Help with Scuba Gear

[scubadiverbob]

I had to open this ... "help with scuba gear" ... you know way more than I do, don't think I could help you out too much! Then, I read what you posted .... take care!

I thought you was asking a question ...

[jviss]

I would like to know the definition of vintage in the context of the this thread. I don't want to upset people by posting things I think are vintage but aren't considered so here. For example, is Dacor stuff form the late '70's, early '80's considered vintage, like a jacket BCD, Dacor Pacer XL regs, and so on? How about USD Rocket fins? Ikelite stuff form the same era?

Thanks,

jv

[nikeajax]

John reposted this from something I wrote. Why did I write it? Because it was making me really angry at how some people will only join so they know how much to sell said gear for. The most flagrant, was when someone joined so they could PM me about how much a Sears Ted Williams stove was worth--GRRR! 99.9% of the time they never say thank you or offer it up here, and in my book, that's (expletive deleted) up!

JV, as of this writing, you have 112-pstings and an avatar: I think you're here because you want/like to be here, you participate: ask yer questions son!

As of this posting, I have a whopping 5,083-postings: I like to help people and hopefully learn something too

JB

[jviss]

Thanks JB. Do you think the items I mentioned are indeed "vintage?"

[nikeajax]

JV, if I dismember rightly, and I could be wrong, vintage is anything before '85... But even if it ain't, it's still dive gear, after all, the Kracken is not vintage, and yet, it's been discussed a lot on this forum!

JB

[vance]

I don't think anyone here will be offended if your vintage gear is more modern than the definition of vintage. After all, vintage changes as the years go by! If we don't know anything about your stuff, we'll tell you.

I get tired of hearing, on another site, that the gear I am discussing isn't their definition of vintage, or that some minor piece included in my post isn't vintage and I should post somewhere else. I posted a picture of an old Mistral and a ScubaStar mounted on a Y valve that was on a 1955 72 ci Rene tank, and was told it was all inappropriate because of the valve.

Sigh.

[SeaRat]

Sept 23, 2018 14:27:35 GMT -8 vance said:

I don't think anyone here will be offended if your vintage gear is more modern than the definition of vintage. After all, vintage changes as the years go by! If we don't know anything about your stuff, we'll tell you.

I get tired of hearing, on another site, that the gear I am discussing isn't their definition of vintage, or that some minor piece included in my post isn't vintage and I should post somewhere else. I posted a picture of an old Mistral and a ScubaStar mounted on a Y valve that was on a 1955 72 ci Rene tank, and was told it was all inappropriate because of the valve.

Sigh.

That's simply amazing!

We need to use some more modern gear to ensure our own safety with some of our really vintage stuff. I use a Sherwood duel-post manifold on my doubles to test really old gear such as my Aquamatic Deluxe (which turned out to be a really nice regulator--predecessor to the original Calypso). I highly advocate that vintage gear be tested and "qualified" for open water in a pool, but if that's not available, that it be used either with a Sherwood duel-post manifold, on independent doubles, or with the Y-valve using two regulators.


John

[SeaRat]

Sept 23, 2018 4:49:41 GMT -8 jviss said:

I would like to know the definition of vintage in the context of the this thread. I don't want to upset people by posting things I think are vintage but aren't considered so here. For example, is Dacor stuff form the late '70's, early '80's considered vintage, like a jacket BCD, Dacor Pacer XL regs, and so on? How about USD Rocket fins? Ikelite stuff form the same era?

Thanks,

jv

jv,

I think that anything Dacor is now "vintage," as Dacor is no longer in business, and I have been given a number of Dacor single hose regulators by my LDS. They won't keep them, and rather than throw them away, they want to give them to someone who might use them. Well, it turns out that the last generation of Dacor single hose second stages are a take-off on the original Calypso design. I will discuss that in-depth in a different thread. But even modern regulators have roots in vintage designs. I used my Dacor Enduro regulator very recently on my Dacor Nautilus CVS, which is definitely vintage. But now, the Dacor Pacer regulators, with the metal second stage, are really great regulators, but could by some be considered "vintage" because they were last made in the early 1980s (I think).


Here is the Enduro mounted on my Dacor Nautilus CVS.


This shows the routing I was able to use with the more modern Dacor regulator.


And this is the much more modern Dacor second stage, which I don't especially like, as the bubbles come really close to my right side mask, close enough to see through my right eye when exhaling. But the design, with a diaphragm/exhaust combined, comes directly from the original USD Calypso (who's patent has expired by many years now).
____________________________

Now, I posted the above remark to try to discourage people who had no interest in vintage diving equipment from posting here just to get an idea of the value of unknown equipment that they perhaps inherited or got from somewhere. Value is in our own minds, and means nothing if we set it up on E-Bay or sell it somewhere. But what I want to preserve is the history and engineering behind the vintage gear. Believe it or not, on Facebook I had to explain what an inner tube was that we used for floats in the ol' days, as kids now don't have cars with inner tubes in their tubeless tires. These are the types of discussions I like to have, and some gear we ol' timers think of as "modern" the kids know nothing about, and it needs also to be discussed.

John

[redseadiver]

On a personal note which many of you may identify with, I remember the first time I searched for vintage diving gear online and saw the same gear I bought in the 70s and 80s (fins and knife I still own) listed as “vintage”. Yep, made me feel pretty vintage too!

[SeaRat]

I'm not only feeling Vintage when I dive gear I bought new (my Trieste II double hose regulator, for instance), but I'm now looking the part.



That's the scary part.

John

[dead_dog]

Yes, John, I can help you out. Just send all your vintage equipment to be postpaid to me.
You will then have no thoughts about it. Glad I could help.
Bill