Successful testing

[Digger]

Don't know if John's got round to posting on today's pootling about, but some of you may have noticed I'm still alive, so personally I'm taking today's test dives to be a success.

First dive we just dropped in with John on his little puppy and me on the twins, nice pootle about, the usual tour.

Second dive the breather went in with the twins. Quite a nice setup to be honest. THe cluttered chest area wasn't the end of the world, and most of the setup with the twins was ok. I might need to think carefully about how to hogloop a hose around a counterlung, but other than that it's a goer.

Came out and had a look inside OBOD (The orange bag o'death) and the scrubber was a fair bit damp. To be expected, as there's not a great water-trap going on. Some mods needed, but not that many. Still, verdict went that it was diveable, and we'd do another. Which we did.

Third dive was another potter about in 6m of water. All ok, except for a bit of gurgling. Down to the moisture thinks little me. Well, after the gurgling became a bit louder, I decided it was time to go home. Nothing serious, but I don't think OBOD wanted to play any more. Up we came (the whole 5m) and off for a post-mortem (on the breather, not me). TUrns out there was a fair bit of juice flowing through the scrubber, and it was time to can diving for the day anyway.

So, some way of stopping the sofnolime turning to mush is in order, and a few other bits. A better spring while I'm in the early stages of learning how to pack the scrubber and so on I think is in order. Probably just a sprung plate, should be able to knock it up with my DIY skills in 3-4 years. Might need to do something in the immediate, so this weekend I'll be off to B&Q's rebreather section (they must hide this, but Duncan says there's one, maybe I need a gold card or something) to see what I can see.

Other than that, it was very nice to be able to do 15 minutes on a 3 using less than 10 bar of gas, and about 35 minutes on a 3 using probably 20! All very fun, and to be repeated soon.

ppO2 monitoring is overrated if you ask me. Once I can see what's in there, I'll get crazy ideas about wanting to put other stuff in there, and that will lead to a nitrox rebreather and probably more depth. Oh dear. I think staying at <6m is a very useful way of learning how this thing is going to try and kill me, and tame the beast somewhat. Oh, and it's convenient Stoney's got a 6m shelf too!

Well, I live to dive another day. DIY on the horizon, but it's still going, and the costs are still pretty minimal. I'm loving it. That said, I have been lucky enough to be helped no end by John and Duncan, and their advice and bits of kit to fix OBOD will not be forgotten any time soon.

Please no red blobs, Please no red blobs, Please no red blobs, Please no red blobs, Please no red blobs,

Digs.

[Juz]

Pics please mate!

Juz

[Digger]

John's the man that can with those, I think he's on film not digital so could be a few days (no big rush John, I know I probably broke the camera with that cheezy grin!).

There will be some though. Give it time...

[Narked@50]

Digger, your a maniac! and I mean that in the nicest posible way.

There is no way in hell you would get me into the water on a DIY BOD, regardless of colour. You will have to get extra stiching in the dry suit groin area to handle those expanding bollocks of your.

I am definately impressed you've got this far, take it easy and don't do anything silly, not that you would do anything like that, would you!?!?

James

[narked at 90]

Originally Posted by Juz

Pics please mate!

Juz

juz i took pic's today but there on 35mil so need time to proses

the start plan was to take my breather down to the bottem36m with digs as chaperon but things with me were not right or may have been the breather but i wasn't happy and was getting confused a little past 23m?????????????? so came up a little then did the tour which was fine and dandy
finished the dive in happy spirits apart from hadn't completed what i wanted but all in all i think that was better as i could see problems coming on.

digs went to his car to pick up the obod which we had a look over and decided to give him a new fill of sofnolime so we rule out as many problems as possible before we get in the water, filled his 3lt with o2 from the van, and after a lotr of messing with the scrubber which is very critical with the filling as it has to be nearly mill perfect to seal properly, we do some checks 'pos and neg' a few leaks! but apart from that
he'll be good.....fingers crossed....
we get in the water on the slip way so we can take it slow and easy,
give a few OK's and slowly drop below the surface a few more OK's as we settle on the bottom a 4.5 m.
i notice digs is leaking! 1 leak from a dump valve on the lung HAS TO SORTED as there's a steady leak and a another from the mouth piece that could do with a good coat of glue!!
but all in all digs looked happy and very tecty with all that gire and he got some very curios looks when we where kitting up:-)i think the old timers were just reminiscing!!
the dive finished after 30 Min's with no problems>>>apart from digger play dead on me.....not very funny as he stops moving then slowly rolls ever face up arms out floating..........i go straight to his mask and look at him to see him bright eye and bushy tailed with a little smile.......next time you try that one you'll get the Polaris missile treatment and be sent up;-) shortly after we finished the dive.
blood great he survived!!

luck really as we emptied out a good pint or two of cocktail from the lung and inspected the scrubber which is pretty much soaked.

