My new triples.

[fishnbeer]

Last August I was lucky to pick up two sets of steel triples from a garage sale. The guy was getting rid of them for a friend and I got them for peanuts, lucky me. ;D He was going to sell them for scrap metal if he couldn't sell them.






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Anyway I recently broke a set a part and took the tanks to a friend of mine who owns a hydro shop. The steel tanks are Walter Kidde stamped 2100 psi with born on dates of 1958. I had originally posted my find on another board and SeaRat advised they were the same type tanks he had used as a PJ as a double set.
I believe they are 40 cf tanks. The tank necks(1 1/8 ") have outside threads so my friend went looking and found an adapter through a hydro equipment supplier so he could hydro them. Of course I paid him for the adapter as he says he never comes across tanks like these. The manifold was a unique affair but was easy to disassemble. The tanks were hydro'd, tumbled, sand blasted, and VIP'd by my friend.

With new date stamps, I took my new friend's home and rattle can painted them with a zinc cold galvanize paint. I grew fond of the gray color so I painted a medium gray color overcoat on them. Next I cleaned up the manifold with vinegar and a green scrub pad and they came out nice and shinny. The tank manifolds needed new seals so I purchased a sheet of Teflon plastic (rated 3000 psi) from McMaster Carr as the seats that go on the top of the tanks are flat. I had to cut three 1 1/16" round doughnut seats for each tank valve along with two smaller ones for the two valve sides. I also replaced the six o-rings that went between each valve top. After re-reassembling everything I slowly pumped air into them from my little Cornelius compressor. I had no leaks so I pumped them up to 1000 psi and everything held together.

Well I can't wait till I pump them up to 2100 and dive them in the water. I also replaced the harness straps as the originals were in bad shape. By the way at 1000 psi I threw them into my pool and they were just barely pos buoyancy by about 1 1/2 lbs. I also decided to not put the VIP stickers on them just yet as I wanted to wait in case I was going to put another paint coat on them or not.

My side yard paint studio



The manifold taken apart


Valve assembly with new homemade seats


manifold horizontal bar



Tank valve top. Notice the openings are beveled for o-rings to seat.



My newest best friend w/ my favorite Mistral reg


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When I get some extra cash I will re-do the second set and I bet my dive buddy duckbill will be itchin to try them out also.

[SeaRat]

Fishnbeer,

My, those tanks came out looking nice. I'm very interested in learning how they feel in the water. I know that I really like my twin 42 PJ tanks. They are a very nice replacement for my twin 50s, which I have still but have "decommissioned." Let us know when you get them it the water.

John

[nikeajax]

TOTALLY-BOSS! I 'spose I can't convince you they're ugly and that you should give'm to me, eh?
Here's a trick you may want to try on yer manifolds: aluminum foil. Where the brass is coming through, try rubbing/burnishing the area; the aluminum is much softer and will stick to it (replating it), then spray with a clear-coat. Anyway, just a thought...
Jaybird

[Seahuntjerry]

Wow what a beautiful job on those. ;D
You should be really proud to own them.
Jerry

[duckbill]

Oct 25, 2011 20:35:03 GMT -8 fishnbeer said:

When I get some extra cash I will re-do the second set and I bet my dive buddy duckbill will be itchin to try them out also.

You bet! Thanks!

I knew you'd fix them up really nice, but they turned out even better than I imagined they would. You did a first class job on them.

That manifold sure is unique. Thanks for posting the pictures. They help show how the system fits together. I'm still a bit unsure how the ends of the long bar connect to the nuts though. It seems the threaded end of the bar screws into the small end of the nut, sealing the connection there, but how do the small ends of the nuts seal against the cylinder caps? More o-rings?

O.K. If they are really a total of 120 CF @ 2100 psi, and they are about 1 1/2 lbs buoyant @ 1000 psi, they should run about 5 3/4 pounds buoyant when empty, and 3 1/4 pounds negative when full.

[scubadiverbob]

Really cool, hope to see you diving them!

[fishnbeer]

Oct 26, 2011 9:16:23 GMT -8 nikeajax said:

TOTALLY-BOSS! I 'spose I can't convince you they're ugly and that you should give'm to me, eh?
Here's a trick you may want to try on yer manifolds: aluminum foil. Where the brass is coming through, try rubbing/burnishing the area; the aluminum is much softer and will stick to it (replating it), then spray with a clear-coat. Anyway, just a thought...
Jaybird

nikeajax thanks for the tip about using aluminum foil on the exposed brass. I have never heard of that before and will give it a try.

[fishnbeer]

That manifold sure is unique. Thanks for posting the pictures. They help show how the system fits together. I'm still a bit unsure how the ends of the long bar connect to the nuts though. It seems the threaded end of the bar screws into the small end of the nut, sealing the connection there, but how do the small ends of the nuts seal against the cylinder caps? More o-rings?

Terry there is an o-ring on each side of the top cylinder cap (6 total) that fits against the small end of the short nipples, the long bar, and the end cap nuts. When you tighten the end nut caps and the nipples, everything tightens up sealing the o-rings against the beveled holes on the cylinder caps. You can see where the o-rings sit on the photo of the long bar.

Hope I explained it well for you

Jerry

[nikeajax]

My Mother used to do that when she was a kid in the 1920-30's growing up on a farm in Iowa...

I'm really diggin' on your gear in the first image! I have a Scubapro decompression computer just like those too!

A few years back my wife and I went to Cape Canaveral and I happen to notice that some of the astronauts personal stuff was on display and I zeroed in on some scuba gear that was Scubapro. If I remember correctly, I think, it was Wally Schirra's Mae West, it was black and blue and a single hose reg very much like in the image. Anyway...
Jaybird

[donpaul]

bad ass! you just motivated be to take in my old doubles for hydro. Nice Dial a Death too.

Cheers, Don Paul

[robohips77]

Just saw this post and your info is very helpful in a project I am working on now. I sent you a PM to get further info that will help me. Great job by the way. ;D

[Michel]

Coooooool.........

Very tripply.....congrates on a job well done.

Michel.

[fishnbeer]

Dec 13, 2011 17:13:39 GMT -8 robohips77 said:

Just saw this post and your info is very helpful in a project I am working on now. I sent you a PM to get further info that will help me. Great job by the way. ;D

PM sent!

[sitkadiver]

Those turned out VERY nice. If you can post somedetails of the manifold, I would enjoy seeing that. The manifold looks pretty beefy, I bet you'll be diving that for a long time to come.

Also, did you put plastic tubing on the bolts between the tanks where the band cinches up? That is a great idea. Hopefully that will keep the paint from getting chipped. I'll use that on my next set of doubles.

Thanks for the post.

[scubadiverbob]

If by any chance you don't need one of the scubapro regs, keep me in mind. I need a second stage for my MK7 and an extra set of gauges so I don't have to keep taking my dacor second stage off my DA to use with the MK7. Still have to overhaul the MK7 first stage to get it to honk. I have all the parts; just been busy and when not busy, lazy ....