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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2010 8:09:29 GMT -8
Both sets of my 38's have the USD nylon harnesses......with brass D shaped tips........ My Voit 38's have a commerical USD set that are stiff and black. The stiffness is less now, 20 years later........the other set, my USD, I won on ebay 5 years ago........these are dark purple ( ) nylon with the brass tips as I said above, they are almost as supple as canvas, still they are nylon and have that raw edge......... I love them, having tried many different bacpacs, with wings etc.....these are more comfortable just as bare cylinders and straps and they do not roll like the later models that had a bacpac with a single tank band. As far as that chest strap.......I make sure (and after Nemrods experience) doubly sure that the quick release is just hanging on the end of the fold inside the D rings..(ahhh, just realized, was this was the first setup with D rings everyone now makes fun of about the teches ?)......ie: most of the strap is hanging in the breeze waiting to be pulled if needed........waist strap and shoulder straps as well. My travel bc, a Aries Reef Rider, has the fancy plastic clips that I am not sure are safe if your in a near panic, I fumble with these just trying the thing on in the bedroom..........I tossed the cumberbun, and replaced the waist strap with weight belt strapping and an old aluminum Scubapro belt buckle and crotch strap.........and I have not decided how to replace the plastic clips on the chest strap.........maybe with D rings like my Twin harness has............ On another note, my "oh crap I;m in trouble" experiences dealt with one of my mouthpiece bite tab lodging inside the 2nd stage housing of my Tekna, reducing air flow, after I bit it off.........USD Calypso reg not providing enough air after five minutes of chasing a turtle for a photograph.....my avatar...........(reg was badly adjusted by me). all troubles with single hoses.....never with a double...and too tight fitting wetsuits......but : "thanks to God", I have never experienced what Nem's had to deal with.........
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Post by nikeajax on May 1, 2010 16:28:02 GMT -8
Excuse my ignorance, but is this a harness that one can fabricate themselves; if so, where can I find plans/instructions? Yeah, I know, "Derned whipper-snappers...", but someone's gotta keep this technology alive! Jaybird
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Post by swimjim on May 2, 2010 17:57:37 GMT -8
Funny how wet suits seem to shrink every year. LOL
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Post by duckbill on May 2, 2010 20:26:32 GMT -8
Rubber shrinks (Really, it does....I swear!)
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Post by Linda on May 2, 2010 20:57:55 GMT -8
Oh, cripes, everything shrinks... rubber , cotton, denim, polyester... everything.
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Post by SeaRat on May 2, 2010 22:12:29 GMT -8
I agree, and today got my 1980s wet suit out of the little shed so I can do some "modification" to my custom-made suit of twenty or so years ago. I wanted to be able to fit into it by now, but it seems to shrink faster than my weight loss (ounces a month, it seems).
I also got my old military harnesses out, and will be taking some digital photos of it to show how it is laced into the tank bands, and how to wear it.
John
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Post by duckbill on May 8, 2010 21:31:26 GMT -8
I'm still interested in seeing the hardware on your military harness, John.
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Post by nikeajax on May 9, 2010 16:00:43 GMT -8
John, are these the Twin-50's you're always referring to? Sorry, I couldn't resist, especially since I know you're a USAF guy! I did some work at Castle Air Museum a while back restoring the nose art on a B-29 Superfortress, Raz'n Hell, and I got to in all sorts of stuff; that's me in the tail of a B-24 Liberator. Jaybird
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Post by SeaRat on May 14, 2010 18:14:05 GMT -8
Jaybird, you're looking great there. That B-24 is an interesting plane, as is the B-29 Superfortress. Thanks for the photo. For those of you who have not seen the military harness as depicted in the U.S. Navy Diving Manual from March of 1970, here it is: Take a close look at the harness, and you can see both the safety loop for pulling, and the small tab on the end of the harness web. I'll get a closer photo of that small piece later. We used it all the time in the USAF. When we dove, though, we used Underarm Life Preservers (LPUs) instead of a vest. That is what you see these divers wearing. Photo Copyright 2010, John C. Ratliff Photo Copyright 2010, John C. Ratliff Note the Pararescue Jump Tanks with the manifold guard. The shiny metal where the black paint has worn off was caused by the parachute harness which went over the manifold guard, and the movement of that harness when we made a water jump. John
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Post by Captain on May 14, 2010 19:04:22 GMT -8
About a year or two ago I recommended to Allen that he lengthen the loop retaining the D rings on his reproduction webbing for the exact reason mentioned by Duckbill. The D rings need to have enough room to offset from each other and lay more or less parallel to each other once the webbing is in place
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Post by Captain on May 14, 2010 19:08:27 GMT -8
Excuse my ignorance, but is this a harness that one can fabricate themselves; if so, where can I find plans/instructions? Yeah, I know, "Derned whipper-snappers...", but someone's gotta keep this technology alive! Jaybird Allen Kaluda AKA Simmonbeans on the forum makes reproductions.
