Freebie Mystery Tanks

[Six2Life]

Picked up a few old tanks today and I was hoping someone here could give me some information on them.

One looks like a plain old galvanized lp72 that has a voit sticker on it with a j-valve and knob that looks a lot like the yoke screw on a MR12 first stage. It has standard 3/4" threads. Markings are ICC-3AA2250, 68628DE, A WK, original hydro 4-68. Has a few spots of rust inside but most of the bare metal tank walls are pretty clean.

The next is a yellow painted tank that has been repainted red at some point. It has a bottom shaped like that of a 2 liter coke bottle and can stand up without a boot. It has 1/2" tapered threads. Markings are ICC-3AA2400, 90711CL, A WK, original hydro 8-64. There is a bit more rust in this one but still most of the bare steel is visible.

Lastly there was a pair of stubby looking doubles in some plastic coated steel bands that have a built in harness. These have 1/2" valves with some sort of adapter to mate them with the much larger threads on the tanks. The one tank that had stampings that I could read through the thick white paint was stamped ICC-3A1800, 379271, WK&CO, USN379041USN, with the earliest hydro being 6-41. One tank looks sorta ok inside with rust spots covering about 50% on the inside surface. The other is pretty rusty with some areas that look like they might have some decent pitting underneath.

The galvanized tank might be the only one worth messing with but the doubles seemed interesting considering how old they are.

Also, just how much rust is necessary to kill a tank? I've had tanks inspected before with small amounts of flash rust that cleaned up easily. They pass vip's just fine now.

 

[KD8NPB]

The killer rust is pitting. Surface rust is no big issue, but it is important to remove it before it gets worse. Just get the inside of the tank tumbled. The other option is to build yourself a wire whip to run off a drill.

I'm not a huge expert on tanks, but 3AA = steel, and WK = Walter Kidde. Your doubles are 1800 psi tanks. The USN marks incline me to believe they were aviation O2 tanks.

The Voit is 2250 psi, and the red/yellow tank is 2400 psi.

The Voit I would put into service, the others I would likely retire due to the 1/2" non-tapered thread. The doubles sure are interesting though!

I would have picked them up too.

 

[Culcuhain]

XS Scuba makes new valves for the 1/2 threaded one. I just replaced the old J-Valve on my 1959 lp72.

 

[herman]

They are all Walter Kiddie tanks and steel. The one with feet was likely sold by Healthways, they made on like that. The white ones look like they may be 38s but from the photos it's impossible to tell, esp since they are 1800 psi. I have a set of those and I will not let anyone but me fill them, due to the much lower pressure rating than is common today....nothing unsafe about them until you fill them to 3000 psi..
There is nothing actually wrong or unsafe with the bushinged tanks but a lot of dive shops will not fill them plus tapered threads are a pain to deal with. Unless you have a vintage friendly shop near by, they can be a hassel to get filled. Finding a tapered doubles manifold is a little hard these days but they do show up from time to time. If you want to set up some vintage gear then the tanks may be worth having checked. If not, then sell them to someone who does. The galvanized one is pretty much good to go if it passes vis and hydro.

 

[Six2Life]

I checked the bushings on the doubles and they don't look like they are brass. I doubt I'll try to make them diveable though.

The 72's will probably be put back in service. The galvanized one for sure. Is the capacity of the red tank 72cf also? It looks slightly taller and with a working pressure of 2400 it looks like it should hold more. Even though it is a 3AA tank I'd guess getting a + stamp is out of the question since I doubt the REE# is available for it.

 

[Culcuhain]

ask for the + rating on any 3AA tank that had it originally. I forgot to ask once... if you don't ask, they sometimes don't do it.