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Post by nikeajax on Mar 26, 2019 10:45:10 GMT -8
Skip, just click on the image you want to share: once you see it, look to your lower right, you'll see an arrow turning to the right: hit that arrow son! Then you'll see a dialog box pop up: you'll have a variety of choices, click on the "BBCode", click on the code and it will highlight itself, turn blue, then copy and past that code into the forum's reply-box, then hit preview... I really dig on my HW mask, you never see them Don't give up Skip, that's why were here: to learn from each other JB
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Post by SeaRat on Mar 26, 2019 11:26:44 GMT -8
JB, I may have learned something from your description. [img src=" farm8.staticflic"] Nope, that doesn't work for me. I go to Camera Roll, bring the photo up, and right click on it to get the "Copy Image Address," then past that between the and [/img] markers. This is my own BCD, the Para-Sea BC, of which there are exactly two in the world, both belonging to me. Only one is currently dive worthy right now. So Ithink this could qualify for rarest/unique equipment. By the way, it's also probably the most expensive BCD ever produced. These were prototypes that I had made so that I could get them sold to diving equipment manufacturers. But, the whole industry went to jacket-style BCDs. No one bought it. That photo was taken on the Winchester Dam Project, and I'm using a Sherwood Magnum Blizzard regulator as the water temperature for that dive was almost freezing. John
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Post by SeaRat on Mar 26, 2019 11:36:34 GMT -8
IMG_0134 by Skip Yetman, on Flickr Skip, You have in this piece of equipment perhaps one of the first ever backplates! I have a templet that I got from Dr. Sam Miller, III. His templet of his original backplate almost matches your backplate exactly. You have a piece of diving history there. I'll see about getting an image of the templet for you to compare to. John PS, I took your advise, JB, and this time it worked. I screwed it up the first time.
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Post by nikeajax on Mar 26, 2019 11:50:51 GMT -8
If y'all wanna scrub off the text that will follow an image, like John's last post: look carefully at the code. Now follow the code until you get to where it says [ /url], right after [ /img] (had to put a space in there so you can actually see the code!) Delete EVERYTHING after that first "[ /url]" and the identifier-text will go away EDIT: make sure you do a preview to see if you've done it right!!!!!!!!!!!!! JB
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Post by snark3 on Mar 26, 2019 11:56:16 GMT -8
John, I new it was old as Seacraft went out of business in the early 70's. If I remember correctly they made them in single, double, and triple tank setups. I actually stumbled onto this. I responded to a craigslist ad for a set of USD triples. While I was there the seller brought out "a box of junk" this was in it, as was my NE Divers Hydrotwin I, 2 Northills, a NIB Scubair, and a bunch of other stuff. I quickly worked out a deal for all of it.
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Post by nikeajax on Mar 26, 2019 12:09:12 GMT -8
Oh, I kept meaning to post this: Jim Steele told me this was made by Seacraft, but made them for Healthways too: the HW's were apparently yellow! I need to fabricate the rest of it some time: need a good image of it's bands... JB
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Post by snark3 on Mar 26, 2019 13:04:55 GMT -8
JB- that's pretty cool. It looks like it has some small slots between the middle and top cradle, and some more up higher. I wonder if those are for regular hose clamps. That's what mine uses.
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Post by nikeajax on Mar 26, 2019 13:10:26 GMT -8
The slots are for straps with stops sewn into the end to keep them in place. It has a quick-release pin on the side for the tank: I need to figure out the workings of said release JB
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Post by SeaRat on Mar 26, 2019 17:21:39 GMT -8
IMG_0134 by Skip Yetman, on Flickr Skip, Here's your photo (by the way, I like giving credit for photos, and so I will continue to leave the ending on there). Now, here's the templet that Dr. Sam Miller III, sent to me: IMG_0009 by John Ratliff, on Flickr They are not the same, but are very, very similar. Sam traced his own backplate, and sent this to me to replicate (which I have yet to do). These were home-made out of sheet aluminum. So it appears that Seacraft used one of the home-made backplates to make their own commercial variety. John
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Post by scubalawyer on Mar 27, 2019 6:53:54 GMT -8
Now, here's the templet that Dr. Sam Miller III, sent to me....Sam traced his own backplate, and sent this to me to replicate (which I have yet to do). These were home-made out of sheet aluminum. So it appears that Seacraft used one of the home-made backplates to make their own commercial variety. John Speaking of Sam, he and I have been friends/dive buddies for over 40 years. He is 87 now. He and I lectured on diving at the Sheriff's Search & Rescue seminar in Central California a few weeks ago. As usual Sam put me up at his house in Pismo Beach for the weekend. Here is a pic of us at his kitchen table. I always have fun digging through his extensive diving library and poking around in countless boxes, bins and crates of double hose regulators. Mark <abbr title="Mar 26, 2019 18:21:39 GMT -7" class="o-timestamp time" data-timestamp="1553649699000"></abbr>
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Post by snark3 on Mar 27, 2019 9:09:23 GMT -8
John, Those certainly look like they were stamped from the same die. I feel pretty lucky to have found this thing. I'm not sure what to do with it, replace the straps and use it or keep it as is and display it.
