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The other weekend I had planned a dive with one of the kids. I'd gotten a new suit and - more importantly - a new undersuit and needed to check that my weighting was right. Buddy hadn't been under water for more than a year and needed a shakedown dive. So off we went to our regular training site. I'd geared up and was ready to close my zipper when I hear "I can't dive!" Turned out both their wrist seals were toast. That's what you get for leaving your suit unattended and unloved for over a year!
Since my LDS charges more for replacing one wrist seal than for a box of glue and two seals, I decided to try my hand at it. Checked in with some people I know in the local community to get some advice and went surfing the web for instructions. I found a very nice description here: Drysuit Wrist Seal Replacement
Job's just done and it remains to see if the seals are tight, but all in all it was about as difficult as I hoped. IOW, quite doable if you haven't more than two or three thumbs. I used Beaver Aquabond glue, and while it doesn't take much glue to replace two wrist seals, measuring out a very small amount of hardener accurately isn't that easy. So I decided to use half of the box. That means I can replace at least one other set of seals before I have to buy more glue. Removing the old seals was pretty easy, no need for heating. I just pulled them off carefully. To prevent the suit from sticking to the plastic bottles in the arms, I covered the bottles in cling film before inserting them. I sanded the surfaces with 180 grit paper since that was what I had in house, and used a small hobby paintbrush to apply the glue. The job was made a bit easier by the fact that this was a neoprene suit which stretched rather nicely over the bottles I had put in the arms.
All in all less daunting than I anticipated. I believe I deserve a beer for a job well done
Since my LDS charges more for replacing one wrist seal than for a box of glue and two seals, I decided to try my hand at it. Checked in with some people I know in the local community to get some advice and went surfing the web for instructions. I found a very nice description here: Drysuit Wrist Seal Replacement
Job's just done and it remains to see if the seals are tight, but all in all it was about as difficult as I hoped. IOW, quite doable if you haven't more than two or three thumbs. I used Beaver Aquabond glue, and while it doesn't take much glue to replace two wrist seals, measuring out a very small amount of hardener accurately isn't that easy. So I decided to use half of the box. That means I can replace at least one other set of seals before I have to buy more glue. Removing the old seals was pretty easy, no need for heating. I just pulled them off carefully. To prevent the suit from sticking to the plastic bottles in the arms, I covered the bottles in cling film before inserting them. I sanded the surfaces with 180 grit paper since that was what I had in house, and used a small hobby paintbrush to apply the glue. The job was made a bit easier by the fact that this was a neoprene suit which stretched rather nicely over the bottles I had put in the arms.
All in all less daunting than I anticipated. I believe I deserve a beer for a job well done