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Post by scubadiverbob on Aug 27, 2014 16:40:56 GMT -8
Basic two pound weights will fit. Didn't try three pound weights. I stacked them one on top of the other; then, cut a piece of wood the fill the gaps.
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Post by SeaRat on Aug 27, 2014 17:51:12 GMT -8
I have some three pound weights for a weight belt which fit also. You have to test it by putting a tank (single AL 80 or steel 72) onto the unit, then sliding the weights in from the bottom. If they slide without hindrance, and can easily fall out when the gate is released, they will work. You need to put the curve toward the tank to make it work.
I'll be molding some weights for my Nautilus CVS soon, probably next week. After that, you can borrow the mold.
John
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Post by diverdon on Sept 5, 2014 18:44:10 GMT -8
Thanks John,
It turns out I have a pile of 3 pounders that fit the channel just fine. If your mold is for four pound weights I would still like to borrow it as I would prefer to use the weights in the channel vs 12 in the channel and two or three on a belt. With a 7mm farmer john I need just over 12lbs of lead with a 72 and I would be surprised if the CVS doesn't have at least a little positive buoyancy to it. How do you weight yourself compared to a harness and similar tank?
Thanks again,
Don
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Post by SeaRat on Sept 6, 2014 13:42:04 GMT -8
Don, the Dacor Nautilus CVS does not have any positive buoyancy except for the air trapped inside. Without air, it is slightly negative in the water.
How I weight myself with the Dacor Nautilus CVS depends upon the suit I'm wearing. If it's a full suit, I require about 22 pounds of weight. With the Nautilus's channel, the most I could get into it was about 12 pounds, so I needed to use weights on either a weight belt or on the Nautilus's waist strap, which I did once.
It's over 90 degrees here now, so I'm not going to get to the melting of lead today or probably tomorrow. But once I've got the weight mold in use, I hope to produce five four-pound weights for the weight channel. That will give me 20 pounds, which should be close to ideal. The rest I can put onto a weight belt (two three-pounders) if I get into really cold water and need both suits (I have a full suit, and a short suit to wear either under or over that suit).
John
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Post by SeaRat on Sept 8, 2014 18:32:34 GMT -8
Don, Today I converted 25 pounds of fishing weights I have accumulated over the last ten or so years into five Nautilus CVS weights. I'm pretty sure that they are five-pounders, and found that the weight channel won't hold more than four, so I have one extra weight. I'll have some photos a bit later, as they are still in my camera. But I now have the weights, and so the mold will be in the mail to you soon. I used my Coleman propane stove for the first time in many, many years. It lite the first try, even with a propane cylinder which was almost empty--it held enough for me to get the entire number of weights melted. I even had to melt down #5 and do it over as I did not have quite enough molten lead to fill it. I have a number of concerns about melting down lead, fishing weights or other weights, that it not get into the environment. This is why I have been removing it from the Clackamas and Umpqua Rivers for many years (snails rasp on the lead, then other animals eat the snails, so lead gets into the food chain). At the same time, I have concerns for lead getting into the home environment by doing this kind of melting of fishing weights. Lead has low melting and boiling points, and the trick is to get it just warm enough to melt, but not so hot as to vaporize. The residue is highly toxic if it gets into foodstuffs and is eaten, especially by children. Therefore, as an industrial hygienist, I have hesitated for years to make these weights. Today, I was able to successfully do it, and I used several safeguards that I will detail later. Bear in mind that this operation must happen outside (in open air) and not indoors. Use safeguards so as not to expose yourself or your family to lead fumes (fumes are lead vapors which get airborne, then condense into a very small solid that can be easily breathed). Even outside, I used a respirator as there were dirty lead weights which gave off smoke, and that could have contained toxic materials (burning nylon fishing line, for instance--I wasn't able to get all of it off the weights). But I did succeed, which is the main thing, and I know that in an emergency I do have a functioning Coleman stove. Now, I need to get the unit back into the water! John
