Re: Acrylic viewing dome

[Dave Everett <deverett@idx.com.au>]

At 07:13 PM 11-03-98 EST, you wrote:
>Hello Dave,
>
>What you are doing sounds interesting. From what I have seen on the Psubs
>website, assuming you are building a dry sub, the port may not have enough
>strength. Gary Boucher may be able to point you in the direction to the
>strength needed for a Pressure port.
>
>My interest is in primarily the port itself. I am building a wet sub and need
>a viewing port in the worst way. The port you described in your E-Mail would
>fit my sub almost perfectly. Do you have a source for these ports and can
they
>be made from polycarbonate instead of acrylic? I believe the polycarbonate is
>stronger, certainly it's impact strength. The few vendors I have contacted
>want thousands and up for a port. That's more than I wish to spend.
>
>I would appreciate hearing from you. I would really like to purchase a port.
>
>Thank you,
>
>Ken Martindale 

Hello Ken,

I now have my dome. It was made in 3 days and cost me $200. I could have
had it made in 20mm for about $400.

Unfortunately for you I live in Australia, so my sources would not be
suitable for you. I simply looked in the local yellow pages and called the
first plastics manufacturer I saw <g>. Most manufacturers can make domes,
the one I called could make them up to 1.5m in diameter.

As you say, the dome might be too thin, that's the main reason I want to
run these experiments. I understand that polycarbonate doesn't have the
same optical qualities as acrylic.

As a guide on thickness, the explorer 1000 uses a 1.65 metre (internal
diameter) dome of 70mm thickness and is rated for 1000m.

Dave Everett.