after a wile it was time to review the situation and think about what we wanted to do about the next dive.
oh dear!
the first dive on the o2breather was with digs on his twins with the breather slung over his front,but with the twins as bail out and bouionce
the second dive he wanted to go all but naked! no twins no bouioncy just the lungs and breather.....sorry..nooo...you'll take a 3lt sling with inflater,
this dive for me is a little on the edge as we know it's leakling and he's only 21" away from a cocktail!
this dive only lasted 15mins before the gurges were to bad to carry on....
well servived my man!!!!
digger i'll help in any way i can and by the way i've got ya hood and gloves
pm me your address and when they are dry i'll send them to you!
digger i'll dive with you any test any dive just dont dont do the belly up again!!
best regards john routley

[Mark Chase]

Take it easy M8 your balls are bigger than your will to live

Is this a partial loss breather al la RB80 or a full CCR?

If its a CCR for christ sake invest in some form of PP02 monitar

ATB

Worried of Maidstone

[Digger]

Well, it's a CCR, but only an O2 unit. Basically, it's pure O2 in there, and the CO2 gets taken out, so I'm back to pure O2 again. Takes a couple of flushes to behave itself, but once she's going, she's a beauty. ppO2 monitor would be handy, but this is only for 6m and less, so even if I'm breathing 16-20% O2 I'm still ok. Chances it will get that low are minimal, I lose a fair bit of gas through my nose at the mo so it's getting flushed reasonably regularly. I tried Duncan's D5 on pure O2 so I could get a feel for how much O2 I was using, and the important factor seems to be offgassing from earlier dives or if using the thing for deco. Nitrogen you can actually see! It's very interesting to see just how much N2 you can produce after a very short dive, this is obviously sped up a bit by breathing high ppO2, but still a fun exercise only really possible on an RB.

I should really have given you a signal before lying on my back. It was very funny for a while mind! Good to see you were Johnny on the spot when needed. Can't have been more than about 2 seconds before you were waving at me.

James, to be honest most of the DIY units I've seen so far are either designed specifically for a certain job (the D5 sidemount RB and P1SS) or are modified units (John's Drager and similar) which once explained to you I think you'd be happy to dive. I'd certainly go in on any of the units I've seen so far, and a lot of them are better than the off-the-shelf units for various reasons. That said, a lot of the DIY guys are slightly unhinged. I don't consider myself in that particular category, but I think the second dive yesterday might have been a mistake. The scrubber was damp enough to be an issue ptentially, and calling the dive there was probably what I should have done. John did suggest it, but I (being my usual self) didn't take the opportunity.

The leak in the mouthpiece will be fixed tonight, the dump vlave I'm looking around. Might have to trade it for one off another bit of kit which isn't so leak-critical!

Oh, and there's a fine line between bravery and stupidity, and I think I know which side of it I'm on. I'm happy to play around with this thing, but I do understand the risks. I wouldn't do it if I didn't. Once I've made the bit I want, I'll have a much better way of keeping water out too. And then I can bail onto and off it much more easily.

Now, time to check for red blobs again.

[Reeve]

Some pictures and a unit breakdown (including pic's) would be very interesting to read as an aspiring CCR diver myself who's considering which route to take.

gareth

[Digger]

It's a copy of the P1SS, so try http://www.sump4.com/rebreather/ to ess roughly what I've done. There are some mods to make right now, I'm not too happy with the push-pull operation, and I'd rather have a loop so I know that all the gas is getting scrubbed. Some CO2 I'm ok with, but not if the scrubber's not doing it's job properly too. With the current leaky situation, it's better I think that way.

The only difference at the moment is the reg I've used has an OC reg on it, and 6" hose and small gauge, just because I don't like those buddy things. The OC reg is a sort of bail-out. As I see it, if I'm getting a CO2 hit (which is the most likely way it's going to go tits up if you ask me) then I want as many regs available as possible. Preferably with high O2 content. It also means that when I'm using the unit for deco I can carry my 6s as per usual using the RB basically to save O2 and keep me warm, and if there's a problem I deco out as per normal. It could be fun mounting the twins, a couple of stages and the RB, but then it could be kinda fun too. All I need now is a scooter...

[narked at 90]

Originally Posted by Reeve

Some pictures and a unit breakdown (including pic's) would be very interesting to read as an aspiring CCR diver myself who's considering which route to take.

gareth

i've taken some pics of the units but will take me some time to get processed but i'll post them with diggers permision!
hey digger i've been clearing out the work shop and found some old fenzys in good nick with 1lt tank plus a very old mask that should make you look the part if you would like them for a new project breather!!
and there's a twin hose and mouth piese with the mushroom valves which you could use to compleat a full loop! the only problem would be that you cant close it if you bail
would you like them??
cheers mate
john routley