DIY soft weights

[joeSteve1006]

True, locally it is about $50, but I have a friend who hunts and buys lead shot in bulk and saves quite a bit of money, and I bought some off of him. You are right though, it is getting absurd.

 

[skdvr]

I am interested to see the pics. I am glad to hear that it worked out....

Phil

 

[joeSteve1006]

hey,

sorry it took so long, was out of town. the pictures should be attached but if not they are in my member gallery.

Joe

 

[Dive Right In Scuba]

NICE!!!!! Looks great!! How durable are those bags?? Do they seem pretty tough? You can always even put a canvas, or some cloth material over that for more strength if they arent.

Great Job! Glad to see it all worked for you!!

 

[joeSteve1006]

very durable, the weakest part of the bag is the seals on the side and end. to reinforce it I double sealed it.

 

[FatRob]

I used 2 layers of net curtain that I had lying about in my sewing box.
This was very effective. I sewed up a pouch, turned it inside out and poured through a small filler gap in the stitching about an inch long. I then bar tacked across the opening with teh machine. Been doing fine for around a year now. No problems with white mess either, but I do wash them out after every dive.
A sharpie was used to good effect in labelling the weights.
There is some compromise between bag size and conformability of the final weight.
I find if the bag is too small that the weight won't conform well to the inner dimensions of the pocket.

Rob

 

[FatRob]

Try that with 40 degree water, a drysuit and an Al80!

 

[FatRob]

How does the weight perform. I'm thinking that the interstitial spaces must contain something lighter than lead, call it air, vacuum, whatever. What do these baby's weigh in water?

Also does the vacuuming out not cause the whole package to stiffen like a bean bag? Is there any advantage to this method then over solid castings?

I'm not sniping, I'm genuinely interested in whether these concerns are real.

Good effort in having a go!

cheers
Rob

hey,

sorry it took so long, was out of town. the pictures should be attached but if not they are in my member gallery.

Joe

 

[joeSteve1006]

it performs well under water, there is a small amount of air in the bag, but not enough to effect the weight of the bag. i did not actually vacuum it in the end, i only used the bags from the machine and the sealing strip on the sealer.

 

[Dad31]

I found that if you soak and agaitate wash the lead shot in a high soultion of hand dishwash soap about once a day for 4 days you will clean all of the residue from the lead.. (same basic process that Arrow Co. uses). The best place to find Cordura is a auto or marine upholstery shop.. or online.. I have made all of my weight that way.. No staining,, no leaking ,, no problem.. lol

Nice job on the plastic weight.. I also would like to know the actual characteristics of them underwater..