Argonaut Kraken Vintage Style Diving

I had some time after returning from a business trip, so I threw some of my favorite pieces of vintage dive gear, along with my Argonaut Kraken,  into a tough tote and decided to do a night dive with a buddy. Somehow, I also got to watch my wife's yappy Jack Russell. I'm not sure how that happened.

Argonaut Kraken pre-operational checks

After taking the Kraken out of its case, configuring the ports and accessories the way I wanted them, and checking the work of breathing, I went through my dive locker and picked out some stuff for a night dive at Rockaway Beach on Bainbridge Island, Washington:

After getting everything together, we headed to Bainbridge Island, Washington, to go diving at night:

How did everyone else do this week with diving? Let us know what you have been up to!

The Sky is Falling....Vintage Equipment Diving is Dead...Give me a break.....

When I read nonsense like this I always pause for a moment and think to myself:

Do these people have remote viewing ability or the powers of time travel ?

From where I'm at the future of vintage equipment seems pretty promising..

For more than a decade now I have been churning out new parts and services for the vintage equipment community as fast as I possibly can.  The sky is the limit for new ideas I have running around in my head but unfortunately, my financial resources have me restrained somewhat.

Not everything I've made or reproduced has been a success. Having said that, you will never see me moping around the internet seeking either condolences or accolades for giving it "my best shot" Nor will you find me posting about all the great inventions I have that "the world is just not ready for" or any other lame excuses for failure.

The new DSV mouthpiece is kicking my ass trying to get it manufactured correctly but you don't see me whining and lamenting:

Well if you people had only given me a gazillion dollars I might have gotten this lead zeppelin off the ground. This is surely an indicator that no one is interested in vintage equipment diving and unless JP Morgan comes in and gives me a big rack of cash and sets me up in 2000 dive shops around the world I think we better turn the lights out and go back to finger painting...

Instead you will find me laughing at my failures, licking my wounds, raising hell, and getting it done despite all the setbacks.

For the Vintage Equipment Diving is dead crowd spare me a moment and consider this:

When was the last time Vintage Equipment Divers were the feature of an entire weekend festival?

Photo from Sea Hunt Forever March 2016, Silver Springs Florida. Photo by Allan Youngblood.

March 2016 Sea Hunt Forever, Silver Springs Florida.  Appearing at Florida Springs Fest.

The Florida Springs Fest committee unanimously decided that the Vintage Equipment Divers would draw such a large crowd that the festival should be made into a two day event.

For the Chicken Little Sky Is Falling crowd spare me another moment and answer this:

When was the last time an Emmy Award winning videographer dedicated an entire episode to Vintage Equipment Divers?

Video Clips from Jonathan Birds Blue World's upcoming episode on the cast of Sea Hunt Forever from March 2016.

Or lets look at it another way:

Click Here to see a map of all the locations the new Argonaut Kraken Double Hose Regulator has been shipped to new divers. 

If I had the time, patience, and resources to pull all the orders for Phoenix First Stages that have been sold since 2006 and put dots on the map where all of them are located the map would look like we covered the world in Swiss cheese!

Divers around the world are enjoying their new regulators.  After diving their Argonaut or Phoenix updated regulator for a while, I'm willing to bet that a great many of them look to the history of the sport and become involved with diving and restoring original double hose regulators and other vintage equipment.  

Since the Argonaut Kraken came out in 2014, I have turned down numerous opportunities from dive shops and other outlets wanting to be distributors.  This has never been my vision for Vintage Double Hose nor any of it's product line.  Would I enjoy all the money? I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't! But I would lie awake at night worried about how other people were taking care of the Argonaut Kraken Divers and their regulators.  As stupid as it sounds, I view every regulator as mine and I adopt them out to new divers with the hope that every dive they do with their Argonaut will be a great one and if it's not I want to be a phone call or E-mail away to help. 

Cave Diving, Tech Diving, Rebreather Diving, Sidemout Diving equipment suppliers all started small and went from homemade manufacturing to some of the largest equipment suppliers in the diving industry today. None of them appeared in hundreds of dive shops overnight. The internet played and still does play a huge part in getting new ideas and opportunities for diving specialty gear out to the public.  But the point is, a few individuals picked up the ball and ran with it. They had ideas for sharing the passions they have for a specific type of diving and the market grew around them. 

