Franken-Son Has Arisen! A KISS awakened the Sleeping Bear.
Late at night, when the moon is full and all honest souls are asleep, my mind wanders. As you all have seen, the original Franken-Rig is the result of an unholy union between Miss Russia and Herr Germany, carried out while nobody was looking. That union produced a nice little rebreather, one that has provided many hours of fun as well as countless laughs about how easy it was to actually do. But old Frankie has some flaws, the main one being the quite small 02 supply, as well as inadequate diluent to serve such niceties as drysuit inflation, etc. Franken-Son is an attempt to rectify these issues, and I would have to say that the end result is quite nice. This modification of the Russian IDA-71 with a KISS valve puts this chassis into world-class company. I'd say that this rebreather can be used without limitations, and I am extremely pleased with the outcome. I also would caution that unlike the original Franken-Rig, this was not a one-night stand in the shop. It took me probably 3 weeks of semi full-time effort to produce what is depicted here, with at least half of that being spent making up the aluminum PP02 display housing.
Now, by popular demand, here's a reprint of my famous
LEGAL ADVICE FOR THE STUPID
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"The next time you go to the market, remember that half of the people that you meet are of below average intelligence". |
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WARNING! Rebreather Diving is a dangerous sport. It weeds out the weak by KILLING them. Can I make it any clearer than that? SO: Remember, Rebreather-Diving AT ALL is dangerous enough. Making up EXPERIMENTAL rigs from parts gathered from here and there is about as iffy as it gets. DON'T try this if you don't know what you are doing. If you get killed following my methods, then shame on you! Don't let your family come crying to me as to how I facilitated YOUR death. The bottom line is that if you could not do this sort of conversion WITHOUT READING ANY INSTRUCTIONS AT ALL you are not ready to do it by following my methods. Hey! Be careful out there, huh? If you want to persist in twisting the tail of the Dragon, Go read my Philosophy Page now to see if you have you head screwed on in the right way to accept these risks. |
Well, enough of the talk, let's get down to action:
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Rippin' out the guts: Stripping the original chassis down and preparing it for conversion. |
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Diluent Addition System. Auto and manual addition. |
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Oxygen Addition System: A KISS-Style injection system using components sourced from Gordon Smith at Kiss Manufacturing.
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Franken-Son is an extremely good rebreather. In the past, modifications of the IDA-71 have mainly been done for amusement and recreation, but the rig has not been put to widespread use as a technical diving tool for use under more rigorous conditions and depths. Hey, even *I* only played with Franken-Rig off of the beach in Rhode Island, in shallow (100') water, where I felt it was as deep as it needed to go. I believe that this modification changes that, and that the chassis has finally reached its potential. If you agree, please feel free to copy it! If you do decide to make one, please let me clear out my garage by selling you one of the dozen IDA-71's that's taking up space here. I sell them for what I paid for them, and would be pleased to offer technical assistance to builders.
