Regulator Service Technician Training - Unrestricted
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I was another privileged student of the first class, and overall I have to say the experience and content provided by @rsingler was absolutely outstanding. I feel that I learned a tremendous amount during the class, with an emphasis on little tricks and knowledge that is generally not provided by the manufacturer service manuals. Rob's knowledge, delivery, logistical setup to produce the seminar (camera, microscope, example regulators, tooling) were all exceptional and I feel the experience was generally as good as it could have been given the very significant constraints that he had to work with (people coming in with varying degrees a regulator knowledge, all servicing different styles and models of regulators, with for most non ideal tool setups). Also of note is the impressive level of communication he provided before the course, making sure you had all the information you needed to gather the tools required to service the specific regulators you had planned to rebuild, sending you a personalized kit of goodies, etc. I think that he went above and beyond what could be expected for this first implementation of the class. Personally, the value provided when you consider the low price of admission, incredible breadth of information delivered, 22-23 hours spent on zoom (yes, for real!), effort spent communicating pre-class, is unmatched in my opinion when compared to other scuba-related classes.
Now, obviously, I do think that some things would have made the seminar even more worthwhile from my personal experience. If I had to make suggestions, they would be the following:
- Adequately prepare before the class to take maximum advantage of Rob's wealth of info and knowledge. I was under prepared myself, as in having ordered the regulator savvy book a bit late, I did not have time to read more than the first 40 pages or so beforehand. While the most relevant aspects are covered during theory parts of the seminar, having already fully read the book can only help you benefit there.
- Still on the theme of preparation, reading the service manual of your regulator(s) before is certainly helpful. One thing I really wish I had done was print out the exploded schematic of my reg from the service manual and written the part number of each o-ring needed on the drawing. I serviced an Apeks FSR + XTX200 second, and as ridiculous as this sounds, the o-rings in the manual are referenced by a number on the schematic, which then sends you to a part number at the bottom of the page which references a 10 pack of those o-rings, while the service kit itself has part numbers and drawings on the back of the packaging that reference the individual o-ring part number, which is different. So for every single o-ring, I had to look at the schematic, cross-reference the 10 pack part number, google it to find the corresponding individual part number, find that number on the back of the kit packaging and then match the o-ring to the drawing there. Suffice it to say, pretty frustrating, and obviously some advance prep would have taken care of this. Apeks: come on, what is the deal here! Obviously, this may not be an issue with other manufacturers. Also I forgot to take a picture of my reg post disassembly, which created this problem in the first place.
- Scheduling-wise, the 2-day format was quite exhausting, and I would probably have personally preferred something like 4 4-hour sessions over 2 weeks or a month time, with opportunities to work on disassembly and reassembly on your own in between class sessions, allowing you to share questions and the challenges you faced while working on your own at the beginning of the next session. Something like this perhaps: 1. Some theory and then example disassembly of piston and diaphragm first stages. Do your own disassembly after 2. Questions and issues regarding disassembly addressed, then demo reassembly and tuning of first stages. Do your own reassembly after. 3. Questions and issues, moving on to disassembly and reassembly of second stages, with relevant theory. Then do it on your own. 4 Questions and issues, and then tuning of the reassembled seconds for everyone at the same time, since the procedure is quite similar for all regulators. Just a suggestion that perhaps would have worked a bit better for me in hindsight, but I realize this may not be feasible, and also would leave regs out of order for a while for students, which may not be practical.
- This one is going to sound stupid as this is a regulator service course, but I kind of wish I had not serviced any regulator during the class, and instead paid full attention to the lecture. There was time built up to disassemble and reassemble your regulators while Rob was working on a similar one on camera, but the order in which it was done on camera was not necessarily matching the service manual for my chosen reg, and to not get confused or miss any step, I had to follow the manual, which created a bit of a disconnect and made me probably miss some valuable content. I feel that the participants who already had prior experience servicing regulators and for a reason or another chose not to service equipment during class are probably the ones who benefited most, and I wish I had opted to do that and delay my service until after the class (in the end, I didn't have any significant problem so could have done it on my own either before or after class, and paid full attention).
