Neophyte Frogman (new to vintage gear)

[spencer!]

Hello! I was pointed this direction by way of Scubaboard. I have recently come into possession of all my dad's old scuba gear, and even more recently realized that it might be good for something other than paper weights! I never dreamed that people still dove with vintage gear! I am fascinated!
I managed to get pictures of all the regulators and gauges I have and you can find them here. I have no idea what I need to do to restore the gear, or in some instances, what I even have. ANY information, suggestions, advice, etc. would be greatly appreciated! I would love to be able to dive with this equipment and hope you all will help me.

Thanks in advance!
Spencer

A few highlights:








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[Bryan]

Look at that Damone Some of you guys are going to go nuts over that one!

Bring your Sportsways regulators to Portage Quarry in August and you can meet and talk with Sam LeCocq the man that designed/invented them.

[Firebrand]

Jesus Spencer! When I sent you here from the SB, I thought you had a couple of old kickers out of the attic that needed to be completely reworked! This is quite a way to make your apearance on a vintage board! That stuff aint no crap!

[luis]

Hi spencer!

Well here is my opinion and hopefully others will add more helpful information.

The real good news is that you have some really cool, unique stuff in excellent condition. I was looking at the pictures in the link you provided and some of those regulators look like they are close to mint condition.

The bad news is that some of those regulators are rare and parts may be hard to find.

The Demone (the fourth regulator down) looks fantastic and it is a very rare regulator. That regulator is basically two single hose regulators in one second stage case with hoses for an exhaust bubble deflector. It is the only regulator (that I am aware of) that was design like that. IMHO this is such a rare regulator, it should be preserved. If it can be serviced and dived, it should be done very carefully.

The first regulator is a Sportsways and like Bryan said the designer and founder of Sportsways (Sam LeCocq) will be a Portage Quarry. I just rebuild two different models of the regulator for Rob (1969Ivan1), but could not fix a small first stage leak due to lack of parts. NOS parts are available, but are hard to find. He is looking.
That is a very good breathing regulator if you can get it serviced.
The label is missing in that regulator, so it is hard to tell the model without opening it. I am also far from an expert on Sportsways regulators; I don’t know the name of the different models.

The Waterlung Sportdiver II, I am fairly certain is also a Sportways regulator. It looks cool, but I don’t know much about it.

The Calypso Aqua Lung is a very cool single hose regulator. The exhaust valve is in the middle of the diaphragm allowing the cracking pressure to be adjusted very low. The first stage is a well design balanced diaphragm first stage, but I think parts are hard to find for it.

The last regulator is a relatively modern Conshelf. Aqua Lung still makes that first stage and it uses all the same parts as my favorite Royal Aqua Master, the modern Titan, etc. The second stage looks like a basic Aqua Lung second stage, easy to service. This is a very common regulator, but IMHO one of the best regulator designs of all times.

The Conshelf has vintage roots, but the plastic second stage dates its manufacturing as relatively recent. I would service and dive the Conshelf right away, and take your time researching how to proceed with the other regulators.

You have some real nice looking regulators. The vintage single hose regulators in general are not valued as high as double hose regulators, but the two vintage single hose you have look in really nice shape.


Most vintage equipment divers prefer the US Divers (now Aqua Lung) double hose regulators, because most parts are readily available. My favorite regulator is a Royal Aqua Master, which is a very common regulator.


Good luck

[Nemrod]

That is some relaly nice items there, wow. That looks like a real red face calypso there and that Damone is something else!

I proably would see how the regs work and play with them but like Luis said, for general purpose vintage diving, nothing beats a USD or Voit double hose, parts are avaialble.

To the right collector a few of those items are fairly valuable, your father must have been an interesting man.

Nemrod

[spencer!]

As far as I can figure, my dad's last dive was around 1986-88. So all of the gear I have has been lying around for about 20 years. I was pretty amazed at the conditions the gear is in. My primary goal is dive with some of the gear. Probably the 2 hose Sportsway. My second goal is to restore ALL the gear to as good a condition as possible whether I dive with it or not. I'm not terribly interested in selling anything right now (although I did get a serious offer for the Demone already;) ).

