Scuba Pro tech question

[dsenloe]

I have been working on Dacor and Sherwood regs almost exclusively for years and all of the sudden, a MK2 shows up that needs my attention. After disassembly and a trip through the ultra sound, [wow, did everyone copy the old sherwood?] I put this thing back together and it seems to work fine. My question is this, what is that coating on the piston spring, and should it be removed? Any tips or quirks to this reg would be appreciated Regards, Scott

 

[Fishpie]

Not sure who copied who but the Healthways and USD floby pistons have been around along time.
As for the coating, is it thick silicone gunk used as an environmental seal? Or a reddish paint on the spring.
Service just as you would the familiar Sherwood 2000.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I am not sure exactly what it is, but the intent is to help shed ice. SP recommends not running it through the ultrasonic cleaner. Coating the spring lightly with christolube also helps.

 

[herman]

Not sure who copied who but the Healthways and USD floby pistons have been around along time.
As for the coating, is it thick silicone gunk used as an environmental seal? Or a reddish paint on the spring.
Service just as you would the familiar Sherwood 2000.

Wished I could remember where I read it but somewhere I saw that Sherwood- an old gas valve and regulator manuf at the time- actually made the early pistons for a lot of the old names.

 

[Fishpie]

I thought Sherwood used diaphragms for their industrial gas handling regs....I could well be wrong though.

As for lookalikes...
It's the nature of the beast.
Floby pistons look like floby pistons and balanced pistons look like balanced pistons.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

The really early Scubapro non adjustable second stages look like Beuchat second stages of the same time period. It does nto take a rocket scientist to figure out who made them for Scubapro.

Similarly, I have serviced older Sherwoord first stage with Scubapro parts.

Scubapro and Tabata have had a relationship since the Mk5 where Tabata manufactures the actual Scubapro design and once the exclusive rights expire, Tabata makes copies under license and sells a cosmetically altered but mechanically identical version through Tusa (Tabata USA).

The Mk 5 was marketed by Scubapro, Tusa, Oceanic, Cressi Sub and Tekna as well as a number of smaller companies over the years (IDI, etc) and is probably one of the most cloned regs in history.

Tabata and Sherwood both go back a long way in terms of regulator manufacturing - long before they actually sold one with thier name on it - and together are probably responsible for the actual production of a majority of regulators made over the last 30 years.