- Equipment-wise, regarding tooling, if you are considering the class and are concerned about this aspect, I don't think this is a major hurdle. Honestly, I felt I had way too many tools that I could have done without. Definitely get the first stage vise holder and a reasonable quality bench vise to secure the first stage, an IP gauge, etc, but other than that, I feel that most specialty tools are quite overrated and easy workarounds can be found (especially involving the famous wooden dowels). Also, if you have that capability, a number of those specialty tools can certainly be 3d printed (the ones involving low torque, or just pushing things in or out of place for example). I had also purchased a sonicator (which I could market as a super jewelry cleaner for my wife
and honestly, while this is nice to have, the simple dip in vinegar and scrubbing with a soft nylon brush had already cleaned everything almost perfectly (your experience may vary if your stuff is really crusty though...) Also, I had purchased a full set of thin wrenches (11 pieces with double ends covering 22 sizes) and yes, it actually didn't have the single one I needed (11/16 if you need to know!) Well, I also enjoy working on my road bikes, so those will be handy anyway, but still, pretty ridiculous...
Anyway, apologies for the long post. Overall it was fantastic. I would definitely do it again, and actually, I think attending the class a second time is how I would make the most out of it knowing what I do now (well, I guess it's always like that though), unless a recording of some of the key sections of the class becomes available for review later on.
Many thanks to @rsingler for all the effort he put into this.
Now, obviously, I do think that some things would have made the seminar even more worthwhile from my personal experience. If I had to make suggestions, they would be the following:
- Adequately prepare before the class to take maximum advantage of Rob's wealth of info and knowledge. I was under prepared myself, as in having ordered the regulator savvy book a bit late, I did not have time to read more than the first 40 pages or so beforehand. While the most relevant aspects are covered during theory parts of the seminar, having already fully read the book can only help you benefit there.
- Still on the theme of preparation, reading the service manual of your regulator(s) before is certainly helpful. One thing I really wish I had done was print out the exploded schematic of my reg from the service manual and written the part number of each o-ring needed on the drawing. I serviced an Apeks FSR + XTX200 second, and as ridiculous as this sounds, the o-rings in the manual are referenced by a number on the schematic, which then sends you to a part number at the bottom of the page which references a 10 pack of those o-rings, while the service kit itself has part numbers and drawings on the back of the packaging that reference the individual o-ring part number, which is different. So for every single o-ring, I had to look at the schematic, cross-reference the 10 pack part number, google it to find the corresponding individual part number, find that number on the back of the kit packaging and then match the o-ring to the drawing there. Suffice it to say, pretty frustrating, and obviously some advance prep would have taken care of this. Apeks: come on, what is the deal here! Obviously, this may not be an issue with other manufacturers. Also I forgot to take a picture of my reg post disassembly, which created this problem in the first place.
- Scheduling-wise, the 2-day format was quite exhausting, and I would probably have personally preferred something like 4 4-hour sessions over 2 weeks or a month time, with opportunities to work on disassembly and reassembly on your own in between class sessions, allowing you to share questions and the challenges you faced while working on your own at the beginning of the next session. Something like this perhaps: 1. Some theory and then example disassembly of piston and diaphragm first stages. Do your own disassembly after 2. Questions and issues regarding disassembly addressed, then demo reassembly and tuning of first stages. Do your own reassembly after. 3. Questions and issues, moving on to disassembly and reassembly of second stages, with relevant theory. Then do it on your own. 4 Questions and issues, and then tuning of the reassembled seconds for everyone at the same time, since the procedure is quite similar for all regulators. Just a suggestion that perhaps would have worked a bit better for me in hindsight, but I realize this may not be feasible, and also would leave regs out of order for a while for students, which may not be practical.
- This one is going to sound stupid as this is a regulator service course, but I kind of wish I had not serviced any regulator during the class, and instead paid full attention to the lecture. There was time built up to disassemble and reassemble your regulators while Rob was working on a similar one on camera, but the order in which it was done on camera was not necessarily matching the service manual for my chosen reg, and to not get confused or miss any step, I had to follow the manual, which created a bit of a disconnect and made me probably miss some valuable content. I feel that the participants who already had prior experience servicing regulators and for a reason or another chose not to service equipment during class are probably the ones who benefited most, and I wish I had opted to do that and delay my service until after the class (in the end, I didn't have any significant problem so could have done it on my own either before or after class, and paid full attention).
