SRP The Tray eBay Clone

[SlvrDragon50]

Anyone have experience with this?

Underwater GoPro Tray Action Camera Video Lighting Tray | eBay

Looks decent. It's just a piece of metal. I honestly don't understand why SRP is charging so much for theirs.

The eBay reviews look good.

 

[Phil_C]

My only thought would be a difference in the quality of the stainless steel being used in the construction. There are several different grades of stainless steel available and not all are really suitable for use in the sea long term.

Marine grade stainless steel is much more expensive (several times the cost) of ordinary stainless so this could easily account for a big price difference between two similar looking products. If you are able to strip down and thoroughly rinse and dry something after each use it won't matter so much, otherwise the 'wrong' grade of stainless will degrade and rust fairly quickly in sea water. It doesn't say which sort of stainless is used in this mount, just states - "Made from Strong, Light Weight, and Corrosion Resistant Stainless Steel" which could mean any grade, and not necessarily marine quality.

I have bought similar things before and been very happy, but conversely I have bought some and found the materials to be inferior. It depends how much that matters to you and whether you are religious about cleaning and maintaining after use. - Have fun - Phil

 

[flareside]

The SRP tray is 6061 T6 hard anodized aluminum, not stainless. Their price for this piece of CNC'd aluminum coupled with a pair of $5 bicycle grips is hard to justify other than they were the only game in town. Now that others including Ikelite are doing knockoffs, I expect that either their price or their sales will be dropping.

As far as the one on Ebay, as the previous comment noted there are different grades of stainless. In that the listing doesn't state what type of stainless it is, I would question if the maker has a clue what he is doing as when they do know, they are proud enough of their selection to state what it is.

 

[SlvrDragon50]

Oh yea, I didn't even think about that. If I do buy the SRP, I will be buying the blemished version. I just send the seller a message though. If he gets back I will post his response.

 

[3D diver]

It's just a piece of metal.

Exactly. Aluminum bar stock is cheap. Spend the money on tools (drill, bits, tap, hack saw) & make your own. When you're done you have a tray..and the experience & tools to make more.




Sorry...was hoping to go diving this morning but the surf's up, so am grumpy.

 

[SlvrDragon50]

Just asked and he said 304 stainless steel.

An 3D you posted that in my thread a year ago haha. Now that I'm back home for the break I might g ahead with that plan, but I'll have to see what the costs are like since I don't have a tabletop to work on.

 

[3D diver]

D'oh! Getting old...

I just made a second tray with left over bar stock from my first, BTW:

Original (~18" wide):



New one (~12" wide):




Lights are shared.

 

[SlvrDragon50]

How thick is that? 1/4"?

I might just stop by Home Depot on my way back home and pick up a piece. Might just use a dremel cutting wheel to cut the aluminum.

 

[Phil_C]

304 is just a standard non-marine grade stainless steel. For salt water uses the recommended grade is 316 or 316L which is low carbon. From what I understand of steel grades if you use 304 you will need to wash and flush/clean thoroughly every time or it will pit and corrode quite quickly in salt water. - Phil.

 

[SlvrDragon50]

Yup, that's what I figured out after some googling as well.

I'd rather pay the extra 30 bucks for an aluminum SRP tray, but I think I will go ahead with DIY. I've got a couple weeks!