Closed FOUND! Affordable 7/8 manifold w/ or w/o valve plugs or just mirrored valves

[Rollin Bonz]

Is that too much to ask?

Yeah I know... only slightly more common than an honest politician, but it's worth a shot.

Also looking for irrefutable evidence of Bigfoot, alien life, or Santa Claus.

Thank you for your time.

 

[guruboy]

I’ve heard of people getting plugs machined for the angled manifolds.

Strictly an aftermarket DIY do at your own risk type of thing.

 

[Rollin Bonz]

To clarify...
JUST a manifold, even without plugs, is acceptable.
Please everyone, don't overwhelm me with PMs.../s

 

[tmassey]

To clarify...
JUST a manifold, even without plugs, is acceptable.
Please everyone, don't overwhelm me with PMs.../s

Are you sure that’s what you want? The face sealed manifolds, e.g. those with the angled output, do not have “plugs“. It’s not just that the plugs for a modern manifold won’t fit. Being a face seal, that’s not really how they work. Like @guruboy said, it’s not impossible to seal them, but it is impossible to buy a properly designed and manufactured part for that job.

Without actual details of what you’re trying to accomplish, I have no idea if that is actually a problem for you. My suspicion is you’re trying to do something like sidemount with 7/8 tanks, and you want left and right valves. And if you don’t mind taking risks with high-pressure gas, etc. it might be possible to do what you’re looking for. But it isn’t something that you’re going to be able to walk into a dive shop and get filled if anyone looks at all at the valve.

And if in spite of all of that do you want that manifold, or if my assumptions are wrong, that’s fine too. I have such a manifold, but you have to buy the tanks that are attached to it as well! They’re for sale, but it’s a long way to go for a couple of valves.

I just want to make sure that you understand the limitations of the face sealed manifolds that you seem to be asking about. If you are, that’s great. Hopefully I won’t be diving next to you win something lets go…

 

[Rollin Bonz]

Are you sure that’s what you want? The face sealed manifolds, e.g. those with the angled output, do not have “plugs“. It’s not just that the plugs for a modern manifold won’t fit. Being a face seal, that’s not really how they work. Like @guruboy said, it’s not impossible to seal them, but it is impossible to buy a properly designed and manufactured part for that job.

Without actual details of what you’re trying to accomplish, I have no idea if that is actually a problem for you. My suspicion is you’re trying to do something like sidemount with 7/8 tanks, and you want left and right valves. And if you don’t mind taking risks with high-pressure gas, etc. it might be possible to do what you’re looking for. But it isn’t something that you’re going to be able to walk into a dive shop and get filled if anyone looks at all at the valve.

And if in spite of all of that do you want that manifold, or if my assumptions are wrong, that’s fine too. I have such a manifold, but you have to buy the tanks that are attached to it as well! They’re for sale, but it’s a long way to go for a couple of valves.

I just want to make sure that you understand the limitations of the face sealed manifolds that you seem to be asking about. If you are, that’s great. Hopefully I won’t be diving next to you win something lets go…

If I get a manifold, that's how I'd be diving it. No DIY on any valves or tanks for me, HP or otherwise.

I bought a set of PST HP120s from a buddy a few years ago. They were a split set of doubles that came with the manifold crossbar. I dove them sidemount and they were great. Then I decided to double them back up and use the for BMD since I already had the manifold had and I had a set of Faber HP100s I could use for SM. After diving exclusively the HP 100s in SM, I realize just how SWEET those 120s are in SM. I also picked up, in the meantime, several older 7/8 HP tanks in a larger gear purchase. In those is a matching pair of Genisis HP100s with standard valves that I'd like to double up.
So...
If I can find a complete manifold, I'll use it to double up the 100s and split my double 120s for SM.
If I can find a set of mirrored valves, no manifold, I'll put those on my 120s for SM and move the manifold over to the 100s.
If I can find a manifold with valve plugs, I can do either.

 

[-JD-]

Are you sure that’s what you want? The face sealed manifolds, e.g. those with the angled output, do not have “plugs“. It’s not just that the plugs for a modern manifold won’t fit. Being a face seal, that’s not really how they work. Like @guruboy said, it’s not impossible to seal them, but it is impossible to buy a properly designed and manufactured part for that job.

Without actual details of what you’re trying to accomplish, I have no idea if that is actually a problem for you. My suspicion is you’re trying to do something like sidemount with 7/8 tanks, and you want left and right valves. And if you don’t mind taking risks with high-pressure gas, etc. it might be possible to do what you’re looking for. But it isn’t something that you’re going to be able to walk into a dive shop and get filled if anyone looks at all at the valve.

And if in spite of all of that do you want that manifold, or if my assumptions are wrong, that’s fine too. I have such a manifold, but you have to buy the tanks that are attached to it as well! They’re for sale, but it’s a long way to go for a couple of valves.

I just want to make sure that you understand the limitations of the face sealed manifolds that you seem to be asking about. If you are, that’s great. Hopefully I won’t be diving next to you win something lets go…

Not all of the angled-output 7/8 manifolds are face-sealed. I have a set which is barrel-sealed. They came to me split, but with the isolator crossbar. They are currently back as doubles - unfortunately on loan or I'd put up some pictures.

ETA: Found some pics of that style on another thread here: Genesis 7/8" Manifold

 

[OTF]

Watch ebay for a few weeks/months, two sets I was watching just went for quite low prices (link).

Can anyone comment on any buoyancy characteristic differences between sets with a "thin" crossbar like the Genesis posted above, vs. the beefy crossbar on some Sherwood models like this? Does the weight affect trim? Or is the difference too small to matter?

 

[Rollin Bonz]

Watch ebay for a few weeks/months, two sets I was watching just went for quite low prices (link).

Can anyone comment on any buoyancy characteristic differences between sets with a "thin" crossbar like the Genesis posted above, vs. the beefy crossbar on some Sherwood models like this? Does the weight affect trim? Or is the difference too small to matter?
View attachment 600850

Had my eye on one of those. It was like $100 winding down. Tried to snipe it in the last 30 seconds and it shot to $185

 

[runsongas]

not enough difference to matter. the main issue is the face seal sherwoods never had plugs available iirc and i'm not sure if the oms caps fit them either.

 

[tmassey]

Not all of the angled-output 7/8 manifolds are face-sealed. I have a set which is barrel-sealed.

I had heard that such things existed, but I’ve never seen them. Thank you very much for the photo! What’s the spacing on those? I know the face seals are 207 mm, which means they need the really crappy spaghetti-thin tack-welded bands, which I hate. I understand way back in the day some people made quality 207 mm bands, but that’s another thing I’ve never actually seen in person.

As much as possible, I’m trying to migrate away from the 7/8 tanks. For single tanks, I really don’t think there’s that much of a disadvantage at all: replacement valves are a little more expensive, but not horrible. But for doubles, it’s just a minefield. Having said that, if you actually have a set all put together for doubles, they’re just fine: I have a set of hundreds that I still use, and if I came across a set of 120 that was properly priced, I would jump on them. (There were actually a couple of them on ScubaBoard recently, but I couldn’t justify the 20+ Hour drive in the middle of a pandemic.)

Anyway, thank you for that photo. It was informative. And thank you, @Rollin Bonz for an explanation of what you were looking for. It’s nice to know that you’re not going cowboy with 3500 psi gas… It’s nice that you have options that would make either valves or a manifold work. All I can do is echo what other people said: if you don’t want to buy my set of doubles all I can suggest is haunt eBay.