I have a dumb question. Given the Phoenix valve, HPR second stage, and replacement cans, hoses, diaphragms etc. Is it possible to build a double hose regulator just out of replacement parts?
As said, you would need the body and cans. But------.
While not constructed from all "new manufacture" parts per say two of my regulators were made from left over parts, some NOS and then all of the available new parts. Now upgraded with the latest goodies they are my most dived regulators and I have no fear of "altering" them effecting their value because they are Franken-reggies.
I too prefer the round label. They are the ones I drooled over in the shop window when I was a kid, the old Mistral I had then (and still have) seemed so antiquated in comparison. And then the world changed.
The Phoenix is not the only of it's kind. A couple of years ago there was a small run of integrated bodies by an entirely different group of people than if I may borrow, the usual vintage suspects. I never saw one but in photos. Then there is the Aqua Lung Mentor, which is a beauty, of which there may be only one in civilian hands being as it was made for military contract and then there was the best forgotten AL New Mistral which was a kludge.
Before I new of the the usual suspects, I had been playing around with my all time favorite wonder reg, the Tekna T2100. Mostly mental drawings but a few sketches and phone calls to here and there. I had in my mind I wanted a pilot boosted (pneumatic amplified) first and second stage to make up for the initially high cracking effort of a double hose, a modern over pressure. But since then I met the usual suspects who were much, much farther down the road and actually had serious concepts and like the old TV series, "Then Came Bronson" well, then along came Luis. He did not ride up on a Harley but he came nonetheless
. And now we have Phoenix RAM HPRs with a cracking effort of .3 inches WC!!! You actually have to work to bring the cracking effort UP!
It is wonderful that we have all of these new parts and at affordable prices through vdh I might add that are BETTER than what was done originally. The founder of a well known aviation company way back in the beginning, parodied, give me a lever and I can move the world, something like, give me a good engineer and I can make the world fly.
I do not think, BTW, that Cousteau was an engineer, just a very talented film maker. I think it shows if you critically look at our beloved dh regs. But, cannot be to hard on those who made those early days of frogmen possible, same could be said of anything, why invent the propeller aircraft, should have just started with jets. Gotta start somewhere and the infrastructure it used to COST a manufacturer to bring a product from concept to market now has been shrunk down by some sort of Martian shrinking ray gun to a a CATIA/CAD program and a CNC mill/lath. Anything is possible now, even anti-gravity, just ask Boeing why they bought MD.
. LOL, I love a good conspiracy.
I am not very good at CATIA, my boss, complaining at me, asked me why he sent me to the school because I still hand him sketches on napkins, of tools I need made and why I cannot use Outlook Calendar like everybody else? I finally broke down, drew a simple tool, it took me nearly two weeks because I do not know what the h--- I am doing, much preferring napkins, and then I pressed the big red button. A few minutes later a tool fell out of the sky on my desk. Well, almost. Hmmmmmm. How does that work. Well, that would get me fired for sure and I been working towards that anyways, getting fired,
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Built up from spares and new parts, square label RAM HPR. I use it with either a standard long yoke or a HD long yoke with a banjo for the SPG, triple splitter on hookah adapter for LP as needed.
Pre-release, round label Phoenix RAM number JAMES 06-006, now fitted with the new HPR valve, also a piece built regulator:
N
"we got a grandchild coming and we don't need any MORE GEAR".
