custom o-rings

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So let me tell you how my day went. First I called Apple Rubber Products and left a meaasge for Dave. When he didn't call back after about three hours, I inturn called back and talked to mike. I told Mike I had eleven o-rings of various sizes and needed some help in replacing them. This is what I was told next." Apple has an individual order charge of fifty dollars, eleven o-rings=five hundred and fifty dollars". Hmmmmm, 550.00 dollars, maybe a o-ring for Nasa cost that much, but there is no o-ring or o-rings in the world worth that much. Thankfully, I walked into a little out of the way place in Salem Connecticut, and bought everything I needed for 54.63. And that consisted of 10 and 20 pieces of some o-rings.

Sounds like you still payed way too much if you are talking standard 2- o-rings. But you said you were looking for "custom" o-rings. There are a number of internet sites where you can buy most scuba o-rings for $0.05 to $0.25 each even in smaller quantities plus a flat S&H fee. But you would have to know what sizes you need.
 
What I ended up buying today was 120 o-rings, some were speced out silicone due to temp, some were speced out neopreme. And on this particular second stadge, I am not going to start second guessing the engineers. When this is doing it's job, there is none better...no brag, just fact.
 
I'm curious too. The smallest O-ring that I have seen used in SCUBA gear is -003. How small do you need? You might want to just get a "dash chart", which has outlines of o-rings and lists their "-" part number. I have one and it works wonders for rebuilding regulators. There are really only four flavors of o-ring in dive gear. You have EPDM, polyurethane, viton, and POR (plain old rubber). You can usually tell by feel and by appearance which type you require.
 
This reg is the result of a MIT students theseis, this was his class project. And as a result of his work, Scubapro produced this reg between 1977-78. The o-ring is a .001 1/2. Imagine something 1/2 the size of a bb. Now cut that in half and machine a nipple on the flat side. That is where that o-ring goes. Now if you think that's small, you should see the pilot pin.
 
Even the little standard o-rings are not that hard to find. One example for 2-001s: O-Rings, Inc. Since 1958

Add $7.50 for shipping and handling and the cost for 120 SAE 568 o-rings is in the neighborhood of $37.50. Larger quantities can bring the cost per down quite a bit, if you have a use for a bag of 100.
 
Thanks for the info. By pure dumb luck I stumbled into a little out of the way place in Salem Connecticut and virtually bought every thing I needed. But more importantly I got a good education in what a manufactuor means by, no longer supplys parts, and what parts that manufactuor actually produced themselves, or are random parts that can be had else where. My problem was, and I openly admit to it is, I was lead to believe some of these items were unique to a particular manufactuor, when in reality these items can be found just about anywhere. Now don't get me wrong, the machined parts that I stated earlier are unique to this brand of regulator. Bit a o-ring is a o-ring is a o-ring, once you have the specs. That was my fault and now I know better. Thanks to all.
 

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