I thought I'd start a thread that anyone can add on to with their favorite easy to do DIY tips.
1). I have a tank holder in the trunk of my car that a buddy made and gave to me. It's simple and works great. It's simply 3 pieces of 1" diameter PVC pipe slightly longer than scuba tanks. Holes the diameter of cord are drilled through the pipes near the top, middle, and bottom. Cord is run through the pipes and knotted where appropriate.
The pipe is laid out length-wise in your trunk and the pipes are spaced apart so that two tanks can lay between each pair of pipes. It's light weight, keeps two tanks from rolling around and takes up very little room when not being used (and only takes 3 lengths of pipe).
2). Velcro strips from the hardware store make great dive watch (or any watch) bands. Just thread a single piece through the metal watch band bars and overlap the ends. It holds very well without buckles, holes or anything else. It's a custom fit as well.
Keep a longer one for when it's being used as a dive watch and a smaller one for use as a daily watch.
3). Hands-free holders for dive lights are easy to make. I've got instructions in another thread as do several others (which gave me the basic idea in the first place).
The key is PVC pipe connectors which is 3" diameter pipe and it's about 4" long. Available in any hardware store for about $3.00.
I won't get into the details here but the idea is to cut it lengthwise into 4 pieces with a hacksaw and put the pieces in your oven for about 1 minute and then take them out and drop them in a bowl of water. It takes some but not all of the curve out. It fits the back of your hand nicely.
You then drill a few holes and thread some 1/4" bungee for the hand mounts and 1/8" bungee to hold your light and you have a hands-free mount for your dive light (you have enough PVC to make either 2 or 4 mounts depending on how you do it).
4). A quick and easy emergency conversion of a regular led light to a dive light (for whatever reason you deem to be an emergency) is to just fill the whole light with mineral oil. It's messy but it works. Do this with a cheap light.
Or...get a cheap led light from Costco or where ever and remove the "clicky" tail cap. Take the switch out which will leave a hole. Fill that in with two part epoxy and replace the tail cap.
Get some marine grade clear silicone sealant and seal around both sides of the front glass lens. I've simplified things a bit but you can more or less now take this light to 100 fsw and greater. To turn it on simply twist or untwist the tail cap.
There are plenty of inexpensive dive lights out there so that's usually the easier solution but if there are none around (quick fix on a remote dive trip) or if you find a great light that has some feature that you aren't finding on dive lights you might want to do a little experimenting!
Anyone else got any tips or simple ideas that you've run across or implemented over the years that you'd like to share?
1). I have a tank holder in the trunk of my car that a buddy made and gave to me. It's simple and works great. It's simply 3 pieces of 1" diameter PVC pipe slightly longer than scuba tanks. Holes the diameter of cord are drilled through the pipes near the top, middle, and bottom. Cord is run through the pipes and knotted where appropriate.
The pipe is laid out length-wise in your trunk and the pipes are spaced apart so that two tanks can lay between each pair of pipes. It's light weight, keeps two tanks from rolling around and takes up very little room when not being used (and only takes 3 lengths of pipe).
2). Velcro strips from the hardware store make great dive watch (or any watch) bands. Just thread a single piece through the metal watch band bars and overlap the ends. It holds very well without buckles, holes or anything else. It's a custom fit as well.
Keep a longer one for when it's being used as a dive watch and a smaller one for use as a daily watch.
3). Hands-free holders for dive lights are easy to make. I've got instructions in another thread as do several others (which gave me the basic idea in the first place).
The key is PVC pipe connectors which is 3" diameter pipe and it's about 4" long. Available in any hardware store for about $3.00.
I won't get into the details here but the idea is to cut it lengthwise into 4 pieces with a hacksaw and put the pieces in your oven for about 1 minute and then take them out and drop them in a bowl of water. It takes some but not all of the curve out. It fits the back of your hand nicely.
You then drill a few holes and thread some 1/4" bungee for the hand mounts and 1/8" bungee to hold your light and you have a hands-free mount for your dive light (you have enough PVC to make either 2 or 4 mounts depending on how you do it).
4). A quick and easy emergency conversion of a regular led light to a dive light (for whatever reason you deem to be an emergency) is to just fill the whole light with mineral oil. It's messy but it works. Do this with a cheap light.
Or...get a cheap led light from Costco or where ever and remove the "clicky" tail cap. Take the switch out which will leave a hole. Fill that in with two part epoxy and replace the tail cap.
Get some marine grade clear silicone sealant and seal around both sides of the front glass lens. I've simplified things a bit but you can more or less now take this light to 100 fsw and greater. To turn it on simply twist or untwist the tail cap.
There are plenty of inexpensive dive lights out there so that's usually the easier solution but if there are none around (quick fix on a remote dive trip) or if you find a great light that has some feature that you aren't finding on dive lights you might want to do a little experimenting!
Anyone else got any tips or simple ideas that you've run across or implemented over the years that you'd like to share?
)
