1st Build

[JBierm44]

Tickets bought, beachfront campsights reserved, scuba charter booked; my college pals and I are off for a spring break scuba trip to Puerto Rico. 10 days of diving, fishing, and beachfront living promise to be the highlight of our last semester in school.
We've also decided to try our hands at spearfishing and we adamantly want the satisfaction of building our own guns. I've read some reviews, looked at some schematics and have an idea or two on how we're going to build them. It turns out the most confusing part thus far is ordering our spears and slings from the net. Length, diameter, tips, sling... it's all become a little confusing. Would someone out there in the spearfishing community be so kind as to just recomend a good combination of shaft, tip and sling? We're new to this so ultimate performance isnt paramount, I'm just looking for reliablity and easy of use. Any help would be great.

Cheers,

Josh

 

[foxfish]

Welcome to db, I assume you live in America?
You might find some useful info here http://forums.deeperblue.net/homemade-spearguns/75768-new-guns-works.html

 

[JBierm44]

Thanks, glad to be here. I do hail from america, currently at university in the frozen wastes of Vermont so I'm getting pretty excited about heading south to do some diving in a month. I've read through those forums and they've been great in helping me decide what dimensions I plan on using. I want to do an all wood gun, handle included with a home made trigger mechanism. I was thinking I was planning on a more euro style gun of about 90 cm or so as it will be much easier to transport than one of those honking open water bazookas and I'd enjoy the effort of getting a little closer to my prey. I've already pulled a few bass out of lake Champlain this summer with a hand spear at about 25 ft.

I think I'm going to go a new way with material as well, I was origionally going to go teak but as a carpenter outside of school this summer I had the chance to work with this very dense south american hardwood called ipe. It's so dense that it sinks in water and it's what I used to fashion the hand spear the got me my first speared bass. Not to mention the fact that it's neutrally boyant under water, it's structure is so rigid that I doubt I'll have to contend with any warping or twisting and was even thinking of using a single peice of stock instead of laminating.

Yet while I'm undaunted by building the gun itself I cant seem to find a good place to order my spears and slings. For some reason the spears I'd order through deeper blue cost as much to ship as they do to buy and rival online companies dont do a great job describing the spears they're selling. Do shafts come with spears tips attached and if not, which should i buy seperatly? Which diameter would work best for close qurters fishing with a euro style gun? Should I use a single 16mm sling or two? Maybe a single 18mm or a 20? The shafts are advertised for specific makes of spear guns, does that mean there will be a variant in the retaining slot/notch cut horizonatlly across the shaft such as the ones I've had experience with? Are there any american companies offering product so I dont have to pay fifty bucks apice to get them shipped "accross the pond?" A little advise and I think i'll be in business.

Cheers,

Josh

 

[JBierm44]

Thus far I've managed to carve my body and grip out of ipe and have carved the cavity for the trigger mechanism that I'm waiting on an engineer buddy of mine to cut at the machine shop. Controlled tests with a surrigate trigger (flathead screwdriver) have been really promising and with 2 bands I've been able to hurl a 36" 6mm JBL spear point through half inch plywood at about 10 feet.
I've yet to attach the spear end retaining plate above the spear retention notch and I've got to attach a front spear retainer. I was thinking a well sized aluminum U-bolt but I've been a bunch of speargun pictures that have some cord wraped over the tip of their guns holding the shaft into the slot though I'm not sure exactly how this works. Any suggestions? Also, I'm thinking I should extend the epoxy I plan on using... will standard acetone do this or do I need a specific ingrediant? Any suggestions on how to continue would be invaluable and I'll keep progress updated.

Cheers,

Josh

 

[JBierm44]

my surrigate trigger mech in action

 

[JBierm44]

Updating,

Finished with my first spear gun build, the trigger mech worked out fine and it seems to have plenty of power. I have yet to shoot it underwater but I leave for Culebra tommorow, we'll see how it goes. Comments? Suggestions for improvement on the next build?

Cheers

 

[Pastor]

Looking good dude! Missed this thread until now. Are you going to put a trigger guard on it? You should do, it could save an accidental discharge. Be careful loading it out of water too We want to see some fish pics from you asap. Definitely looking good

 

[JBierm44]

I added a safety in the form of a pushpin that blocks the trigger mech from working when it is in place. I'll post some fish pics as soon as i catch them in Culebra. Cheers.

 

[Magpie]

Looks good mate, I presume you'll be putting a line on it, otherwise the fish will just swim off with your spear!

How have you put the wishbones on your bands?

 

[JBierm44]

I ended up using 16 guage wire wrapped tightly around both ends of the tubing for wishbones, the entire build was very home-done. I got a pm from someone wondering how I did the trigger mech so I'm going to post a pic of my schemtic, the trigger was cut by hand from 1/4" aluminum plate with a jig saw and a metal blade.

Didn't have much luck spear-fishing in Culebra, there were mostly reef fish though I did manage to get a few yellowtail snapper. My roomate speared some red big-eyed fish too (notice the pic). The guns, however, worked great; we should have taken them scuba diving.

 

[theonetruerat]

Well, This is my irst post here so I hope I don't mess this up. I was just looking at you trigger design and I wanted to add some thoughts. Your design has the sear pushing the spear back slightly as it swings about it's axis. This means that the tip drags through the notch so you will see a lot of wear on the sear after very little use. The sear should tumble away from from the notch to reduce wear and the CLICK. Also, I don't have my strengths of materials sitting here but I can tell you that the resistance to shear for aluminum is pretty poor. So.. . Fine for prototype testing on the bench but I reccomend that you jump up to stainless. Now.. . . That being said I'll have to admit that my own gun and trigger are still just a bunch of cad drawings. Stinking gainful employment.

 

[JBierm44]

It's true that the aluminum does wear but the design isnt exactly how the trigger turned out, I cut it by hand with a jig saw and reduced the notch with a file. After a little adjustment the trigger works perfectly with a quick release and a moderate amount of trigger pressure necessary to actuate the release. At some point i'll take the time to get the parts made from steel but, for a very simple do-it-yourself mech job it seems to function quite well.

Cheers

 

[JBierm44]

Were I to do it again I'd also increase the mechanical advatage of the sear by making the release arm shorter then the trigger connecting arm.