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I don't follow either. Can you post a pic? I have another thought as well. I was pondering the use of a thin aluminum "crimp" for lack of a better word, that could reach around from the outside of the foot pocket extension (is this the tendon?) and grab the inside of the rail.

Is there anything else I can try in the short term until you have more rail kits? I obviously don't want to do anything that would keep me from making a propper repair with new rails later. Does anyone know of an adhesive that might work better than 3M 5200 for this application?

I'm sure that I will not get the terminology right, so you may need to skip ahead to the pics to see what I mean. I've got a pair of Omer foot pockets and some (I think) bat 30 blades. A friend acquired them for me a while back, but somewhere in their previous life, someone trimmed the outsides of the rails. So now, the extensions of the footpockets don't stay in place on the rails. I tried gluing them with 3M 5200, after cleaning with alcohol. the 5200 stuck well to the fin rails, but not to the foot pocket extensions. What can I do?

Dan, didn't you have rail kits for sale at one time? Could I remove the existing rails, and glue on new ones?

Quote from seahunter49

Besides I love that kind of structure, barnacle encrusted metal skeletons.

As amazing as the blue water was for it's own strengths, they were telling me that there are usually more of the reef fish on rigs where the visibility isn't quite so good. "Clean green" is how they referred to the water, I think.

Something else that was wierd. Althought the water was very clear, there were lots of pieces of floating grass about. Not the scuzzy snot that I am used to, but larger, defined pieces. So many, though, that the visibility (in places) was not as unlimited as it seemed it would be based on the water clarity. It seemed to be this way mostly close to the rigs, with clearer water out a couple hundred yards where we started the drifts.

Quote from seahunter49

Did it give you a good fight? I like handling the float line on a fish in open water. You may have had to keep it from going back into the rig? I read the cudas there can go up to 60lb.

It was not at all what I expected. At the time, I was about 100 yds away from the rig, so it wasn't hard to keep him out of it. I was surprised that he immediately dove straight down to the length of the floatline (75' or so). My next learning was that safely handling 75' of limp floatline at the surface is more difficult than it looks. There was no current, so the floatline stayed bunched up around me as I pulled it up. Although this was not an exceptionally large fish (maybe 25 lbs), I was very conscious that it could hurt me if I became tangled in the floatline due to my inexperience. I was also making a mental note that I would have to do better if/when I ever shot a larger fish.

This was early in the trip, and I was steadily adjusting my weightbelt and wetsuit to try and get my buoyancy and trim right. I don't have a freediving wetsuit, so I was trying either half of my farmer-John scuba suit. It took me a little while to find a combination that didn't tend to float me straight up vertical in the water.

Quote from seahunter49

Don't tell me you didn't shoot a big cuda.

As a matter of fact, I did shoot one! I popped my head out of the water on the second rig to remark to Chad (who was minding the boat) that there were barracuda everywhere. "So shoot one", he says. I was so excited, that I forgot to ask how I should handle him once I got him up close! I just swam him over to the boat, careful to mind the business end, where Chad gaffed him and removed the spear in the boat. How do you guys handle them?

I shot my little bay gun on the weedlines, where I was expecting closer shots at smaller fish. I got a tripletail, but whiffed on a little chicken dolphin that knew better and wouldn't hold still. Around the rigs, where the possibility of a much larger fish existed, I borrowed one of Chad's longer guns outfitted with a floatline.

I finally got a chance to see what this "freediving" fad is all about.

There were three of us on Chad's boat. Blue water was in close, so we left from Venice, LA, and spent last Saturday and most of Sunday hopping from rig to rig looking for tuna and wahoo, and slept on the boat at night. No success with the pelagics, but I can say without hesitation that it was the most amazing dive experience of my life. I had two great divers to learn from, and quickly felt very confident at 40' around the rigs where I had plenty of visual references to monitor my progress. I could feel myself getting a little more nervous diving in open blue water, with no bottom in sight, where I was not as certain of my depth. I was also on the front end of a little head cold, and had a bit of trouble clearing at times. So I just kept diving around the 40' mark, trying to get more comfortable with that instead of edging deeper.

