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Not sure. The guy I bought it from didn't seem to know anything about it. I assumed that it was a factory hole, since it is chromed on the inside as well.usddude wrote:That bottom can is worth a bit of dough. What about the extra pin hole in the top can? Maybe a different body at one time?
I have rebuilt a significant number of 50 Fathom regs, and as far as I remember, they all had two holes. By having two holes, the can could be used for various single stage designs.usddude wrote:That bottom can is worth a bit of dough. What about the extra pin hole in the top can? Maybe a different body at one time?
Bryan, E-mail sent. Right now the disk and seat assembly is holding air. I am using a 008 oring that is approximately the same diameter as the phenolic gaskets.Granted it is a wee bit thicker, but is under compression two ways. This reg only had the one gasket and it should have two. That said, it is holding air, but I would like to have a disk and seat assembly as a spare for this baby and get a nylon gasket to fill the bill for the "Seat" seal. Thanks for the quick reply.Bryan wrote:New seats are difficult to come by new but I do have a few. I have a nylon gasket that will replace the phenolic as it was too expensive to re-make them in the original material considering the low demand for the part.
capn_tucker wrote:Actually, Polaris innards in a chrome 50 Fathom can be considered factory original. When I got my chrome 50 Fathom, I discovered it to have a Polaris mechanism inside. It still had the original gray hoses that had turned brown and rotted, so they were very likely the original hoses. Which also makes it unlikely someone back in 1961 or '62 would have robbed all the parts out of a brand new Polaris to put them into a 50 Fathom can.
It also has a foil sticker on the inside of the can with the serial number: #211XXX.
My theory is that towards the end of 50 Fathom production in 1961, Voit ran out of downstream mechanisms, and substituted upstream Polaris guts until all the 50 Fathom labels were used up, and then just started putting Polaris labels on the regs.
Voit also made substitutions with the Blue 50 Fathoms. When I got what I thought was a V55 Blue 50 Fathom with the upstream mechanism, what it actually had was the internals of a VCR-5 Blue 50 Fathom, but with the label of a V55. Another case of substitution. Early production VCR-5s has a silver "Swimming Diver" label. Voit again probably ran out of the VCR-5 labels, and the last ones made received V55 labels..
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