Making a BC?

[Jstew]

I am considering making my own BC. Has anyone done this before? Any hints or suggestions?

 

[Beachlover]

What is your background/profession? Do you have any knowledge of design and build of BCD's? I do not have any experience with this subject.Curious to see what others have to say about this.Good luck.

 

[james croft]

I am considering it myself. I have read about others doing it. My purpose was to take a bladder that I already had and sew up my own wing making a smaller wing than I could buy. I put this project on the back burner as companies started making smaller wings in the 18-20 pound range.
I was going to use a 44# bladder and cram it into a shell that would only allow the bladder to expand partially and give me about 18-20 pounds of lift. I think it would be a fairly simple project if one had a suitable bladder. There was a thread a while back about a lady who made a bladder out of an innertube. I say go for it.

 

[cmburch]

My thoughts would be to use a Backplate and harness with a bladder. I have looked at bladders that were sew up inside a zippered covering. To get ideas I have looked at Hammerhead Backplates Hammerhead Scuba - Hammerhead II Backplate

And Deep outdoors wings - bladder with covering DEEP OUTDOORS :: WELCOME

I think they are a luggage company.

 

[Couv]

Go for it and never mind the naysayers who do not know what this forum is about. For starters see this thread.


http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ma...-diy-buoyancy-compensators-wing-air-cell.html

I wish I could find the thread where someone used a pool toy type float.

 

[DIR-Atlanta]

My thoughts would be to use a Backplate and harness with a bladder.

We have a guy in our local DIR group who did this. He used a plastic backpack from a discarded Dacor BC, a DiveRite Junior Wing (the old style, with the clips at the bottom), the spine pad from some other BC, and a bunch of webbing and D-rings. He calls it the "Frankenstein" BC, and he claims he's had it for about 10 years (so I guess it predates a lot of the currently available accessories like STAs, donut wings, etc). He uses it in the pool sometimes when we do our DIR "practices", but prefers a more DIR-compliant setup (with a metal backplate) for openwater diving.

 

[Couv]

Here are a couple of interesting threads:
This one has pictures:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/do-yourself-diy/184741-diy-wing-critique-comments.html

Here is the "Inner tube Woman" thread:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/do-yourself-diy/162920-home-made-wing-encounter.html