Some vintage gear I got from the old man!

[tengsr]

The two tanks are marked '68, regs are Nemrod Snark II Servo's, I took them both apart to make one that works, but the diaphragms pretty hard and would probably crack. See the old Whites wetsuit? Thats what I'm using, it's a bit small but I'm hoping it'll stretch. theres a backplate there somewhere that I'm gonna try to get my hands on too Is there any special technique to getting yyour weight right with no bc diving? As it is now I only use a touch of air for bouyancy once I get down to 40 feet or so, I guess cause of suit crush. Has anyone ever found diaphragms for these regs? maybe the lds will have something that'll work

 

[Darol]

Most of the old diaphragms were the same size on older single hoses regs, except Scubapro.
Only a Scubapro dealer had ones that fit. Just because a regulator works, doesn't mean it's
safe. Just a suggestion, I would have them checked out by someone who is trained to service regs. Just advice, good luck and nice stuff....

 

[DaleC]

Hi Tengsr,
Nice score!
I live in Abby if you want to try diving no BC at whytecliff or porteau (or Buntzen lake which is a great freshwater site). It's really a matter of doing a good weight check with a near empty tank and then learning a little breath control.
In a wetsuit there are a couple of strategies for compensating for suit compression.

One is to start bouyant and swim down till the squeeze makes you neutral. This makes holding a SS difficult (as you are now more bouyant at the surface) so old school divers either had lines to ascend, picked up rocks or had a weightbelt suspended on a line to slip on as they came up.

The other is to be a bit heavy at depth and just keep swimming to stay bouyant. If you look at old school movies and such you will see that divers back then swam around a lot and didn't have the same obsession with hovering horizontal that we do today. They were also not adverse to resting on the bottom.

Try some things out while keeping your BC on but not inflated. When you get it reasonable then you can take it off.

If you want to trade some of that stuff (I know it was your fathers and you may not want to) let me know. I need a vest like that in particular to add to my cronological display of BC's that I like to show at the club etc...

Regards,
Dale

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Tengsre,

Concerning the diaphragms, get some food-grade silicone grease and smear it liberally on the neoprene. You can work it in a bit with your fingers and thumb. Then let the diaphragms sit for a week. They may absorb the silicone and become pliable again.

SeaRat

 

[herman]

You have seveal issues with the regs. The first stages are not a big deal, the internals of a USD DA Aquamaster will work in them if I remember correctly, plus odds are you can resurface the HP seat. The pain you have is the second stages. I have not had my hands on those particular regs but in general the diaphragms on that vintage of regs is a different size than modern regs. I have been looking for a modern alternative for several years. The rubber (plastic ??) that they were made out of was cardboard when new and worse at this age. Add to it, the seconds are tilt valve design. They are a pain to get to seal and difficult to restore. I have been told by a friend that he has prefected a way to restore them and I have recently came up with an idea of my own (not tried it yet- just one of those ah ha moments that I will get around to playing with one of these days). Basically, these second stages are restoration 201 or maybe 301, not something you will want to take on as a first project....don't trash them, just save them for later if you get into restoring the old regs.

And a word of caution...that button looking thing on the first stage beside the hose is an over pressure relief valve DO NOT connect those seconds to any first stage that is not equipped with one or has a modern second stage attatched at the same time. Tilt valves are up stream valves and if the pressure in the first stage should happen to rise they WILL NOT vent overpressure like a modern second stage, the result is a blown second stage hose. At best you get the crap scared out of you and serious injury is possible. I am not saying don't restore them, just be aware of what that part is, why it's there and how to work around it.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Tengsre,

Herman had some very good advise above. The overpressure relief valve is a vital component of this regulator.

Concerning the tilt valves, it seems like one of them is functioning. My experience with tilt valves are with Sportsways and Healthways regulators. The Sportsways have the problems that Herman related above. I have not had the same problem with Healthways regulators. I have no experience with Nemrod regulators, and so if you have one working, that should be okay.

I see you have not dived much. I would therefore recommend that if you use these regulators, do so only in the pool until you have more experience and a rig that allows you to have a second, backup regulator for use in case of a problem with this one. These tilt valves were fairly hard breathing regulators, and even if the diaphragm becomes pliable, may not feed enough air to allow you an enjoyable, safe dive.

SeaRat

 

[herman]

I have spent hours messing with Nemrod Snark II, weird puppy with the same first stage and a tilt valve second. I got side tracked with DH regs but one of these days I plan to get back to the old tilt valves.

 

[tengsr]

I was thinking that if I got two tanks going I'd use a modern reg on one and a vintage on the other, then just beath down the vintage one first.

DaleC I haven't been to any of those sites yet, I've just been poking around at Whiskey Cove, but the vis has been pretty bad. Before I get rid of anything I wanted to get proficient at using it then go to some heavy populated dive sites and see what reactions I can get

 

[herman]

The tanks should not be a problem, most old steel tanks pass vis and hydro fine if they are not rusted. Don't expect the regs to work as well as modern ones. While some vintage stuff holds it's own, tilt valves are/were never super performers. The first stage is an unbalanced diaphragm design which will do fine with modern second stages but since it's unbalanced the IP will drift over tank pressure causing the breathing resistance to vary. One odd ball thing to keep in mind with unbalanced diaphragm first stages is their IP must be set up at around 300 psi, otherwise it will cause you free flow problems. In contrast, unbalanced piston first stages, both modern and vintage, are set at a full tank pressure. There were only a few unbalanced diaphragm single hose sold, the vast majority of unbalanced first were (and are still today) of the flow-by piston design.

The reactions you get will likely be few with single hose regs. They look so much like modern regs that most divers will not notice the difference. Dive them in the proper style- no BC, no SPG (using the J valve) and you might get some comments, usually negative ones from newbie know it all instructors. To be honest those are the ones I like....nothing like hovering around their class effortlessly in perfect trim to get my point across.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Tengsr,

Let me explain Herman's comment above on the IP setting. The unbalanced diaphragm first stage allows the pressure to increase as the tank pressure decreases. What Herman is saying is that you should set the intermediate stage pressure at a tank pressure of about 300 psig. This is where the intermediate stage pressure will be highest. This is important for a downstream second stage, as if the diver doesn't make this adjustment at 300 psig tank pressure, then the second stage could leak as the interstage pressure increases with the decreasing tank pressure. This is not so important with a tilt valve, as it won't leak at the higher pressure setting but will breath harder. If you set it at 110 psig for the interstage pressure, then at a full tank it will be lower than that. (Fred Roberts, in Basic Scuba recommends an interstage pressure of 110 psig for the earlier model of the Snark II.) But because this is a tilt valve, a setting lower than 110 psig at a full tank (2250 psig) will have lower cracking effort to go against the lower pressure. I don't know how far that drop is at a full tank (it can be calculated if you know the parameters--I don't). But the one potential problem is that if it is too low, it may not be enough at depth to provide a good flow of air. This is why I recommended using it only in a swimming pool for a while until you are very comfortable with it. There are certain regulators I won't dive in open water (the USD Aquamatic, for instance). These are some of the reasons.

SeaRat