- Equipment-wise, regarding tooling, if you are considering the class and are concerned about this aspect, I don't think this is a major hurdle. Honestly, I felt I had way too many tools that I could have done without. Definitely get the first stage vise holder and a reasonable quality bench vise to secure the first stage, an IP gauge, etc, but other than that, I feel that most specialty tools are quite overrated and easy workarounds can be found (especially involving the famous wooden dowels). Also, if you have that capability, a number of those specialty tools can certainly be 3d printed (the ones involving low torque, or just pushing things in or out of place for example). I had also purchased a sonicator (which I could market as a super jewelry cleaner for my wife
and honestly, while this is nice to have, the simple dip in vinegar and scrubbing with a soft nylon brush had already cleaned everything almost perfectly (your experience may vary if your stuff is really crusty though...) Also, I had purchased a full set of thin wrenches (11 pieces with double ends covering 22 sizes) and yes, it actually didn't have the single one I needed (11/16 if you need to know!) Well, I also enjoy working on my road bikes, so those will be handy anyway, but still, pretty ridiculous...Anyway, apologies for the long post. Overall it was fantastic. I would definitely do it again, and actually, I think attending the class a second time is how I would make the most out of it knowing what I do now (well, I guess it's always like that though), unless a recording of some of the key sections of the class becomes available for review later on.
Many thanks to @rsingler for all the effort he put into this.
I had the same experience with the thin wrenches, although the combo 9/16 and 11/16 is nice to have on hand for hose removal.
Tools that you will constantly be working with (other than hose wrenches and a hex key for port plugs) are some wooden dowels that Robert will send you and a couple of brass picks and a plastic pick.
The next most used tools are the vise and vise holders which are simply bars with the ends threaded to fit the HP and LP ports. You screw one of these into the reg port and then you can clamp the tool instead of the reg body. For some operations they let you apply enough leverage that you can skip the vise entirely. Robert ordered a bunch of these for those of us that needed them. When they didn't arrive in time he bought some appropriate sized large bolts, cleaned up the threads and sent them out instead.
After that it's a smallish number of specialty tools that are mostly used for a single operation. Here's a photo of all the tools I used:
The luggage scale was in lieu of a torque ratchet. The three spanners at the top and the white bottle-shaped thing at the right are Mares tools which I got from Aqua Sport Online . Mares won't allow their North American dealers to sell their tools or parts directly, but they are no longer dealers. @Charlene Barker was nice enough to go through her workshop, gather up the Mares tools that were left behind and sell them to me at a reasonable price along with a bunch of Proton service kits. The middle-sized one is for removing the yoke nut, the cutout allows the jaws to reach past the yoke. It also perfectly fit the Scubapro yoke nut, so I didn't have to buy the special driver and ratchet extension for that from Scubatools.
Speaking of Scubatools. You can see their hook spanner and inline adjustment tool on the right. Right below the hook spanner is a 5.5mm hex driver for the nut that holds the lever on Mares and many other European second stages. They also supplied the blue handled double twist o-ring pick on the left and the face spanner which is next to it.
I already had the hex keys and wrenches except the wavy one at bottom center is from Robert. He also supplied the o-ring bullet and the hemostat. He gets used hemostats for free from his side job as an anesthesiologist. (Just to be clear, that's a joke. He actually grabs new ones from the supply cabinet when no one is looking.) I had to buy the $35 circlip pliers from Home Depot at the last minute to remove precisely one clip. The red-handled side cutters next to them were only used to cut off the zip ties on the second stage mouthpieces.
I'm quite proud of the socket on the ratchet at center right. This is for the very thin turret bolt on the Mk 5. The head of the bolt is so thin that it doesn't extend past the chamfers on the end of a socket which means you can't get a grip on it. I bought a cheap thin wall socket of the correct size, stuck it in the vise and hand filed it until the chamfers just disappeared.
These are the tools for my regs. Everyone will obviously have a slightly different set. Also I think there might be a tool or two used for servicing LPI quick connects that is missing from the picture. I decided to skip that part so I could continue working to get my well-stuck diaphragm reg apart.
I just realized there is one tool missing from the picture. There's a couple of operations that require low pressure compressed air. By low pressure, I mean something like 40psi, not the 135psi that comes out of your low pressure ports. If you don't have a compressor, one workaround is a little tool you can hook up to your low pressure inflator. It has a rubber tip that you can bend to release air, the amount you bend it determines the air pressure. I got mine off Amazon, but I'll link to the page on Piranha because they carry it for all three LPI connectors. They call it a BC Air Nozzle. There is also a version with a tire inflator end at the bottom of the page: Tire & Air Inflators Piranha Dive Shop |
Tools that you will constantly be working with (other than hose wrenches and a hex key for port plugs) are some wooden dowels that Robert will send you and a couple of brass picks and a plastic pick.
