Homegrown wing

[fjpatrum]

I'm working toward buying a BP/W of some form or another (probably the Zeagle Express Tech) after diving one recently. Very comfortable, much less bulky than my jacket BCD and easier to control my buoyancy. (At least it seemed that way to me.)

In the meantime, I'm trying my hand at making my own and picked up an old horse collar on eBay for under $30 including shipping. Probably not the best deal out there, but I am satisfied so far.

Looks like it's in reasonably good shape after getting the cover off the bladder. Inflator hose looks healthy, but doesn't have a power inflator so I'll probably add one. The OPV will be on the inside (toward my body) of the wing rather than the outside, but I'm not too stressed about that. I am going to add a pull to the OPV, though, so I have a real dump that I can control.

The only real issue I have is the screw post inflator for the CO2 cartridge. I'm having difficulty getting it removed so I'm considering either cutting the post as close to flush as possible and patching over it or cutting the bladder and patching it. I'm hesitant to cut the bladder but don't really know if a patch over the post will really seal it. Anyone have any experience with cutting one of these posts out?

One other quick question; I'm probably just going to use 1000 weight cordura as a cover for this but if anyone has a better suited material, I'm open to suggestion.

I'll see if I can get pics of the process as I move forward with it.

 

[350xfire]

I used a bicycle tire patch to repair my OMS wing and worked great. Of course that was for a pin hole but should work.

 

[fjpatrum]

Yeah I have patch material already, I'm just trying to figure out the best way to deal with this screw post thing. Either way I decide to go, I'll probably be patching both the inside and the outside of the bladder, just to be sure.

 

[mksmith713]

Double check ALL of the plastic parts. I had a BRAND NEW "though older" Zeagle Concept and on the second dive out of the bag some of the plastic parts crumbled.
The water was super warm so I had no exposure protection (there goes built in bouyancy) and no lead.
Fortunately I was in less than 100fsw and had a SMB so swimming my rig up wasn't too much of an issue.
A less experienced diver might have a panic attack in a similar situation.

 

[fjpatrum]

Thanks for the advice. I've already taken all the plastic parts apart to inspect them and, other than adding the power inflator to the hose and the pull for the OPV, they all look good. I will keep it in mind though and be cautious on the first couple of dives with this rig.

 

[Couv]

I have patched a couple of bladders where I removed the old CO2 cartridge. Here is a link to one of the post I made.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/repairing-your-own-gear/229966-bc-bladder-repair-update.html

Good luck, let us know what you did and how it turned out.

Couv

 

[fjpatrum]

couv, great thread. Thanks for the link.

 

[fjpatrum]

Updating... I ended up cutting out the cartridge inflator valve and patching it with 20 mil (.02 inch) pvc on the inside and outside. When I dove the wing, though, the inflator hose was too low and the dump valve ended up pulling off the bladder.

Back to the drawing board-- I moved the inflator and repaired (and moved) the dump valve. All patches were made with the same pvc material inside and outside. The "wing" holds air very well at this point but doesn't fit as well as I'd like on the plate, and the inflator still isn't quite high enough. Pictures to come, but the whole process has me designing a new wing with the dimensions I want. I'll get a thread up about that soon.

 

[fjpatrum]

As promised, here are the pictures, if anyone is actually checking this thread out. First two pics in the cordura nylon cover I made, third pic out of the cover and the last three are the patches I installed and how I reinforced the OPV and inflator valve. Please ignore the left over paper towel trash stuck to the patches. I was too lazy to bother trying to remove it all to look pretty since it will be covered when in use.

 

[laguna230diver]

it looks pretty nice so far. you could use old weight belts to sew into the cover and rivet them for attaching to the bp