Things break on a trip, and you need to be able to fix them. I want to put together a tool kit that is small enough to go on dive trips, but complete enough to fix almost any camera or housing problem.
Recently I have had to do things like repack the o-ring in the buttons of a housing - which involved removing and replacing tiny retaining rings, and gently retrieving the o-ring from the housing body. Easy with the right tools, but a bit fiddly with the tools I borrowed from the dive boat. I have had to borrow plumber’s strap wrenches to separate a port extension tube from, or use a borrowed screwdriver made for eyeglasses to tighten a loose screw on a lens mount.
I’m a bit tired of having to borrow these tools , so I want a set of my own. I want the tool set to be small enough to come with me on dive trips. Of course a housing and ports and cameras is pretty big already, and I usually dive with family members so we already have a ton of stuff – having a little bit more won’t hurt that much.
Here are some of the things I think I need:
Allen wrench set – metric (is standard/imperial used much?)
Screwdriver set for tiny screws on cameras
Needle nose pliers/forceps for retaining rings and other tasks
Strap wrenches, or something similar for removing extension tubes.
A few key wrenches would be nice.
Some housings come with tools – Nauticam housings come with a nice Allen wrench set, and an o-ring removal tool for example. But even so, it isn’t a full set of the tools you might need to fix things on the housing.
Between myself and my family we have equipment from several manufacturers – Sea and Sea, Inon, Nauticam, Ikelite and Seacam. We also have both Canon and Nikon cameras. So that means we may need a somewhat broader set of tools than somebody with less equipment diversity.
I am sure that Wetpixel members have a lot more experience than I do. What is the set you would recommend?
Another issue is that many of the tool sets out there are pretty poor quality. When it comes to “jeweler’s screwdrivers” there are lots of cheap sets that are just terrible. I want decent quality stuff. I also would like it to be stainless if at all possible, so that it won’t rust. It would be great to get specific brand recommendations or sources.
Spare parts and supplies are also part of the kit. Of course I have spare o-rings and grease, but there are other parts that may be worth stocking up on. On a recent dive trip I dropped the little screw that is used to seat the camera in the tripod socket for my Seacam system. It is just a standard ¼” x 20 tripod screw on a thumbwheel – which would normally be easy to replace, but not out in sea where I happened to be. I found it, fortunately, but I’m going to order a spare.
Improvisational supplies are fair game too – duct tape, electrical tape, fast setting epoxy and epoxy putty may make the cut.
Anyway, I am hoping that many of you will have suggestions.