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Post by nikeajax on Mar 27, 2019 9:34:55 GMT -8
Skip, clean it, don't repaint it, then replace the straps and use it at least once! JB
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Post by vance on Mar 29, 2019 16:07:26 GMT -8
DRW, where art thou? I was hoping to side-step regulators for a while and get some more udder kina stuff posted hereabouts!
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Mar 29, 2019 22:42:39 GMT -8
DRW, where art thou? I was hoping to side-step regulators for a while and get some more udder kina stuff posted hereabouts! I know I've posted these pictures here before, JB, but first here's my attempt at colour-coordinating a couple of 1950s/1960s artefacts in my vintage diving gear collection: The image shows a Skooba-"Totes" from the late 1950s here colour-coordinated with a pair of Champion Hydromatic full-foot fins (both purchased here at Vintage Scuba Supply!). When I joined my university sub-aqua club back in the late 1960s, the Skooba-"totes" was available in the UK through its sole distributor Submarine Products, coincidentally located further up the river Tyne in the market town of Hexham. In the event, probably to copy the other members of the club, I opted back then for a British-made Typhoon wetsuit, but I'd always regretted never having the opportunity to try out a period drysuit, so I was delighted when a large-size Skooba-"totes" came up for sale. I ration its use because it's irreplaceable, but I enjoy the process of sealing and venting the suit and I appreciate its simplicity, lightness and relative ease of donning when compared to the tight-fitting freediving-style wetsuits of nowadays. Today's drysuits strike me as being somewhat "overengineered", particularly for snorkelling. And here's a Christmas present from my parents during the early 1960s. It is a blue Typhoon Super Star mask, made in England and still in remarkable condition with the rubber body and strap perfectly supple and the stainless steel of the rim and buckles uncorroded: I'll see what else I can dig out in the "favourite" category. DRW
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Mar 30, 2019 3:25:48 GMT -8
OK - here's something in the way of my "newest" equipment accessions. Project 1: A Soviet Skooba-"totes" lookalike made in Estonia when the country was one of the constituent republics of the USSR: The accompanying instructions, written in Estonian and Russian, stated that the "Tegur" suit was intended for powerboaters, water-skiers and the water rescue services. Online searches, however, revealed that the suit was a popular with underwater hunters, as spearfishermen are known in Russia. The suit consists of a hooded top with a vent tube on the chest and a footed bottom, connected with waistseals on both garments and a cummerbund pulled over the rolled seal. The extra sheet of rubber is for patching purposes. One Russian underwater hunting book recommends removal of the hood and the wristseals and replacing them with their counterparts from a Soviet "Sadko" dry suit. I have these parts to hand (below), but I haven't yet attempted to modify the "Tegur" suit, whose existing face and wrist seals are known to leak because of the seamed construction of the garment. Project 2: First-generation snorkel-masks: The model on the left is a Tahiti single-snorkel half-mask made in France. The one in the middle is a Balco twin-snorkel full-face mask made in Greece. The model on the right is a Riviera twin-snorkel half-mask made in the USA. As far as I know, the Balco is still in production, the only one in the world to be so. The Riviera snorkel-mask comes with snorkels replaceable with plugs to convert it to a conventional mask. These recent purchases were made in the interests of research in a neglected area of underwater equipment history, perhaps timely as the new-generation snorkel-masks come on to the snorkelling scene. I have already found evidence of the existence of over 100 different models of the old-school snorkel-masks, most of them made in Mediterranean European countries in the 1950s and 1960s. I'm only too well aware they have had a bad press and that the French government banned the ball-valve versions three decades ago! DRW
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