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Post by nikeajax on Feb 16, 2019 10:30:44 GMT -8
Over the years I've asked time and again, and've only gotten crickets: peeep, peeep, peeep, peeep... Why did the Sportsway Navy Unit have all those ports: anyone who owns a Navy Unit-II has a regulator with all the ports you need to satisfy a dive master, well peripheral-wise anyway, what a wonderful regulator: Why the Navy Unit-II and not the original? Because the first model is a tilt-valve, you need an OPRV to run it safely. So you may have also noticed that other vintage single-hose downstream-valve regulators have that extra port: why, nobody was running a BC at the the time! Then a while back, Howard and I were PM'ing back and forth geekin' out over Sportways tilt-valves. I saw a Watrerlung Master Diver on eBait for cheap, so I got it. While I was waiting, I looked at Basic Scuba, and it said that it was a balanced tilt-valve, which it ain't BTW. But, anyway, so I'm lookin' at the SW catalogs, an' it don't say nuttin' 'bout it bein' balanced neethur, grumble, grumble, grumble But, what I did read was that the Navy Unit had, are ya ready? A hooka port! JB
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Post by SeaRat on Feb 16, 2019 14:53:25 GMT -8
JB, that sounds right, actually. The hookah concept had been used since the 1950s, especially for things like hull cleaning. The Aquamaster has a "hookah port" of a different nature, but that was the reason for the port on the outside. Here's a photo of the Aquamaster being used as a hookah regulator: "Straddling scaffolding 100 feet down, a diver photographs timbers of a Byzantine merchantman wrecked near Yassi Island 1,300 years ago. Iron grids enable archeologists to plot the vessel's size and type. For centuries, heavily laden trading ships swarmed among the islands off the Turkish coast, and Yassi's treacherous reef claimed at least a dozen of them."* *Dugan, James, Robert C. Cowen, Bill Barada, Luis Marden, and Richard M. Crum, World Beneath the Sea, National Geographic Society, Washingcton, D.C., 1967, pages 124-125. So hookah was being actively used when this regulator (the Sportsways Navy Unit) was manufactured, and was more known at that time. Hookah diving was an important part of archaeological diving where it wasn't too deep, and diving time was a factor. At 100 feet, with a single tank (the far diver was wearing is actually wearing twin 72s), as diver only had about 10[15 minutes of dive time. The no-decompression limits at the time was 25 minutes. But for survey work, you needed much more time to do the survey of a wreck correctly, for instance, and they could stay down an hour with hookah and then take their decompression (9 minutes at 20 feet, 28 minutes at 10 feet, ending with a Repetitive Dive Group of N). The diver wearing the twin 72s is at about 130 feet down, requiring decompression of 10 minutes at 20 feet and 25 minutes at 10 feet for a 40 minute dive (Navy Dive Tables, 1971 or so). So hookah could be a big selling point at that time. John
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Post by vance on Feb 16, 2019 15:43:42 GMT -8
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Post by SeaRat on Feb 16, 2019 15:58:29 GMT -8
Vance, You will note that there is a space for that second port on your Navy Unit III. I think what happened is that the original Navy Unit, with the tilt valve, had a drilled LP port for the hookah, as a selling point for the unit over the other single hose regulators of the time. For a time they kept it, and then decided, possibly as a cost-saving measure not to drill out the port. I have the same thing an my Sportsways Hydro-Twin regulator, where they could have put in either a J-valve or a LP port: By the way, your J-valve is "backwards" so that it cannot be accidentally tripped by bumping it, and so that it will clear a twin tank manifold. John PS, I also have a Sportsways Sport Diver second stage with the same first stage that JB has shown above. It also has the LP drilled out and usable near the J-valve on the left side (lever oriented backward). PS1, Just to show that this regulator is used as hookah, here's a current E-Bay auction (that I might just pick up): www.ebay.com/itm/323692894664?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&fromMakeTrack=trueNote, this regulator setup is an upstream tilt valve, and by removing the first stage it is now not safe as there is no ORV in the circuit.
