep, you are so right. What I'm looking at is a toy novelty. But I see potential uses for my other activities; when dredging for gold my lips get really cold from the river in 3-6ft of depth. If this toy FF mask fails I'll try out the IST M37 FF mask $90-130, it's been around for decades.
Why not spend the extra money upfront? You are going to have to modify a regulator for this experiment on spec that you will get it to work(safely). A regulator is really the one piece of gear that needs to work 100%. This is modifying it out of its original design specs and then using it in a way it was never intended. For an extra $60 you can have a known quantity that is not starting life as cheap tourist item.
 
I may end of with the IST M37 FFM anyway, but for me I'd just like to try out this mask
full.png

If it does what I want and where I want for my use, then I'll end the project. If not, then I'll chalk it up to a interesting project that goes into my spare parts junk box. It's been very interesting to get input from everyone around the world. And the comments of DIY'ing this type of dive gear are taken constructively and with gratitude.

I don't anticipate completing my pool trial until after Christmas when I get back to Honolulu. So I'll report back results or ask more questions then.
 
Why not spend the extra money upfront?
Because then we wouldn't be in the DIY forum, would we?

When you try something for yourself, even if you fail, you end up learning something valuable. Also, it's fun!
 
Because then we wouldn't be in the DIY forum, would we?

When you try something for yourself, even if you fail, you end up learning something valuable. Also, it's fun!

Just because a few of us were a bit wary of this "hold my beer" effort at potential asphyxiation, that shouldn't really be an issue, since he originally sought advice -- hopefully -- to also avoid the "big sleep."

It's one thing to make a homemade octopus keeper from a length of surgical tubing and gangion -- yea, for you -- quite another, to cobble together a FFM with efficient gas exchange, with seemingly little to no knowledge of engineering or physics. Some of those snorkeling masks, mentioned earlier in this thread, have already posed potential drowning threats, right out of the ***king box -- much less, that toy, now haphazardly altered with a Dremel, spit, and a tube of Aqua-Seal . . .
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom