Kimsey0
Guest
Hey there folks, just thought i'd show you this Rebreather i recently (lol... after
a couple of years working on it) got done with. Been on about 3 dives with
it so far, all in about 5-15' of water dive. Actual underwater time on it
each dive was about 45min to about 2 hours. I'd generally dive with it for
about 10 - 15 minutes at a time then resurface. Wow man i tell you,
rebreather bouyancy control is *difficult* the first couple of dives. The
work of breathing isn't too bad on it, but during the dive 2/3 the wob got
*hard* all of a sudden.
When i got home, come to find out, the coupling that connected the
corrugated hose used in the counterlung to prevent CL collapse (per the CJL
patent prints) came loose from
the main o2 elbow, just simply press fitted it back on, no dis. assy.
required... i KNEW i should have welded it in, instead of just a
press-fitting. Anyway, 90% of it is made out of ABS plastic.
God i love ABS... it's beyond my understanding how it stopped being the
mainstream plastic... you can weld/melt this stuff with a soldering iron any
way you please. PVC is probably easier to make, and less expensive, if i
were to take a guess, but you can't weld it, at least, not without highly
specialized equipment. As seen in the photos, i've also sewn some WWII-esque
coveralls. Boy howdy what a relief they were... during the dives it was
about 90+deg f and my wetsuit is 7MM and it's too small for me AND i live in
Georgia, so add that all up...
The first two dives i used only 500 psi out of one d cylinder, and that was
only because of a leak that i corrected, the last dive which was off and on
for 3 hours or so (i didn't dive the hole time, of course, but i spent
atleast 1/4 the time underwater) and when the dive was over, the pressure
guage didn't fall below 2000 on the other d cylinder (which was max
pressure) pure o2 = economical. I stopped using the reg in the pics, and
started using a cheap medical "click" style reg which was perfect... when
you get low just turn it clockwise all the way for a bit, then
counterclockwise, then clockwise again for 3 clicks... it was much more
compact too.
the radial scrubber (with 8-12 mesh sodasorb) has lasted all three dives...
that seemed kind of odd to me. Need to check the color of it before next
time i suppose.
I should say this rig is about 95% complete, i've still got the face mask to
do, but i'm half done with it.
I'll try and post some closeups of the loop later, the dive was tiring, and
these pics were all i could muster at the time.
a couple of years working on it) got done with. Been on about 3 dives with
it so far, all in about 5-15' of water dive. Actual underwater time on it
each dive was about 45min to about 2 hours. I'd generally dive with it for
about 10 - 15 minutes at a time then resurface. Wow man i tell you,
rebreather bouyancy control is *difficult* the first couple of dives. The
work of breathing isn't too bad on it, but during the dive 2/3 the wob got
*hard* all of a sudden.
When i got home, come to find out, the coupling that connected the
corrugated hose used in the counterlung to prevent CL collapse (per the CJL
patent prints) came loose from
the main o2 elbow, just simply press fitted it back on, no dis. assy.
required... i KNEW i should have welded it in, instead of just a
press-fitting. Anyway, 90% of it is made out of ABS plastic.
God i love ABS... it's beyond my understanding how it stopped being the
mainstream plastic... you can weld/melt this stuff with a soldering iron any
way you please. PVC is probably easier to make, and less expensive, if i
were to take a guess, but you can't weld it, at least, not without highly
specialized equipment. As seen in the photos, i've also sewn some WWII-esque
coveralls. Boy howdy what a relief they were... during the dives it was
about 90+deg f and my wetsuit is 7MM and it's too small for me AND i live in
Georgia, so add that all up...
The first two dives i used only 500 psi out of one d cylinder, and that was
only because of a leak that i corrected, the last dive which was off and on
for 3 hours or so (i didn't dive the hole time, of course, but i spent
atleast 1/4 the time underwater) and when the dive was over, the pressure
guage didn't fall below 2000 on the other d cylinder (which was max
pressure) pure o2 = economical. I stopped using the reg in the pics, and
started using a cheap medical "click" style reg which was perfect... when
you get low just turn it clockwise all the way for a bit, then
counterclockwise, then clockwise again for 3 clicks... it was much more
compact too.
the radial scrubber (with 8-12 mesh sodasorb) has lasted all three dives...
that seemed kind of odd to me. Need to check the color of it before next
time i suppose.
I should say this rig is about 95% complete, i've still got the face mask to
do, but i'm half done with it.
I'll try and post some closeups of the loop later, the dive was tiring, and
these pics were all i could muster at the time.
