Thinking about building my own...

MHD

after building my own CCR and teaching myself to dive it, I would probably suggest doing a kiss course. Takes a bit of stress out of the process

matt

shell-back

I can admire your interest in building your own , but then it stops as you have stated your interest in the build is to save money and time spent on training. The training is the most important part of the rebreather.

lets say you build this rebreather and you need sorb or O2 boosted, or work done on the regs you choose to use. Will you take them to One of the two guys that teach Dolphins in town and ask for gas fills , sorb?

Is the cost for those items built in to your plan.
Do you think they will offer their services knowing that you have not been Certified?

Do you have adv Nitrox training or a deeper understanding of Physics and physiology beyond the Open water class.

My advice is to get a leg up and get a Cert on what ever Rebreather you desire CCR or SCR ,have you discussed your plans with the guys teaching Dolphins maybe they have been diving another unit and are working up to the level required to teach, with a cert in hand they will be more willing to help you with your build and may even help you out with the parts required

The majority of homebuilders on the forum are instructors and have sources to get the parts needed. they have advance training with Nitrox and Deco procedures that are needed to understand the fundamentals of diving a rebreather.

If you die doing something stupid we will all know it now. Be safe take a class.

__________________
The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -- it is the illusion of knowledge. ----Daniel Boorstin
Billy Beal
SDITDI IT #3507
RBW FIGJAM commitee member

lolwhat

Everyone,

Thanks for all of your comments. I do appreciate that you took the time to attempt to save me from myself, as it were.

One of the people who frequent this site and live reasonably close to me - and let me tell you, since I live in Indiana, there aren't that many - has said that he'd try to help me out in making a decision. Hopefully he will. If it turns out that he can't, though, then like I said, it's either attempt a homebuild, or wait two years to get training. Sure, I don't know what I don't know, but I do know that it'd be a tough couple of years; I'll need all your help to get me through such "difficult" times.

Duncan Price

There are two issues here:

1. Financial. Unless you have a specific need not met by a commercially available unit then homebuilding is not cost or time efficient. In my case (cited in ref. [2]) I wanted a low profile CCR for sump diving. At the time the Joki or DDD was not available otherwise I would have had someone else make it. If you want a regular CCR for general purpose diving then there are some very good units already out there.

2. Safety. I was also very fortunate to be in the company of some very experienced CC divers who freely gave their knowledge and kept me from the worst excesses of my own foolishness (thank-you John & Rick). Your milage may vary.

lolwhat

If I attempt to buy a rebreather off of eBay or somewhere else, what are the chances that the seller won't ask to see proof of certification? I'm not going to fake that. What are the chances that the seller isn't a scammer? I've seen quite a few eBay scam posts here, and I wouldn't like to be on the wrong side of that. Also, while several people on this thread have said they'd sell me a rebreather, they might regret doing so if I go and kill myself on it, no matter how many pains I take to make up for a lack of formal training. Yes, you were. I'm not so lucky. Maybe the Dolphin instructors in town could help me out, or that one relatively local RBW-er could, but if not...

Duncan Price

Do you really need a rebreather?

I must admit that I didn't either. It was more of a technical challenge that once answered I have quite frankly lost interest in.

If you want to blow some $$$ on a homebuild (and you will) - it can be an educational and rewarding experience.

Much has been made of the need for proper instructor because nobody would publically say otherwise.

I wouldn't buy a rebreather off of eBay.

JonORunde

I'm thinking that the cheapest and easiest way to do this, is:

1. Get a Dolphin, i.e. Narked@90's -which is allready mCCR.
2. Go to one of the local instructors, take a class on it in SCR-MODE (original dolphin)
3. Get some experience on that
4. Then add the mCCR-bits, and go bubbleless.

Thats what I did -and I'm glad I both had a bit of training, and a bit of time in SCR-mode. It is a lot easier to screw up and die(especially without training), once you go CCR...

One tip: Get a proper ppO2-display early, learn how the machine reacts using that -and a computer that knows about ppO2 (I use a VR3) is also great.
Do not waste your time with Uwatec Oxy, like I did

Jon O -happy mCCR-diver

decoweenie

Here is an example of someone not dead without instructions...

A local diver bought the cheapest unit he could find then asked to take a generic mCCR course. Once he heard the price, I never seen him again until a month later on the boat. He did the first dive ever on the mCCR rig with trimix and in 73m.

Didn't die but the set-up/procedure looks horrible IMHO...

This is the same guy who asked to take a Adv Nitrox class, backed off when quoted the price, showed up months later with a set of inverted twins doing trimix dives.

So it is not a guarantee thing that you will die if diving a CCR without "instructions" as there are different types of instructions (i.e. a course, e mentor, Internet, a book, etc).

However, it is always better to have someone who is experience to oversee your new set-up (especially a homebuild), answer your questions if you are not sure, save your time by showing the more efficient ways and, last but most importantly, be there to help you u/w if you get in trouble (i.e. save your ass/life).

But one of the important things for me is the diver has to be able to have a clean set-up and efficient procedures with good executed plans since any fool could strap the gears on and go diving without killing themselves. And it is difficult (not impossible) to be able to do all that on your own.

__________________
"...after a while you get bored offering advice to a bull that like to keep butting the fence with its head rather than walking through the open gate..."

- Rebreather World PM

lolwhat

I suppose that some would say no. However, I see it as a possible vehicle for stretching my own boundaries in terms of diving. While I don't necessarily need a rebreather now, I wouldn't consider anything else in an environment that requires deco, should I go down that road.

If I were penetrating wrecks or caves on OC, I would (of course) need to carry a shitload of gear. After trying out a set of doubles once, I needed groin surgery , so I'm a fan of the lightest rig necessary; a CCR trumps doubles in this regard, hands down. I'd also be much more vulnerable to panic on OC than on CCR, should I encounter entanglement, silt out, getting lost, etc. With CCR, I'll have hours of gas if something comes up (unless the CCR itself is toast); OC won't give me that option without making me look like I'd bought an entire dive store.

I'd also like it to be a way to get my regular buddies to see the benefits of a CCR, so that I can convince them to get into it as well. If I'm on CCR and they're not, I can sit in the water and wait while they're changing tanks, or drop snide remarks like, "Well, shoot, I still have two hours of gas left!" I figure they'd come around. If a regular visitor here mentioned that they were eBaying one, I'd think about it. Otherwise, no thanks.

lolwhat

I must say, that sounds tempting. I just may go in that direction, as long as the local instructors have a flexible schedule.

I certainly plan to get a PPO2 display, no matter what I do. I'll definitely think about a computer that handles CCR; I may hold off on that, however, since I'd be within OC limits until my regular buddies see the light.