To Paint or not to Paint

[teckhead]

Hi all, not shore if this question has been posted before!
i have two ally tanks that i use for deco diving, just sanded and they look great , can,t decide wheather i should paint the tanks, if so what type of paint will i need?
was thinking white in colour to go with my twins, the reason why i like to paint is so that when on charters i can tell which tanks are mine!
the other problem that may happen , is that if i decide to paint the tanks ,the paint may hide some numbers & letters that appears on the neck??
so what would you do!!!

 

[Packhorse]

Painting AU tanks can be hard because most paint will not adhear to well to aluminium. Although I am sure you cound get some special paint or primer. Anodised AU looks way cool but is probably too expencive for your needs and it may have some other unforseen problems with cert'ing. As for the stamped numbers, this will not be a problem unless you apply several thick layers of paint. I just did a 3L faber and the numbers are still clearly visable.

 

[Tom Winters]

Do yourself a big favor and do not paint the tanks.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

Painted tanks look really nice for a really short time.

 

[cyklon_300]

is completely unnecessary.

If they are deco bottles, they should be marked with MOD and your initials, that's how you will know they're yours...

 

[SDAnderson]

Bad news: tanks, especially aluminum tanks, that have been sanded should be condemned. Removal of ANY material from the tank wall means the tanks are suspect and there is no way to accurately determine whether or not sufficient wall thickness remains. It doesn't matter how little material might have been removed - protocol requires that they be condemned.

There is no protocol to requalify a tank that has been sanded - a hydrostatic test is insufficient and a visual inspection should result in condemnation.

Any questions, check with PSI, DOT or CGA.

 

[teckhead]

is completely unnecessary.

If they are deco bottles, they should be marked with MOD and your initials, that's how you will know they're yours...

Good point i agree, i do have them marked with MOD and my name on the neck, but as i mention before , when there is more like 10-15 deco tanks and your waiting to jump in ????

 

[teckhead]

Bad news: tanks, especially aluminum tanks, that have been sanded should be condemned. Removal of ANY material from the tank wall means the tanks are suspect and there is no way to accurately determine whether or not sufficient wall thickness remains. It doesn't matter how little material might have been removed - protocol requires that they be condemned.

There is no protocol to requalify a tank that has been sanded - a hydrostatic test is insufficient and a visual inspection should result in condemnation.

Any questions, check with PSI, DOT or CGA.

that,s the 1st i heard of that!!

 

[JustinW]

He is in australlia, DOT rules don't apply. Teckhead will have to look at policies of the local government. Doesn't change the physics of it, but as far as being condemned or not, its likely that different rules apply

 

[oxyhacker]

This is a very gray area. Best I can recall, the law actually says something like if "significant' or "substantial" amounts of metal have been removed. Otherwise tumbling or the very limited filing done in order to remove the upset so gouge depth can be measured would condemn a tank.

So it really depends how the paint was removed. If it was aggressively power sanded, shot blasted or sandblasted, then yes, it probably should be condemned. If it was gently handsanded to remove no more than the paint and maybe slightly texture the bare aluminum, or shotblasted by one of the gentler processes only as much as was required to remove the paint, then the material loss would be comparable to what would be lost during a tumble, and not grounds for condemnation.

One way to tell the difference is with the straightedge - if a tank has been stripped aggressively enough to lose a significant amount of metal it usually leave an uneven surface which will be immediately noticable.

Bad news: tanks, especially aluminum tanks, that have been sanded should be condemned. Removal of ANY material from the tank wall means the tanks are suspect and there is no way to accurately determine whether or not sufficient wall thickness remains. It doesn't matter how little material might have been removed - protocol requires that they be condemned.

There is no protocol to requalify a tank that has been sanded - a hydrostatic test is insufficient and a visual inspection should result in condemnation.

Any questions, check with PSI, DOT or CGA.