Help! Which came first?

[Digger]

No-one ever? Jeez, I've never been the first at anything!

But sounds like most places are wrong turning away homebuild divers then...

I suppose it's the very small number of homebuilders and their attitude to the units that probably keeps them alive. I've made so many decisions and changed them before they've actually come to happen because I know that the unit is basically keeping me alive, and that scares me quite a lot!

[Andrew H]

Possibly because homebuilt divers have given so much thought to what could go wrong, and will be hypersensitive to any potential problem. As we have seen recently here, it is essential to test your new rebreather while playing Farcry or mowing the lawn before entering the water! Far be it from me to have a dig at the homebuilders, although people would use the word "brave" I'm sure that it doesn't enter the equation. I would love to join the homebuild movement but there are simply too many priorities at the moment. Maybe in a few years time... Maybe I'll be single again... Win the lottery...

Andrew

[narked at 90]

Originally Posted by Andrew H

Possibly because homebuilt divers have given so much thought to what could go wrong, and will be hypersensitive to any potential problem. As we have seen recently here, it is essential to test your new rebreather while playing Farcry or mowing the lawn before entering the water! Far be it from me to have a dig at the homebuilders, although people would use the word "brave" I'm sure that it doesn't enter the equation. I would love to join the homebuild movement but there are simply too many priorities at the moment. Maybe in a few years time... Maybe I'll be single again... Win the lottery...

Andrew

I've have spent months just looking at my Rb and just contemplating what i wanted to do to turn it into a ccr and my reasons for doing it the way i had,
it was said on the unveiling day by SIMON A that some of the changes i made where done many times before me,you where right Simon but i did it for my own reasons and did it my own way just because you see some thing in the same place as someone else doesn't mean it is the same!all the components that you don't see are made by me with my reasoning behind them,
anyone can build a rebreather! but it doesn't mean every one should.
if you don't weigh thing up first, there can be a lot of very upset people around after you've done your self in,think very carefuly why you are doing this and be under no illusion these things will try and kill you.
i think for most of the home builders I've meet over the years they have an attitude of exploration and inventiveness about them,most of the time more than the people who just go and buy something off the shelf,
people seem to put there trust in some thing just because some one else made it and you can buy one in a shop!
there is a lot of good home builds out there and perhaps we should not call them home builds because a lot of these thing are not some thing you can knock up just like that, even the most simple ones can be very involved,as your life depends on it,so you try your best to get it right first time.....never happens!
but with all the thought and planning that goes into a Rb it's no wonder the builders tend to say alive as you know it's going to try and kill you if it can,
and your not under the spell of it must be OK as I've just brought it and its been tested, when you your the test dummy you are hyper sensitive and need to be.
john routley


sorry...

went off on a ramble to my self!

[Digger]

Fair points John and Andrew. I do see a lot of people coming out with "bugger me you guys must be brave" and thinking not. For the large part, I am taking a risk I understand, and I'm comfortable with. Especially with this thing. When it works, it's beautiful, when it doesn't, it's very obvious. Which is useful for me. It also means that any doubt in my mind, and I'm going home fast. I know how badly it can go wrong, so I stay super-cautious. Only last weekend I got out after 10 minutes because of a bit of gurgling that was no problem last time, because now I understand how close I am to getting cocktailed (hence the twin hoses and stupid questions!)

I'm about to make some mods, but the more I think about them, the more I see them as unnecessary for an O2 unit, which is why it's getting modified some more to make a nitrox unit, and then on to mix etc. hopefully. No point overcomplicating it, but it needs certain things to make it safe now.

A lot of the designs have been done before, there are very few original ideas, but a lot of thought goes into coming to the same conclusions as other before. I've done things others have, but for different reasons. Mostly cost. So far the RB has cost £45 minus gas costs for testing, and hopefully I can keep it under the £100 mark, but as soon as a needle valve or ppO2 monitoring go on, it's going to skyrocket. So I'd better be damned sure that's what I want before I get started!!!