Softening up the neoprene has been a major issue, but I believe that has been mostly solved by the liberal and repeated use of 303 Aerospace Protectant.
Next issue was, that no matter how hard I squished up against my forehead and top lip, the rubber was barely, if not at all, hitting my wide but apparently not wide enough face at the outside corners of my eyes. I think I’ve got that pretty well licked too by having shaved the neoprene edge down at my lip and forehead to the point it’s hitting at the outer edges with minimal pressure and will stay in place with a good deep breath in. Not perfect, but seems workable. Hardest part of that was finding an ultra-sharp but thin & flexible blade for the job. I ended up breaking up a disposable twin blade razor and using the larger one of those. My finger tips didn’t like it very much but all things heal in time and it did a good job.
Biggest problem as I saw it was the straps. The originals were pretty dry rotted and not at all usable. My first impulse was to use one long strap and then a slider on either side to secure the ends. Even was lucky enough to have received a donated Wideview slider to go with the one I had…. Although it worked fine, it just didn’t look right and really bothered me as a consequence. If I wanted to be practical and settle, I could just go back to one of the ½ dozen silicone jobs in the diving equipment closet. So… as the ends of the original straps were terminated with the funny wedge deal they had, and I wasn’t about to have some duplicates custom made, I started thinking about a reasonable substitute that would: 1) use two straps, 2) attached to the frame in something close as possible to the original way, and 3) used the one original central slider.
Rubber, don’t know a thing about it. Learned a lot. Took a VERY long way around to find that regular EPDM roof rubber works GREAT for this application. It was the same 1/16” thickness as the original, was nicely stretchy without being too stretchy, was very tough, should be very UV resistant, and was easily obtainable in small but plenty big enough pieces for free. Hard to cut perfectly straight with scissors, razor knife tended to pull the material and goof up straightness too. Cut strips really well with a rotary cutter out of wife’s quilt box. Most excellent tool to have. Then came the most important part, the ends. I wanted them to have the same visual weight as the originals. Came up with this. Ended up being very simple, but I think fits all my criteria very very well and has my mask back in operation. Also helps to be a CHEAP & EASY solution, my favorite!
For anyone interested in making a set, I would advise just a few guidelines.
- Find yourself a nice clean new piece of material to use. Don’t pay any more for it than a 6-pack of low-end beer.
- Invest in the rotary cutter (~$12.00?). Makes the straps look much more finished and professional, and has a thousand other uses.
- Don’t forget to punch the holes at the ends of the strap slot. Punch them first and ever so slightly farther apart than the width of the strap, then cut the slot from one to the other. The holes keep the slot from tearing, effectively making it much much stronger.
- Thread the strap through the frame as shown, from back to front, then through the strap end. This takes most of the stress of the strap end as you pull it over your head since the strap then pulls on the frame and not the cut end of the strap itself.
- The size of the end I setteled on is (1/2") x (strapwidth + 1/2"), or basically, 1/4" wider all the way around the slot.
The set in the photos are a little crude, because they were only the "test set" to get the measurements worked out, but they have held up so well, I decided to leave them in to see how long they last. I feel sure I will get even more mileage out of a set I was more careful fabricating. Little wipe down with some 303 and it's off to the lake.
Happy Wideviewing, Fred
