Posts by Don Paul

    Makes sense. Maybe we should wax our shafts like Americas Cup racing yachts wax their hulls?


    Funny you should say that... after heat treat I have my shafts polished, Twenty years ago I welded some Ti
    Comp guns for friend. We found some great teflon tape that we stuck on the barrel.


    If you start with small changes ie; Ballistic shaped tips, with cleanly faired in wings and low profile thin tabs,
    and unkinked mono cleanly swedged to hide behind the shaft, the small changes add up.


    I know you guys want pics but my EX ended up with my new digital cam.:rolleyes:
    Cheers, Don

    Found this mono wheel at bass pro shops made for mono leaders. It was $1.99, 6.5 inches diameter.


    Has holes at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock with slits that allow the shark fins to go through and a tight squeeze if used on the flopper side. I have 15ft of line in it but it can easily hold 2 wraps.



    I use the same ones, I even store my shafts this way until the weekend diving begins.
    Hey while I have you on the phone.^^
    If you make you mono loop longer as to tuck the swage behind the end of the shaft you'll get more laminar
    flow. Did you know the mat camo finish on the P51 killed a small percentage of top speed ?
    Cheers, Don

    Welcome and THANK YOU for your service mate,:thumbup:
    There's a lot of good freedive clubs up there, what is the general area you will be diving?
    Cheers, Don Paul

    Welcome Oneshot.:thumbup: Theirs a nice bunch of guy's here. Take your time freediving, " it's not the
    destination, its the journey''.
    All the best, Don Paul

    yeah friend, I have been flying in the face of clean-shaven divers from the first day.


    beards are fine, it is the moustache that gets you...a bit of vasaline will help the mask seal well on even the hairiest lip :)


    Hey, I can see spearing that fish in your avatar... but why are you yelling at it?^^^^;)
    another thing that works on a stach is dry suit zipper wax.
    Cheers, Don


    Mass is a good thing once you get it moving, a 3/8 shaft powered by 5 hi modulus bands can do a lot of
    work. If one launches a Ti shaft greater than 15' you will find impact energy values drop off quickly.


    Seawater has a density about 900 times greater than air, yes using a tip with poor hydrodynamic profile
    will have a large effect on speed on a light shaft.


    Off to work. Don

    Here are a couple progress shots of a gun I'm working on for a friend.


    I'm happy with this new way (for me) of making muzzles where the stock gets wrapped with multiple layers of carbon fiber to build up a super strong cross section which allows for individual band holes with band change slots. I also like the look of carbon all the way to the front.


    Great looking gun, very nice cross section. You are a master with the CF:thumbup:
    Someday I envision you claying a tube with cocked bands to produce a CF masterpiece with faired in
    hydrodynamic power bands that hardly touch the barrel. I love your work.:thumbup:
    Cheers, Don


    Hi Chad, I type really slow as I have a broken R hand. I'll share some things but give me some time.
    I have a lot of very close friends in the gun building industry and alot of what I have learned is in the
    personal guns I build for myself. I'll try to get my scanner on line next week most, of my images are pre-digital.
    Gun are a little like religion, many different beliefs to the chosen path.
    All the Best, Don

    Dan, it's called spline cycle, it about selecting the correct arrow spline for the wt of the bow. The arrow
    bends around the noch and eventually go's into straight flight.
    Cheers, Don

    I wonder if anyone has ever setup a high speed (super slow motion) camera underwater. It sure would be nice to be able to see what is happening during the firing of a speargun. When watching an arrow shot from a bow is super slow motion, I was stunned at how much the arrow was bent. I wouldn't be surprised to see that there are things going on that we didn't fully expect - especially with "high power" guns.


    Jeff, if you want to come over sometime soon, we could take some video that will at least show whether or not the front of our guns are kicking up during the shot. One of us can film the side of the gun while the other shoots at the target. I have a new HD underwater video camera which might capture some decent data. You need to pull the trigger on the hybrid don't you?


    I have lots of pool tests shot on Hi 8 and 8mm film but I would need to get permission to post on the
    web. I used to use a spring scale and blue grease to measure shaft energy at the end of the wire rope.
    later on some guys were using mono with precision black marks and a bar code reader feeding a lap top.This
    gave good data on shaft velocity. Shite :0:0 this is sounding too much like work.... now where is that bikini
    thread?^^^^ FWIW my bands are on the same axis of symmetry as the thumb and index finger of my
    gun handle.
    Cheers, Don

    Your handwriting says your a Doctor not a Engineer. ^^^^
    My gun is as heavy as a crow bar, it helps me get down fast and muzzle flip is not an issue.^^^^
    Hey I hope you know I just joking about the handwriting.^^
    Cheers, Don Paul

    Welcome David, Austin is a great place..... and the home of Steve Ray Vaughn.:thumbup:
    Cheers, Don Paul