Homemade compressor breather for bottom cleaning???

[seadaddler]

Fill Tanks

I have a PADI certification and have had my tanks serviced and refilled here in a Florida dive shop and also same thing in NY and have yet to be asked or show my certification card.
Nick

 

[wufibugs]

Just to display my complete ignorance on this, what are the reasons one would not do this with a snorkel attached to a 10 foot length of clear tubing, I mean aside from the fact that marina water is generally pretty yucky stuff.

 

[Prime Time]

Danger Will Robinson!!!!!!!

A 10 foot long hose on a snorkel could kill you. The issue is that you exhale into the snorkel. You would not get any fresh air. A typical volume of a breath is about 300 ml. The volume of the snorkel would far greater than that. You would just be re-breathing the same air. A smaller diameter tube would have less volume, but there would be too much resistance to breath through it.

 

[garylinger]

Any length of tubing (snorkel) longer than about 14 inches will NOT allow for the exchange of 'good' air. If you try breathing thru a garden hose you will do the same as breathing into a plastic bag.

 

[sailingdog]

I'd also point out that if you're ten feet down, the chances that you can expand your lungs well enough to breathe is pretty unlikely...

 

[seadaddler]

What Do

What I do is use a dive tank and about 40 ft of air hose and a regulator on the end,I leave the tank in the cockpit at the dock or anchored out in the harbor and going under the boat in 6 ft of water and clean the hull and prop.
this works real good just a mask and no other equipment on my back and no compressor or problems to worry about.
Some of the equipment I got on E-Bay and dive shop and garage sale,I check it all out before going under boat every dive I even have a gauge to let me know how much air I have in tank,just got done cleaning my hull and prop
yesterday so easy and safe to do,divers clean boats in my marina this way all the time,some also have a professional portable little 110 compressor also.
It's so easy:dance:
Nick

 

[kenn]

I got basic certification in scuba-diving as a teenager (before I discovered that I am happier on the surface than under water)

What I do is use a dive tank and about 40 ft of air hose and a regulator on the end,I leave the tank in the cockpit

This, or regular scuba-diving, is probably the safest air-supply option, and easiest to put together. The single-stage regulator at the mouthpiece is essential. Trying to cobble something together using an industrial compressor sounds plausible, but there's so much that could go wrong (oil or dirt contamination, exhaust gases in the air intake) that I wouldn't even consider it.

Regardless of the rig, it's also risky to dive alone, without at least someone observing.

Please get certified, if you're interested in diving with an air supply.

In-water hull cleaning can also be accomplished just by snorkel-diving, or working from a dinghy. I can't find the link but I recall seeing some arrangement with a scrub-brush on a broomhandle, with a halyard tied about midway on the broomhandle as a fulcrum, and one can scrub the hull under the waterline by levering down down on the broomhandle.

 

[Buck420]

This subject has come up NUMEROUS times over the years.
I have a "homemade" setup (much like "Maldonia" mentions) using a 115v oil-less compressor permanently installed (under a setee) in my boat and powered by my genset when at anchor.
I've been using it w/o problems now for the past (almost) 9 years. Yes, I've been a certified scuba diver for more than 25 years and agree w/ all posters who suggest you should be certified.
But, for the "you're gonna die if you do this" crowd, I would only repeat "MoonSailors" words ....
" But the air supply is not the problem. It is the diver. "

Oh, and would you all please stop arguing about what kind of wood to use in the coffin...
go green, save a tree, just be cremated. And for a memorial service, have a "head-boat", w/ a very well stocked bar, chartered to take what few friends you may still have, out to throw your "chunkies" (and that damned hooker rig) overboard. If they can remain sober long enough to remember to do so.

 

[MoonSailer]

I love the note about using a long hose!!!! As a kid of about 10 years old I had the same ideal. I was at a swimming pool and grabbed a hose laying on the deck and went to the bottom about 9' and tried to take a breath. Damn near killed myself!!!!! All of the air in my lungs went up the hose and partially collapsed my lungs. TOO MUCH PRESSURE!!!!! Don't try this at home!!!! Our lungs are not designed robustly enough to overcome that much pressure. Also as previously noted there will be little air exchange even without the pressure issue.

 

[wufibugs]

I wonder if this would work. Would even have a backup tank.

 

[John Howitt]

As a carpenter with lots of experience with compressors, I would definetly NOT do it .
When a compressor, oilless or not compresses air it creates a lot of moisture. which causes rust inside the tank.
When you drain a tank look at what comes out.
You could use filters like painters use to remove the water and other crud, but I still wouldn't do it .

I would sooner try a chunk of garden hose with someone (reliable) on a bicycle pump.
One fellow who does boat cleaning at our marina ,uses a plunger with the handle cut off, to hold himself against the boat.
He charges me $75 to clean the hull and change the zinc if nessissary.I think that it is a good deal.

 

[redhead78]

We have a guy at our club that does bottoms, he puts his tank in a dingy, and has a long hose and does one side at a time, no risk, no bukly tank....simple. He makes good money doing it..... Red