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Post by SeaRat on May 14, 2010 22:11:02 GMT -8
About a year or two ago I recommended to Allen that he lengthen the loop retaining the D rings on his reproduction webbing for the exact reason mentioned by Duckbill. The D rings need to have enough room to offset from each other and lay more or less parallel to each other once the webbing is in place If you'll look at the photo from the US Navy Diving Manual 1970, you'll see that the D-rings need about half their own length to lie beside (parallel) to each other. The sewn loop which retains the two D-rings therefore needs more than that to allow enough "play" in the loop for the D-rings to be parallel. I'll produce some close-up photos over the weekend. John
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Post by duckbill on May 15, 2010 18:53:33 GMT -8
My "military harnesses" have stiffer nylon straps with melted ends. I don't know if that is how they were made later on, or if the sellers just called them "military harnesses" when they really weren't.
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Post by SeaRat on May 16, 2010 20:29:33 GMT -8
I have been talking about the need for the quick release on the Military Harness, and while it is pictured in a few publications, I decided to make some of my own. Here is the quick release tie through the D-rings of the military harness. The way this goes is the harness goes through both D-rings, then down through the bottom one, where it is looped and comes back through that bottom D-ring, forming a quick-release loop. Pull on the free end, and the know comes apart. Here it is in a closer view: As you can see, the rings do not stay parallel, but one is pulled in towards the other. This means that there needs to be enough room within the sewn loop for the two D-rings to move, as is shown here with the stitching patterns on the Military Harness: Note that this is stitched with a box and an "X" inside the box. This is done twice for strength. The free end of the harness webbing is capped with a brass end cap. This end cap prevents the end of the harness from being easily pulled through the D-rings, and also provides a nice grip on the webbing if in an emergency the quick release needs to be pulled. This harness with the chest strap can be worn with vest BCs, but if that is done the strap must not be over the top of the vest, but the quick release needs to be available to be released. To do this, the chest strap is pulled through the neck opening before being tied. Both ends are then tied from the outside, and the safety loop established. Then the loose end, the one which needs to be pulled in an emergency, dangles outside the vest where it is immediately available in an emergency. This above photos shows the quick release outside my Para-Sea BC, which I dive this way all the time. But this can also be done with other BC/vests that divers used in that period, and some of which are still available. Below is the Scubapro compensator vest, which I bought in the 1970s: Note that the pull strap is immediately available. In order to get this chest strap correct, I position it while I am sitting, without weight of the scuba on the harness. I pull the strap through the double D-rings, then down through the bottom D-ring. I raise my shoulders to get the adjustment correct by putting weight on the harness (I can do that with twin 50s or twin 45s, but you may need to stand up if you have twin 72s on). I then thread it back through that bottom D-ring, and establish the safety pull outside the vest. Note also that the straps are underneath the vest. If they were over the top, and the BC were inflated, the diver couldn't breath. In this photo I'm wearing a vintage Dacor vest BC. The same principals apply, although the Dacor BC allowed more space than the others to work with the harness due to the lower cut of the BC opening. I hope this has helped people understand the military harness, and the concepts of how to wear it safely. It is a very good system for double tank scuba units, and very comfortable too. John PS--yes, that is my brand new Mossback Mk III in the background of the first photo of this series.
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Post by nikeajax on May 17, 2010 12:50:59 GMT -8
Hey John, how'ja get Cary Grant to model for your scuba gear pix? When the time comes, I'll have to make my own, but I want mine a swell color, like aqua:
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