In November I'll be rolling out something that I have been working on for over a year. Some will view it and simply shake their heads. Other will say I can't believe that crazy SOB did it!

To wrap it all up I see the cup as half full and the world as our oyster!  For the folks who would decry gloom and doom on our little segment of the diving world I would love to debate the issue with you.

Like Captain Clay Higgins said......I"m easy to find.

US Divers Deep Star Regulator...not a giant crab thing.

     The US Divers Deep Star was an unbalanced, downstream piston regulator. It was the father of the later model Aquarius, and was available in US Divers catalogs from 1965-1969. It had one high pressure port, and 1 low pressure port.

The 1969 catalog photo for the Deep Star, which was 400 dollars in 2016 money.

      It featured the common second stage of all USD regulators made in this time period, which had a 7/8" exhaust value. It had what is commonly called the "short yoke", meant for vintage sized valves. Like many other unbalanced downstream piston regulators, its mechanism is exposed to sea water via the ports on its body.

     I really like diving these little regulators. They are about as simple as a regulator gets, much like the later Aquarius. As a matter of fact, they even share a parts kit in common. If you are a gun guy, then the Deep Star and its descendant the Aquarius would be your truck gun. These regulators make great warm water regulators, backups regs, and are great to keep around for teaching people to dive. As a matter of fact, for years my wife dove either a Deep Star or an Aquarius. She really liked how simple it was, and the fact that due to its design it breathes great on a full tank, then gets a little bit tougher towards the end of a tank. I guess you could say this of all regulators of this design, but on a low tank the lower intermediate pressure almost functions like a sort of warning signal that it is time to go.

     These regulators are pretty common at flea markets and Ebay, and due to how easy they are to work on you can even keep a parts kit in your save a dive kit. I've rebuilt one of these on a picnic table at a dive meet before, using only a wrench, a brass pick, and a multi-tool. I've given them as gifts to my military buddies who were making junior enlisted pay and were stuck in the barracks. Sometimes, simple is really good. Ask a Russian infantryman if he wanted that fancy German Kar98K and its highly engineered gun oil over his crude Mosin-Nagant rifle with kerosene wiped on it after hundreds of Kar98Ks froze shut due to their tight tolerances during the Battle of Stalingrad. Less parts means less to leak, less to break, and less to lose.  I've gotten Deep Stars off of Ebay from the 60s that have never been rebuilt and worked when I put them on a scuba tank.

Here is a Deep Star, rebuilt to original specification, with the later and much more maligned Deep Star II.

In an odd bit of trivia, there was also a movie called Deep Star, as in Deep Star 6. It featured a monster that looked like this:

"Hello sir, do you have a moment to talk about diving history?"

That didn't really have anything to do with this regulator blog, but what the hell it does at least have some diving in it. I'm just happy you got this far. Seriously though, this movie is like Friday the 13th part 6 but underwater and with whatever the hell that serial killer crab/lobster thing is. You should check it out when the weather gets bad for actual diving. It's an 80s horror movie so that alone should tell you something.

Before I get too drunk, let me remind you to join us for discussion of the Deep Star regulator at Vintage Double Hose, the definitive authority on vintage scuba diving. 

Calypso Update.....Danger Will Robinson

An important follow up to my blog post here on the Calypso First Stage

A big Thank You to Bill and Mike from the Vintage Double Hose website message forum for bringing to my attention a very important recall on all US Divers Calypso first stages dated 09/13/1979.  They sent me copies of the actual recall notice and some pictures to help explain what was going on.  I don't remember servicing any Calypso regulators that did not have the bushing already but there must be a few out there so please be aware of it when servicing your regulator.
I have my sources looking into an exact replacement for the O-ring that surrounds the high pressure seat as they are not any standard size that we can determine. I will add these to the service kits if I can locate them.  I'm also looking for some bushings and will add those to the website store if and when possible.

CLICK HERE to go to the file with the notice and pictures.

CLICK HERE if you would like to join in the discussion on the VDH Website Message Forum.

US Divers Second Stage.....The Metal Years

In 1970 US Divers introduced their new second stage (listed at part #1085 in most service manuals)

This simple, tough and reliable stage would serve them well and is still found on the Conshelf XIV today. 