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Post by diverdon on Sept 8, 2014 19:43:08 GMT -8
Thanks John, I understand the hazards involved and will be sure to protect myself. I believe I have fresh cartridges for my respirator and will take care to avoid contact with skin. And of course the girls will be no where near. I don't have the fishing weights that you have though, but I do have more than enough to fill the channel without breaking down any of my regular weight belts. I too have a Coleman double burner that will work just fine. I recharge 1lb bottles from 20lb tanks as it is more economical to do so. I'm glad to hear that it is slightly negatively buoyant too. Though 20lbs of weight should be more than enough with a 7mm farmer john with hood and mask, I'll be using a Dacor al80 to complete the package during my OW dive with it. A gentleman answered an ad I placed with the local free paper and his items are pictured below. The tank is a T6351 aluminum tank but the local (90 miles away) hydro shop will do a EC test for me and hydro. If it passes I will use it once or twice and either store it low or retire it to display only. Call me a geek but I want to try it out with as much period Dacor stuff as possible. I only hope I can get one of my Olympics tuned up before ice season is back Anyway, Thanks again John. I do appreciate the use of your mold. God forbid your mold should go moldy Don
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Post by SeaRat on Sept 8, 2014 19:52:45 GMT -8
Don,
I just looked up in the Dacor Nautilus Constant Volume System Instructor Manual, and those are actually four 4-pound weights, not 5-pounders. So the channel holds up to 16 pounds. I'll post the photos in a bit. Don, I just shared this document with you on Google Drive, so you can download it.
John
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Post by SeaRat on Sept 13, 2014 14:55:02 GMT -8
Don, The following are the photos of the weight pouring activity I conducted about a week ago. The mold should be to your place next week. Here's the setup and the photos: This shows the setup I used in pouring, with a wood board under the mold so as to catch any splatters. I found it somewhat too narrow, and did have to peel some lead off the stones. Note the use of leather gloves, a full-face respirator (universal cartridge with a HEPA filter), and having a stool to sit on. Those weights are heavy and in the mold, hot; be careful pouring them. The lead came from the tackle box, which was filled with fishing weights. The screwdriver was used to open the mold after pouring, as it expands and is difficult to open. The weights adhered to one side, and had to be pounded on the wood board to get them free. The mold is extremely hot, and you need gloves (leather) to handle it. The pan is one I used in the 1980s when pouring weights, and is dedicated to just that; DO NOT USE THE PAN FOR FOOD OR COOKING AFTER USING IT FOR MELTING LEAD! This shows the mold with one weight still in it. I used a wood chisel to chop off the ends of the lead, extra from the mold. Here are the four weights in the weight chute of the Dacor Nautilus CVS. It holds four 4-pound weights, for a total of 16 pounds in the chute. I will need a bit more than that with a full wetsuit, and so will probably wear a 6-pound weight belt with this combination when I dive it. (Note the extra 4-pounder sitting face-up on the CVS to the left.) Here is my Dacor Nautilus CVS (Constant Volume System), with a steel 72 in place (note that it has no tank boot), and a Dacor Olympic regulator. Note also that this rig does not have the required Dacor CVS Regulator on the inflator system; this necessitates some special precautions (keeping the water intake valve open when diving down deeper) that somewhat negates the CVS part of the system. Here is why I don't like lead fishing weights in the rivers. This is a snail feeding on the lead weight. Snails use a rasping " radula" to feed off the bottom. They eat algae, green things mainly, but also animal detritus. By feeding off a lead fishing weight, they undoubtedly are ingesting some lead, which then gets transmitted up the food chain. This is why I had over 25 pounds of lead weights accumulated in the tackle box. Okay, that's it. Best wishes. John
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Post by diverdon on Sept 13, 2014 18:53:20 GMT -8
Thanks for the use of the mold John, and for the tips too. Those weights look pretty cool with the big logo and all. There are no slots for a weight belt so that mold is made specifically with the CVS is mind. Pretty cool indeed. I hope to get mine done in time for its inaugural dive in Crystal Falls I'll be making more than a couple spares too, before I send it back. I'll post an update. Safe travels my friend. Don
