A couple of do-it-yourself projects

**MgicTwnger** · 09-03-2007, 02:35 PM

I'm a great one for building and repairing my own gear. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. I do it because I enjoy it, and I'm cheap. Here's a couple of things I have recently done:

Underwater camera: I have avoided buying a camera for years because of the expense and task-loading involved, but I found a deal on an internet shop's site that I couldn't pass up: a Sealife 35mm demo model rated to 164', with only a scuff mark on the back, for $26. I took it down to be sure it worked, and then tried to figure out how to get a cheap strobe for it. I had a non-working Ikelite strobe which I sent to the factory for a $50 repair and built an arm to mount it out of PVC pipe. Since it does not require a cable attached to the camera (it fires via an electric eye which senses the camera's flash) I figured that it would work. It does. It looks like hell, but I don't care: I got my camera for about $80 total.

Drysuit neck seal: It ripped on me a couple of weeks ago and the quarry I was diving at, which offers terrific on-the-spot repairs, was much too busy to get to it. The owner, Glen Faith of Mermet Springs, sold me the seal at near cost, so I grabbed my drysuit book and did it myself. I googled drysuit repair and came up with some sites with instructions, each a bit different, but all saying "Do it exactly this way, or you are DOOMED yadda yadda yadda". I distilled what seemed to me to be a workable procedure and it came out fine, although I will not be able to test it in the water until next weekend.

If anyone has their own home brewed projects, feel free to share.

**MgicTwnger** · 09-10-2007, 05:19 PM

Update on the neck seal replacement:
I cut it down to a diameter that seemed just a little tight, but when I put it on to actually dive it was way too tight and would not go on without rolling up. I got soaked on that first dive, cut it back a couple of rings, and it was fine. Whew!!