Posts by Dan

Did you know that a boat/trailer combination over 3000lb by Florida law requires brakes on every wheel? That's 4 hydraulic brakes if you have a 2 axle trailer. I never knew about this mainly because I never heard of it being enforced. Now I understand they nail people for this sort of thing regularly on the way to the keys.

I think one of the reasons there may not be a lot of focus on it is because boat trailer brakes go bad quickly because of the salt water, some people even disconnect them. I wasn't happy about the prospect of doing a lot of maintenance on brakes, so I researched the topic and discovered these Kodiak all stainless steel brakes. They're supposed to last a long time. Here's the best price I found Kodiak Trailer Slip On Disc Brake Kit ALL STAINLESS STEEL 5 Lug.

French canadian tickler? :laughing4:

That console looks like it belongs on an imperial battle cruiser

How deep was that Philippe?

Where's the double in the vid?

All looks very good.

Congratz! and nice pic.

It may sit too low in the water with that diameter pipes, and the stretched fabric will create drag.

All I have are the pictures.

I don't know how this behaves in the water. I've thought of using a sealed PVC tube of larger diameter as a simple float, but this takes it a step further. Very ingenuitive with lots of possibilities for modification and rigging.

Mike, you can't do it at home in any way that would last. It's a factory process done in sheets, which in itself takes knowhow to get right.

Just curious if it's a new suit or old suit that delaminated?

Gecko, neoprene glue is only for rough neoprene to rough neoprene. Not Nylon or Lycra to neoprene.

Those fish with the flat bodies pull hard, how did you hold on to the gun?

Bienvenido a spearfishing world.

I like how this stuff works, brings back old vinyl/rubber/plastic making them look like new and purportedly protects new parts making them last longer.

Insane cable action! :grin:

I don't get it Hank, that looks like one Yamaha saltwater series 225 or 250, should be 4 stroke and a good motor.

Congratz. Is this like your boat?

Nice pic. What kind of boat is it George?

Cool dog.

I haven't tested enough shafts to share results. I just whipped up this test last night, I felt a shaft from a particular manufacturer was too soft and needed to prove it without a Rockwell test.

Quote from Silentstoning

One more thing to add regarding accuracy. To say mass dictates, I feel is a misstatement.

I said

Quote

Speargun power (band load) is dictated by its mass.

By that I mean; how much you can power up a gun before it becomes erratic depends on it's mass. Any speargun worthy of consideration will have the grip as close as possible to the plane of travel of bands and shaft, this is the single most important factor IMO. Other design elements such as raising the bands, flatter horizontal profile for the stock, enclosed track/deep tack, and even minutia such as tapering the ends of the bands, are nice but all negligible towards that end. A roller speargun design probably controls recoil better than all those combined, but who wants to dive with that mess. If this wasn't the case then simple aluminum tube spearguns like Rob Allen would simply not work.

To me design elements for a reef speargun make sense when they make the gun compact and easy to carry/maneuver in a loaded state, for example allowing the bands to stack nicely. Quick and easy/comfortable loading, for example a deep or enclosed track guiding the shaft into the mech, auto resetting line release and simple shooting line routing. Durable with less probability of any of the parts failing. And of course aesthetically pleasing. All that done there's a reasonable range and accuracy that I expect from the speargun; a 7mm (9/32") shaft powered by 2 x 16mm small ID bands with 120cm band stretch to be able to hit a 2lb fish at the end of one wrap of line. That's it.

More band power would mean that I'm going after big fish, lets say 60lb and up, that are easier to hit towards the limit of the speargun's range because they present a larger target, and require deep penetration at that distance. This means a heavier shaft and more bands, and for a speargun to not lose accuracy in this situation it must have more mass. Unless I'm specifically targeting big fish I don't want lug around a big speargun. And that's not to say that if handled correctly a lighter gun can't take big fish.

While I stated that I'm not specifically testing for hardness (which would be done with a Rockwell test) for our purposes hardness and bend resistance are closely enough related to make my test valid for hardness also. A shaft that performs well in my test will inherently be stiff enough as a speargun projectile.

An enclosed track to me is about ease of use and an aesthetically pleasing element of the spearguns design. It's not about allowing me to overpower a gun and controlling shaft whip. Speargun power (band load) is dictated by its mass.

If the shaft does get slowed down by an ET it's not significant enough to trump the other benefits of an ET. I'm about feeling comfortable and unencumbered in the water, increasing my stalking skills and getting closer to the fish. Not stressing over adding 3ft to the speargun's range at the expense of ease of use. Same reason I'm not interested in the roller design. Which BTW is now apparently obsolete with the advent of reverse rollers

What useful measurement/result will you get if you don't bring the shaft to the bending point? Deflection in itself is irrelevant because the ideal shaft is one that would flex endlessly without acquiring a permanent bend.