DIY Video Housing a success...

[cmalinowski]

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.

Sounds good.

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.

I don't think mine will be so crystal clear. The camera lens will never see that part of the housing lens anyway, correct?

I am looking forward to this project.

 

[JeffG]

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.

Thank you for that idea. I wouldn't of thought of that. I have all my parts for my housing and I'm about to do the construction.

 

[dogfix]

An observation on buoyancy. I dive mostly fresh water wrecks. My UW video housings have been adjusted to be very slightly negative. On many an occassion I find I need to set the camera down to inspect something, or fan some silt from an object. Being very slightly negative allows the camera to settle to the bottom without damaging the housing or the object/bottom it is resting upon.

It may just be me but negative buoyancy does seem to give the housing a more stable feel. The captured video seems to reflect that.

Thanks.

 

[ChillyWilly]

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

Acording to the books,
To what depth would the schedule 40 work, I noticed that it has a max pressure rating of 180 PSI and Schedule 80 280 PSI. Another thing I found was that 1 ATM = 14.7 PSI. So would this mean in theory that the pipe can withstand aprox. 12 ATMs, Don't know if this is right or not. If this is true it would mean that max depth for the pipe is 363 Feet.

It would be nice to prove this one!!! with me not included. lol

Anyway I need some ideas on putting the weight on the housing to sink it, I'm going to home depot to see if I can make a tray under the Camera Plate and fill it with Lead Shots from a soft weight pack. It needs almost 13lbs to sink. Like to keep the weight under the camera so it sits upright allways.

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!

Hey no problem, just let me know and I'm there, I will only be gone the week of Feb 20th. When is ocean fest? March?
Take care,

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

Hello Chris,

I used a rotary cutter, you have to cut at low speed and really fast, if not like PadiPro said, it will melt. You will have to do some sanding also, but not to bad.

Take care,

 

[cmalinowski]

WHaaaaaaa!!!!! my camera doesn't fit in 4" PVC. Back to square one...

 

[genxweb]

I cant wait till my cam gets back from shop I been loving watching and reading this thread. Here is a suggestipn on the wheight. You could try the long lead wheights used in the pine wood derby cars that boy scouts make.

 

[ChillyWilly]

Aahhh,


I remember those. Can you get them separate !! Where?

 

[Padipro]

WHaaaaaaa!!!!! my camera doesn't fit in 4" PVC. Back to square one...

If it's close to fitting you could streach the 4" PVC. It's easy. Just take a lenght of 4" longer then what you need to make the housing, take a second piece that you are going to make the actual housing out of and heat it in the oven at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes. You need to work fast as it will cool quickly but take the heated piece and streach it over the other 4" piece. You may need to smack the end of the two on the floor in order to press the two together. Let them cool and using a hammer start tapping on the end of the streached piece to knock it off the other tube. When you're done the old 4" piece you stcrached will be slightly bigger then when you started. I had to do this with my first can light as the 4" wasn't big enough to put the battery in. It worked great.

Weighting is easy too...

I put most of the weight internally. I made a mold of the inside of the housing and poured lead in it to make a weight that would fit inside. I took a piece of the PVC pipe I made the housing out of and cut it to the lingth I needed the weight to be. I cut it in half end to end so I had a short U shaped piece. I then took two flat pieces of PVC and glued one to each end of the U making the mold. I had some heavy duty aluminum tape that I ligned the inside of the mold with but I think it would work without the tape as a heat shield. I marked the inside of the mold with a line so I knew how far to fill it then melted some lead in a stainless steel measuring cup I bought at the local food store using a propane tourch and poured it in the mold. When it cooled it just poped out of the mold and I used some JB Weld to glue it inside the housing under the mount the camera sits on. It wasn't enough weight so I made the handles on the housing out of 1" diameter solid brass rod, that stuff is heavy. I drilled and tapped one end of each rod and screwed in a SS stud that would go through the "Wing" on the housing and a washer and cap nut held then inplace. I used foam bicycle hadle grips to cover the brass rod so it looked better and was easier to hold on to. All that was left was to add a few trim weights to the inside of the front of the housing so it would float level in the water. With the battery on the back of the camera my housing would float slightly nose up. I went to a local auto parts store and bought some of the tape weights they use to ballance tires and added a few at a time until the housing was level in the water.

 

[ScubaFrog01]

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.

Had i seen them, i would have got one my self........

Oh hell now i'm getting the bug to try and make one of these things my self and I have no idea what the Hell i would be doing.........

 

[genxweb]

Aahhh,


I remember those. Can you get them separate !! Where?

Most scout shops have them or you can get them from their website I believe. They are sold seperate from the car and are perferated so you can remove any wheight not needed.