New(to me) Mistral

[YankDownUnder]

Kansas Creed,

I think it is great that you are restoring a Mistral that most of us would have ignored. It is easy to just buy a regulator which is already perfect, but by restoring one, as you have done, you are contributing to the preservation of vintage gear. Plus it's cheaper and a lot more fun.

The label looks good to me. If it were too good, it might not look authentic. What a great effort. I take it Bryan has been your mentor.

Thanks for showing it to us.

[Bryan]

Best I can remember he was all on his own on this one.....Good to see it work out so well. When folks ask about regulator rebuilds/do it yourself/etc, I always point them to the good ole Mistral. Hard to screw up, very forgiving if you do and when you are finished you have a regulator that's almost bullet proof.

[Creed]

Well, I've taken something away from all of the great vintage equipment discussions I have had here. And, without Bryan's parts, none of my double hose projects would have gotten off the ground. I've finally gotten the order in for the rebuild kit, so if all goes well, I'll have it together next week. I think the local college pool is closed for the break, so I may have to wait until January to get it tested in the water. Hopefully not.

[Creed]

Well, I was going to post my pics of a rebuild, but Lyons has been without power for several days now. I went and dropped a lot of dough I really needed for other things to get a generator to let me work from home. Ah, well. Here's a lovely shot of my version of hell:



And, yes, that's my electrical service that's busted. I actually was standing right there when it went. Pretty exciting. So, even when Lyons is back up, I am screwed for a few more days. Yay for winter!

[Creed]

Oh, and I forgot to note that I am posting these by lamplight with the hum of a generator outside providing power. There went the cash I had saved up for a Phoenix. Time to start over with saving

[luis]

Yeah, that looks familiar. But at least you don't have any snow on the ground.

[Creed]

Yeah, that looks familiar. But at least you don't have any snow on the ground.

That's in the forecast for tomorrow.

[Mudhog]

That icestorm went just south of here, my cousin in Marango is prayin the wind stays down so the power lines and trees stay up. All we got was an inch of snow. Last Feburary we were on generator power for over a week.

[swimjim]

Oh I hate ice storms. I'd rather have a good blizzard. I feel for ya man. We had one in the 70's, we were out of power for ten days. That really s**ked . I hope you are able to get back on your feet quickly and your service was your only hit.

Jim

[JES]

... I hope you are able to get back on your feet quickly and your service was your only hit.

Jim

Ditto! Here's hoping you're back to normal quickly.

[Nemrod]

The edge hit us pretty hard but not nearly as bad as two winters ago when we lost power for a week and had to move out and the trees were flat to the gound with ice. Oklahoma really got the worst of it it seems this time. Hope you will be able to stay warm. Snow is bad, ice is horrid.

My backyard, see the deer:



My honeysuckle bushes:



Nem

[kgehring]

Nothing like having venison in your back yard.

[Creed]

Nothing like having venison in your back yard.

True story. I have a friend who's family is basically tree-huggers(by this, I don't mean environmentalists, but rather "lack of critical thinking" environmentalists). Anyway, one thanksgiving, they decided to have turkey. Of course, the kids all demanded a specially bought free-range, chemical free turkey. So, he ordered a turkey from like Vermont. It cost over $100 for the bird once you counted the freeze shipping, etc.

I noted that he literally had hundreds of turkeys free roaming on his property at the time. He could have have buried his family in free range, chemical free turkeys for the cost of a few shotgun shells. To each his own, I guess.

[standingup]

Creed - hang in there- I got pissed when the hurricane took my electric in Pensacola. Don't know how I would have handled it with cold on top of it.
heres my generator experience.
wheeled out portable generator and discovered it was stored in the only place in shed that leaked water.
plugged it in and couldn't start it
cleaned and restored carb as it was stored with gas
cleaned and restored magneto as it was stored under a leaking roof for years
removed gas from generator as the kids mixed water into gas can
tracked down gas cans neighbor borrowed right after storm
finally got damn thing producing electric
went next door to tell other neighbor I could help them save their food
discovered during the night the city restored elec in my neighborhood as we are right next to water treatment center.

[Creed]

Back to scuba related posts.
The Mistral went back together today, with a rebuild kit, a new diaphragm and a band clamp from Bryan. I put it all together, and then hooked it up to a tank. No leaks. I put on a pair of hoses, and it breathed nicely. Next step: the pool. I'll post some photos in a bit.