tank painting

[nite_diver]

any divers out there who know of some one in the New England area who can paint some mirals on my tanks. got two new white tanks fron Santa and thought that would be nice to do. Thanks for any help.

nite_diver

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Bad idea.

Heat-treating custom-painted tanks renders the tanks unusable.

Enjoy your tanks unpainted, except as they come from the manufacturer.

Dive safe,

 

[Tamas]

If you REALLY want to change the look of your tanks, you can always get a [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Scuba Tank Graphic Cover
[/font]

 

[rubbachicken]

i have seen them on ebay, cool idea

but why can't tanks be custom painted, heat treated
if they go for test afterwards

 

[jonnythan]

The problem with painting anything cool on your tank is that tanks get scratched up.. the fancier it looks new, the worse it will look when it's scratched up

 

[cdennyb]

heating an aluminum tank beyond 300 degrees F renders the aluminum alloy strengthless, (for all practical purposes). Don't powder coat or heat cure AT ALL.

 

[Doc Intrepid]

but why can't tanks be custom painted, heat treated
if they go for test afterwards

what cdennyb said...

Thats why they're for sale on ebay.

Caveat emptor.

 

[Maya]

I was in a dive shop many years ago in Florida when a seemingly normal, brand new, black tank was brought in for an airfill. The tank exploded, destroyed the store, and nearly killed the fill operator. Several days later another tank that had been subjected to a painting process involving heating the tanks (same as the one in our store) exploded during filling and took the legs of the fill operator. That is why you don't heat aluminum tanks.

 

[jonnythan]

Do you have a link to a story about that, Maya? I've read several articles about tanks exploding, but have never read one that could actually attribute the accident to a heat-treated tank.

 

[Maya]

The first incident was at Scuba West dive shop, in Hudson, in the very early 80's. I don't have any links to any articles, sorry. These were the first (to my knowledge) incidents of aluminum cylinders exploding during airfills. The tanks were owned by brothers, I believe, and they had purchased them at a sporting goods store and immediately took them to an auto-bake type company for re-painting with a finish that was guaranteed not to scratch. The second incident occurred about 2 days later, when the second brother took his tank to a store in Lakeland, FL.