The next most used tools are the vise and vise holders which are simply bars with the ends threaded to fit the HP and LP ports. You screw one of these into the reg port and then you can clamp the tool instead of the reg body. For some operations they let you apply enough leverage that you can skip the vise entirely. Robert ordered a bunch of these for those of us that needed them. When they didn't arrive in time he bought some appropriate sized large bolts, cleaned up the threads and sent them out instead.
After that it's a smallish number of specialty tools that are mostly used for a single operation. Here's a photo of all the tools I used:
The luggage scale was in lieu of a torque ratchet. The three spanners at the top and the white bottle-shaped thing at the right are Mares tools which I got from Aqua Sport Online . Mares won't allow their North American dealers to sell their tools or parts directly, but they are no longer dealers. @Charlene Barker was nice enough to go through her workshop, gather up the Mares tools that were left behind and sell them to me at a reasonable price along with a bunch of Proton service kits. The middle-sized one is for removing the yoke nut, the cutout allows the jaws to reach past the yoke. It also perfectly fit the Scubapro yoke nut, so I didn't have to buy the special driver and ratchet extension for that from Scubatools.
Speaking of Scubatools. You can see their hook spanner and inline adjustment tool on the right. Right below the hook spanner is a 5.5mm hex driver for the nut that holds the lever on Mares and many other European second stages. They also supplied the blue handled double twist o-ring pick on the left and the face spanner which is next to it.
I already had the hex keys and wrenches except the wavy one at bottom center is from Robert. He also supplied the o-ring bullet and the hemostat. He gets used hemostats for free from his side job as an anesthesiologist. (Just to be clear, that's a joke. He actually grabs new ones from the supply cabinet when no one is looking.) I had to buy the $35 circlip pliers from Home Depot at the last minute to remove precisely one clip. The red-handled side cutters next to them were only used to cut off the zip ties on the second stage mouthpieces.
I'm quite proud of the socket on the ratchet at center right. This is for the very thin turret bolt on the Mk 5. The head of the bolt is so thin that it doesn't extend past the chamfers on the end of a socket which means you can't get a grip on it. I bought a cheap thin wall socket of the correct size, stuck it in the vise and hand filed it until the chamfers just disappeared.
These are the tools for my regs. Everyone will obviously have a slightly different set. Also I think there might be a tool or two used for servicing LPI quick connects that is missing from the picture. I decided to skip that part so I could continue working to get my well-stuck diaphragm reg apart.
I just realized there is one tool missing from the picture. There's a couple of operations that require low pressure compressed air. By low pressure, I mean something like 40psi, not the 135psi that comes out of your low pressure ports. If you don't have a compressor, one workaround is a little tool you can hook up to your low pressure inflator. It has a rubber tip that you can bend to release air, the amount you bend it determines the air pressure. I got mine off Amazon, but I'll link to the page on Piranha because they carry it for all three LPI connectors. They call it a BC Air Nozzle. There is also a version with a tire inflator end at the bottom of the page: Tire & Air Inflators Piranha Dive Shop |
I'll belatedly chime in. I was one of the lucky few in the first class.
I'll echo the comments above. It was fantastic and a bargain at many times the price. Even if you have some experience servicing regs, you are going to pick up information that will make you much better at it. That last 10% (or in my case maybe a bit more....) is huge.
It is the practical stuff that fills in the gaps found even in very complete service guides - almost a virtual apprenticeship and Rob is a great teacher.
My only format suggestion would be to fully separate the teaching/theory part from the hands-on part. If the students are trying to work at the same time Rob is demonstrating, it's hard to pay 100% attention and we end up with lots of interruptions and questions. That sometimes results in needing a substantial digression that may only apply to one person right in the middle of an operation.
Instead, perhaps an easier format would be: (1) theory and academic explanation; (2) demonstration of the operation without students attempting to follow along; (3) built in time, perhaps over an extended break, while participants do their own work, and finally; a separate dedicated Q&A time to address any problems, etc.
Don't get me wrong: the Q&A is valuable even if it doesn't specifically apply to you. It just might be easier to have it take place at the end rather than interrupting the flow along the way.
