New England Divers Twin Hose

[SeaRat]

Okay, I'm starting a new thread on this one, but today I was about to dive with my Hydro-Twin after putting it together when the Sea-Vew HP hose ruptured. That aborted the dive today. I'll explain a bunch more in the other thread.

John

[SeaRat]

I finally got wet with my Hydro-Twin today. Yesterday, we had the cancellation due to a high pressure, gauge line bursting. No such problem today. I used my Hydro-Twin, but without any attachments. I plugged them all! I looked at the LP inflator hose, and it's cracked along the entire range of the hose. So off it came. There was no octopus, and now no submersible pressure gauge (SPG). So I did an entirely vintage dive.

I haven't even told my wife this, but one of the purposes of this dive was to find my dive knife. I lost it last Wednesday on a different dive after cutting fishing line off a lure. I put it back in its case, but apparently the locking button did not engage, and after that dive it was gone. Well, I knew about where it was, and so used exactly the same equipement (float, Para-Sea BC, wet suit, weight, Force Fins) as last week, except for the regulator. Instead of the AIR-1 that I used last week, I used my Hydro-Twin. It breathed very well today. With no inflator, I used oral inflation twice while on the bottom.

I also wore two depth gauges, both on my wrist. One was a capillary gauge by Dacor, and one a Voit Bourden tube depth gauge. They were remarkably similar in depth.

I started the dive by tracing the exact route I had swam last week. Then, as I went over a rock, I saw it--my knife! I grabbed it, and put it into its sheath, which I wore on my left leg instead of on my right leg, which held my vintage Sportsway dive knife and sheath. Success!

I was also diving a Scubapro snorkel, a Scubapro 3-window mask, and the SeawiscopeEY, and had my camera. (More later, I have a chore to go and do right now, but I got my knife back!)...

...Okay, I'm back. 'Had to pick up my wife at Oregon Health and Science University hospital, where she was working.

Concerning the mask, it did no pass for my all-around mask. It is silicone, and passes too much light from behind. Also, the SeawiscopeEY mounts higher than I like it. So back to the mask I've been using for a while now, my Tusa mask.

The Scubapro snorkel is a design that has the patent number printed on it. I looked up the patent, and it says it clears easier than regular snorkels. My favorite is the Scubapro Shotgun snorkel, but I wanted to test this one too. It tested very well, and indeed is easier to clear than a regular snorkel. I'll evaluate it further in the "Mask and Snorkel thread later.

Last week, on my way out of the water, I lost the screw that holds the weights onto my camera housing. I made a substitute, but wanted to find the original. I did find it! So not only did I get my knife back, but I also got the Canon housing screw for the weights back too. I took some photos that I haven't seen, as my battery ran out during the dive (note to self--always use a completely charged battery and a wiped clean card in this camera). I'll look at them in a bit, and post some if they are good.

John

[SeaRat]

Here is the breakdown of my Hydro-Twin regulator:


I tried to place them all in order of how they go together.


Here is the original and home-made gasket between the body and the can.


Now you can see why I needed a new body gasket.


Here is the new gasket mounted to the can, with the screws in place. Once I figured out to do this, screwing them into the body was easy.

John

PS, I added some information to the previous post too.

[snark3]

John, the gasket/seal that goes at the base of the second stage housing. Do you know if silicone sheet is heavy enough to make a replacement, or do I need neoprene, or can I reuse the old one? The old one doesn't look bad but it's probably quite old. I don't know if/when mine was last serviced.
Thanks

[SeaRat]

Jul 5, 2018 10:40:21 GMT -8 snark3 said:

John, the gasket/seal that goes at the base of the second stage housing. Do you know if silicone sheet is heavy enough to make a replacement, or do I need neoprene, or can I reuse the old one? The old one doesn't look bad but it's probably quite old. I don't know if/when mine was last serviced.
Thanks

Snark3,

Yes you can use the sheet silicone, or you can reuse the original gasket. When I first pulled my Hydro-Twin apart, I reused the original, but reinforced it with neoprene cement. Now, with the original gasket in pieces, I needed a new one. The only function of this gasket is to keep water out at ambient pressure.

John

[nikeajax]

I agree with John, but since you have it apart just go that extra-mile with the new silicone-gasket, you'll be glad you did much later on down the road

JB

[snark3]

Thanks guys. I have the silicone sheet for the body to can gasket and the gasket at the base of the second stage. I picked up some rubber to make a second stage seat, so I think I'm good to go.
Thanks again guys

[SeaRat]

I had a successful dive yesterday of my Hydro-Twin. I had it with an SPG, LP inflator (which wasn't used, as I forgot my BCD), and my AIR-I as an octopus.


Here is what it looked like in the back of my vehicle.


I'm getting ready to get wet.


A smallmouth bass swam into my camera range, but I couldn't get a second photo. Photo Copyright 2018, John C. Ratliff


Here is a so-far unknown small fish on the bottom of the Clackamas River. The double hose Hydro-Twin regulator allowed me to get quite close without spooking it.
Photo Copyright 2018, John C. Ratliff

John

[snark3]

Guys is there a trick to get the volcano orifice back in. The sportways book says just push it in with a dowel or the eraser end of a pencil. I needed to use 4 dowels and hammer to coax it out, needless to say its not just pushing in. I had a #011 90 duro o-ring on it. It seems like its catching on the oring. Do I need to make a lazy mans press to press it back in?

[vance]

Jul 25, 2018 12:42:49 GMT -8 snark3 said:

Guys is there a trick to get the volcano orifice back in. The sportways book says just push it in with a dowel or the eraser end of a pencil. I needed to use 4 dowels and hammer to coax it out, needless to say its not just pushing in. I had a #011 90 duro o-ring on it. It seems like its catching on the oring. Do I need to make a lazy mans press to press it back in?

Getting the orifice down into the bore shouldn't be too hard. They generally push in with some resistance but not more than you can manage pressing down on a dowel.

Did you clean up the bore of the valve? A bit of ScotchBrite  rotated around down there might help if it's corroded. Maybe your o-ring is too thick?

[SeaRat]

You might want to regresse the volcano orifice's O-ring withsilicone grease, and then it should go easily into the body.

John

[snark3]

John I did have some silicone grease on the o-ring, maybe not enough. I didn't use very much I'll try again with a little more.
Phil I measured the old and new o-rings with a micrometer and the new one is actually thinner than the old one, less than 1/1000th of an inch thinner but still thinner. I will use a piece of Scotchbrite to try cleaning the bore. I soaked it in 25% vinegar solution but I really hadn't scrubbed the bore. The volcano orifice itself had some corrosion on it so maybe thats where my issue is.

Thanks for the ideas guys.

I am going to take lots of pics of reassembly so I can post them

[jason]

You're so friendly.

[snark3]

I got the orifice back in. I used both Phil's suggestion of cleaning the bore with scotchbrite and John's suggestion of regreasing the o-ring and using a heavier coat of grease. I'm off to work now but tomorrow maybe I'll be able to assemble the rest of the reg. I plan on taking plenty of pictures (per Phil's request) and posting them.

Thanks again guys

[nikeajax]

Another trick you can also use is freezing a part over night and then warming the valve body right before assembly...

JB