Tighten your nuts!

[northernone]

Thanks for the reminder. I had one fall off a rental tank myself and seen two more.

Once the handwheel and spring rained down from above on me and it was a guy trying to open his deco gas and the fumbling had him drop the parts.

 

[Jack Hammer]

Seen it a few times and had one of mine fall off once. I check them each dive now to be safe.

 

[flymolo]

Valve Knob Retainer Tool scuba

I keep one of these guys in my save a dive kit as well as another one in my tool box. It's part of my pre-trip checks along with checking the IP of my regulators. Two simple maintenance things that are almost never taught to divers, but they can make all the difference in the world

tbone- how do you check IP?

 

[scubadada]

Dive Gear Express

 

[scubadada]

And for your nuts

 

[flymolo]

And for your nuts
View attachment 396799

Thanks. Admittedly a quick google search found this thread which contains the answer to my question.

Regulator Inspection and Checklist (Rev-7)

 

[uncfnp]

We had this happen once on a brand new deco bottle just before splashing and of course I had not brought my tool on the boat. Fortunately the crew wizard solved the problem.

 

[Beau640]

With all this nut talk and with the title, I thought this thread was going to be another discussion about the nutcracker maneuver.

If you don't have a special tool you can just use a smaller screw driver and use it on half of the screw. Or do what bob does and file a gap in the middle of an old screw driver.

 

[Grey Goose]

Was moving my doubles earlier this week when I noticed a nut on the floor, picked it up and set it on the bench. Never thought anything about it until I hoisted the doubles into the trunk and the handwheel fell off. Tightened with a regular screw driver but I was left wondering how tight I should turn the nut? Probably tightened about half way, with some play in the handle a result (was thinking that I shouldn't tighten fully so the spring would have some play). Any recommendations/guidelines on how tight to tighten the nut?

 

[gfaith]

@Grey Goose

Found this here on Thermo valves.

http://www.scubaengineer.com/pictures/valves/thermo/thermo_maintenance_manual.pdf


Tighten handwheel nut (Item 7) until the top of the stem (Item 8) is flush with the top of the handwheel nut.