Can anyone give me some tips on where to begin with cleaning and restoring and testing this stuff? Is there any reason I couldn't hook it up to my tanks and see how they work? I am worried about pressure most of all. I figure I shouldn't hook it up to my HP120, but I also have an AL80 and a couple of LP85's.

Also, if there would be interest in seeing them, I have several sets of fins, lights, a complete Ikelight housing + manual SLR + strobe, a wetsuit, masks, gloves, backpacks...that I could post pics of. I reiterate, I'm not selling, but I would love to get opinions from those more knowledgable than I:)

Thanks for all your comments!
Spencer

[Nemrod]

I would hook them up on a partially expended cylinder with about 1500 or so PSI. Yeah, what can it hurt, they work or they don't or you hear all sorts of leaks, then you know.

Nemrod

[swimjim]

Thanks for posting the pic's. You surely do have some wonderful gear there. As far as tanks to mount them on any will do. However, most of this gear was designed to be used with good ole steel 72's which held 2250 psi. Putting these reg's on a tank with 3000 psi, with the exception of the Conshelf, could damge the high pressure seats. So an AL80 is fine. Just bleed it down to 2250 and your good to go.
Given the value of these regs, I think I would correspond with Bryan and have him go through them. I started by rebuilding Dacor Olyimpic's which were built bettween 1969-1979. They are still fairly common and pretty bullet proof. I figured if I made some kind of mistake it wouldn't be the end of the world. Using the knowlage I gained from these projects I got a copy of the USD repair manaul on CD from Bryan and rebuilt my Mistral and four or five DA Aquamasters for myself and some friends. If I owned that Demone though as rare as that one is, I'd let a really experienced tech go through it who has a top notch rep. That leads us back to Bryan.
Welcome to the vintage diving community. I think you'll enjoy it here. By the way, myself and I'm sure others would enjoy seeing your other gear. The best way is to upload to photobucket and then post the link. That saves bandwidth for this site. Dive safe!

Jim

[SeaHuntJerry]

Hi,
Any one looking for new SW parts contact me.
I'm bringing some for ROB and will be at Portage and Wayzee.
Jerry
Ps I own 4 dual airs,one hydro twin and 12 sw single hose reg's.

[spencer!]

Hey all - I uploades some more pictures of other gear I have HERE. I'm amazed at how little some things have changed. The Rocket Fins look exactly the same and today's jetfins or slipstreams. And Ikelite doesn't look like they have changed their designs in 30 years either!












I bet I could get some new CO2 cartridges and this would be as good as new - the bladder doesn't leak as far as I can tell.




I beleive the o-rings for this camera rig are still good, and I have the Konica SLR that goes with it and I can't wait to try it out (after testing the housing first of course;) ) The strobe is ruined though. When I openned it, the batteries were badly corroded.

Spencer

[Nemrod]

That is an intereesting set of gear, if you can get it all working again you will be in buisness. To bad about that strobe, maybe you should at least try,

James

[Firebrand]

Thank you,, and thank your dad for the fantastic care given to all of that gear. It is in amazing condition, and rarely seen that way.

[CentralTxDiver]

Wow...looks great.

Jim

[treasureman]

Looking at all this gear... your dad was a man of adventure and daring -do
Clearly by the quantity and quality of the gear he was a man who took great care of things in life. A Konica SLR in those days was a top of the line camera.

Some may be able to be service, others perhaps should not be touched. better minds than mine can tell you. But what a great collection. Welcome to vintage diving. may the adventures you have be good one

[spencer!]

Vintage Divers!
OK! I finally got a chance to work on the Sportsways double hose I have! I cleaned up the rubber hoses and mouthpiece and opened the diaphram housing to make sure there were no spiders inside! Most of the rubber looks pretty darn good. However! one of the hoses has a significant hole in it:( The hoses are about 22" long with a 1" dia end and a 1-3/8" dia end. Does anyone know where I can get a replacement? Due to the excellent help some of you have given me I believe it is a Hydro Twin. Also, if anyone has any other rubber parts for that model, I would be interested in buying them for future replacement needs...

I believe I can patch the hose for testing purposes, but I doubt I can get it to last more than 1-2 dives. Any help is appreciated!

Thanks again!
Spencer