Loose float arms

Ok, so I have a Nauticam housing and using 2 Nauticam float arms from the housing to the strobes. It seems that I have to tighten down the clamps so much to get the arms to stop moving and there's not much left of the clamp to turn (spring is about all the way compressed). Looks as though the O-rings are in good shape with no cuts or damage.

Has anyone else had this issue, and if so what's the solution?

Ok, so I have a Nauticam housing and using 2 Nauticam float arms from the housing to the strobes. It seems that I have to tighten down the clamps so much to get the arms to stop moving and there's not much left of the clamp to turn (spring is about all the way compressed). Looks as though the O-rings are in good shape with no cuts or damage.
Has anyone else had this issue, and if so what's the solution?

I fix the clamps very tight while on land so they hold better. When in the water, I lossen them a bit so that I can adjust the strobes easily.

Initially I was using cheap D&D clamps. They did not hold any more after about one year. Now I have more expensive Nauticam clamps and they hold much better...

Wolfgang

The nauticam and inon arms have soft orings that tend to move more on land

The ULCS arms use standard BUNA that are hard and grip better

I changed all my orings to buna it is better not to mix on the same segment

2 hours ago, Architeuthis said:

 

Initially I was using cheap D&D clamps. They did not hold any more after about one year. Now I have more expensive Nauticam clamps and they hold much better...

 

Wolfgang

Picking up on Wolfgang's point, the arms, clamps etc are one of the areas where I think it is worth spending a bit extra to get high quality.

These are some of the few bits of u/w photo gear that you are unlikely to want to change. Once you have good stuff, you tend to stick with it - and they last many, many years. My ULCS are heading to 20 years old.

It's very much a case of: buy cheap, buy twice. Get good ones from the outset and you won't regret it.

I'm not clear if there was a problem leading to the original post, or just a question.  I've used the same strobe arms since 2015 on three camera rigs now, and I have to tighten them quite tight to keep the strobes from flopping around when the camera is lifted into or out of the boat.   Underwater I then have to loosen to the correct tension.

After a couple of years I was having a lot of issues getting correct tension.  Basically the adjustments went from too loose to locked down completely with nothing in between.   I ended up replacing all the o-rings with new ones, and now I can do a tension adjustment again.

It would appear the o-rings got worn in somehow.  It would probably be a good thing to not store the arms overnight with the clamps locked down, but I've not done that and they still wore in.

I once tried applying a bit of grease - big mistake there.

Phxazcraig