Finish on Royal?

[dbg40]

What is the finish on a Royal? is it nickel, or hard chrome? I Need to send one out but dont know what to tell the shop.

[Broxton Carol]

Its chromed. Never refinish the metal on any vintage item. The patina is the beauty of an item, aquired with age and use.........part of its personna. Ive overhauled a lot of regs for folks, but always refused to polish, or re do the finish, other than just removing corrosion. If you think its so bad to look at, then just paint it, and save money. Rustoleum has a great aluminum paint that looks just like the finish on the early aquamasters.

[nemrodalt]

nemrodaltAs far as I know they are chrome like most dive equipment, not nickel. I am thinking to have my round label despite it's perfect chrome vapor deposit coated in military matt black. I would not do tat to my nearly equally nice square label cuz I just don't think it would look as cool, maybe I am wrong there. James

[RMannix]

I'm tempted to paint all my chrome black when the bluefish are around...

[dbg40]

Youre not scared of the little snappers are you? ;-)

[dbg40]

I have a DA that may not sell so Ill have to somthing with it. Powder coat looks pretty good huh? I know a guy in the next town that does a great job, is dirt cheap and turns stuff around in a couple of days.

[cstmwrks]

For what its worth chrome is like a clear coat over nickle. I electroplate my own custom brass regulator parts. The nickle finish goes on first and without interuption it then goes to the chrome bath for the final mirror look.

[1969ivan1]

Bryan has and can refinish ur old reg as good or better than orig...He has done a lot of work for me and I am never left wanting more. Check out the POWDERCOATED black da he made me in the pics section of his web site vintagedoublehose.com

[Bryan]

Chuck is right about the value on a regulator if the finish is changed. Re-chroming is not inexpensive! Changing EPA regulations saw to that.

Powdercoating works very very well if a professional does the prep work and applies it correctly. If not it looks like you dipped it in color tinted wax!

Dan and I are giving away a DA that I did in silver powdercoat at the Lake Wazee dive this year. Looks damn good IMHO.

[dbg40]

WELL!
Thanks guys, I would never have thought that refinishing a reg would have an effect on the value! I just bought it and havent even seen it yet, but from what I could tell it looked pretty good. I was just wanting a really cherrry one, which sparked the re-chrome question. I do however have a DA that will need to be done as its kind of rough, but ill leave the new Royal alone.

[nemrodalt]

Get a chrome polish that is actually safe on chrome!. This and some elbow grease does wonders alone. Keeping them waxed helps prevent renewed corrosion of previously corrosion damaged areas as does always washing, drying your regulator. Those clips make it impossible to dissasemble the unit as one would wish.
After use in salt water would it be OK regulator experts to remove the outlet hoses and flush the inner can with distilled water and allow to dry before reassembling?
James

[Bryan]

IMO you are 100% right James. If I have been in salt water I take the hoses off and soak it in a bucket overnight with a diluted solution of regulator cleaner/salt remover that I have had huge sucess with. Rinse it in fresh water and let it dry before I put it away. If I've been in fresh water I just give it a good overnight soak in clean fresh water and let it dry.

Cleaning of hoses has been discussed many times on here so I won't bother with that again.

After the regulator is 100% dry I put some non scented talcum powder down the duckbill and blow through it a couple of times to spread out the talc. It keep the rubber halves from sticking together. This is CRITICAL on the original thin duckbills! On the reproduction duckbills it is still a good idea but less critical due to the improvements in the rubber compounds.

[dbg40]

I want to make sure I have this right. Am I to flush BOTH sides of the diaphram out? Its ok to get water into the demand side ? Christ I have a LOT to learn, I know about the powder
for the rubber parts, but I never have removed the hoses to soak the body in cleaner. Can I use Mirazyme for the cleaner, or do you recommend another cleaner? I sincerely hope you guys don't mind answering questions, cause it looks like the list may be growing!

[Broxton Carol]

In the shop years ago you used to use a bristle brush in soapy water to clean the hoses on an overhaul. I just take the cans apart, by removing the clamp ring, and wash them out with warm water and then hang the hoses up to dry. I was told years ago to flush the unit with warm WATER and hang it up by the yoke to dry out. Of course it NEVER really dried out, but if you can get ahold of a clamp ring you can wash out the innards easily, and dry in the sun, or use compressed air to dry the mechanism. Someone spoke of keeping the bill in good shape, yes just spray with silicon spray, you can get it at ACE hardware cheap. Just spray up into the duckbill and it will work great. Never give or lend your reg to anyone else. You will have every disease they have, or you have after a dive. I was warned about this years ago. Its probably true. Bryan will have his clamp rings available soon. Then EVERYBODY will be able to keep their reg in top shape with minimal aggravation, or however you spell it. Dont sweat all the little stuff, life is too short. As capt. Ratnick says" dont worry, be happy"!

[dbg40]

CLAMP RINGS??? Is this true Bryan?? Excellent!
Im a bit of an odd ball in that I NEVER let anyone touch my "stuff" let alone use it. I always have spare rigs to loan, but never my personal stuff, no siree bob. But what do you think about the mirazyme? any good?