Posts by Reefchief

The suit looks sick I can't wait to use it this weekend. The pretty girls don't hurt either .

Thanks for the suggestions hau, I am a little concerned about the lifespan of the paracord and it holding water/sand. But im not really a fan of the mono thing. Ive used it before.

On my other guns I use Dans super strong shooting line dyneema for the gun cord and it works great. I would do that if the paracord doesnt work out or last long. But my hope and intention with the paracord is to weave a little rope out of multiple paracord strands and create a nice thick landyard coming off of the gun for a few inches/feet (with multiple failure points at the same time) If I use dyneema its not going to be a thick and therefor offer a less substantial thing to grab (I find myself grabbing that part of the line to hold the gun below me often)

Im gonna test some of this paracord in the pool and see how soggy it gets and stuff.

Thanks trace. Hopefully my ideas are as good as I think lol but there's only one way to find out

Got the paracord I plan to use on the gun as a lanyard. Going to double it up with a fancy weave of some kind for redundancy. It's black 550 with a reflective strip. Not sure what its going to do for visibility in reality, but it sure does look cool!

Judah and I put in some more work on the judamerieuro 130. We lowered the track and mech a bit and drilled the pins for the mech. I also cut a slot for the trigger. The pins ended up dead nuts where they should be and me and judah rejoiced by drinking a beer.

:ninja:

So now that arguably the worst part is over. Its time to start the handle recesses.

In the mean time Ive been thinking of how I want to address the issue with the line anchor, and also how I want to store the ballast on the gun. Since the double wrap hook is on the muzzle, I have no need for a protrusion. For that reason I wanted a line anchor that was integrated into the gun and so far im thinking about something like this.

The idea is it drops into a slot done with a 5/8 router bit 2mm deep. Below where its cut out I will cut a smooth divot into the gun for looping the shooting line through. The 3 screws should attach the whole thing securely.

Under the other side of the plate I intend to drill a series of circular slots for lead ingots and also maybe have a small compartment that will hold bb's for fine tuning.

Let me know what you guys think of it. More importantly what issues am I missing? Thanks as always for all the input insight and interest.

Welcome, you must really love diving to do it up there :thumbsup2:

Hi Jim welcome to the forums. This forum will teach you a lot of info about spearfishing if you dig in. It was my first tutor until I met other freedive spearos (who i met on here lol) There are lots of broward/miami divers here who may be able to help you out. When do you typically dive? Im in Hollywood, maybe we can do a beach dive sometime and I can show you how its typically done.

Don you are right about the snag possibility. Judah mentioned something as well. I may end up just whacking the line anchor off a installing a normal one. Well see what I can come up with.

Probably going to oil the gun. I wanted to use button heads but couldnt find them at the store. Planning to buy a few online and put them in when i finally put the muzzle in for good.

Thanks guys.

Thanks guys. Getting closer to having to decide what kind of finish to put on it. The decision keeps me up at night but so far oil is in the lead based on some recurring epoxy related nightmares Lolol.

I rigged the gun and it all works great. Really happy with how the muzzle holds the mono. Also loaded it a few times to check how the bands settle, so far so good.

Got a little gift in the mail today. Muzzles! Thanks again Ihab

I had to get to work on the muzzle bending asap. In the end I made a template/mandrel out of wood and my dad and I used the table to bend it against. It worked great.

Somehow my design works and everything fits. The bands pop into place perfectly and look level and great to sight down. In my hand the gun feels great, with the bands making a nice oval that fits in my hand well.

Quote from Oscar

I've only been to five of these

youve been to 5 more then me :laughing::(

Quote from Don Paul

Dam that suit pattern looks great ! What up with the fins?

Cheers, Don

What youre seeing is the reflection of a plastic wetsuit bag on the floor in the shiny fin finish. Took me a minute to realize what was going on lol.

I had to do it...

Quote from LunkerBuster

Okay I'll ask a dumb question. What does a bad epoxy job cause? How bad does it look? Will it still protect the gun?

Mark. After reading the article I would wonder. If you use 5%xylene in the west solutions and put on four or five coats. Don't you think it is better than oil? Even with the reduced impact protection and reduced water resistance it is still better than oil right?

