giom
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Yeah dude, with the spring it's even better. Thanks for the idea! I took a spring that holds batteries in a big flashlight
DIY Video Housing a success...
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Bobby_M
Contributor
I'm mid-way through my next housing and I have to take a break so I can do some Cozumel diving. I thought I'd give everyone some work-in-progress details. Check out http://www.suebob.com/housingv2.htm for details.
Bobby_M:
Hey Bobby, sorry about taking so long to respond.
I usually heat the oven to 400 degrees F and place the pipe in for 5 minutes. You have to keep an eye on things and make sure you're not over heating it. If the ends of the pipe start to turn brown and curl up it's time to take it out of the oven.
I took the new housing on a tek dive Sunday to 165 FSW. We spent nearly 15 minutes at that depth before ascending to 145 for the remaining 15 minutes. I left the camera on shore as I didn't want to loose it if the housing didn't survive. Well I'm happy to report that the housing made it back in one piece without a single drop of water inside. This new housing was made from pretty thin PVC and Plexiglas, the thinest I've ever used, so to have it survive such a deep dive without any problems shows just how strong this stuff really is.
How deep have others taken their housings?
How deep have others taken their housings?
Padipro,
Been reading and following this thread closely and enjoy it. You and bobby have created some outstanding housings! Do you have any pictures of your new housing? Did you put in a LCD screen like your previous one? I was getting ready to build my housing from Bobby's tutorial but now see that he has V2 on the way and will wait to see how that one turns out. Keep up the good work guys! Very excited to see how these turn out. One question about heating the PVC, when you mold the outside piece of pvc over the inside piece, do you have to use cement to keep them together or do they stay tight once the outer piece cools?
Been reading and following this thread closely and enjoy it. You and bobby have created some outstanding housings! Do you have any pictures of your new housing? Did you put in a LCD screen like your previous one? I was getting ready to build my housing from Bobby's tutorial but now see that he has V2 on the way and will wait to see how that one turns out. Keep up the good work guys! Very excited to see how these turn out. One question about heating the PVC, when you mold the outside piece of pvc over the inside piece, do you have to use cement to keep them together or do they stay tight once the outer piece cools?
Once everything is cooled you still need to use the PVC glue to hold the parts together. They will move and are not water tight if not glued in place. I mark ther placement and direction of every piece that I strech as the PVC pipe is not exactly round and if the parts are not assembled exactly as they cooled there can be a large gap between them and they may not even fit together.
paulthenurse
Contributor
I'm in the planning process right now and I don't want to go thru the bother of heating and stretching pvc for a second layer. I bought a couple of slip couplings, designed to join two pieces of drain pipe together. You slip the coupling over the pipe and slide it up the pipe a ways, then you position the pipes, spread the glue and slide the coupling down over the joint. It works because it doesn't have the internal ring that normal hub to hub connections have. I figure that I can always use some sort of Bondo-like product to fill in the joint line if I don't like the look of it when I'm thru. Any thoughts?
Also, is there a reason to use or not use 5200 vs pvc glue on all glue joints?
Also, is there a reason to use or not use 5200 vs pvc glue on all glue joints?
Paul,
The coupling should work provided you use plenty of glue to seal everything. 5200 really isn't a glue, although it will hold pretty well I wouldn't rely on it to do anything other then seal something. The PVC glue actually melts the PVC so the two are welded together once the glue drys. This makes the PVC glue joint much stronger. I'd use PVC glue for the joints and then seal them with 5200 if needed.
The coupling should work provided you use plenty of glue to seal everything. 5200 really isn't a glue, although it will hold pretty well I wouldn't rely on it to do anything other then seal something. The PVC glue actually melts the PVC so the two are welded together once the glue drys. This makes the PVC glue joint much stronger. I'd use PVC glue for the joints and then seal them with 5200 if needed.
paulthenurse
Contributor
Thanks Scott,
My other idea is this, tell me if there is a reason it won't fly. I thought that when I fit teh end coupling over the pipe it will use that as my o-ring seal. In other words, Pipe w/ fitting makes a step where I will place the O-ring, But if I place a piece of PVC pipe cut off into a ring inside the lens end coupleing, I have a place for a second O-ring and theoretically, a double seal.All you would need to do is make sure that the distances are exactly the same on the overlaps. (I realize that I'm not being terribly clear here but I don't hav ethe abilty/knowedge of how to make a nice CAD design like Bobby's.
Hold on. I've got a thought... Nope didn't work. I wanted to copy Bobby's CAD design from his intructional website but I can't manage it. (I probably couldn't manage it on a good day but I worked 7pm till 11 am thismorning, and I am dragging arse and barely awake.0 I wanted to somehow indicate on his design where I was thinking about adding the second o-ring. Oh well
I'm off to bed, I'll check in tonight at work.
