Buying gear from Craigslist?

[grassyknoll]

No problems with buying gear off of Craigslist I guess. I'm too lazy to put the picture on, but it's one of those chrome plated water extinguisher tanks.
God, I hope someone doesn't buy it for diving.
Anyone else ever run across frankengear on Craigslist or Ebay?

Air Reserve tank dredging, mining - $30

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Reply to: sale-394904042@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-08-11, 6:17PM PDT


I am selling a metal reserve air tank. It has quick connects an dholds plenty of air for two divers. It was made from a fire extinguisher.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

This type of thing may have some historical value to a collector if it's old. It was common in the 50's to make your own tanks from discarded fire extinguishers. Magazines like popular science had a set of plans for making doubles out of two extinguishers, PLYWOOD for the back plate!, and some surplus webbing. You got your regs at a store that sold voit sporting gear and made the manifold in a machine shop or bought one at same store. People did it and I guess survived. Heck I tried strapping an old extinguisher on my back and going into our pool when I was eight. I wanted to be like Mike! Nelson that is. One of the worst beatings my mom ever gave me! Lloyd Bridges owes me.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

I saw an Apollo scooter on craigslist, from the new local second hand sporting goods store. Called a friend who was in town and he negotiated a ~$400 price. A couple days later I had it at work and my boss finds our company markings inside. It had been taken a couple years earlier while the instructor/guide was on a dive.

Seems a couple guests aborted the dive at shores edge. The guide left two scooters on the beach while he took the remaining diver(s) on the dive. Both scooters were gone when dive was finished. The cops came, reviewed the history of police reports, said the scooter belonged to my boss, but offered no help to my friend out the $400. My boss got copies of the original police reports for my friend to send to American Express, because the second sports guy would not give refund. Even though the cops knew he sold stolen goods they took no action.

It's been months and I hope my friend got his money back. The prop and battery were not really servicable, and a couple weeks after recovery, the base unit flooded on me while I was solo. Good thing I was relatively shallow and relatively close to shore (still had to leave it and come back for it). Now it is just another parts scooter under the bosses house. All of us spent a lot of time and trouble on the thing, craigslist does not have the same level of transaction security as eBay.

 

[Sam Miller III]

This type of thing may have some historical value to a collector if it's old. It was common in the 50's to make your own tanks from discarded fire extinguishers. Magazines like popular science had a set of plans for making doubles out of two extinguishers, PLYWOOD for the back plate!, and some surplus webbing. You got your regs at a store that sold voit sporting gear and made the manifold in a machine shop or bought one at same store. People did it and I guess survived. Heck I tried strapping an old extinguisher on my back and going into our pool when I was eight. I wanted to be like Mike! Nelson that is. One of the worst beatings my mom ever gave me! Lloyd Bridges owes me.

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Fire extinguishers were never used they were very negative. WW11 surplus Co2 cylinders were the unit of choice..3 sizes 38, 60 & 90s.

"You got your regs at a store that sold voit sporting gear and made the manifold in a machine shop or bought one at same store."

Donot comprehend your statement! Regs were made from a USAAF (US Army Air Force) diluter demand regulator that had been modified for use UW.

Yes people survived..

sdm

 

[mike_s]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fire extinguishers were never used they were very negative. WW11 surplus Co2 cylinders were the unit of choice..3 sizes 38, 60 & 90s.

Actually I think I agree with Jim's statement more than yours.

I've got a co worker that dove with a tank converted from a fire extinguisher when he was a kid.

It did happen, so it's not like they were "never used" as you say.

 

[O2BBubbleFree]

I haven't been around as long as you guys, but thought I'd chip in... Just to nitpick...

I have the July '53 Popular Science article, "How to Build and Use a Diving Lung." It specifies surplus CO2 or O2 Cylinders, not fire extinguishers.

It also specifies a surplus O2 demand regulator, and tells how to waterproof it.

Oh, and the craigslist ad mentions it's for dredging, which I believe would be surface-supplied, so the tanks buoyancy wouldn't be an issue, would it?

Dive well,

 

[Dig]

I believe Kevin McMurray outlined using discarded fire extinguishers in his book Deep Descent. If I am not mistaken he also talked about getting the regs from a Voit dealer....they apparently advertised plans and places to buy regs and junk in the back of adventure magazines back then. Not saying it was the norm, only that it has been cited as a feasible means of creating some scuba equipment in the past.


-Dan

 

[covediver]

Think of Craigslist as an electronic bulletin board or want ads. You can get good gear or crap gear and maybe even stolen at a swap meet, flea market, garage sale, ebay, or through a private party and maybe even scubaboard (???). The key is buyer beware and if he or she is your dive buddy and uses a fire extinguisher, beware of buyer. By the way, two friends of mine in Santa Barbara had old fire extinguisher tanks in their collection of classic dive gear.