Diy Dsmb

[nwbrewer]

Has anyone out there made thier own DSMB or lift bag? I bought a yard of this-

http://www.seattlefabrics.com/nylons.html#heat sealable oxford

And sewed it into a tube. Thus far I have not been successful with getting the heat seal glue to work, because my iron is the wife's fancy one with smarts in it to keep you from burning your clothes, and I suspect it is not generating enough heat.

Anybody have a good suggestion for an oral inflate check valve or an OPV?

All input is helpful, I'll post some pics and instructions if I can get this thing to work out.

Thanks SB!

Jake

 

[Saeed Al-Azom]

How it went Jake, did you make it
Saeed

 

[O2BBubbleFree]

Anybody have a good suggestion for an oral inflate check valve or an OPV?

See if you can get a 'condemned' BC from an LDS tech for parts?

Or the cheapest one eBay has to offer?

 

[TomP]

This is maybe more Rube Goldberg than DIY but a few years ago - like 30+ - my buddy and i used to harvest sinkers from local jetties to make dive weights. We used an army surplus canvas dufflebag to float a pretty big bucket full of sinkers. It was perfect as it was heavy duty, pretty much water tight, and had heavy duty grommets conveniently and evenly spaced around the opening.

Ahhh the good old days...

 

[fire_diver]

I've heard of using duffle bags for lift bags also. How did you keep the air from leaking out through the fabric? Trash bag liner? Is there any type of rubber compound that can be used to coat and seal the fabric?

-Comrade Stroke

 

[TomP]

I've heard of using duffle bags for lift bags also. How did you keep the air from leaking out through the fabric? Trash bag liner? Is there any type of rubber compound that can be used to coat and seal the fabric?

-Comrade Stroke

Funny, realized later that I said water-tight when i meant air-tight. It was a long time ago and certainly not scientific but i don't recall us using any kind of liners but trash bags would have been the liner of choice on our budget. These were shallow jetty dives so as long as we had no major leaks we were okay.

I'm sure there are a ton of things that could be glued or applied but it's not something I thought about

 

[brdr882]

Thus far I have not been successful with getting the heat seal glue to work, because my iron is the wife's fancy one with smarts in it to keep you from burning your clothes, and I suspect it is not generating enough heat.

Try using a waxing iron like those used by Nordic skiers. I know for a fact that they let things burn and I imagine you could pick an older one up on eBay. It would also be good because it has a flat, square bottom with no holes.

 

[FatRob]

Go to your local store "Target or Walmart" etc buy their cheapest iron, I use one of these for ski wax...

alternatively you could do it the drysuit way, and bond an extra strip of oxford cloth to the seam using McNett Aquaseal. McNett also make a number of seam sealants such as seamgrip. By far the easiest way though is to simply cut some aquaseal with Cotol thinner and brush 3 or four liberal coats over both sides of the seam... that'll keep the air in!

BTW Aquaseal is awesome! Been holding my sprayskirt together for years (i.e. about 20 now)

cheers
FatRob

 

[mddolson]

Heat sealing is usually done with two heated plattens and a controlled clamping pressure. The pressure clamp is required to be held just long enough for the heat to melt both sheets so they bond together, but too long or too hot and the material melts thru separating from the main sheet.
Temperature, clamp force and time are 3 veriables that must be ballanced.

For this reason an iron is not the best instrument of choice.

I would recomment stitching/sewing the tube together, then turning it inside out and applying a poly-urethane sealant like aquaseal to seal the seam joint.

Turn it back inside after the sealant has curred.

An old BC dump valve should work.

regards

Mike D

Has anyone out there made thier own DSMB or lift bag? I bought a yard of this-

http://www.seattlefabrics.com/nylons.html#heat sealable oxford

And sewed it into a tube. Thus far I have not been successful with getting the heat seal glue to work, because my iron is the wife's fancy one with smarts in it to keep you from burning your clothes, and I suspect it is not generating enough heat.

Anybody have a good suggestion for an oral inflate check valve or an OPV?

All input is helpful, I'll post some pics and instructions if I can get this thing to work out.

Thanks SB!

Jake

 

[nwbrewer]

mddolsen, that's kindof what i had thought, but the guy at the shop assured me that this fabric was intended to be sealed using an iron.

That said I'm thinking I'm going to give aquaseal a shot for sealing it up. An old BC dump valve is a great idea for the dump, anybody have a good suggestion for the oral inflation valve? I'm thinking about just trying the mouthpiece off a camelback. Any thoughts?