The other reason for this suggestion is that Rob was all set with breakout rooms to deal with individual problems, but it was hard to take advantage of that because there wasn't really a defined moment where it was clear that the teaching part was over and we were shifting to Q&A. I would have been reluctant to leave the main discussion for fear of missing "the next thing."
My only other comment is that I hope Rob isn't taking too much on himself. The level of organization was incredible, with Rob helping every student with parts for the particular regs they were working on over the month before the class. I'm imagining a vast spreadsheet and a huge amount of work on Rob's part making sure everyone had all the parts they needed in advance for a big variety of regs.
It was hugely appreciated, but I know that I couldn't sustain that level of hassle over multiple classes, so I hope Rob doesn't burn out. As a student, I would be perfectly happy to order my own service kits, tools, parts, etc. and take some of the load off.
I would highly recommend this to anyone remotely interested in working on their regs. Thanks Rob.
I'll echo the comments above. It was fantastic and a bargain at many times the price. Even if you have some experience servicing regs, you are going to pick up information that will make you much better at it. That last 10% (or in my case maybe a bit more....) is huge.
It is the practical stuff that fills in the gaps found even in very complete service guides - almost a virtual apprenticeship and Rob is a great teacher.
My only format suggestion would be to fully separate the teaching/theory part from the hands-on part. If the students are trying to work at the same time Rob is demonstrating, it's hard to pay 100% attention and we end up with lots of interruptions and questions. That sometimes results in needing a substantial digression that may only apply to one person right in the middle of an operation.
Instead, perhaps an easier format would be: (1) theory and academic explanation; (2) demonstration of the operation without students attempting to follow along; (3) built in time, perhaps over an extended break, while participants do their own work, and finally; a separate dedicated Q&A time to address any problems, etc.
Don't get me wrong: the Q&A is valuable even if it doesn't specifically apply to you. It just might be easier to have it take place at the end rather than interrupting the flow along the way.
The other reason for this suggestion is that Rob was all set with breakout rooms to deal with individual problems, but it was hard to take advantage of that because there wasn't really a defined moment where it was clear that the teaching part was over and we were shifting to Q&A. I would have been reluctant to leave the main discussion for fear of missing "the next thing."
My only other comment is that I hope Rob isn't taking too much on himself. The level of organization was incredible, with Rob helping every student with parts for the particular regs they were working on over the month before the class. I'm imagining a vast spreadsheet and a huge amount of work on Rob's part making sure everyone had all the parts they needed in advance for a big variety of regs.
It was hugely appreciated, but I know that I couldn't sustain that level of hassle over multiple classes, so I hope Rob doesn't burn out. As a student, I would be perfectly happy to order my own service kits, tools, parts, etc. and take some of the load off.
I would highly recommend this to anyone remotely interested in working on their regs. Thanks Rob.
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OP
Seminar Round #2 has now been scheduled for Aug 27 evening (2 hrs) and all day Aug 28, 29.
I'll be contacting everyone on the list, but I'm accepting a couple of waiting list folks in case these dates don't work out for all of those currently signed up.
Seminar Round #3 will be reserved for our non-U.S. members (unless you're a night owl). It will be conducted over two weekends from (EDIT) 0500-1100UTC which will hopefully work for the Hawaiian, Australian and European SB'ers who have expressed interest. Dates are tentatively October 9, 10, 16, 17.
I currently have five openings left.
I'll be contacting everyone on the list, but I'm accepting a couple of waiting list folks in case these dates don't work out for all of those currently signed up.
Seminar Round #3 will be reserved for our non-U.S. members (unless you're a night owl). It will be conducted over two weekends from (EDIT) 0500-1100UTC which will hopefully work for the Hawaiian, Australian and European SB'ers who have expressed interest. Dates are tentatively October 9, 10, 16, 17.
I currently have five openings left.
Say -- were any of these sessions ever recorded; and will we ever get to see some highlights, or even low-lights -- say, an occasional spinning beach-ball of death, due to Zoom connectivity issues, for any of us, who were and are, regrettably, somewhere in the sticks?
OP
Didn't record the first session. But I'll try to do that in the future.
stiebs
Contributor
OP
You're right!
Tried to translate and made a mistake.
I'll edit my post above. Thank you!
Tried to translate and made a mistake.
I'll edit my post above. Thank you!
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