DIY Video Housing a success...

[MATTKINZ]

Re: construction tips. I saw articles on MSN dive light that were very helpful and I recommend this website to you first. All I did differently was to custom fit the housing and add the window and mirror. I will attach a web address to the articles.

I molded the tube to the camera and then used a 2 inch piece of PVC molded to the outside of the tube. A heat gun will expand the outer tube and allow it to be tapped off. The combination of outer and inner tube were first sanded, then tapped apart, and a router with a bearing that would produce a proper curve was used to create 1/2 the groove in one piece and 1/2 in the other piece. MSCdirect.com sells the latches and bulk o-ring material that is custom measured, cut with a razor blade and superglued to make complete o-ring. Once you have the groove, I used o-ring well greased gently laid down in a thin layer of liquid epoxy in the groove to smooth and fill the groove. I used some weight to shape the groove to the o-ring material but not full force of the clasps.

Keep in mind, you have to have o ring material to fit your groove. My groove was 1/4 inch but I ended up with 0.20, or 0.22 wide o-ring material for best fit. Shipping is expensive, o-ring material is cheap. Better to buy a couple of close sizes to see which is best. You can sand the edge of the assembled tubes to adjust the depth of the groove to get best groove depth for you r o-ring material.

http://groups.msn.com/Divelight/page.msnw

Has the articles that I found so helpful by Padipro. I am thankful to him for this information as I never could have attempted my housing without his good information. Thanks padipro!!

Regarding the mirror, It is a cheap plastic camp mirror bought where camping stuff is available. I think was a cochlan? brand for about $2.75 or so. It is made of plexiglass,too.

The window on the side was made of 1/2 inch plexiglass that I shaped it after heating in an oven and using a heat gun to fit the curve of the housing. I cut square notches at the end and had corresponding scrap pieces , square , thet could be drilled and screwed onto the window, then glued with superglue onto the mirror. These were shaped and drilled to accommodate stainless screws and in the folded out position would stop at 45 degrees. These hinge pieces were drilled and screwed onto the window at the notches. Tightening the screws would provide the friction to hold it but allow folding back into the camera housing body for travel/ storage. The pieces were fitted together and screws placed for fit and then the mirror was permanently glued ( solvent welded ) to the 2 hinge pieces. I used some spare o-ring material for bumpers on the mirror to keep it from scratching the window, again glueing with superglue.

See thumbnails. I don't have high detail on the mirror hinge but you can probably see how done. The hinge pieces ended up shaped like teardrops so they would rotate in the slots and also stop the mirror travel in the 45 degree position.

By the way, the mirror has a sheet of protective masking tape on the back that needs to be peeled off leaving the gray mirroring paint. I then painted this with dive flag to protect the mirroring layer .

For the diver who needs 6 inch Pvc, I found my camera wouldn't fit the 4" Pvc until molded and stretched to fit my camera. You can find scraps of 4" by the roadside. I literally drove around until I saw a piece of scrap PVC lying in a ditch to use for my project. Maybe, you can stretch and fit your camera too, and almost for free. MK:14:

 

[Bobby_M]

Hey Matt, thanks for the continued commentary and details. Posts like yours, and many others, were the inspiration for me to build one also.

I didn't actually leak test my housing with only PVC cement joints so I have no way of knowing if that single step would be adequate. I did buy some 5 minute epoxy that mixes the two parts right in the nozzle and laid a bead on all exterior joints. An hour later I filled the kitchen sink, dropped some lead in the housing, and went for it. I realize this is by no means an reasonable pressure test but I'm glad that it didn't leak so far.

For those who do not have a router or the skill to make the O-ring gland like Matt did, you can probably build my version and make it work. I did use a router to do some shaping, but it wasn't critical to the design. Essentially, my Oring gland is created by two factory coupling edges on the sides, and the PVC pipe on the bottom.

A quick tip, when you're ready to start gluing exterior rings to the PVC, you really oughtta put masking tape on the surfaces that are not to be glued. As you slide the ring on, it pushed quite a bit of cement down the pipe and makes a mess. I learned the hard way and the second time I did it, I was able to pull the tape off while it was still tacky. You can't just wipe this stuff off real quick because it starts melting the surface of the pipe immediately.

I also think Matt's version could also be done with a stock round O-ring. If you make the gland (the groove the Oring sits in) rectangular rather than curved on the bottom, a round Oring should stay put. You just have to choose one with the proper circumferance. I would literally buy about 15 different sizes and figure it out later. They're not expensive, well at least not as much so as your camera.

