Becoming a technician

[Shcubasteve]

... By that logic anytime you disassemble a regulator you have to rebuild it.

You would be correct in your assumption. I follow manufacturers guidlines to a tee. Will a brand new reg fail if all orings are not replaced ? maybe maybe not- Im not willing to take that chance with my customer's life. If I am going to pull a reg apart that I have no previous dealings with, its a rebuild.

...I just don't see the danger or disadvantage you would like to have folks believe exists in buy regulators and other scuba gear on the internet (including used gear). .

Um, Defective oring? Leaking 1st stage is not safe..? Stright out of the box.

 

[redacted]

Um, Defective oring? Leaking 1st stage is not safe..? Stright out of the box.

I just don't see a leak as necessarily being a danger (when the problem is an o-ring). Such leaks are either small and probably not even reason to terminate a dive if it occurs UW. Or they are fairly large and quite obvious they should not be dove with or the dive should be immediately terminated. I'd compare a major leak like that (like would occur with a cut piston o-ring) as being like walking out to your car and finding a flat tire. It is not dangerous, You just don't dive it until it is fixed. The things that I see that are dangerous are thing like over and under tightening of connections. Leaks which are the result of such connection tightening errors may, of course, be dangerous. Those are the kinds of mistakes incautious techs may make when the do repairs. Last I checked, my local shop still did not have a torque wrench. Yours does - right?

What brand of regulator did you say you were dealing with in your example?

How do you feel about the unfortunate European divers who have such a difficult time getting "legitimate" service kits by your standards? I'll be going over to Germany in a couple months so I'll just have to take my chance with those illegitimate Scubapro products.

 

[Mr Carcharodon]

As far as I know you have to be trained by each regulator manufacturer to be certified to service their regs, I'm not 100% sure about that though!

The repair of exposure suits (replacing drysuit seals, finding leaks, patching them, and patching wetsuits etc) is a more widely documented topic and can be studied online.

You did not say what your objective was. If you want to work for a shop just go ask them. All the gear you are interested in is much less involved than doing electrical work to code. If you just want to do your own gear I'll second the recommendation for the Airspeed books. You can get the special tools from Scuba Tools . Then you need parts. DiveRite sells direct, as does HOG. And many shops will sell parts right out of the front room if you act like you know what you are doing.

At least in my experence you will not save money if you just do one or two regs but you are more likely to get the job done right.

 

[mainediver8169]

My goal is to understand more about my gear hence buying what I need not just something that is high tech, but also would like to work at a shop and I did ask just waiting to see what happens. I am just a tech junkie love to know how and why things work as well as why they may not be working properly. I also know what I should and should not touch, so not looking to save on gear service unless I can do it for real. thanks again for all input very helpful

 

[GuinnessDiver]

If you don't mind making a little road trip, Mark, the owner of Virginia Scuba, runs a week long (40 hours) scuba technician course several times a year. It consists of training in the following: regulator repair and maintenance, tank VIP procedures, oxygen servicing of equipment, and gas blending - nitrox and trimix.

Equipment Technician Training :: Virginia Scuba

 

[captain]

I alwys tell someone who wants to get into working on regulators buy a cheap one off ebay and startt playing. Old to new, cheap to expensive all are basicly the same in how they operate.

 

[redacted]

I alwys tell someone who wants to get into working on regulators buy a cheap one off ebay and startt playing. Old to new, cheap to expensive all are basicly the same in how they operate.

But don't expect to save much money. When I found I could buy 10 used regs for the price of 1 new one, I did. And then other interesting regs showed up and I did it again. It is addictive. So in stead of having a file full of purchase and service receipts, I have a couple drawers full of regulators and spare parts and tools. Much more satisfying than a bunch of receipts for expensive and unnecessary service.

And then things like this show up: Lot of Vintage Scubapro 108s & 109 Scuba Regulators - eBay (item 360285719886 end time Aug-05-10 17:38:49 PDT)