It was used on all regulators in their line for years with only the sticker on the purge button being different. Internally they are pretty much the same with minor variances to the demand lever. The service procedures for them is found in the manuals along with the first stage they accompany.  This is the fixed blade knife of second stages. It will work with just about any manufactures first stage and can handle intermediate pressures from 110 to 160 psi with no modifications. Have one of these serviced and ready to go in your bag and if your latest and greatest gee gaw fails at the dive site you can attach one of these and go diving without missing a beat. 

In the 1970 catalog it is shown with an unusual angular exhaust T which I have seen very few of. Next came the exhaust T in the picture above which worked great but the compound it was made from went from flexible to concrete in a very short time and about the only way to remove one was to cut it off with a knife.  An updated exhaust T is available which is lower profile and appears to be manufactured from silicone which should remain flexible long after we are gone. 

Servicing the stage is straightforward and over the years I have seen dozens of approaches to doing it all with varying degrees of success.  

You need the ability to hold the poppet still weather you adjust by holding the poppet steady and turn the nut or vise versa.

 Below are a variety of tools that accomplish this. 

Next you will need something to either hold the nut steady or to turn it with.

You will get varying opinions on setting lever height....Manual says one thread from contacting the demand lever. Others say it's good when three threads are exposed past the nut. One thing is certain, once you have the lever height set it's not going to move on it's own.  

Often divers with a slight hiss or leak due to low pressure seat wear on their second stage will simply depress the purge button while unscrewing the volcano orifice, flip the low pressure seat over, re assemble and go back to diving. Not saying this is the proper service technique but it speaks to how resilient and reliable these second stages are.  

One area to look at closely when servicing is the snap ring that retains the purge button. From my observation they seem to rust and corrode faster than other parts on the stage and should be replaced. No one wants their purge button to spring off their regulator while underwater...

Main diaphragms rarely need replacing an usually respond with a good soap and water cleanup. 

Exhaust valves varied several times over the years and some were better than others, the new ones are silicone, work great and come in the service kit. 

LINK TO SERVICE KIT 

The US Divers 1085 second stage can be found around the globe and in mass quantities.  Aside from being used as a backup they are often used as Safe Second Stages and a popular modification was to cut down the exhaust T's making the profile lower and easier to keep stashed until needed. 

Go out a grab a few.....Share with your friends

Be Safe....Have Fun....If you don't know ASK

Pet Peeve 101........The idea that the Bigger the Glob.....Better the Job is good.  Slathering on excess lubricant to parts that do not directly specify doing so is STUPID.  Packing second stage springs with silicone lube or putting it on diaphragms with a butter knife accomplishes one thing. It makes the perfect substance to adhere every tiny micro minute bit of sand and debris to the part.  You are basically making your regulator into a glue board from a roach motel but instead of roaches you get sand and other abrasive material attached to your regulator. 

Don't put lubricant on HP or LP seats, exhaust valves or the sealing and retention edge of diaphragms! It is not some magical substance that by contact turns parts into super sonic Tyrannosaurs Rex Kryptonite.  Just move your finger or brush away from the #10 can of lubricant!

If an O-ring or part calls for lubricant then wipe a little on, wipe 99% of it back off and look at the part. If the surface is shiny then you have enough.  Ok....rant over for now :)

Age of Aquarius..

Continuing our line of budget classic single hose regulators we have the US Divers Aquarius!  Catalog source says it was to be available Spring of 72....For the budget minded diver.
Once again you can get these dozens of places for next to nothing and in short period of time you can have a tough reliable regulator and have some fun putting it together.
You need only normal hand tools and an intermediate pressure gauge. SAFETY NOTE HERE....Anytime you are working on a 1st stage you should have a pressure relief device on it in the event the intermediate pressure swings out of control. This can be as simple as a second stage attached to it or for the tool junkie get an intermediate pressure gauge with a built in over pressure relief. 

LINK TO AQUARIUS SERVICE INFORMATION FILES

The Aquarius first stage is a one piece unit made from a solid chunk of chrome plated brass. It has 2 low pressure ports and one high pressure ports.....Note. It's a vintage regulator so all ports are 3/8" thread. Don't put a low pressure hose on the high pressure port or your hose will go BOOM.  The high pressure port has HP stamped by it.

