DIY Video Housing a success...

[superstar]

Really sweet. Have you dived with it yet?

I made it 3 years ago, I had it down to 118' in Roatan.

Why did you use a rubber gasket rather than o-rings?

I found a sheet of rubber gasket material in maintanence. I made this with all scrap material. The plexiglass cover plates were a sneeze shield from a big grinder machine.

 

[MichiganDiver]

Well, that's really nice workmanship. I wish I could do that. I'm in the process of teaching myself some simple machining. I bought a Smith lathe-drill-mill. I was working on a PVC housing made with stretched 4" pipe. At the ends I doubled the wall thickness with double-stretched PVC. Last night I was machining an o-ring groove into the end surface when my toolbit grabbed and yanked the whole thing out of the chuck, breaking the glue joint. So, now I'm thinking of making one out of aluminum pipe, based on what you've done. I can buy one foot of 5 inch schedule 80 pipe for about $80 (including s/h). The wall is 3/8" thick. I should be able to cut an o-ring groove in that if I can hold it straight and get it well centered. Or, I can change my sealing design.

Anyway, I really like how yours looks.

 

[Guba]

It happens to the best of us...

I had my housing at Aquarena Center (San Marcos Springs, Texas) this weekend. I wanted to tape divers as they performed maintenance on the archaeological site, etc...
Well, we entered the water and I videoed the other divers as they giant strided off the pier. Just as we were thumbing down to drop to the bottom, I had that big "uh-oh". There was a little water rolling around on the bottom of my housing! AAARGH! I exited the water, drained it (only about a teaspoonful), and then set it aside and continued the dive.
Upon returning, I removed the camera and dried out the housing, looked over the o-rings, sealed the housing and got back in the water. No leak. I took it to depth (about 25 feet) and still nothing. I don't know what happened at first. Perhaps I had a grain of sand or hair across the o-ring, but I sure didn't see anything. I don't have problems with using it again, but it can sure shake your confidence, even after having it underwater and to depths of nearly a hundred feet many times.

 

[blazer]

First of all , nice job superstar! wow!
I did the 10 ft pool test and my housing held up well.
Bobby, my lenses aren't actually attached to the threaded conectors. they are simply sandwiched between the fittings, so I think they are in fact pushed tighter by pressure. When I screw it all together, the male threaded connectors spin against the lenses, not the gasket. I see your point about the groove for the o ring. I used a flat gasket, and I'm still thinking about how to modify the "seating" for the gasket. I also got it just about neutral(slightly neg) in fresh water with 1.5 lbs of lead shot in the handles and a 2 lb weight as a substitute for the camera weight (1.7lbs.)

 

[diversteve]

This is sort of DIY related. Currently on eBay there's 8 original Quest housing blanks being sold starting at .99. Some of them look better than others. Quest used to manufacture Poly housings but went out of business several years ago. They still show-up on eBay occasionally. They used a four position LANC "joystick" controller for camera control.

The problem with 6/8 of these housings is they seem to be missing the large screw on knurled ring that contained the lens, not sure where you'll find one of those. The only ones that have it are #1 & #4. They look to be the most complete also. afaik these housings are all some sort of poly composite. The back plates were just a thick piece of clear poly with an o-ring clamped in place. Similar to what O/I or USVH do.

I used to have one that I repaired so here's a possible source for both the joystick LANC controller and the front lens:

kbrookesus@yahoo.com.
Ken Brookes - supplier of Quest switches.

Aquatic Optics Inc.
1882 McGaw Avenue # B, Irvine, CA 92602
(949) 263-8611

Here's a link to Seacam, one of the original Quest employees owns it. They build a very similar line of housings using a similar joystick. This one in particular looks like some of the older Quest models and it shows the joystick: http://www.seacamsys.com/dvs4.htm

Link to the housings on eBay:
http://photography.search.ebay.com/_Cameras-Photo_W0QQcatrefZC12QQsacatZ625QQsassZsilverscreengem

PM if I can answer any questions,

 

[allegfede]

interesting. Have one in watching

 

[blazer]

What do you do for focus settings? infinity...auto focus?...i have no idea and I'm planning on using my IR remote for camera controls. whats the consensus from photo experienced housing builders?

 

[Warthaug]

What do you do for focus settings?

Autofocus. I have zoom on my camera, but in future models will probably do away with it - it doesn't do much. Just set to the widest angle possible, and away you go.

Bryan

 

[FunkyDiver]

My brother and I are intrigued by this DIY video, and we started making a housing pretty much like Bobby_M's first version. To make a long story short, I had a housing cut, glued and fitted with O-rings and plexiglass lenses on both ends. We used stainless draw latches from Mcmaster. I drilled the holes and mounted the "catches" for the latches on the plexiglass. When it was assembled, I tested it in water overnight in the utility tub in the basement. Great, no leaks. I was planning to test it in the pool at the YMCA. HOWEVER, when we turned the plexiglass on the router to make the lenses the correct diameter, we just spot glued them to PVC rings in order to get the correct diameter. When we were done, they came off no problem but left just small traces of the hot melt glue on the lense. My brother told me that alcohol cleans it off. SO anyway, I was trying to clean the glue off with the alcohol. Right before my eyes, the plexiglass began to crack at the the places where the screws had been installed to hold the hardware. At first I thought it must have been like that from the beginning when I screwed the screws into the plexiglass. As I continued to clean, it continued to crack worse and ALL places where the screws were installed cracked. Eventually it got so bad that pieces started to fall off in my hands. Needless to say I was shocked. Obviously we learned a big lesson not to clean it with alcohol, but DAMN!

Has anybody experienced this, and more importantly, does anybody know why? We are pretty sure it is a chemical reaction. At first I thought is was due to the cooling effect of the evaporating alcohol, so to test the "cold" theory I put it in the freezer with fresh drilled and installed screws. No problems and no cracks.

 

[jsmith89]

FunkyDiver,
So you put it on the router after dirlling the holes? Im guessing it maybe got too warm!? Then the alcohol cooled it too quickly maybe leading to the cracking? Thats the best I can figure, now im starting to get worried im going to cut my lenses when I get home next week