phgachoud
Registered
any more training coming? when??
Regulator Service Technician Training - Unrestricted
- Thread starter rsingler
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Wow, Rob, that's a far nicer certificate than the one I received from a particular manufacturer's course -- which looked like something my little niece cobbled together, in five minutes, on a rinky-dink graphics program, to frame a photo of her cat . . .
OP
Next seminar with openings is probably going to be in Jan 2022. Send me a PM!
Being able to work on your own gear with new-found confidence; how to troubleshoot various issues that may arise, along the way; and knowing something of the theory behind it, is far more valuable, in the long run, than being able to obtain parts directly from the manufacturer -- all the while, dropping some 300.00, at some Radisson conference room for four-plus hours, among stale doughnuts, bodega coffee; and sitting next to a couple of guys who were all-but certain to bollocks-up someone's nice Swedish regulators -- raking away with o-ring removers, like our cat, Charlie the Tuna, methodically disemboweling a mouse . . .
phgachoud
Registered
Click on Rsingler's avatar, and the little window it pops up about him will include a link labeled "start a conversation." In other types of forums it's called a "Private Message", or PM. It just starts a thread that only you two can see, and responses pop up in your inbox instead of alerts.
Respectfully,
James
To the right of your message box, you’ll see “quote in conversation button”. Go to @rsingler message and hit “quote in conversation and you’ll send him a private message.
stiebs
Contributor
Just finished participating in @rsingler's third regulator technician's seminar - the international edition. There were a handful of us scattered over 3 continents (4 if you include the instructor!) with some time zone challenges! It was spread across 4 x 6 hr sessions over 2 weekends, which for me actually worked out quite well - 4pm-10pm on Sat and Sun.
And those 24 hours were all full-on! Over my professional career, most of the training I've done is commercial/industry training courses which usually run over 3-5 days. One of those 5 day, 40 hour courses, I usually expect to get about 8-10 hours of valuable content out of them. Not the case with this one. It was full speed ahead the whole time. Definitely need to be rested, fed, and ready to go!
- I had quite a long lead time before the scheduled start date, so had plenty of time to get everything sorted. Bought a few regs off eBay, some preliminary emails back and forth with @rsingler advising which custom tools are required, handy, or unnecessary for my regs. Also allowed me time to get said tools and service kits.
- Regulator Savvy is a very informative book, but a dry read cover-to-cover. I do recommend doing so though - as Rob goes through the detail in a practical sense, the dots join up well having done the pre-read.
- Definitely get hold of the service manuals and have a read through. There is some advantage in getting ahead of the game and cracking open your regs, to get comfortable, but proceed with caution! There's a few tips, tricks and gotchas that you'll learn - which parts are crucial and potentially easily damaged, and how to avoid damaging them
Of my tools, these got the most use:
- a good set of 1/4" and 3/8" hex drive allen keys
- a handful of open ended spanners
- wooden dowels of varying sizes
- vice (aka vise, for you 'Muricans) & first stage vice handle
- brass and plastic o-ring picks
Rob has a great media setup, with a standard webcam, overhead cam for showing his workbench, microscope cam for close ups, and mobile cam for viewing other things around his workshop. He also had at hand one of almost every reg that us particpants wanted to talk about, as well a multitude of photos of regs in various condition as examples of what behaviour they would show given their (sometimes microscopic) damage.
Having read this feedback from previous write-ups, I hooked up my DSLR as a webcam, and also a cheap USB microscope, and used OBS studio to switch out when I had something to show for feedback or comments. Certainly not necessary, but did come in handy a couple of time. For the most part logging on to the session from a mobile phone is good enough for showing close-ups on regulator parts.
What did I take away from this course?
I consider myself a technical person. I have a generally well appointed workshop, do my fair share of woodworking, metalworking, general fabrication and DIY repairs. I like knowing how thing work. I like taking things apart, and usually manage to put them back together.
I've never been afraid to open up and fiddle with my second stages, but haven't done anything more than shift hoses and do a yoke->DIN conversion on my first stages. Rob covered a phenomenal amount of ground across piston/diaphragm, balanced/unbalanced regs, pointing out the nuances of various brands and flavours. I'm sure with the manuals I would've been able to disassemble, clean, and reassemble my regs. But without this course, I would likely have damaged or destroyed at least one stage, would not have known what to look for to identify potential problem areas, and would most likely have adjusted them totally incorrectly, thinking I had done a good job.
And those 24 hours were all full-on! Over my professional career, most of the training I've done is commercial/industry training courses which usually run over 3-5 days. One of those 5 day, 40 hour courses, I usually expect to get about 8-10 hours of valuable content out of them. Not the case with this one. It was full speed ahead the whole time. Definitely need to be rested, fed, and ready to go!
- I had quite a long lead time before the scheduled start date, so had plenty of time to get everything sorted. Bought a few regs off eBay, some preliminary emails back and forth with @rsingler advising which custom tools are required, handy, or unnecessary for my regs. Also allowed me time to get said tools and service kits.
- Regulator Savvy is a very informative book, but a dry read cover-to-cover. I do recommend doing so though - as Rob goes through the detail in a practical sense, the dots join up well having done the pre-read.
- Definitely get hold of the service manuals and have a read through. There is some advantage in getting ahead of the game and cracking open your regs, to get comfortable, but proceed with caution! There's a few tips, tricks and gotchas that you'll learn - which parts are crucial and potentially easily damaged, and how to avoid damaging them
Of my tools, these got the most use:
- a good set of 1/4" and 3/8" hex drive allen keys
- a handful of open ended spanners
- wooden dowels of varying sizes
- vice (aka vise, for you 'Muricans) & first stage vice handle
- brass and plastic o-ring picks
Rob has a great media setup, with a standard webcam, overhead cam for showing his workbench, microscope cam for close ups, and mobile cam for viewing other things around his workshop. He also had at hand one of almost every reg that us particpants wanted to talk about, as well a multitude of photos of regs in various condition as examples of what behaviour they would show given their (sometimes microscopic) damage.
Having read this feedback from previous write-ups, I hooked up my DSLR as a webcam, and also a cheap USB microscope, and used OBS studio to switch out when I had something to show for feedback or comments. Certainly not necessary, but did come in handy a couple of time. For the most part logging on to the session from a mobile phone is good enough for showing close-ups on regulator parts.
What did I take away from this course?
I consider myself a technical person. I have a generally well appointed workshop, do my fair share of woodworking, metalworking, general fabrication and DIY repairs. I like knowing how thing work. I like taking things apart, and usually manage to put them back together.
I've never been afraid to open up and fiddle with my second stages, but haven't done anything more than shift hoses and do a yoke->DIN conversion on my first stages. Rob covered a phenomenal amount of ground across piston/diaphragm, balanced/unbalanced regs, pointing out the nuances of various brands and flavours. I'm sure with the manuals I would've been able to disassemble, clean, and reassemble my regs. But without this course, I would likely have damaged or destroyed at least one stage, would not have known what to look for to identify potential problem areas, and would most likely have adjusted them totally incorrectly, thinking I had done a good job.
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