DIY Video Housing a success...

[ChillyWilly]

Hello All,


I wanted to thank everybody for their input on everything, here is some pics of my housing so far. I still need to do the inside and figure out how to weight it down internally. For now I'm using velcro to velcro a piece of plexi were I have a tripod mount to screw the camera into. I'm thinking about putting weight under this plate area.


I'll post some pick of this when I figure it out.


Thanks to all.

 

[moneysavr]

Sweet Walter! Looks nice man,Great job!
Brad
Next time down will have to get some dives in month or so it looks like! Oh ya is that sch 80 or 40?

 

[ChillyWilly]

Thanks Brad,

So far so good, I dumped it in the lake yesterday and it was dry at 25ft. I have to see what happens at 70+. Anyway I used Sch 40 pipe, so it should do ok, I wonder how deep sch 40 pipe will go.


Definately let me know when you are coming down, meet for a dive and a beer, lol


Take care

 

[moneysavr]

Walter
I hope it goes to 155'FSW thats how deep I am going to drop mine,less the cam! for a test.
I thought you had a depth or PSI on Sch 40?
Let me know as I have had mine to 75FSW and think it will take twice that,the lens is 3/8" so if anything blows it will be the lens!
Brad

 

[Padipro]

I've had my Sch 40 housing to 131 FSW before without any problems. PVC is some pretty strong stuff.

 

[moneysavr]

I've had my Sch 40 housing to 131 FSW before without any problems. PVC is some pretty strong stuff.

Thanks PadIPro How thick is your lens?
I love your unit looks like you should MFG them and sell them on e-bay!
Dive safe!
Brad

 

[moneysavr]

Hey Walter! Be down in a month or so,And I like that beer thing after the dive! hope this time I make it down the cold dose not come with like last time,Brrrrrrr!
Dive safe!
Brad
Oh and if all works out may be back down for Oceanfest! and thats a fun time!

 

[Padipro]

Thanks PadIPro How thick is your lens?
I love your unit looks like you should MFG them and sell them on e-bay!
Dive safe!
Brad

The lens is 3/4 inch thick. I tried 1/2 inch but it flexed to much when you latched it down.

I had a friend that made and sold them on Ebay a few years ago for something like $250 complete with controls but no one wanted them. He even pressure checked them before he sent them out to make sure they didn't leak but only sold like 3 or 4 in the course of a year.

 

[cmalinowski]

How does someone cut the lens? I think everything else is possible with the rudimetory tools that I have. I don't have friends that own machine shops--something I may need to remedy

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Padipro]

How does someone cut the lens? I think everything else is possible with the rudimetory tools that I have. I don't have friends that own machine shops--something I may need to remedy

Thanks,
Chris

I used a hand wood saw to roughly shape the lens by cutting off small pieces until it was in the shape of a circle . Some of this plastic melts very easy and using anything other then a band saw to cut it just melts it instead of cutting it. Then I improvised a disk sander by taking an old table saw blade that no longer had any teeth and attached an adhesive backed sanding disk to the blade and installed it on the table saw so I could use it as I would a disk sander. Once the lens was sanded to a nice circle using the table saw sander I used progressivly finer sandpaper and sanded the edge by hand to remove all the sanding marks. Once it was sanded smooth and all marks were removed (THIS IS THE PART YOU NEED TO PRACTICE TO GET IT RIGHT AND NOT DISTROY THE LENS) take a hand help propane tourch with the flame set to medium and quickly pass the flame back and forth across the sanded edge of the lens to clear it up crystal clear. I can't stress enough that you need to practice using the tourch on the edge of a scrap piece of the lens before trying it on the actual lens. If you move the flame to slow it WILL melt the lens along the edge and possibly distroy it. I speak from experience so trust me.