how does this sucker come apart?

[oldmossback]

Since it is too freaking cold to get outside.....I am rummaging thru my old stuff and rediscovered two of my old USD depth guages.........they are labled "US Divers, Pro, Depth Guages and are rated to 250 feet, with orange faces white and black hand and white lettering.........and it appears to be a solid stainless case........has a port for filling with oil.

The oil has leaked out of both and I was thinking to replace the orings etc and refill and get them working again.......question is, how do these things come apart.......

The case looks one piece.... I can not see a seam where the top part of the case must screw down, however, this must be where it comes apart........the case must be well machined to close tolerances.........

Before I do any harm to these, does anyone know how to disassemble these?

Oldmossack.......

 

[herman]

If it's the one I am thinking about I believe they roll crimped the lens in place after assembly... in other words you don't without distroying it...Hope I am wrong but that was the conclusion I came to after messing with mine for a while.....same issue, seals leaking oil. If you discover anything different, please post some photos, I really hope I am wrong.

 

[oldmossback]

thanks................I wonder if there is any solution for rejuvination of the seals.........

 

[=C=]

I saw a thread where someone drilled a hole a then plugged it... Let me See...

It looks like that was for a compass... Sorry.

 

[herman]

I saw a thread where someone drilled a hole a then plugged it... Let me See...

that was for a plasic compass, these are metal gauges. They have access ports to get oil back in them but it does little good if the reason it's gone is a leaking seal. Gotta fix the seal first. Problem is we can't get to the seal without doing major damage.

 

[oldmossback]

Herman

It looks to be once piece, even if the metal ring holding the lens is smooth'er polished than the stainless case............put it in a vice and then tried to loosen it with a pipe wrench.....nothing...........odd way to make a precision instrument.......

 

[herman]

Cheap way, no thread machining. I was not brave enough to put mine to the pipe wrench, The UDT (orange end reading) pressure gauges are made the same way....one of those I did trash just to see how it was made.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Those gauges were not "precision" instruments. In 1969 we had a search for a downed helicopter off Okinawa. Four of us descended off a barge to look for the missing helicopter which was witnessed crashing into the sea. We swam down for an awful long time, then the team leader got us together in blue water to compare depth gauges. We all used those issued USD gauges. All of them read different depths, and it was extreme. One read the surface, one about 60 feet, and the other two were at somewhere between 150 and 220 feet. We called the dive without reaching the bottom, and this was just off a coral atoll. We were probably in over 300 feet of water. The gauge I still have I won't even try to repair, as it never was accurate. If you do "repair" this ol' beast of an instrument, please get it calibrated and see whether it is even close to the real depth.

SeaRat

 

[knowone]

Pretty cool that pressure on the lens activates it.
But not so cool if you ding up the rim around it.

It never fails to amaze me that you can't see the oil until you make bubbles.



Zero to one hundred feet between 7.30 and 11.00 o'clock on the dial
John C. Ratliff
How's that ever going to work.

 

[oldmossback]

Pity USD made such a nice stainless steel case for such a piece of crap gauge!