Tales of "newly serviced regs"

[qwertz]

Hi all,

as by now quite a few people probably attended Rob's class, I am hoping this thread might attract some stories. I hope to see poorly maintend regs, be it 1st or 2nd stages. Why you may ask - to get some "in-field" experience and maybe to get a feeling of how much damage / corrosion / etc a reg might take and still work or when it is better to reintroduce it as door stopper.

The usual cheap-ebay "just serviced" reg landed on my desk. Some fool threw 40 EUR at it - yes, the fool I am.

First off - I have no clue what reg this is. There was a beuchat-2nd attached to it, that's all I know.

The first hinderance arose when I tried to unscrew the HP balance plug. After breaking a couple of pins, I decided it was time for a drill and a screw extractor. A screw extractor comes with a left hand thread and a pyramid-like shape. So while you screw in that extractor, you actually unscrew the piece it screws into - in my case, the mentioned HP balance plug.
After that I was able to enjoy the following:

The next couple of pictures show the knife edge.

What do you guys think?
How bad is this?
Can it be restored?
I can't think of a way to get some micro mesh in there and start polishing.

Hopefully, some other ebay-purchases find their way to this thread. I have absolutely no clue how bad this is. I only ever opened my own regs, which were fairly new when I started servicing them by myself.

Cheers
Sam

 

[qwertz]

Oh and of course, with my screw extractor I actually broke the hp plug and knicked the hp valve (proper vocab used?)

 

[davehicks]

Probably not worth the trouble, and you probably should not dive it. Buying parts is probably better saved for a better condition re-hab case.

However, it might be an interesting experiment to see how much progress you can make with an Ultrasonic and Simple Green.

 

[PR_SMITH]

Looks like you got a 40 euro lesson about not buying regs from FleaBay.
Find a good used Apeks DS4 or similar, then rebuild that. Great regs, no fancy tools need.

 

[Tanks A Lot]

Could you take a couple more pictures, maybe even with the regulator assembled? I find it hard to identify it from these pictures.

While not in great shape, this can be restored.

 

[ams511]

First off - I have no clue what reg this is. There was a beuchat-2nd attached to it, that's all I know.

If it was matched with a Beuchat second it is probably a Beuchat first. It looks familiar as I have a few. I used to buy them for the Apeks second stage.

If the eBay ad said newly serviced I would just return it to sender as it is not as described. I did that once with a MK-16 that was supposed to be brand new but looked like crap and free flowed badly.

 

[happy-diver]

Hey dude that reg is currently the most important reg in my selection

Your reg skills, maybe your could work on the rusty stuff in the back of my ute, I don't think so

As a matter of fact I'm sure there has never been such butchery displayed before on ScubaBoard

 

[Tanks A Lot]

It is almost certainly a Beuchat V10 Evolution 1. But the V10 has a few iterations, that's why I mentioned above that the pictures are not good enough to identify it 100%.

Regardless, The V10 iterations are more or less all the same, but they do have important differences at key points.

The attached likely depicts your first stage, but again I can't be 100% sure about it without having a couple more pictures which show key points.

 

[qwertz]

Hi all,

As a matter of fact I'm sure there has never been such butchery displayed before on ScubaBoard

I take that as a compliment - I love meh screw extractors. Would you enjoy some pictures of said butchery?
Curiosity makes me ask: What would you have done? Always enjoy picking up new skills.

However, it might be an interesting experiment to see how much progress you can make with an Ultrasonic and Simple Green.

Will do some low effort soaking and cleaning, unfortunately I do not have access to an Ultrasonic.

Looks like you got a 40 euro lesson about not buying regs from FleaBay.

Honestly, I will most likely do exactly the same with the next cheap af reg, that pops up. I did not buy it for the need of a regulator, but for the fun of tinkering with it. You will have to blame rsingler for that - that's all his fault.

If the eBay ad said newly serviced I would just return it to sender as it is not as described.

See above - I consider this fun. Which is part of why I hope some more people chip in their bad cases.

Some more pics ...
I put together just the housing - and did not tighten anything.

SN: 29114A06
Looking at the provided schematic there are some differences I can see - especially at the "water side" of the diaphragm - see attached pictures.
The HP seat assembly looks different aswell, see picture from my #2 post.

Looking forward to getting roasted.

Cheers
Sam

 

[Tanks A Lot]

Yeah, those pictures help, although they confuse me a tad to be honest.

Most likely a V10 Evolution 2, although that had a small sleeve which I do not see. The base V10 looks a bit different at the turret. The V10 Evolution 1 matches your turret. The V10 Evolution 2 matches your diaphragm spring.
Maybe someone hacked the Evolution 1 & 2 together. It's the same first stage after all.

It's a nice regulator, especially for the 40$ price tag. Don't let anyone tell you different. Buy a service kit (16514), restore it and use it.