USD Steel Tank - Broxton AVE

[michael-fisch]

I just got a USD Steel tank with the following markings from Ebay:

US Divers Corp
1045 Broxton AVE, L.A. 24 Calif
Compressed Air only
ICC-3AA2150, 14674
RENE
Proof marking L (in a circle) and 7-54

The valve is a J valve marked with a number 9155

The tank was at one time repainted to match the standard German tank colors of grey top/white body

In what color was the tank originally shipped?
Who or what was RENE, I have heard that RENE was one of the first USD large dealers and was a hardware store in LA?
What size is the tank in cuft, the tank is 25.25" long and has a diameter of 6.9"?

2 pictures are attached from the original Ebay listing:



and

[captain]

Rene' Bussoz was the owner of Rene Sports which later became U S Divers. He was one of the the first importers of scuba into the US on the west coast. The tank was probably yellow and is basicly the same dimentions of a 72 but with a 100 psi lower rated pressure.

[treasureman]

why this tank makes a good candidate for a recent hydfro and of course a good cleaning and a Galvilite job to top it off.

[michael-fisch]

why a recent hydro? The last one is still pretty recent, only 53 years ago

Michael
who is slowly getting to like the idea of diving with equipment that is older than he is. Now all I have to do is find a CG45 in pristine condition, preferably still in the factory sealed box.

[treasureman]

well now I just happen to have a Pristeen CG45 with box. Of course a princely sum would be required. At which point I will send you the pictures . Perhaps somewhere i will find more than just pictures, but its a good first start to keep the vision alive.

So 8x 10 glossy for 500 golden pezouzas

[eskimo3883]

Hi,

I have two of these tanks and both are galvinized (bare metalic zinc).

[michael-fisch]

You're right. It is galvanized full length on the outside and still looks good after I stripped the rest of of the old non original paint off on tuesday, and then took the tank to my hydro facility (TÜV). They removed the rust from the inside and then hydro'ed the tank. I told them that WP was 150Bar and that the TP should be 250Bar which it passed with flying colors!

The only difficulty I had was when I insisted on them not stamping the tank with the recent hydro, they finally gave me a certificate and did not add any new markings to the tank!

I'm currently having problems finding a replacement for the original nylon INT sealing ring for the valve, it appears that I'll end up making my own using a knife-compass (used by coin collectors to cut the circles out of the heavy paper they use to display coins) and a sheet of NBR material.

Or does anybody know where I can get a few replacement soft nylon sealing rings OD .740" ID .385" thickness .100"?

BTW it appears that one of the prior owners was a cavediver The original lead bullet burst screw also had a copper 3200PSI disk under it to efectively double disk the tank. I left it in since I would be very unhappy to be hit if the lead bullet ever let go in my direction, it could ruin my whole (hole?) day.

Michael

[michael-fisch]

I visited 2 coin/stamp dealers this morning and knife compasss are not to be found so I went off to a major tool dealer and bought a set of concentric hole punches (unfortunately over $80).

It took me about 15 minutes to make 10 rings OD 18mm ID 10mm and thickness 3mm out of a sheet of NBR material and they appear to work fine.
They aren't falling out, hold pressure, seal well on both my DIN/INT adapter mated to my check gauge, and my Siebe Gorman Merlin MK VI.
So - problem solved!
I'll top the tank up to 150Bar (2150psi) tomorrow and dive the Merlin MK VI on the weekend mounting the tank on a Spiro plastic backplate that I had lying around.

Michael

[treasureman]

This sounds complicated.. punching things, Merlins, ID thickness. Why not just say "i'm going diving" see ya in the water