Depends on what you mean by better. I think for water resistance a kept up oil job would be better. I dont really know though. I think the oil penetrates deeper then the epoxy so when it scratches theres more oil left protecting it whereas you quickly get to bare wood with penetrating, even multiple coats, not that it matters so much on teak. Theres also the fact that I could see myself oiling my gun all the time, I enjoy oiling quite a bit actually, whereas mixing up a batch of epoxy and applying it is stressful and annoying to me compared with grabbing a rag and going to town.

Impact resistance I have to imagine is a bit better with penetrating epoxy over oil, but at the same time i read that it makes it more brittle. To me the big negative with penetrating epoxy is that not only are scratches horribly apparent but they are also into the wood completely. With oil the wood scratches but you almost cant see them, with epoxy the wood doesnt scratch but the scratches are visible. Heres what my holegun looks like after some use.

Ihab's coatings are absolutely insane, my memory of Xans is more faded but I recall being blown away by his as well. Besides these two guns and Dans Speardiver guns most epoxy finishes ive seen including many production guns at the blue wild last year are just not up to snuff. I think Xan nailed it when he said the secret is taking the time to do it correctly and that means a lot of work. Meticulous prep, lots of coats, sanding between coats probably a few other things.

Ihab I would love to hear any important processes you're willing to share. Im willing to bet a few others would as well.

Last part says it all

"Does thinning epoxy make sense? In some situations, thinning is appropriate. In others, it is not. We feel that in most circumstances using heat to thin epoxy is preferred to using solvents. As long as the epoxy does not overheat during cure, the full physical characteristics of the cured epoxy remain. Adding solvent is a quick, simple method of thinning epoxy, but the strength and moisture resistance of the cured epoxy are significantly reduced."

So basically if you want thinner natural coats you should heat up regular epoxy not add a solvent.

hahahah perpetrating epoxy. Youre under arrest!

Xan's link makes me never want to use penetrating epoxy.

Quote from LunkerBuster

It has no really bad gouges or anything. Just some scars and scrapes.

But you do have to consider that part of the reason it has no bad gouges could be because epoxy is hard stuff.Teak isnt the sofest wood ever but its definitely not the hardest either. Even an old worn epoxy coat is probably much more protective against damage then oil.

I dont know thats a hard question for me. I plan on keeping these guns a long time, hopefully giving them to my kid etc. So when I think about say, Don Pauls collection of older spearguns and what kind of gun I would like to have in mine I gravitate towards the one that can be restored to its original luster without even messing with the wood. I imagine a 20 year old oiled reef gun would look like a piece of oiled firewood if it kept getting used. Although like you said that does have its own charm.

Cloth can be poked through with enough force, I actually just did it with my trigger (dented it through what I thought was more then enough cloth). But I can just put two pieces of wood in a vice when i clamp it and that works great. My larger concern is doing it by hand (ie put it in a vice and get bending) wont result in exactly the shape i desire, and will be uneven, thats why I would like the create some kind of jig to do it with. I have A bunch of Ihab built hardware on other guns and the stainless he uses is some tough mfing stuff so and in my experience the harder the metal the less easy it is to form exactly how you want. well find out in just a few days what method works best :thumbsup2: for me anyways.

A question I started asking myself after replying to Deanmcs thread. Do I want to epoxy this gun? I love oil for everything except its impact resistance. But with a reef workhorse like this thats a serious issue to consider. I knew my bluewater gun would be a seldom used boatqueen baby, so oil was the perfect choice. But now that im imagining using this gun often, I find myself reconsidering a glossy epoxy finish. One major issue for me with an epoxy finish is my perfectionist nature and the difficulty of achieving a perfect epoxy finish free of bubbbles, runs, fisheyes, hairs, insects etc. But that oil wont be so pretty after a surgey reef gets a hold of that raw teak.

Decisions decisions. Any opinions on the matter are appreciated.

Quote from Wishihadgills

For bending the muzzle I would use a vice and a piece of steel pipe the diameter I want. Then using some vice grips or pliers bend the plate around the pipe (mandrel) until its the right shape.

Im going to basically do that, but use wood as both the mandrel and the pliers to keep the stainless from getting scratched up and also to ensure the proper shape (which will be a few different bends not just a round 180)

Materials themselves cant get around it but like free diving masks design can and in this case I wonder if wood facilitates a lower volume design. This is what I mean about wood allowing the internal volume to be lower. it could even be accidental in that the reason the goggles are thick is because wood is relatively weak compared to hard plastic and has to be thicker.