Warning: My homemade dive light project showed me a worrying trend.

Now I see similar builds popping up without proper pressure tests.

3 comments

3 Comments

Remember that time a cheap carabiner snapped on someone's gear bag at the dock? It makes you wonder what else fails when it's not supposed to. I once saw a diver's aftermarket camera tray completely come apart at 60 feet, just fell to pieces. Stuff like that sticks with you. Makes me side-eye any homemade gear that hasn't been beaten on a bit first.

the_robert2mo ago

You ever notice how the cheapest gear always fails at the worst possible moment? I used to be the guy rolling my eyes at people spending a fortune on name brand clips and bolts, figuring a piece of metal is a piece of metal. Seeing a housing implode on a deep dive because of a faulty o-ring someone bought online totally rewired my brain on that. Now if it's holding my air or my camera, that thing better have a proven track record or it's not going in the water with me.

ruby_lane2mo ago

Tell me about it, that's a scary thought. I get the appeal of saving money but some stuff just isn't worth the risk. Hayden_johnson's story about the camera tray falling apart is exactly what I mean, that's nightmare fuel. Once you see gear fail in a bad spot, you can't unsee it. Now I'd rather save up for one good piece than buy three cheap ones that might let me down.