Stage Bottle finish

[c6six]

Do stickers stay on all tank finishes equally? Just wondering if there was a proffered finish to have. Shot blast, painted, brushed? I have gotten 2 Luxfer 80's so far in shot blast, ordering another 2, manifold, bands and a 40 soon after the new year, and just want to make sure I get ones that MOD stickers will stay on the best!

Thanks for all the help!

 

[texdiveguy]

I have cylinders with a mix of finishes....my applied decal/stickers stick well on them all.

 

[Meng_Tze]

All my Aluminium tanks are shot blast, steels are galvanized. But I have some steels that are painted. Good stickers stick well on any surface.

Tip: Buy the 3" reflective letters/number at Home Depot/Lowes. They stick well, and are cheap (59ct). I have some that have been on the bottles for years now.

 

[texdiveguy]

Tip: Buy the 3" reflective letters/number at Home Depot/Lowes. They stick well, and are cheap (59ct). I have some that have been on the bottles for years now.

I use this same method and they do hold up very nice for little monies.

 

[SparticleBrane]

DiveSigns.com has some very nice stickers.

I would recommend getting aluminum cylinders that are not painted. Over time the paint will start to wear and chip off, leading to possible retention of saltwater under areas of 'loose' paint next to the chips and cracks. Unpainted aluminum cylinders built up a nice protective layer of aluminum oxide after being used a few times that helps protect against corrosion. If you do get painted cylinders and they start to look nasty you can strip the paint off.

Plus they don't get all nasty looking from paint chips.

 

[rjack321]

The brushed no coat works the best
next down is shot blast, stickers seem to work ok, some so-so ones can come loose tho.
next down is clear-coat paint (at least you can see the underpaint corrosion)
worst is colored paint

you can strip the pain but its an ugly job. used painted al80s are often fairly cheap tho.

 

[diverbob]

For MOD, I usually use a strip of duct tape, and it doesnt matter if it stays on for very long, because it changes with each fill I get.

 

[SparticleBrane]

The brushed no coat works the best
next down is shot blast, stickers seem to work ok, some so-so ones can come loose tho.
next down is clear-coat paint (at least you can see the underpaint corrosion)
worst is colored paint

you can strip the pain but its an ugly job. used painted al80s are often fairly cheap tho.

I'd like to check out the "supernatural" finish one of these days.