Crossing my fingers on a real depth test next week!!

Bobby

 

[flexlarson]

Looks great guys.
Anyone on here that made a housing and interested in selling it?

Im interested in purchasing one of these CHEAP DIY Housings from someone.

Ive got an Old 8mm Canon that would be good to use with this /.

 

[Bobby_M]

I only think they're cheap because we don't put a price on labor for our own hobbies. I think I have about 30 man hours into my housing and it's not even done. That goes for the research, purchasing, thinking, building etc even though the material costs are down near $40-50. Now that I know how to make it, I'd probably agree to building an exact duplicate for about $150 + materials and shipping. Of course, an old 8mm isn't going to jam into a 4" pipe either. Hmm, maybe I should see if my housing holds up to 80fsw before I go making offers ;-)

Bobby

 

[hilk]

one question,

which way is the best for router the oring groove?

a) glue the outer ring with the main housing first, then router the groove ?

or

b) assembly the outer ring and housing, make a groove with router, then glue it later?

thanks

 

[Bobby_M]

Hilk,
The reason that half the groove is routed in the two pieces separately is so that you can use a ball bearing guide against the walls of the pipe. It would be very difficult to make the full groove down the center of an already-assembled unit. So, route the half-width groove on the outside of the pipe and then on the inside of the outer ring. Then you put them together.

Other designs I've seen give you the option of simply routing an open notch all the way around the housing side of your acrylic cap for the O-ring to lay in. The end of the pipe remains unmachined, but smooth. This requires a thicker piece of acrylic I'd imagine.

Bobby

 

[unfix8r]

Do you have any pics of your construction on your housing?

 

[Bobby_M]

If you're asking me, I shared a few pics up higher in this thread. I do have a couple basic drawings that show how I did it.

Note 2: This ring can be a cutoff piece of PVC coupling or a heat-stretched ring of PVC pipe.

Basically the sealing edges where the O-ring sits are the factory edges of PVC couplings/or stretched pipe which are assumed to be nice square cuts. If you have a method of getting a beautifully clean and square cut, you can try it. Also, in order to get any imperfections out of this edge, carefully glue some 220, then later 400 grit sandpaper down to some hardboard or a scrap of acrylic at least 8x8" square. Then hold the PVC ring in your and and rub it on the paper in a circular motion, also occassionally turning the ring's position in your hand. When I switched to 400 grit, I used wet sanding paper and did it in my sink as water dripped cleaning the paper.

Hope this helps you out.

Bobby

 

[MATTKINZ]

Another clever way to do the same thing.

In the article from divelight group from Padipro, he used a 1/4 inch rabbeting router bit with a bearing and went part of the way through one ring then glued the 2 together so he had a flat square notch for the round o-ring. I just happened to have a quarter round concave bit that produced a round notch. My wall thickness wasn't enough to make a 1/4 inch cut in one wall alone, so I had to improvise.

Regarding leaks, I was quite surprised to find water was seeping right through the cut end of the PVC rings. The PVC has microholes , not in the sidewalls but on the cut ends. I figured this out by pressure testing for some hours for 10 ft in a lake. I found water and couldn't figure it out. I taped tissue paper around o-ring area to find leak and found paper was dry and water puddled in the bottom.

I then took the housing and put in the freezer to make air inside contract, then clamped front lens in place and watched as housing heated up . When air expanded in the housing , water drops formed and continued to form on the edges of the cut ring. This was solved with painting several successive layers of superglue on the cut edges. Superglue is remarkable in following thin cracks and openings with capillary action. Repeat pressure at 10 ft .depth shows it to now be dry. Hopefully I get to test this weekend to at least 40 ft . MK

 

[Bobby_M]

Matt,
I'm having trouble visualizing how water was getting in to your housing. If you look at my design, do you see the same posibility for leaks or is it something related to your design only? I realized that the "end grain", if you want to call it that, is hard to make smooth. However, persistence with 400 grit wet sanding got my edges at least as smooth as the sides of the pipe. Granted, this thing might leak like crazy at 10ft so I really don't know. I was happy to be able to fit my DVcam into an unmodified 4" pipe, but my buddy wants me to build one for his JVC harddrive camcorder and I'm almost certain you could use a 4" length of 3" pipe. Now THAT is compact!

Bobby