DIY Video Housing a success...

[MichiganDiver]

Bobby,
Thanks for your thoughts on handles, shaping, and gluing. My current thought is to cut the o-ring groove on the lathe prior to shaping. If I do that, then I will need the glued rings to start. You may be right that 6" pipe will be easier. I liked the look of Matt's housing, with the side lens and mirror. That is why I am following this path for right now.

I found out that my spreaders (clamps turned backwards) won't fit inside the pipe to spread the mold. Not even close. I like your idea of using shims, but today I tried something a little different. I took two pieces of 2 x 4 that I trimmed to 3" wide instead of the standard 3-1/2. I rounded the edges, then I used some nuts, bolts, and washers to gain a mechanical advantage to push the pieces of 2 x 4 apart when I thread the bolts in. It worked ok on my practice piece. I'll try to post some pics later when I get the chance. So, I'm planning on following this path until it proves impractical.

Matt, nice pictures of the Oriskany. It was nice of your friend to get the pics. I'll bet that was something to see!

This thread is fun. Thanks.

 

[MATTKINZ]

It is a fun site.

Bobby M's housing sure looks great I hope it works perfectly.

My first video in bright clear water came out all washed out underwater . Has anyone else had that problem? The above water shots were fine but when I downloaded to the computer, above water was fine, the water shots were all bright blue and looked fluorescent. The movie on the TV was OK but looks bad on the little monitor on the camera, and on the big computer monitor at home. Does this mean I need a red 25 or magenta filter? What is the cure? anyone? mk

BTW, a friend sent me awesome pics of orisk. sinking that were a lot better than mine. They were taken from a helicopter. I'll later on put them on the oriskany page with my others. On TV the other night there was some good U/W footage from divers by the bridge of the O. Impressive. I called my favorite 6-pack boat captain. He will be charging $150 for a 2 tank dive there. I don't yet know what the cattle boats will charge. Because of the KB of the pic, I could only add one to this message.

 

[Agent 47]

Very cool stuff!

 

[Jorbar1551]

I did a depth test with my homemade video housing. It leaked at about 130 feet.

 

[Bobby_M]

Matt,
I'm wondering if you can clean the video up by removing some blue or adding some red using Ulead Video studio or something like that. Then again, maybe your cam isn't DV so you'd have to use a capture card. If that's the case, maybe a filter on the housing is the answer for you.


Quick update: I added an attachment point for spring clips and tether. I scavenged the 3/8" wide webbing off an old polaroid camera.

Bobby

 

[MATTKINZ]

Nice, I added the camera strap as shown previously with a Quick Release buckle and the brass snap hook too.

My camera is a DV camera. I guess I 'll have to play with it some. Where I took the video, the water was clear, sun bright , reasonably shallow and a lot of bright white sand and limestone boulders.

See my photo gallery for some great oriskany pics taken from the helicopter. mk

 

[Padipro]

Hey Guys,

It's been a while since I took a close look at this thread, WOW you guys have done some great work.

I started working on my next housing for a very small digital video camera. The housing is only about 8 inches long so it's going to very easy to carry. I formed the 3 inch tube to hold the camera, not much room to spare and then made the rings for the ends. The forward end of the housing will have the lens permenently attached. I'm just going to glue it in place over the oring using 3M 5200 sealent. With the oring there the pressure should seal it up just fine, I hope. I bought a very expensive roughter bit that would cut a 1/8 inch groove for the orings so they will be much smaller as well. The wall thickness of this PVC is to thin for the 1/4 inch bit and even though I could have cut half the groove in the body and then the other half in the ring I figured this was easier. As you can see from the pictures I'm adding the window to the side of the housing, thanks Matt for the information on how you did it. Also you can see that my first attempt at streching and shapping the tube was not a success. LOL Thank God I had cut several lenghts of the tubing before I started and it went more smoothly the second time around. I'm trying to make a lead copy of a pistol grip dive light handle to mount to the housing, there isn't any room inside to add weight so it's all got to be attached to the outside. I haven't quite figured out how to do this, yet, but I'm working on it. Anyone have any experience in sand mold making and casting molton lead? I took a class in foundry waaaayyyy back in high school but have forgotten much of what I learned.

I'll post more pictures as the housing comes together.

Thanks to all for the information on how you put things together.

 

[MATTKINZ]

Scott, Looks cool. Sand for molding is an idea but lost foam may be better. I would shape a handle from styrofoam. this is available in blocks. Then , you could use plaster of paris in a milk caarton to mold around 1/2 the foam handle. Use pencil pieces to have a hole to pour lead into, After setting of 1/2 of the plaster, you could wax or grease the joint between halves of plaster, then pour the rest of the plaster. This will make a mold of the handle with the foam handle inside. Hot lead will melt and displace the styrofoam that will turn to a very small size. the foam will be lost and a Lead handle will result. Hope that works.

enclosed , see website
http://patterns.calawton.com/value/process/
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-1417.html
http://www.tempo-foam.com/lost_foam_metalcasting/ten_most_faq.htm

Another method without the foam is to create a plaster mold in 2 halves of the actual part, again a pencil used to make the pouring hole. If the part is placed halfway into a bed of plaster lying sideways,and is greased well, the top of the first set of plaster greased well , and a 2nd half of the mold is made with plaster, you can remove the part by opening the mold and removing the part so you have the shaped cavity to pour into. mk

 

[Bobby_M]

OKAY! my housing sucks. Well, actually it's not so bad, but it has a slow leak. I dove down to a platform at 25 feet and noticed tiny bubbles of water squeezing passed the acrylic disk. I suppose Weldon #16 is not as good for PVC to Acrylic joining as IPS suggests it is. I would use 5 minute epoxy instead. Unfortunately, I didn't have any with me at the dive site or I would have run a bead on both acrylics windows, inside and out, and gave it another try. The leak was very slow because I spent about 20 minutes at depths between 30-65 feet and I ended up with about half a tea spoon of water inside.

I'm still going to take it down to Ft. Lauderdale this weekend and take the first dive with no cam. If it holds up, I'll risk it.

Padi, I think you'll find that the much smaller displacement of the 3" pipe will really require less weight than an entire handle made of lead. As I mentioned, even with my 4" pipe, .75 pounds of shot in my PVC handles makes my rig slightly negative. I tested the buouyancy with a 2 pound weight (without the camera) and it sunk like a rock.

Wish me luck! Hopefully I'll have some vids to share.

Bobby

 

[MichiganDiver]

Good luck, Bobby. I'm sure you'll solve the small leaks.

I had hoped to spend some time on my housing last weekend, but the taskmaster engaged me in a big landscaping project.

David