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Post by nikeajax on Feb 16, 2019 17:00:39 GMT -8
Oh boy, someone responded! My wife's in Alaska until Thursday, an' it's been rainin' like a mutherforklift here... sigh! I'd like to try one of these regs out as a hooka one day, ain't never dun it, an' anything different is always good. Huh, I wonder if a small solar panel would be enough to power some kinda compressor? Jus' thinkin' out loud is all. JB
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Post by SeaRat on Feb 16, 2019 17:04:59 GMT -8
Oh boy, someone responded! My wife's in Alaska until Thursday, an' it's been rainin' like a mutherforklift here... sigh! I'd like to try one of these regs out as a hooka one day, ain't never dun it, an' anything different is always good. Huh, I wonder if a small solar panel would be enough to power some kinda compressor? Jus' thinkin' out loud is all. JB JB, Look up, as I have added to my post above. Also, if you decide to use it for hookah, you can do it from a scuba cylinder either on a float or on shore with a longer hose. It would be easy on your back too. Maybe you could use it to get out of your driveway too. John
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Post by technidiver on Feb 16, 2019 17:37:13 GMT -8
Oh boy, someone responded! My wife's in Alaska until Thursday, an' it's been rainin' like a mutherforklift here... sigh! I'd like to try one of these regs out as a hooka one day, ain't never dun it, an' anything different is always good. Huh, I wonder if a small solar panel would be enough to power some kinda compressor? Jus' thinkin' out loud is all. JB That would be pretty cool, of a little solar panel could power a hookah unit. I know that there are 12V hookah units available, manybe if you had a solar panel and some wires and a battery you could rig something together? TD
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Post by technidiver on Feb 16, 2019 17:39:10 GMT -8
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Post by SeaRat on Feb 16, 2019 18:20:00 GMT -8
TD, I hope you don't mind, but I put the video into your post above to show in real time what Hookah Diving is all about. I do now have two photos of my Sport Diver regulator, which are below: This shows the ORV side, with the second stage hose occupying one port and the overpressure relief valve (OPV) occupying the other. Here is the other side of the first stage, showing the HP port (low) and above it the LP port (with a flush-mounted newer style LP plug). This is where the Hydro-Twin and some of the newer Sportsways regulators have only a smooth surface. John
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Post by snark3 on Feb 16, 2019 18:24:40 GMT -8
Maybe keep it true vintage with a 60's era Johnson air-bouy
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Post by tomcatpc on Feb 16, 2019 20:41:40 GMT -8
I gotsta gets me a Sportsways reg now!!! Mark
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Post by snark3 on Feb 17, 2019 2:40:48 GMT -8
I've picked up a few Sportsways regs. The first two were in some "lots" I picked up. The first one is an ATM-500,then my New England Divers rebranded Hydro Twin I. I've since picked up a Sport Diver, a Hydronaut, a 200, and a Hydro Twin II. The more I learn about the Sportsways regs the more I believe they were very advanced for their time.
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Post by SeaRat on Feb 22, 2019 16:34:43 GMT -8
This thread encouraged me to look again at all my Sportsways regulators. It turns out that I have three, two Sport Divers tilt valve regulators (one is a J-reserve first stage, and one without), and one Sport Diver II. I first looked at my functioning Sport Diver with the tilt valve, and found that it was working well. I then put the diaphragm into it from the Sport Diver II, which was a much more flexible diaphragm for the second stage. It breathed quite well!
Then I looked at my Sport Diver II. It had been given to me by a friend who had been a biologist and had used it for several years in his work, then retired, and got quite big (obese) and so did not dive anymore. I took it, but it did leak when I put it onto a tank. It also had an exhaust tee that was made of neoprene that had really deteriorated, and I had finally thrown it away. Well, I picked it up again, and found that the only difference between the Sport Diver and the Sport Diver II on the exhaust end was that the tube to which the exhaust was fixed with the original Sport Diver had a rounded bottom to keep the old-style "T" in place. This was a much more robust exhaust "T" and so I figured that I could put it onto the Sport Diver II and glue it in place, which I did with the silicone I had used earlier for the Aquamatic diaphragm. I then heated it in hot water, and then put a fastener around it too while still flexible (hot). It is now in place, and the second stage is fine.
The first stage, it turned out, only needed an O-ring to seal up. So I got it going again, and put the whole regulator together, then on one of my steel 72s, and it did seal. I then adjusted the interstage pressure (this is a balanced first stage) until it just barely leaked, and backed it off just a bit. Now, I cannot wait to get it into the water. Mr. Kruze will be happy if I see him again to know it's back in service, and a very easy breathing regulator too.
By the way, all my first stages are drilled out for that extra LP port--all of them! Even the Sport Diver II. I'm wondering whether Sportsways, with their Navy Unit, had that as a lower-priced first stage?
John
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Post by nikeajax on Feb 23, 2019 8:50:47 GMT -8
...By the way, all my first stages are drilled out for that extra LP port--all of them! Even the Sport Diver II. I'm wondering whether Sportsways, with their Navy Unit, had that as a lower-priced first stage? John John, yep, that was my point exactly: So long as you have air pressure, you can pretty much do this with any regulator... JB EDIT: this would also explain why dust caps have o-rings on them
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Post by SeaRat on Feb 24, 2019 16:12:41 GMT -8
Well, I broke apart my Sportsways first stage, which is one of the ones I thought was with a tilt-valve second stage, and found it was the balanced first stage! So either I have mismatched the second stages, or this one came with a different second stage originally. But I don't think I have a second stage that matches it.
John
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