Ultimate Macho DIY project idea...

[jvisser]

Has anyone ever made their own regualtor - as in, from scratch, in teh machine shop? Or, known anyone who has? Or heard about someone doing it? I've read bits and pieces about WWII G.I.s making them from oxygen regs right after the war, and of course, I've read the Cousteau/Gagnan story. Bit I'd really like to hear of folks doing it now.

jv

 

[neil]

I know a gentleman, 70-something, who says he made an aqualung from that now-famous 1955ish article in Popular Mechanics. Says he dove it quite a bit in local fresh water sites, but it didn't last long once it hit salt water.

Neil

 

[Bob3]

ummm... I think that was either the June or July 1953 issue of Popular Science.
Going to have to scan that sucker one of these days.

 

[SmokeAire]

You were old enough to read back then???? WOW! ;-)
And then to remember it as well. :54:

 

[Bob3]

You were old enough to read back then???? WOW! ;-)
And then to remember it as well. :54:

Heck yah, I remember sitting on the crapper reading comic books before my feet could touch the floor.
I actually have 2 copies of the mag, was going to sacrifice one, slice it up so it'd scan better.
From past things I've done like that I usually kicked myself though, like using a rare 45 record of the Beatles for a frizbee...

 

[Charlie99]

I don't know about making one from scratch in a machine shop, but I have toyed with the idea of making my own very simplistic single stage reg out of a manually controlled needle valve and an inhale counterlung bag. No moving parts at all.

The drawback is that you would have to manually adjust the flow to compensate for tank pressure, and more importantly, for depth. An overpressure relief on the inhale bag would take care the case where you have the valve too wide open. You would very readily notice the bag bottoming out if the valve is throttled back too much.

Buoyancy would slowly increase as the bag fills, have no change as you inhale, and then decrease as you exhale.

Does anybody know of a good 3000+psi needle valve good for flow control around 20 liters per minute?

Charlie

 

[Bob3]

I don't know about making one from scratch in a machine shop, but I have toyed with the idea of making my own very simplistic single stage reg out of a manually controlled needle valve and an inhale counterlung bag. No moving parts at all.

The drawback is that you would have to manually adjust the flow to compensate for tank pressure, and more importantly, for depth. An overpressure relief on the inhale bag would take care the case where you have the valve too wide open. You would very readily notice the bag bottoming out if the valve is throttled back too much.

Buoyancy would slowly increase as the bag fills, have no change as you inhale, and then decrease as you exhale.

Does anybody know of a good 3000+psi needle valve good for flow control around 20 liters per minute?

Charlie

Charlie, you're talking about my first rebreather, it had a needle valve off the O2 bottle & could "almost" be set to provide a decent trickle of O2 into the bag.
You don't need an OPV on the things, if overfilled the excess just passes tyhrough the mask & out the exhaust valve. Same as it'd do if you hooked a single hose onto the bag.
DESCO has a breathing bag for their full face masks, the thing hooks around the neck. It was used for whimpy air compressors that were having trouble keeping up at depth. I never liked them though, they were like wearing a cervical collar all the while you were diving. They did work OK if you had a whimpy compressor though.

 

[crpntr133]

Funny that you mention this. A friend works in a machine shop and is seriously thinking about trying it out, for fun of course. He has connections with a LDS so he can get all the innerds with no problem. Will let you know if/when he makes it.

 

[neil]

ummm... I think that was either the June or July 1953 issue of Popular Science.
Going to have to scan that sucker one of these days.

I'm sure that's the one. This same guy went on from this project to have a long career as an aerospace engineer!

N

 

[captain]

Although I haven't built a whole regulator, I have machined replacement parts out of stainless steel rather than brass for my USD Aqua Master two hose regulator.

Captain