How far to disassemble gear and threaded connections

[ozziworld]

I was wondering how far others are going with maintenance and care of their UW Photo gear and disassembly.

Beyond the obvious o-ring maintenance. I have been obsessing over all the threaded connections.

After the usual soak and rinse in freshwater, I have found the threaded connections often are not fully rinsed of salt.

Arms and Clamps - I have started fully disassembling my ultralight clamps and all the threaded parts are fully wiped dry and allowed to air dry before re-assembly. I do not go so far as to remove the o-rings from the balls.

Housing - I also undo all the threaded screws and joints on my Nauticam Housing for my Canon 7D. I often observe a lot of saltwater remains inside the cavities of the major screw holes for the Handles as well as the threaded connections for the ball adapters on the mounts. I do not touch the little screws of the latches.

Though I grease each threaded connection before re-assembly. I still worry about the joints freezing making dis-assembly difficult or impossible.

How often do you breakdown your gear to the point of disassembling each threaded connection?

 

[MaxBottomtime]

My ex-wife broke pins on more than a few occasions by removing her strobe cables often. I have never removed mine in nearly ten years of underwater photography, nor do I disassemble the arms. When I get out of the salt water I give the housing a spraying with fresh water and soak for a couple minutes in a tub. I then dry it and put it in my bag.

 

[Larry C]

I pull my sync cords about every month or so (they should only be finger tight) and clean and regrease the o-rings and put lanocote on the threads. I used to just rinse with water, but on my P & S I went through two $200 double Nikonos to Sea & Sea sync cords and two $500 ttl units because the aluminum ttl threads electrolytically welded themselves to the plated sync cord thread. I also occasionally pull the screws on the strobe arm clamps and the bolts that hold the handles to the housing and give them the lanocote treatment. It lasts a long time, but hardens up after a while, so it's a good idea to clean the old stuff on and recoat. If you use electrical sync cords, make sure you're really careful to correctly locate the alignment notch and hold the cord down while you gently thread the fitting and the locking nut.

 

[BoltSnap]

I pull my sync cords about every month or so (they should only be finger tight) and clean and regrease the o-rings and put lanocote on the threads. I used to just rinse with water, but on my P & S I went through two $200 double Nikonos to Sea & Sea sync cords and two $500 ttl units because the aluminum ttl threads electrolytically welded themselves to the plated sync cord thread. I also occasionally pull the screws on the strobe arm clamps and the bolts that hold the handles to the housing and give them the lanocote treatment. It lasts a long time, but hardens up after a while, so it's a good idea to clean the old stuff on and recoat. If you use electrical sync cords, make sure you're really careful to correctly locate the alignment notch and hold the cord down while you gently thread the fitting and the locking nut.

Do you use a Lanocote spray or grease? Also, can it be harmful to any part of the camera housing system that we should worry about?

 

[Larry C]

I use the grease in a tub, and I'm careful to keep it off the o-rings and not get excess in places where it will rub off and get on the o-rings. Many housing o-rings can be softened or swollen by any kind of petroleum products. Silicon o-rings like Olympus uses can be softened by silicon grease. Just a light coating on the threads, wiped with a brush or swab before assembling.

 

[BoltSnap]

Have you used Salt-X products to clean and remove salt from camera and dive gear at all?

http://www.saltx.com

 

[Interceptor121]

I use a toothbrush for areas that are not cleansed after soaking this is only at the end of a trip if I put in storage
I found that domestic water has got a lot of scale where I live so a lot of soaking is actually not that great either a bit of brushing does wonders
Domes and wet lenses I use desalinised water when I can to avoid dropmarks

 

[Stoo]

I use my system mostly in fresh water, so this isn't a huge issue for me. When I am in the salt, I reassemble everything and soak in my (spare) bathtub for days when I get home... The strobe connections on my Aquatica housing are Delrin, as are the plugs... The connection I've had trouble with (just once) was where the grips bolt into the housing. I am extra-vigilant about putting a dab of solicon grease on the bolts before screwing them in...

As an aside, something I learned years ago, after I lent my Nikkor 15mm to a friend for his Nikonos... I got it back six weeks after he returned from a trip and the control knobs were frozen SOLID. I was not impressed. I put the lens on my camera and soaked in warm water, which had no effect what so ever. Then I remembered my Grade 9 science... "Like dissolves like..."!

So I tossed the thing into my salt water aquarium. Two days later, the knobs were free. I re-soaked in fresh water and the lens was saved.

 

[jcclink]

Threaded fasteners not involving o-rings should be coated with a marine grade grease or anti-seize to allow for easy removal. I've been using Aqua-Lube, a marine grease for wheel bearings, etc (like on boat trailers). Its rather messy to use but does not come off underwater. I mainly do this to items external to the actual housing, such as handles, strobe mounts, etc. Another advantage to fiber optics - no maintenance.
On strobe connectors I'd tend to use silicone grease since its o-ring friendly.