Making a D Box

[kallend 2,113]

Maybe it's because I'm a model airplane builder of several decades standing, but the job of making a D-Box seems pretty easy to me, either of fiberglass or graphite fiber. I read other threads about folks having to take bits off their cameras or carve bits out of the commercial boxes to get a good fit. Why not just make a custom one to fit the camera? How hard can it be?

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[quade 4]

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How hard can it be?

I don't think it's a matter of how hard, but rather how time consuming to reinvent the wheel.

It takes about 60 seconds to plunk down $180 for a dBox and everything has pretty much already been worked out.

Designing and building one might be amusing, but for practical usage, I think just paying the money is a lot easier and faster.

I mean, why not design and build your own main? How hard can it be?

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[diablopilot 2]

You're right, it's not that hard, just go to a marine supply store and get a fiberglass hull repair kit. Now spend the next 5 days shaping coating re-shaping, re-coating, sanding, filing, coating again, painting, foaming, ect. The best fitting, and custom matched D-boxes can be made that way. But don't change your camera type! You'll have to stare at square one again.

Personaly I'm kinda tired of D-boxes and for my set-up I don't need to use one any longer.

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You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[AggieDave 6]

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I mean, why not design and build your own main? How hard can it be?

I know a guy that does that for fun...then again, he also had a pantent on crossbracing way back when...

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[pd190 0]

k - it's not that hard. I've built three custom style d-boxes for odd cameras. But Paul is right, it is very time consuming and messy.

I've built two different styles (top mount and side mount) the last one that I built from start to finishing with mounting and everything (basically, I set his whole helmet up for him) took me about a month. Lots of pieces to manufacture and lots of sanding and prep work.

But the end result was worth it. It looks good, works, is safe, and only cost the dude $75 in parts and labor. So the big question is, can you work on something for a month, or do you want it for next weekend??

Another note, if you screw up fiberglass, it's easy to cut up and patch with more resin and glass. I love the stuff. PM me if you want detailos on how I do it!

[kallend 2,113]

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k - it's not that hard. I've built three custom style d-boxes for odd cameras. But Paul is right, it is very time consuming and messy.

I've built two different styles (top mount and side mount) the last one that I built from start to finishing with mounting and everything (basically, I set his whole helmet up for him) took me about a month. Lots of pieces to manufacture and lots of sanding and prep work.

But the end result was worth it. It looks good, works, is safe, and only cost the dude $75 in parts and labor. So the big question is, can you work on something for a month, or do you want it for next weekend??

Another note, if you screw up fiberglass, it's easy to cut up and patch with more resin and glass. I love the stuff. PM me if you want detailos on how I do it!

Hmmm - I doubt it would take me more than an evening to make the mold, and another one for the part. I make epoxy/glass model airplane parts in that time frame, and they are just as complex. We use pink construction foam for the molds, it shapes incredibly easily and has a very good surface finish. You have to use epoxy with foam, since polyester resin dissoves it.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.