OP
Rusty Shackleford
Contributor
I am sorry, this got back-burnered. I have the stuff to do it, will likely attempt between Christmas and New Years.
I need to restore the rubber exhaust deflectors on two old style Scubapro 108s
- Thread starter Rusty Shackleford
- Start date
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OP
Rusty Shackleford
Contributor
I swear, I am still going to do the. I am just trepadatious of smelling the house up.
I tried it, it is not very effective at softening, it does soften it but not much. The smell lingers for a long time.
Much to my surprise, it does actually work... I used Oil of Wintergreen and Xylene not rubbing alcohol.
I tried it on some Nemrod Clipper pneumatic speargun rubber recoil buffers that were hard as a rock... unavailable for 20 years.
You need to keep it in the solution for a week in a sealed glass jar, flipping the objects position every couple of days so it enters the rubber evenly. The recoil buffers are basically a thick walled cylinder and one end was clearly becoming wider then the other!
After about a week the buffers were flexible like new BUT they were much larger in diameter than the original... wipe off solution and leave for a few days in a warm place and the excess Xylene evaporates, they return to correct size and are flexible!
Tip: don't do this in the laundry as despite the sealed screw top jar the WHOLE HOUSE will indeed stink of Oil of Wintergreen and Industrial Chemicals incurring the wrath of your beloved who may not share your enthusiasm for vintage dive gear restorations
I tried it on some Nemrod Clipper pneumatic speargun rubber recoil buffers that were hard as a rock... unavailable for 20 years.
You need to keep it in the solution for a week in a sealed glass jar, flipping the objects position every couple of days so it enters the rubber evenly. The recoil buffers are basically a thick walled cylinder and one end was clearly becoming wider then the other!
After about a week the buffers were flexible like new BUT they were much larger in diameter than the original... wipe off solution and leave for a few days in a warm place and the excess Xylene evaporates, they return to correct size and are flexible!
Tip: don't do this in the laundry as despite the sealed screw top jar the WHOLE HOUSE will indeed stink of Oil of Wintergreen and Industrial Chemicals incurring the wrath of your beloved who may not share your enthusiasm for vintage dive gear restorations
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The xylene must penitrate better than the rubbing alcohol, I tried it on a mouthpiece and a few exhaust tee’s, they all softened up but any flaw, like the ragged thin areas of the mouthpiece would easily tear off. On an exhaust tee it will probably help if it’s in good condition other than hardening. The container I left things to soak in and now use for vintage/water solution still smells of wintergreen.
Yes it seems to be a very 'searching' witches brew...
I have an old 1085 with a rock hard exhaust T... in the interests of Vintage Scuba Restoration Science I will give the Xylene/Wintergreen solution a try
I have an old 1085 with a rock hard exhaust T... in the interests of Vintage Scuba Restoration Science I will give the Xylene/Wintergreen solution a try
OK so this old USD 1085 exhaust cover has been soaking in a 33% solution of Oil of Wintergreen and Xylene for 48hrs.
I flipped it over a few times during the soak so it would absorb the solution evenly.
SO... does it work on larger items?
Yes and no... the exhaust cover is now flexible, greatly expanded but cracked at existing stress points.
After leaving it in a warm place for a few hours it shrank back to correct size... still flexible, surface was quite cold due to Xylene evaporating so fast, but was still cracked in certain places.
While this process may work on small items like the Clipper recoil buffers and motorbike carburettor insulators it doesn't seem to work well on larger items.
A new silicone one from VDH looks and fits much better!
I flipped it over a few times during the soak so it would absorb the solution evenly.
SO... does it work on larger items?
Yes and no... the exhaust cover is now flexible, greatly expanded but cracked at existing stress points.
After leaving it in a warm place for a few hours it shrank back to correct size... still flexible, surface was quite cold due to Xylene evaporating so fast, but was still cracked in certain places.
While this process may work on small items like the Clipper recoil buffers and motorbike carburettor insulators it doesn't seem to work well on larger items.
A new silicone one from VDH looks and fits much better!
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MacGyver - DXS
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Do any of you have tees to fit an old 108 that you'd be willing to part with?
Or, do you know where I can get a universal one for it?
Or, do you know where I can get a universal one for it?
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