Twin 72's on a Freedom Plate: A marriage made in heaven ❤️

[Eric Sedletzky]

I finally was able to get out last Saturday and drain two steel 72's that I had slated for compact California Doubles.
My dive shop gave me this old military/ commercial manifold and the bands. I rebuilt the manifold with an Aqualung OS/OEM kit I got from Rob at Scuba Museum.
I had to do some mods and had to figure out a way to marry the twin set onto an old beater Contour Freedom Plate I had lying around. I landed on making some "Z" brackets that offsets the holes in the plate with the all thread on the bands. I access the nut on the all thread with a deep socket via a 7/8" hole you can see in the plate. The bracket bolts to the plate with a carriage bolt with the nut inside so there is nothing to stick out and gouge my back. It worked out slick as hell and I can run a wing on it too since I spaced the all-thread on 11" centers.
It's very comfortable and not too heavy. I like shoulder straps in close for a more snug fit. I think this will be the ticket.

 

[EberWolf]

I finally was able to get out last Saturday and drain two steel 72's that I had slated for compact California Doubles.
My dive shop gave me this old military/ commercial manifold and the bands. I rebuilt the manifold with an Aqualung OS/OEM kit I got from Rob at Scuba Museum.
I had to do some mods and had to figure out a way to marry the twin set onto an old beater Contour Freedom Plate I had lying around. I landed on making some "Z" brackets that offsets the holes in the plate with the all thread on the bands. I access the nut on the all thread with a deep socket via a 7/8" hole you can see in the plate. The bracket bolts to the plate with a carriage bolt with the nut inside so there is nothing to stick out and gouge my back. It worked out slick as hell and I can run a wing on it too since I spaced the all-thread on 11" centers.
It's very comfortable and not too heavy. I like shoulder straps in close for a more snug fit. I think this will be the ticket.
View attachment 893258View attachment 893259View attachment 893260

Do you have more pics of the bracket you made? I have a set of doubles for my Kraken but no way to attach it to either my freedom plate or my vintage style aluminum plate from subsea sports.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Do you have more pics of the bracket you made? I have a set of doubles for my Kraken but no way to attach it to either my freedom plate or my vintage style aluminum plate from subsea sports.

I don't have any pics of the actual brackets and I have the rig all assembled waiting for my next chance to dive.
But I can draw you a picture of how I did it.
What model Freedom Plate do you have? Do you have a pic?

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Here you go.
The Z bracket can be 1-1/2" to 2" wide.
The center of carriage the bolt to the center of access hole is 1-1/4"
The offset is 1" deep for the bracket.
The nice part is the end of the all-thread doesn't need to be in the perfect spot since there is leeway with in and out positioning.
You can also set the band spacing at whatever you want, it doesn't have to be on 11" centers unless you are using a wing with only 11" center grommets and you refuse to modify the wing with added holes. BTW the wing would slide onto the all-thread first then the brackets go over so the wing essentially free floats. I bolted the brackets onto the plate first then it slides onto the doubles and you reach in with a deep socket and run your nuts on. You could also run a couple nuts onto the all thread first (after the wing) and set your spacing so that the Z brackets back up to something.
Those baby doubles of yours would be adorable on a Freedom Plate.

 

[happy-diver]

Who's interested in your fiddling with your own stuff when you have dozens of people waiting for plates for years