Machining help for a CCR Gas Block

[jcook]

Tony, thanks for the advice and encouragement. Could you post a picture of yours?

Granted I love Omniswivel, but I don't feel like paying $300 for a single manual add valve. I kinda figured it would cost some ridiculous amount if I went through them. I already have a few people interested in buying one, so that will offset the cost greatly. I am assuming the cost will probably be in the $1000 range. I am really looking into people who have experience in this stuff and I want their input. So if I can save on cost and not machine the whole thing, I won't.

[gasdiver]

I'm willing to take a look at what you are trying to do. If it's outside my capabilities, you'll be the first to know If you want to meet for lunch or something I work in Roswell. BTW, I use Pro/Engineer for my 3D CAD.

[sea2summit]

I have seen all the ones on the market and don't like any of them, they don't take into account a lot of stuff, like feeding the solenoid/bov/adv from offboard or shutdown of solenoid and just use manual add. Plus the flow characteristics of the gas blocks out there suck. I would have to modify all the ones greatly just to get what I want out of it, I almost bought some just to toy with. At that point it is no longer streamlined and some giant mess just sitting on top of my CL. I am half tempted to contact Omniswivel and see what they can do.

Have you looked at the rEvo/Curt 3 gas add block? I can think of no reason for not being able to plumb into the solenoid and have a manual add all as the kit comes with hoses to route gas independent of your current routing (to solenoid).
As for the flow it’s not the block it’s the hardware that limits this. A lot of gas blocks use a standard low pressure inflator so you can stick any gas on there, if you want enough flow to breath off of you will have to go to other fittings which complicates things if you need to plug in some of your buddies gas and you don’t have an adapter tied to your pocket. But you can swap them out for a larger orifice without too much work most of the time.
Also this sounds like a Dave Sutton special, if you have a good idea get with him and see what he could build. I haven’t heard anything from him in a while but he lurks over on RBW and you should be able to PM him.

[jcook]

Again, I don't like the rEvo/Curt 3 gas block. I have better gas blocks on my Boris. As I said, I have seen them all and I realized I will need to build my own. This is why I want to build one, you cannot control the solenoid or switch between gas choices for the bov, use offboard gas for adv/solenoid or CMF orifice with the Curt gas block without major modifications. After I did all that plus paying $500 for the gas block I would be looking at a grand anyways, so why would I invest in something I don't really like that much. Plus I could build something better for cheaper with parts from McMaster Carr.

I know about the flow characteristics, I was making a broad statement about most of them. It doesn't actually complicate things at all, everyone I dive with uses either CEJN or Omniswivel QD's. Low pressure inflator hoses are terrible for CCR's, why do you think there isn't one on an ADV? They don't flow enough, would you use one to plumb into your BOV? I think not. Sorry to be rude but it irks me when I say I have seen them all and someone still tries to tell me about one.

I was planning on contacting him, he doesn't use RBW anymore though. I wanted to get everything together before I do email him so he doesn't just ignore me. I know he was thinking about building one, but I am unsure if he ever did.

[sea2summit]

I agree with your "broad statement" and I think it is accurate.

Sorry didn't catch the part about wanting to run your BOV through the gas block and being able to switch gasses to it does complicate things. I still say the solenoid is isolated sense mine is (two hoses coming off the first stage one to my orifice the other to the block). If all your buddies dive the CEJN then your good but I've only seen one or two around and sense I do mostly cave stuff where it's common my buddy will be OC and doesn't even know of any fittings other than LPIs I stick with those and bail if needed no sense in having a single point of failure with a BOV.

Dave is easy to work with and has answered more than one of my silly question emails, I might have his email if I dig around for it and I'm sure he'd be in on the development piece if you give him a chance (look at what he did for rEvo III). PM me if you want me to find his email, just checked his site is still up too.

[jcook]

I probably should've added this also, I will dive this unit with a full face mask. So I have to be able to route/have access to all gasses through the block into the BOV.

Thanks for all the PM's from everyone offering help and advice, I really appreciate all of it.

[crazyduck]

Please consider Gorilla Diving Products Inc.
They have been resposive and their prices have seemed reasonable.
Regards, Andrew