Service is very straightforward with the high pressure seat being the only challenging area for those not accustomed to it.  The seat is an interference fit and fits TIGHT.  Two ways to remove it that have worked for me are....Shoot a blast of air in the base of the piston and often the seat will fly out of the end...Safety Glasses Anyone? Or a bit more controlled is to carefully push a very small straight pick up in the piston and push the seat out from the backside.

When you insert the new seat it will be TIGHT....It's supposed to be, it's an interference fit. I find the easiest way to do it is to get it started as straight as possible and then push against a soft block of wood till it seats all the way in the piston. DO NOT shave down the high pressure seat to make it go in easier. Just have a little patience and take your time.

The rest of the steps to reassembly and setup are covered thoroughly in the USD manual so no need to rehash it here.
The Aquarius came like all other USD regulators of the era with the 1085 second stage.....10' tall and bullet proof.  Follow the instructions in the manual to service it.

Link to Aquarius Service Kit 
Link to 1085 Second Stage Kit

Servicing and diving with regulators like this are great confidence builders for those wanting to service their own gear.  They are certainly not the most glamorous or "Hi Tec" rigs around these days but like a fixed blade knife you can count on it when needed.

Pet Peeve 101......Shortcuts when servicing a regulator.....I'm well aware you can save the $9.00 cost of the Aquarius service kit by flipping over the seat and greasing up 40+ year old O rings and most likely get it to work just fine..BUT WHY DO IT?  I guess if you see it as a "challenge" that's one thing but if you are planning on going diving with it why would any person with even a tiny bit of common sense not spend the coin and insure everything is up to snuff?
"I've been diving with my XXXX for 30 years and never serviced it and surprise surprise surprise it crapped out on me in the middle of a dive" 
When you are this stupid it's not a question of IF it will fail, only WHEN it will fail.....Please do it on your own time and don't ruin a dive trip for the rest of us when you become a statistic.....You don't impress anyone but yourself. Best case scenario you end up looking like a fool....Worst case you end up dead.

Start your Aquarius search now :)  

Have fun and be safe....If you don't know ASK.

Calypso IV and J.....Break out the tools!

A frequent question on the Vintage Double Hose website message forum goes something like....I want to service my own regulator. What model should I start with?
Look no further than the Calypso IV or Calypso J....These were made by US Divers forever and can be found at swap meets, Craigslist, garage sales, on line auctions for CHEAP.  They are a robust no frills regulator that got thousands of divers in the water and can be easily serviced with a few basic hand tools and a little patience.
At the bottom of the page I'll post links to the US Divers service manual and some service notes I made. 
Aside from basic hand tools you will need an IP gauge and a few picks to remove internal and external O-rings. Insure that you only use picks made from plastic or brass as damaging sealing surfaces using stainless picks can leave you with a regulator that no longer seals up tight.  You can easily make O-ring picks from brass fishhooks of various sizes.
The only worrisome spot on this regulator is it's high pressure seat as it is unique to this model and no longer reproduced. I do have originals but they are not cheap.  With a little care and patience you can most likely bring yours back to life.
The US Divers manual calls for an Easy Out from McMaster Carr or Sears to remove the high pressure seat....Seems like a bit of overkill since the only thing holding the seat in place is an O-ring

I have found that a small wood screw with the sharp point ground off works great to remove the seat. 

The center of the high pressure seat is a hollow brass cylinder and by turning the screw with my fingers only I can get it to grab just enough to pull the seat straight out. 

The center brass cylinder slips out of the nylon section of the seat 

Use a piece of 1500 grit or emery paper on a flat surface and slowly move the seat face back and forth you can remove the groove made by the piston. Be sure to go slow and check your work often. Only remove material until the groove is gone. 

Be sure to re-assemble the seat and brass cylinder the correct way and lightly lubricate the O-ring around the hp seat. Push it back into place till it seats with a pencil eraser or wood dowel. Do not press on the high pressure seat with metal tools!

The other challenging area of this regulator is the bonnet nut which contain internally the sealing O-ring and backup washer for the piston. In the service kit I have included the traditional PFTE split washer along with the updated version. Either one works fine but the updated one is easier to put in place. When using the updated ring be sure the groove side faces the O-ring Be sure to assemble in the correct order. (follow the manual)

This model was always paired with the tried and true 1085 second stage 

which is just as easy to service as the first stage and the service procedures for it are in this manual.

