Wind Chimes or Good to go deep????

[knowone]

YouTube - Ma & Pa Kettle Math

 

[Cylinder Tester]

Most Texas dive shops will fill the US Divers cylinder. As mentioned earlier, check with your LDS and see. With a good eddy current and visual to back up the eddy current, chances are pretty good this cylinder is perfectly acceptable.
roger

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

One more vote for "check with your LDS". That trumps all.

FYI: I have a 1978 US Divers AL80, great old tank. As long as it continues to pass hydro and inspection, I'll continue to dive it (LDS has no problem filling it... they inspect it).

Best wishes.

 

[ianr33]

If you do this Please warn the buyer that they may and probably will have problems filling them at some dive shops and that is why you are selling them. suggestions like the above is what give graigslist a bad name and is just generally dishonest.

Perhaps.

But, one of the local dive shops in town was selling off its old rental tanks a while back for something like $80 each IIRC.
All the "bad" alloy. The line was half way round the block when they opened the doors.

Would be ironic if they refused to fill them after selling them!

 

[duckbill]

Perhaps.

But, one of the local dive shops in town was selling off its old rental tanks a while back for something like $80 each IIRC.
All the "bad" alloy. The line was half way round the block when they opened the doors.

Would be ironic if they refused to fill them after selling them!

Yeah, wouldn't that be something.

Several years back I bought a freshly hydroed set of old 1/2" necked twin 38s from my LDS. Each year the visuals went fine. Then a few years later I took a 1/2" necked steel 72 to them for visual and the owner had come up with this hair-brained idea that three threads had to be showing on the valve when torqued in place. He told me the unit was "condemned" (his wording) because the valve showed fewer than three threads. That was the first time he ever mentioned any such thing, and as the manifold elbows on the twin 38s I had bought from him showed even less thread than that valve in the 72 I have never even bothered to take them back in to him for visuals as I'm sure he would have "condemned" them too (lol!).

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/tanks-valves-bands/229916-1-2-valve-condemned.html

 

[halocline]

If you have a lot of room outside and want to add something unique to your outdoor décor, you should get some big wind chimes to hang up. These chimes are a fantastic way of bringing the sound of natural harmonics into your life. These big chimes are usually hand crafted and hand tuned so that you get the best possible sound each time they ring. The tones that they produce will lift your heart and ease your mind in ways that you have never thought possible. They are absolutely fantastic when the breeze is blowing.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I'm glad we're not next door neighbors.

 

[wchimes]

The sticky post at the top of this forum may have the info you are looking for.

Plus this website seems to be a good resource:

Cylinders & Valves

Nice information, thanks for sharing..!!

 

[archman]

The old tank would be difficult to fill in south Florida. In Texas, it's much easier to get fills. I know the Flower Gardens Banks boat refuses some tanks that they don't like, but they may do a swap out for you on site with one of their tanks.

As you appear to be in California, I would presume that your dive shops probably are more selective, similar to in Florida. Like most other posters have remarked, I would definitely call ahead before going to the trouble of getting hydros.

 

[Nemrod]

I call BS on those who claim you can't get the old alloy tank filled. I still have a US Divers 80 from the late 70's with a current VE stamp. Most places I have been fill it, a few comment on it, one refusal (out of 5 locations). So, there are still plenty of locations that do fill these. I don't take it on the road if I need it filled from an unknown LDS, but it still serves well.

Is it a good primary tank - no, because you can't count on everyone filling it. But if you are willing to live with some limitations and your local LDS is OK, then it makes a fine spare tank.

I had a couple of "old" aluminum tanks. Simply not worth the effort. While there might be the odd shop here and there that will fill them, the vast majority of shops will not. In fact, in Florida it is nigh impossible. Not worth hauling around and given that a new one is less than 200 dollars, why? In fact, there was a trade in program foe the longest time and even today, occasionally a shop will give a little discount just to get the "old" tank out of circulation.

N

 

[KD8NPB]

Before spending the money to get the US Divers cylinder hydroed and eddy current tested you may want to find out if any of your local dive shops will fill it as there are a great many that will not fill old alloy cylinders.

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.