Vintage Double Hose

This is what I found while working on the regulator. Below is what I wrote to the owner...

Wonders never cease.......

Your regulator appeared to be a early 70's round label Royal Aqua Master. When I was doing the parts inspection after cleaning I ran across two things that should not be there on this regulator

1. It had the older crown block that did not have the backup washer in it. On the sticker labels you should have had a crown block with a teflon backup washer and an O-ring in it. This was done to keep the pressure stable on 3000 psi cylinders.......This could have been a very early regulator and they had not made the change yet......No big deal as I upgraded it to a current crown block and it's holding steady at 3000 with no problems.

2. This is a real detective story.....It has a round label on the can......But when you turn it over you can see that there is a square label attached by tabs underneath the round label......One of two things happened in my opinion.....US Divers NEVER threw away anything....Perhaps when they changed to the new round label they simply put it on top of the old square label cans they had left on the line........OR a dealer put the new round label on last years model that he still had to make it look like a brand new one......Either way you have one that I have never seen before....I'd like to take off the round label and see what is under it but have left it alone till I talked with you. Please see pictures.

I'm curious as to what the square label is as well!

I recall an earlier thread where I think Nem posted a photo of a round label can with a square indentation as well. Granted, the can was re-pressed so it also had the proper round indentation for the label as well no square label underneath - which is why I think your 2nd guess (dealer with a sticker) might be the correct one.

I did rebuild a regulator some years ago that did have a round embossment over a square embossment. Not sure where it is now but that is not it, . That one does not seem to be double embossed.

Nem

Looks like I am getting suckered into this one. The internal picture of bottom can does not look pressed for a round label. Looks like some hokie pokie going on here.
I never throw anything diving stuff away as well...anybody need some blown hp hoses
usd

Send the RIF van over here.

A few months ago I also serviced a DA Aqua Master regulator that looked to have been first pressed for a square label and later pressed for a round label.

The more interesting part was that the square label indentation was for the most part pressed back to be almost flat. The holes were of course there and the rectangle perimeter had creases that made it very visible, but the rectangular recessed was for the most flattened out.

I didn’t take pictures, but the owner is a friend and I can ask him for pictures.

This is what was under the sticker label.....What I thought was an indention was just corrosion around the edge....Another strange thing about this one is the owner sent me a Mistral last year that had 50 Fathom internals in it.....



After cleanup

That is too bad about that ring on the chrome.

You are also working on an Scubapro Air-1 also?

luis wrote: You are also working on an Scubapro Air-1 also?

I was hoping it still had the Pilot internals but I was not so lucky....Even in Air 1 form it is a hell of a great breathing regulator. I spent most of a day at Scubapro in CA learning how to adjust them and I was questioning if I still remembered how? Perhaps next time I'll score an original.... I even E-mailed Gary to see if he had a copy of the manual for it....

So, my newest rebuild is a Royal that also has the rectangular label area stamped. I assume it was re-stamped later for a round later as USD changed over. I've see a few of these recently on the web, but none of those have the rectangular label on the regulator, like the one you showed.

I wonder if I can safely date this reg to early 1970?

Hey Tim its unusual but not what I would call rare..I have seen quite a few of them. I agree that all signs would point to 69 or 70. We know USD never threw anything away in those days.