You will find the service kit for the Calypso First Stage and the 1085 second stage (Blue Kit)  in the Vintage Double Hose website store. 

CLICK HERE for service manual and parts list.

The Calypso regulator is no substitute for a Double Hose but it is a good choice for a reliable vintage single hose regulator.  Your dive buddies may scoff at it's utilitarian features but when their Super Gonkulator titanium 12 heat sink 5 lever greatest regulator ever goes tits up on a dive trip you can slap on your Calypso and go diving. 

Pet Peeve 101.....After your first and second stages are serviced and setup you need to actuate the breathing cycle a minimum of 50 times allowing the 1st and 2nd stage seats to get in their groove so to speak and then do a final check of your IP and lever height. 

DO NOT tap on the purge button like the Space Invaders FIRE button to do this.....Think about it....Is this how you breathe? If you answered yes, give up diving and take up golf....Breathe from the regulator normally or do many slow light purges of the 2nd stage. Banging on the purge button staccato style accomplishes nothing..

Go seek out a Calypso and have some fun.  

Argonaut Kraken assembly....last page

THIS IS NOT A SERVICE GUIDE OR REPAIR POST....DO NOT USE IT AS SUCH

The devil is in the details....final assembly is where its at and where everything comes together.
Getting the IP set is the most time consuming part of setup.  The average trunk monkey will simply turn the adjustment screw till the IP reaches the desired set point, stab the demand lever half dozen times and call it good. This is wrong on so many levels...Anyway, on to the pictures.

Main body to can O-ring is put in it's groove

Put on the ring that holds the body to the can and tighten down with the correct tool (made by Herman) 

Layout of the HPR second stage. 

Install and alignment of the demand lever and the 2nd stage orifice. Then the index tabs are torqued to spec.

Next a jig is used to correctly bend the demand lever. This step is critical. 

HPR demand lever height is set and checked. 

Screws are put through the exhaust can and O-rings are used to retain them. The tool is used to push the O-rings over the screws in one smooth movement. (Herman made it) Without it you wear off the skin on your fingertips pretty quickly.

Finally the two can halves are screwed together and torqued down.

Next the regulators go to the Quick Set fixture for a run.

After that they are put aside and checked in 24 hours and put aside again and checked 24 hours later before they are ready to be boxed up and sent to the new diver. 

I hope you enjoyed looking at part of what turns a pile of parts into an Argonaut Kraken regulator. 

Once again this is not a Repair or Service Post.

There are dozens of other steps and checkpoints I did not cover in these posts.

Argonaut Kraken Main Body Assembly

Argonaut Kraken Main Body Assembly

UP FRONT.....This is not a technical or repair post....This is a very brief overview of the assembly process of the main body. DO NOT USE THIS AS ANY SORT OF REPAIR OR MAINTENANCE GUIDE.....A service guide would contain the dozens of small but important details necessary to follow when assembling the regulator....THIS POST DOES NOT CONTAIN THEM.

The Argonaut Kraken bodies arrive in their own numbered box. The manufacture assures me they thoroughly clean and dry each one before they are packaged. After I take it out of the box and give it a once over I use various tools to chase all the threads and cotton tip swabs to final clean all the ports and orifice. Next I put each one in the ultrasonic cleaner with some Dawn dish washing liquid and a little Crystal Simple Green for one minute and then use compressed scuba air to dry them.  When I assemble the bodies I only use Cristolube in the limited areas where lubricant is required.

First up are all the internal parts on the HP side 

Parts all go inside and a guide for the snap ring is placed on top. 

Next I use the amazing multipurpose Argonaut press made by Herman to gently guide everything together and let the snap ring lock into place. This can be accomplished using simpler hand tools that he makes but I like the feel and control assembling on the press give me.  

Next it gets flipped over and the high pressure diaphragm section is assembled. 

Next the 3 of the 4 port plugs are put in. Put the O-ring on the bottom of the yoke and then the nut is put on and tightened down. 

Finally a modified 2nd stage orifice is temporally installed so the intermediate pressure can be set. 

On to setting the intermediate pressure