Posts by Wishihadgills

I prefer 9/32 for all around shafts but if you know the limitations the 5/16 will work just fine for grouper and lobster.

Thats the first time ive seen the website but Nile-Tec makes the Speardiver triggers.

In hindsight after already having an incident with my mask getting snagged, going into the barge probably wasn't the most intelligent decision. Although at the time I dont remember even thinking twice about it. Shaft was stuck, so I went in. Not bad for my first time. Definitely not as intimidating as it looked in other videos.

While the mask thing was a bit scary it would have been much worse if it would have been completely by surprise. I noticed it was snagged before it completely flooded and then made a choice to take it off. I definitely would prefer if that didn't happen again though.

Ok heres the aforementioned video. It has Some of the barge diving and the best clips from the turtle and manta.

The Barge - YouTube

Watch in full 1080.

I think I just found my new avatar.

Ill get on that video. There are some awesome scenes

Hey Dan, can you add this to the gun building 101 thread?

Its the indian not the arrow.

Thats probably fine. Ive seen them close, far and non existent but they are usually on the opposite side of the line release.

Nice clip. That vis is amazing. I really like the shot of the divers at the surface at the 2:41 mark.

Quote from tufual

i have used 3m 5200 as well with great success , only downside is my tube was white which could mess with your colour scheme

They make a black version also. The thing that annoyed me is once you open it you have to use it. It will cure in the tube after you open so buy the smallest you can get.

I used 3M 5200 and it worked perfectly. I think adhesive is a better option than the screw.

you can use good ole duct tape to hold it on while you test ballast but it wont make a "huge" difference. Out of curiosity how were you planning on attaching it?

Since you're going to put a nice big rubber loading pad on the back you have a nice spot for lead right in the butt of the gun. However, I would expect the ballast for your gun will have to go pretty close to the midway point of your gun depending on your shaft diameter and overhang.

Also just a tip when trying to determine the trim you can use less weight the closer you get to either end.

I used Woodguy's method for my gun. It works really well and is pretty simple. Its usually pretty easy to figure out about where the lead is going to be before you even put it in the water.

Personally I like my gun to sing as slowly as possible, that way if I let go of it for a second it doesn't sink off into the deep.

My first gun was fairly thin with a rear handle plus layout, because of the shaft overhang and the extra wood behind the mech my gun was a little nose heavy. I ended up putting about .75 oz in the but of the gun. to balance it but because I was using a 5/16" shaft then gun sunk without much extra weight. Of course a rear handle or mid-handle layout will be different.

Tufual to answer your question yes you can. A company Ulusub makes a reel that I use and it comes with a metal plate to keep your guns balance when the reel is off. Using an external weight comes with the added intricacy of shape and aesthetics. Just make sure the shape doesn't catch the shooting line and it should be fine.

I found out pretty quickly that I don't change the rigging on my guns very often. I end up getting/building a gun for each role. I bet I'm not the only one here that does that either.

If you want to help prevent a tear out you can wrap the area you are drilling/cutting with blue painters tape and just drill/cut through it.

It's incredible how much of a difference the round-over makes. I did mine after I applied the epoxy but the epoxy wont make much of a difference. It will add a little weight but wont affect the trim.

Looks good. Now for the frustrating part lol.

On my gun I did individual holes but a round-over bit for a router works well for the band holes. I actually put the bit in a drill press and did each hole. It worked pretty well.

I would go with 9/16 hole size and closer to 2.5" long. It doesnt sound like a big difference but its a PITA to get a 5/8 band in a 1/2" hole. Its doable but tough. Also the more the bands stay deformed (crammed in a hole) the faster they wear out.

As for the location the higher the better. The closer to in line with the spear the less muzzle flip.

Quote from Reefchief

Xan, I'm not sure i do but I can describe it a bit better. The portion of the track sticking out was basically flawless since it was able to contract as it cooled. When i was almost finished flattening the track i noticed random white lines going down the middle of it. Then, when I cut it with the ball mill, these cracks chipped out in a bunch of spots. It seems like where the track interfaced with the wood it wanted to contract as it cooled but couldn't because the sides of the track we're epoxied to the wood. So it separated down the middle in random cracks instead. A smaller half pour into he same hole (routed the cracks out) with very little overpour resulted in a perfect pour.

Thats weird. Im not sure why that happened. I've poured tracks that are over 3/4" thick with no problems. Maybe it was the set time of the epoxy you were using or the lack of micro fibers. Either way it looks like it turned out nicely.

Do you have any pics of the stress fracture you're describing?