Wind Chimes or Good to go deep????

[Scared Silly]

If it's an aluminum tank that isn't a 3AL, it must be in VIP that guarantees it has been Eddy'ed

Your policies sound reasonable. However, there are 3AL cylinders that are AL6351 ... so what about them? Also are you requiring annual VE or accepting the hydro VE?

 

[pasley]

US Divers tank is worth about $15 in scrap metal. Makes a great windchime. As others have stated some dive shops will fill it, many will not. Depends on where you are and the local dive shop. Here where I am (Los Angeles), fe1 out of 10 of the dive shops will fill the older AL tanks (even Catalina which never used the alloy). But if your local shop will fill it, you are certainly able to continue to use it.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

It angers me to hear that.

My rules for filling a tank:
Must be in hydro
If it's an aluminum tank that isn't a 3AL, it must be in VIP that guarantees it has been Eddy'ed
If it has a thread insert, it must be stamped for high pressure service, or made of steel.

With that being said, we currently have in our shops a pile of relics that customers have "bought at garage sales" or "were getting out of the hobby"...In it, is an 1800 psi, "Property of US Gov't" stamped 1944, WWII aviation O2 bottle, with a steel bushing in it. It carries a hydro stamp every 5 years, the neck is almost completely full. The last hydro date was in the 90s.

If it was in current hydro, I would fill it.

Why?

Because I'm not a jerk who makes up rules to make a buck. I know the engineering : If the tank isn't neglected, passed hydro, and is in current visual, it'll be fine.

The only part that sucks about the bad alloy tanks : Eddy current testing takes time, time is money, which results in a higher yearly maintenance bill for you.

Most of the original aluminum E and SP numbered tanks were all consolidated under the "3 AL" standard when it was adopted. The exceptions were companies that did not bother to submit the paperwork to cross over their special permit to the "3AL" standard. Those tanks are condemned while the rest were to be stamped "3AL" at the next requalification. Most of those were, some were not, but all are eligible for the re-stamp - and are supposed to have it before being requalified.

To make it worse, this all occurred well before luxfer switched to 6061-T6 alloy, so 3AL tanks that were made as 3 AL tanks will still be found in both 6351-T6 and 6061-T6 alloy

So the "3AL" tells you nothing about the alloy used or the eddy current requirement.

 

[abnfrog]

i would agree 100 %