Steel 72 rejected by LDS

[captain]

Drain it out and pull the valve off.
Those 1/2" holes are a little harder to look in, but take a flashlight and peek inside the best you can. Move the light around along with your eyesight line and look around the bottom of the tank and see if there are any rust spots or pitting.
I'm not the right one to ask about pitting since I just murdered a perfectly good tank and am still suffering great remorse for my inexcusable actions, I should be locked up for what I did.
But anyway, with the death of one tank comes the rebirth of another great tank. I just got a 1960 72 1/2" valve, it needed a shot blast ($24.75) and a hydro ($18).
It also needed an updated burst disc ($12.99) and now I have another great 72 in my fleet.

If your valve has one of the old style burst discs (they're flat with a hole in the center and slots for a flat screwdriver) you'll need to remove it and replace it with a hexagonal nut type with three holes on the sides of the hex nut.
Most shops won't fill tanks with the old style burst discs. Be really carefull trying to get out the old one, the flat screw driver part strips out really easy and if that happens you'll need to surgically remove the old burst disc nut without damaging the threads. It's pretty hard but I've done it. It requires a drill or a dremel tool, a steady hand, some pick tools, and a lot of patients.

Good luck and congratulations!

The 1/2" valves require a good vise and the proper wrench and procedure to remove and install without mangling the valve.
If it is an original burst disc from 1960 it would be the hex with a lead plug in the center. Once the valve is out of the tank a little heat on thr plug from a propane torch should loosen it if it is frozen without resorting to surgery.

 

[Trimix2dive]

Yep. Hydro 6/09 and VIP 9/10.

Find a new dive shop all together, or find a new dive shop for those tanks. I deal with two dive shops because does not fill what I want (accept air only), and the other does whatever is allowed by the industry norms through advanced trimix gas.

Same thing on tanks. One shop doesn't like my old alum 50s, tough s..t - they passed inspection so the other shop fills them. Reason - their old. My reason - I don't care they still passed hydro and vip.

Each shop seems to have their own little quirk. Hope this helps.

 

[JamesBon92007]

What you tell them is you have no intention of diving that old garbage, you just want them for a vintage display that's all. Say to them you are interested in a new regulator anyway soon but it would be nice to mount a couple of double hoses on the wall to complete your display. Say to them you have decided to get the double hoses first before you buy the new modern reg because it's something you've wanted to do for a long time. Also mentuion that the price can't be too high because that will take money away from buying the new reg.

You'll see how fast their tune will change when they think they will get a sale out of it for both.

ZKY I think you could sell the Brooklyn Bridge to a used car salesman

Meanwhile, my twin 45s or 50s or whatever they are passed hydro (birth date 1967) and now have air in them The dive shop owner told me there are places around here that won't fill tanks over TEN years old!!!

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

The dive shop owner told me there are places around here that won't fill tanks over TEN years old!!!

You need to let me know where these are because I go down to Socal once in a while and don't want to waste my time going into one of those worthless shops.
How much do you want to bet they probably have rental tanks in their fleets older than 10 years.

 

[adelman]

You need to let me know where these are because I go down to Socal once in a while and don't want to waste my time going into one of those worthless shops.
How much do you want to bet they probably have rental tanks in their fleets older than 10 years.

Shoot. You need to let me know where these are, so I can wait outside and buy those tanks for scrap metal value from their soon-to-be-former customers!

 

[akdeepdiver]

"1920 would be the Weimar Republic , the Nazi's didn't take power till the election of July 1932 with Hitler taking office as Chancellor in January 1933.

Welding bottles were made in Germany during the time of the Nazi power for LINDE and imported into the US by Union Carbide. These bottles had a swastika stamped on them. In the US almost all of the swastika's had the open sides closed out and look like a window like this one from my bank"

That is correct about the Weimars rep. The bottle was made in 1920, and then exported later by Linde. Hense the swastica on it. Additionally it had never been overstamped which was entertaining.

 

[JamesBon92007]

I don't want to mention any names but rumor has it that the initials of the large chain sporting goods store are SC.