We’ve all fallen for it. For pennies on the dollar, we bought a great deal on eBay that looked perfect in the pictures and was “just serviced!”, but ended up having IP creep. Here’s a quick tutorial on how to restore a piston regulator that has an IP creep. And the key piece of the tutorial is showing you how to restore a blunt-end piston in post #4 (look for a future thread on restoring an older knife-edge piston).
If you don’t know what IP creep is, or have never taken a first stage apart, this is probably not the thread to start with. But if you have an idea how to handle a pick, and have access to tools, then this will lead you through the restoration of an eBay Atomic Aquatics Z2 that was pretty on the outside,
but awful inside.
Here’s where we’re starting: a cosmetically beautiful first stage, perhaps 8 years old, that nonetheless showed IP creep when we put it on a gauge.
If that hadn't worked, a tap on the cap itself with a hammer often breaks the crystalline verdigris that is locking it shut, at the cost of a small mark on the LP port plug that you use to take the light hammer blow. Alternatively, a big whack with a non-metallic mallet that won't leave a mark but will deliver a blow may have the same effect of breaking up those crystals that have locked the cap in place.
If that handn't worked, I would have soaked the entire reg in the ultrasonic for 20 min and tried again.
As soon as we took her apart, it became clear that as flawless as the outside appeared in the eBay pictures, this reg hadn’t seen service in awhile, and had clearly been put away wet.
In fact, looking at the verdigris inside the HP port, it seems likely that this first stage had been completely flooded at one point in time.
With this much verdigris accumulation, we’re going to see chrome loss. No doubt about it. But if the inside of the reg body is not scratched or pitted, we can fix the rest.
Upon removing, wiping down and inspecting the piston, it’s clear that part, if not all of our problem indeed lies right at the sealing area between the piston end and the cone seat.
As you can see with this piston, there is frank pitting adjacent to the curve of the blunt end. This is very common, and is likely due to a combination of grit, salt crystals and tank dust that gets blown against the edge of the piston as high pressure air flow races around the corner of the piston’s edge, as gas flow proceeds down the shaft of the piston to the Intermediate Pressure chamber.
If you don’t know what IP creep is, or have never taken a first stage apart, this is probably not the thread to start with. But if you have an idea how to handle a pick, and have access to tools, then this will lead you through the restoration of an eBay Atomic Aquatics Z2 that was pretty on the outside,
Here’s where we’re starting: a cosmetically beautiful first stage, perhaps 8 years old, that nonetheless showed IP creep when we put it on a gauge.
Note that even taking it apart was a bit of a challenge. The cap was frozen on, and it took a tap with a hammer on the LP port handle to break it free. Note too, that this handle is aluminum, so it will deform before the brass cap does.If that handn't worked, I would have soaked the entire reg in the ultrasonic for 20 min and tried again.
As soon as we took her apart, it became clear that as flawless as the outside appeared in the eBay pictures, this reg hadn’t seen service in awhile, and had clearly been put away wet.
In fact, looking at the verdigris inside the HP port, it seems likely that this first stage had been completely flooded at one point in time.
Upon removing, wiping down and inspecting the piston, it’s clear that part, if not all of our problem indeed lies right at the sealing area between the piston end and the cone seat.
As you can see with this piston, there is frank pitting adjacent to the curve of the blunt end. This is very common, and is likely due to a combination of grit, salt crystals and tank dust that gets blown against the edge of the piston as high pressure air flow races around the corner of the piston’s edge, as gas flow proceeds down the shaft of the piston to the Intermediate Pressure chamber.
Continued in the next post