Making your own lead weights.

[daviesd]

Hi guys

Good to see you are still going in over the winter. We haven't been in over here since December, still trying to get motivated since Christmas.

A few of us over here use the Sporasub weight harness which seems really good for shore diving. It weighs 7kg so with a couple of extra single pounders make it about right. They have something similar here. http://www.scubaland.fr/voir_P7490001.html

Used the Rob Allen D weights on a trip to South Africa and really liked them - haven't been able to find any over here though. Any chance you guys could knock some up?? I may try Dave at spearo.co.uk as he stocks SA kit.

cheers

David

 

[Old Man Dave]

Greetings Crapo, from Donkey
We don't hear much from Jersey these days.
How about you guys having a Jersey 2006 thread on Deeperblue.
Have you been following our Guernsey thread? How do we compare?
Anyone there night diving?
Visit us anytime (daytrip on Condor?) and the weights could be yours. Unless you're the rude poachers who wiz over here in that RIB and nick our fish! :naughty :ko
Luv and kisses
Old Guern' Dave

 

[daviesd]

Hello there Mr. Donkey

Been following your thread for a while now - looks like you guys had more luck with the bass last year than us. Seemed to be an early start last year and then fizzled out towards the end of the summer.

Tried to meet up with Ed once, but the weather wasn't really with us. We were coming over in my RIB, but I'm sure its not the one you are talking about shooting all of your fish. What colour is it I may recoanise it.

There are about 5 of us night diving over here ( although not been in the water for over a month ). Catches are quite similar to yours by the looks of things , mainly sole and red mullet. Managed to bag a few bass in October in some 20ft stringweed, they seemed quite dopey.

We keep planing a trip up to Alderney in Jan / Feb to see the huge mullet and bass shoals, but whenever the wind goes away the swell picks up. Do you ever head up that way?

We definately want to dive the west coast, see whats about.

If you guys ever want to head south give me a shout and we can arrange some boat dives.

cheers

...Crafty crappo....

 

[Mr. X]

...Used the Rob Allen D weights on a trip to South Africa and really liked them - haven't been able to find any over here though. Any chance you guys could knock some up?? I may try Dave at spearo.co.uk as he stocks SA kit....

Got mine from RobAllenEurope.com (Paul & Colin) but they stopped importing them -- not cost effective to ship lead all that way unfortunately. Like a lot of their stuff - good design, solid, simple. If enough people ask, maybe they'll change their minds. Mind you, with Old Man Dave in Guernsey -- thought you'd all be using bullet weights!

 

[Old Man Dave]

This ones for 1 shot.

 

[1 shot 1 kill]

Dave, here is a sketch of my design, not sure how its going to look as my scanning skills are almost as bad as my draftmanship! The weight should be a smidge over 4lbs if cast in good lead and is 155mm long by 60mm in diameter. I'll put some pictures of the test sand casts on later in the week and let you know how they turn out.

 

[glowworm]

Wow did you get any other work done on friday 1 shot rofl rofl

 

[dave]

I'd be interested to see how this turns out, but I can't see a 6inch long weight being very comfortable! (big overhang for line to catch in as well )
cheers
dave
www.spearo.co.uk
www.c-ski.co.uk
www.eliossub.co.uk

 

[1 shot 1 kill]

I hadn't really considered the overhang although i did wonder if they were a bit long, thought that might be better than too wide! By holding the pattern up against myself i think i've got enough buttock mass to stop them standing off my body too much or digging in at the top, although any racing snake spearos might find they have a problem! Might sketch up a few other designs to see if i can bring the length down and maybe up the weight a bit...

 

[Mr. X]

Any particular reason for choosing 4lb weights? (Less to make?)
I currently have 4x4lb weights on my belt which work fine but they seem pretty big; I might eventually go to 5 but I am running out of belt space. [The RA weights are offered in, I think, 0.75 kg & 1kg sizes.]

 

[1 shot 1 kill]

I've now slightly redesigned the weight based on several helpful tips i recieved, the overhangs have been reduced and the whole thing is a bit more compact. I scrapped the idea of going up to 5lbs as it was difficult to keep to the original idea of making a hydrodynamic 'bullet'. Irritatingly the rapid prototyper i was going to use today is broken so i've decided to go straight for CNCing up a die for it and skipping the sand casing stage, just need to wait for the CNC guru to come back from holiday....

Mr X, i went for 4lbs as i thought it'd be a more appropriate size for our conditions. The Australian weights are all either 1lb or 2lbs and i think this is due to them using thinner suits which are less bouyant thereby requiring less weight. As myself and most of my buddies in this country are usuing 5mm suits and 24+lbs of lead (2 12lb weights) i thought i'd go for a weight which would allow a good degree of flexibility (easy to shed/put on a few pounds) to meet different conditions whilst not requiring too many on the belt. Therefore i thought 6 4lb weights would be easy to space out for ballance whilst allowing a couple more to be added or taken off without too much hastle.

 

[dave]

(2 12lb weights)

My hips hurt just thinking about using 2 big weights like that
Smaller weights space around the belt better, allow more adjustment, and are generally more comfortable (personally I find 2-3 lb H weights the most comfortable, never been a big fan of bullet weights)
cheers
dave
www.spearo.co.uk
www.c-ski.co.uk

 

[foxfish]

This post has little to do with making weight's but I thought you guys might want to see my belt. Very comfy, suits my diving style & is loaded with 20lb of lead shot.

 

[1 shot 1 kill]

Where did you get the shot belt Foxfish? That could save me a lot of machining and casting!
Dave, my back hurts lugging the weight around! Tried carrying it in every way, the most comfortable was hanging it round my neck, great until i passed out.

 

[Spaniard]

The seatec type vests are worth exploring although you might still nee some extra weight around the waist but you get a more comfortable distribution, a haute-couture baudrier if you will......

 

[Mr. X]

Excellent Foxfish, it looks a bit like those kidney-belts bikers sometimes wear on the continent. Camo too! I imagine the material needs to be pretty tough to hold all that weight in place.

[With the shot belts, bullet weights, wooden guns, boats, camo, ... seems like you guys have your own custom spearo works going over there. ]

 

[Old Man Dave]

We get bored in the winter. With no fish about you have to pass the time somehow.

Those shot belts were all the rage with Scubies a few years back. They are REALLY comfy. Sure they're still available from SCUBA stores/dive shops, but they were quite pricey. Belts used to be about £40+ and the shot was £40+ for 25lb. Sure you can update us Mr X. Post a link or prices if you find out.

Cheers

Dave

 

[Mr. X]

You know me too well Dave! I have a scuba instructor friend who has suggested shot belts to me several times. So I did happen to notice an apparently well made shot belt in York at Christmas than seemed reasonably priced at £19. I say reasonably priced because it seemed decent quality and was quite complex, having several pockets. You'd probably need to use sealed bags of shot with it (also available at the store).

However, it was quite bulky, with lots of flaps & things to catch on things. It seemed better suited to scuba diving than a breath holding spearo. Something more streamlined seems a good idea.

 

[dave]

I find shot belts really suck for freediving . They are OK (and very comfy) for sneaking about in the shallows, but if you do any diving they tend to slide all over the place. They are also bulkier than the same amount of solid weight
cheers
dave
www.spearo.co.uk
www.c-ski.co.uk

 

[stone_shot]

Huan--
Have you thought of coating those weights with Plastidip? I know it comes in black and it would probably do a great job of knocking the shine off those (though once they've oxidized a bit that probably wouldn't matter as they would have a matte surface anyway) and sealing the lead so it's slightly more diver-friendly. Just a thought.