New Meg Handle (Kent Tooling)

[Rob Dobson]

Back in April Scribley and I went to Sharm with a whole bunch of Meg divers for a week of warmwater CCR indulgence. Before we set off we approached John at Kent Tooling and asked him to make us a couple of Stainless Steel Handles for our Megs.

The design brief was for a single piece combined spine with handle to replace the nylon handle supplied with the unit. The spine was to add weight to the unit with an upper bias to assist with trim whilst the handle would be a resilient and convenient lifting point whilst enabling neat hose routing.

The handle was to be low profile and a closed loop so as not to be an entanglement hazard.

Finally the handle had to be angled in such a way that it cleared the O2 feed without obstruction.

We gave our measurement's to John who used his expert knowledge of working with SS to adjust our design into something which would be strong enough and actually weld.

Within a couple of days we had them and they worked perfectly, taking all the abuse that Egyptian boat crews could throw at them. I have now been using the handle for 3 months in all sorts of environments from Malta to Scapa and it has performed perfectly, it's kept it's shape, it takes the weight and it is very, very useful.

It adds approx 800g to the unit so I don't need to wear a weight belt and it really helps with the Megs trim.

A big thanks to John for doing a great job, getting it exactly right at the first attempt and delivering it so quickly.

Contact Kent Tooling for further details.

Meg Handle Rear


Meg Handle Front


Meg Handle on a fully rigged unit

[Juz]

Originally Posted by Rob Dobson

Would the hoses not route better through the handle? Or when wearing the unit, do the t-pieces significantly lift in relation to the handle?

Juz

[Rob Dobson]

Originally Posted by Juz

Would the hoses not route better through the handle? Or when wearing the unit, do the t-pieces significantly lift in relation to the handle?

Juz

That picture is just to illustrate the handle in relation to the top of the wing. In that picture the hoses are routed through the handle but without a person in the rig the CL's are just flat which distorts the whole thing.

I'll see if I can dig out a photo with someone wearing a rig with the handle.

[windymiller]

Are they on the KT websit and whats the cost?

[Rob Dobson]

Originally Posted by Juz

Would the hoses not route better through the handle?

Do you mean route the loop through the handle? That wouldn't work as you'd risk kinking the loop.

Originally Posted by windymiller

Are they on the KT websit and whats the cost?

I can't see them on the website yet and with the price Stainless rising all the time I don't know what the current price is. I'm sure John will be along shortly to tell us.

[scribley]

Originally Posted by Juz

Would the hoses not route better through the handle? Or when wearing the unit, do the t-pieces significantly lift in relation to the handle?

Juz

Yes, the T-pieces do significantly lift when wearing the unit. The hoses come pretty much straight over the top of the handle when wearing it.