Tank Tumbler
My Inspection Stickers
Now that I have my PSI-PCI certification, I hope to visual all my own tanks each year.
I bought 4 tanks off craigslist in spring 2016 - at first look I was not sure I could use any of them.
They had been outside for a while and the galvanization had started to oxidize pretty bad. They had a bit of
white powder forming on them and all the numbers were pretty unreadable. After some cleaning up - a bit of glass
beading around the crown and a light coat of paint brought out the numbers clear as day! One of the tanks must have
been tumbled a long time or something as there were 3 wear rings around the crown, one of which ran through the bottom half
of all serial numbers and some hydro stamps, so that one will be a test tank for new projects. But 3 out of 4 for CL is not bad.
All 3 passed hydro and are now in service!
Here are the pics of the 3 tanks before they went to hydro (4/11/2016)...
Jun 10, 2016 - all 3 tanks passed hydro - they were close on the expansion recovery but made it. They
should be good for the next 5 years!
I spent some time talking to the Hydro guy and ended up picking up 5 more steel tanks from him. I think he has more as well. Three of the tanks look really clean - except they have liners. I tumbled one of them but am waiting on the other two to discuss "intact" liners with him as from the VCI class these should be fine to pass visual and therefore get hydro'd - as long as a good visual inspection is done.
Another tank was pretty rusty but cleaned up well - Click Here to see before and after pics.
Update 6/20/2016 - I'm too impatient, decided to tumble two of the tanks with liners Pics here. The first liner came out pretty easily, the second took several long tumbling sessions but did clean up. I have one more that has a grey liner - like the ones I got from CL - I expect this to take a bit of work like the dark red. The Hydro guy had a tumbling device he gave me - it sits on a treadmill so I'm hoping that works better than my rigged up treadmill. (see device and updates) I may also buy a couple new valves ($60). Which puts the cost of free tanks at $95 (valve+hydro) - which is still cheaper than the $270 for a new steel tank or even $180+ for a new aluminium 63. Fall 2016: got two of the cleaned up tanks done - with new valves. Painted both - one red, one blue.
Here is the first video of my tank inspections - using my new toy. This is a tank that was condemmed due to the liner. I hope to tumble this tank and post a followup video with hopefully a clean interior - and then decide if I want to open a case against the dive shop. Since working with y-kiki, I doubt I'll bother opening a case against the other dive shop - just never use them again. y-kiki staff have been knowledgeable and I've picked up enough new (old) tanks that I'm good to go with my two boys.
ScubaBunga youtube channel
Blue Tank - youtube video
Blue Tank2 (after tumbling - no rust!) - youtube video