Paul
My other idea is this, tell me if there is a reason it won't fly. I thought that when I fit teh end coupling over the pipe it will use that as my o-ring seal. In other words, Pipe w/ fitting makes a step where I will place the O-ring, But if I place a piece of PVC pipe cut off into a ring inside the lens end coupleing, I have a place for a second O-ring and theoretically, a double seal.All you would need to do is make sure that the distances are exactly the same on the overlaps. (I realize that I'm not being terribly clear here but I don't hav ethe abilty/knowedge of how to make a nice CAD design like Bobby's.
Hold on. I've got a thought... Nope didn't work. I wanted to copy Bobby's CAD design from his intructional website but I can't manage it. (I probably couldn't manage it on a good day but I worked 7pm till 11 am thismorning, and I am dragging arse and barely awake.0 I wanted to somehow indicate on his design where I was thinking about adding the second o-ring. Oh well
I'm off to bed, I'll check in tonight at work.
Paul
Hey Paul,
I know what you mean, that third shift will kill ya. Did it for 7 years and have never been so glad to be laid off from a job in my life once I found out what it was like to see the sun. LOL
I think I understand what you're talking about as far as the o-ring goes. The one problem I see is that you didn't mention any type of groove to hold the o-ring in place on the housing. If the o-ring is just going to sit inside the recess created by the coupling protruding a fraction of an inch above the housing body, creating a step of sorts, I'm afraid that the water pressure will just push it into the housing and it will certianly flood. There needs to be some sort of a groove to hold the o-ring in place when the lens is installed or the water pressure will displace it. The other thing, while it certainly wouldn't hurt isn't really necessary, is the second o-ring. If it's done right a single o-ring is all that is needed. I've made hundreds of dives with several different housings all having only a single o-ring and have never (Knock on my wooden head) flooded the housing. I've always created some sort of a groove on the housing body to nest the o-ring in and then latched the lens down on top of it. Even the newest housing with a permenantely attached front lens has a groove and o-ring under the lens which I sealed in place with 3M 5200 and clamped down tight intil the sealent dried and held everything tight in place.
Take a look at the pictures of my latest housing at my DIY site,
http://groups.msn.com/Divelight/newcamerahousing.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=1045 You'll have to cut and paste the link as SB is messed up since switching servers and will not let me post a link or pictures. You can see the o-ring is down inside the outter ring, I believe this is what you're getting at, but there is still a groove in there that the o-ring is sitting in to hold it in place. When I installed the lens I ran a bead of 5200 around the entire o-ring and clamped the lens down flush with the top of the housing. Once everything had dried the 5200 held the lens in place as well as adding to the seal and since the lens had been clamped in place the o-ring was already under compression forming a water tight seal.
It's worked to 165 feet so far without a drop of water inside.
I know what you mean, that third shift will kill ya. Did it for 7 years and have never been so glad to be laid off from a job in my life once I found out what it was like to see the sun. LOL
I think I understand what you're talking about as far as the o-ring goes. The one problem I see is that you didn't mention any type of groove to hold the o-ring in place on the housing. If the o-ring is just going to sit inside the recess created by the coupling protruding a fraction of an inch above the housing body, creating a step of sorts, I'm afraid that the water pressure will just push it into the housing and it will certianly flood. There needs to be some sort of a groove to hold the o-ring in place when the lens is installed or the water pressure will displace it. The other thing, while it certainly wouldn't hurt isn't really necessary, is the second o-ring. If it's done right a single o-ring is all that is needed. I've made hundreds of dives with several different housings all having only a single o-ring and have never (Knock on my wooden head) flooded the housing. I've always created some sort of a groove on the housing body to nest the o-ring in and then latched the lens down on top of it. Even the newest housing with a permenantely attached front lens has a groove and o-ring under the lens which I sealed in place with 3M 5200 and clamped down tight intil the sealent dried and held everything tight in place.
Take a look at the pictures of my latest housing at my DIY site,
http://groups.msn.com/Divelight/newcamerahousing.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=1045 You'll have to cut and paste the link as SB is messed up since switching servers and will not let me post a link or pictures. You can see the o-ring is down inside the outter ring, I believe this is what you're getting at, but there is still a groove in there that the o-ring is sitting in to hold it in place. When I installed the lens I ran a bead of 5200 around the entire o-ring and clamped the lens down flush with the top of the housing. Once everything had dried the 5200 held the lens in place as well as adding to the seal and since the lens had been clamped in place the o-ring was already under compression forming a water tight seal.
It's worked to 165 feet so far without a drop of water inside.
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