I really just couldn't believe it. Floating on the surface in sees less than 1', you could see 80' down the rig, and it just keeps going for several hundred feet from there. Some of the floating rigs were in over 1000' of water. There were schools of barracuda too numerous to count, approaching to within a few feet. Rainbow runners were thick everywhere. Amorous little sharks, and tropicals all over the barnacle encrusted steel, all just an arm's length away.

Bill and Chad shot some almaco jacks and mangrove snapper, but a little deeper than I could go. We also managed a mahi and half a dozen small tripletails on some loose weedlines. I really wish I had a camera for the weedlines. They were absolutely covered with juvenile fish, and it was amazing to me that you could recognize triggers, jacks, mahi and others as miniature adults just a few inches long.

I can't stop thinking about it . . .

I posted this question there as well: Does anyone know why state waters in the Gulf extend 9 miles, and in the Atlantic extend 3 miles? It's inconsistant even among bordering states, as Alabama's state waters extend only 3 miles into the GOM.

I always wondered if one possible strategy in fisheries management would be for States to extend (or at least make consistant) their territorial waters. Thereby putting more of the resource management in the hands of the State Government.

If it were just for me, that is exactly what I would do. But there is a lot more machining time in a muzzle, and I could never duplicate some of the three dimensional craziness of some designs. Making these is pretty straightforward, and this approach gives people the flexibility to use whichever open or closed muzzle they like best. At least that was my thinking, but feel free to challenge it.

My sanity is fragile enough already! I actually went back to the original pics before I remembered who I'm dealing with! In this case, "pressed" would indeed be "hammered". My vise wouldn't quite open wide enough. I suppose the more accurate term would be "interference" fit.

I wonder if one possibility might be a line guide that attaches with one of the four attachment screws for the spike? Sold separately, of course . . .

It's is a press fit, with the drilled hole in the plastic 0.015" smaller than the outside diameter of the stainless rod. This was to eliminate the need for any additional pins, threads, etc. to hold the spike in place. If you look carefully in the most recent pics, you will see a tiny vent hole in the back of the plastic to vent the trapped air from the hole while I insert the rod. I tried to remove the rod from the very first prototype that I made, to re-use it in one of my first three "production" versions, and ended up having to slice the Delrin completely away to remove it.

That's certainly one option, but as we've said before, "Everything is a compromise." <img src= " height="23" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x">

For example, if I weld it to the spike, then will that present any problems for someone who wants to rotate the spike to one side? The extra material would be trivial, but it also makes assembly considerably more time consuming ($$), and adds another failure point that does not presently exist. As always, a balance between cost and function. Maybe I could do it as an option, if requested?

You have a point there. It is also possible to mount the spike off center, instead of directly under the gun, if that would help. I was hoping that rotating it about 45° to the left would generally keep it away from the shooting line, without adversely affecting the balance of the gun too badly, but I hadn't thought about people running the line through the guide.

I will have to think a bit on how a line guide could be added to the spike.

I just mailed these to a few eager testers yesterday, so hopefully I will get some installed pictures back in a couple days. I went with flat bottomed "counterbored" screw holes, instead of the standard countersink design, as added insurance that tightening the screws won't crack the Delrin. I forgot to weigh one, but calculated weight of the stainless spike is 45g, so the whole thing probably weighs in the neigborhood of 60g (about 2 oz.) in air.

Apply flame to the inside of the mask only, or to both sides?

I have an Alien that hasn't even been wet yet. I know about toothpaste, but what is the "lighter" treatment?

Ahh. I misunderstood.

There is a pretty good correlation between hardness, and ultimate tensile strength. A hand-held hardness tester could then be used as a portable and non-destructive way to compare shafts. Pricey though.

Here's the problem with simply applying a weight between two centers. All normal steels, at least within the range we're talking about, have nearly the same "modulus of elasticity". That means that they will stretch (or bend) about the same amount under a given load. Spring steels, however, will allow you to continue adding more load and will bend FURTHER before they yield and take a permanent set.

If you want to measure the stress at which a metal will yield, you have to pull it harder and harder and note the point at which it gives.

I'm still looking for a "jealousy" emoticon. <img src= " height="23" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x"> Looks like you guys had a great trip. I've never shot a baracuda, so I'm curous. How did he bend your shaft? Do they just go berzerk, or did he get into some sort of structure?

I appreciate the effort, but please don't screw up your gun just to satisfy my curiosity!