Tank Question

[2TH DIVR]

I picked up 2 72's for diving my Mistral.

They are marked

tank 1 DOT 3AA2250
48614
DACOR
2#71+ PST

tank 2 DOT 3AA2250
K133751
4#70+ USD US DIVERS CO.

I want to strip the paint.
Would these tanks be galvanized under the paint?
Who made tank 2?

Thanks

 

[M_Bipartitus]

This website should help.

Scuba Diving - New Jersey & Long Island New York - dive Wreck Valley - Gear & Training - Scuba Tanks & Mounting Hardware

 

[DA Aquamaster]

The Dacor tank should be galvanized.

The USD tank might be - USD sold them in both galanized and non galvanized versions.

 

[Gilldiver]

You need to chip off some of the paint to make sure.

If the USD has a thick yellow/cream paint on it, the paint is tough and comes off in sheets. A methylene chloride stripper from the home store will get it off, but is a real mess to do. Make sure you do it out in the open and have on eye protection, old clothing, and gloves rated for the stripper. You may want to change out your gloves 2 or 3 times during the process.

I did 2 tanks this spring on the tail board of my old pickup truck. I put down newspaper and then cardboard boxes as the work/stripping surface. First I masked off the valves so I would have something to grab (if there is a plastic knob - remove it) I worked in lines from top to bottom so that I "skinned" the tanks along the long axis.

After the paint was off I used red scotchbrite and hot soapy water to get all the stripper off and a nice clean surface. Total time was about 3 hours.

Here are the tanks after a good paint job.

 

[spectrum]

If you go ahead with stripping them consider using a plastic putty knife. First, it will do no harm. Second as you work up and down the cylinder it will assume the radius of the cylinder and become a perfect tool for the task.

Pete