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Post by diverdon on Sept 16, 2014 8:02:22 GMT -8
I took the Dacor Nautilus to the pool this morning and had an opportunity to try it out before the students arrived. The operation of the Nautilus is fairly straight forward and I found it easy to use. It didn't seem to take as long for the flooding and water evacuation process as I thought it would. At 15' maximum, the pool is shallow and so it is hard to say how accurate or effective the Constant Volume System is, but I did witness it in operation and I must say this thing is pretty cool. It was fairly comfortable and I found it to be slightly negatively buoyant as John mentioned above. I convinced the dive instructor, who had not seen one before, to try it out as well. After a quick demonstration he was able to operate it without trouble and he too enjoyed it. My overall impression of the Dacor CVS Nautilus? Fun as all get out. I left it at the university to use again tomorrow morning. I forgot my Gopro and that was just the excuse I needed to try it again tomorrow. I believe I'll limit it's use in the pool to these two sessions though. Even after a fairly thorough rinse, I still wonder if the chlorine is shortening the life of the already old o-rings... I should have John's mold today and will try to pour some 4 pounders in time for Fortune Pond on the 26th and 27th. I hope Jerry will be bringing his portable compressor because I'm sure more then one person will want to try it out. More tomorrow.
Don
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Post by surflung on Sept 16, 2014 8:47:22 GMT -8
- I'm looking forward to meeting you and seeing your Dacor CVS at Fortune Pond. I will likewise have a GoPro and take some video of you diving with the CVS. - Best Regards, Eben
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Post by diverdon on Sept 16, 2014 12:12:37 GMT -8
Thanks Eben, likewise. It should be a good time. I'll try and drag some UPers down there with me.
Til then,
Don
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Post by diverdon on Sept 18, 2014 5:17:26 GMT -8
I took the Nautilus in the pool one more time yesterday, and though I only had a few minutes with it I did notice it rides a little high as John suggested in an earlier post. I believe its just something to be aware of and not a big deal, but I'll know more when I get it in open water at Crystal Falls at the end of the month. Perhaps a crotch strap would help? I hope Sea Hunt Jerry or Eben will try it out to give me their opinion as well. I brought the Gopro but will spare you all until the open water stuff, as I find swimming pool videos fairly boring. Unless your name is Iara or something. I should have my weights poured and ready by then as well. Thanks again John, the mold arrived safe and sound. Hey Jaybird, did you find one yet? Don
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Post by SeaRat on Sept 23, 2014 15:30:12 GMT -8
I took the Nautilus in the pool one more time yesterday, and though I only had a few minutes with it I did notice it rides a little high as John suggested in an earlier post. I believe its just something to be aware of and not a big deal, but I'll know more when I get it in open water at Crystal Falls at the end of the month. Perhaps a crotch strap would help? I hope Sea Hunt Jerry or Eben will try it out to give me their opinion as well. I brought the Gopro but will spare you all until the open water stuff, as I find swimming pool videos fairly boring. Unless your name is Iara or something. I should have my weights poured and ready by then as well. Thanks again John, the mold arrived safe and sound. Hey Jaybird, did you find one yet? Don (emphasis added, jcr) Don, I would not add a crotch strap to the Dacor CVS. Mine has no place for it, for one. The second thought is that jumping into the water with the Dacor CVS unit on and a crotch strap could cause some painful results. Normally, a tank is negative about pounds, and goes into the water easily. However, the Dacor Nautilus CVS is a cubic foot of air. In fresh water, this is about 62 pounds of buoyant force upwards, but the diver's weight + the acceleration of gravity from the jump is well over 200 pounds downward. This force could be concentrated into a very sensitive area of the diver's anatomy, so I'd forgo the crotch strap. John
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Post by nikeajax on Sept 23, 2014 15:53:35 GMT -8
Don, what John just sed in fancy woids is it's gunna hoit like a sunnuva (expletive deleted) if'n ya duz! SNORT! Jaybird
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