custom o-rings

[redacted]

So let me tell you how my day went. First I called Apple Rubber Products and left a meaasge for Dave. When he didn't call back after about three hours, I inturn called back and talked to mike. I told Mike I had eleven o-rings of various sizes and needed some help in replacing them. This is what I was told next." Apple has an individual order charge of fifty dollars, eleven o-rings=five hundred and fifty dollars". Hmmmmm, 550.00 dollars, maybe a o-ring for Nasa cost that much, but there is no o-ring or o-rings in the world worth that much. Thankfully, I walked into a little out of the way place in Salem Connecticut, and bought everything I needed for 54.63. And that consisted of 10 and 20 pieces of some o-rings.

Sounds like you still payed way too much if you are talking standard 2- o-rings. But you said you were looking for "custom" o-rings. There are a number of internet sites where you can buy most scuba o-rings for $0.05 to $0.25 each even in smaller quantities plus a flat S&H fee. But you would have to know what sizes you need.

 

[tight rope walker]

Live and learn, I just hope I live long enough

 

[tight rope walker]

What I ended up buying today was 120 o-rings, some were speced out silicone due to temp, some were speced out neopreme. And on this particular second stadge, I am not going to start second guessing the engineers. When this is doing it's job, there is none better...no brag, just fact.

 

[herman]

You now have me curious, what second stage are you rebuilding?

 

[tight rope walker]

It supported 6 divers to 1800 fsw.

 

[Slonda828]

I'm curious too. The smallest O-ring that I have seen used in SCUBA gear is -003. How small do you need? You might want to just get a "dash chart", which has outlines of o-rings and lists their "-" part number. I have one and it works wonders for rebuilding regulators. There are really only four flavors of o-ring in dive gear. You have EPDM, polyurethane, viton, and POR (plain old rubber). You can usually tell by feel and by appearance which type you require.

 

[herman]

It supported 6 divers to 1800 fsw.

Ok, whats the rest of the story? This thing has got to be a one of a kind custom reg.

 

[tight rope walker]

This reg is the result of a MIT students theseis, this was his class project. And as a result of his work, Scubapro produced this reg between 1977-78. The o-ring is a .001 1/2. Imagine something 1/2 the size of a bb. Now cut that in half and machine a nipple on the flat side. That is where that o-ring goes. Now if you think that's small, you should see the pilot pin.

 

[redacted]

Even the little standard o-rings are not that hard to find. One example for 2-001s: O-Rings, Inc. Since 1958

Add $7.50 for shipping and handling and the cost for 120 SAE 568 o-rings is in the neighborhood of $37.50. Larger quantities can bring the cost per down quite a bit, if you have a use for a bag of 100.

 

[tight rope walker]

Thanks for the info. By pure dumb luck I stumbled into a little out of the way place in Salem Connecticut and virtually bought every thing I needed. But more importantly I got a good education in what a manufactuor means by, no longer supplys parts, and what parts that manufactuor actually produced themselves, or are random parts that can be had else where. My problem was, and I openly admit to it is, I was lead to believe some of these items were unique to a particular manufactuor, when in reality these items can be found just about anywhere. Now don't get me wrong, the machined parts that I stated earlier are unique to this brand of regulator. Bit a o-ring is a o-ring is a o-ring, once you have the specs. That was my fault and now I know better. Thanks to all.