My Twin 50s Project...
- My son brought me this set of Twin Tanks a couple of years ago. They had been sitting outside of a friend's shed in Colorado. The friend said they were there when he bought the place and he'd be glad to have someone haul them away. So, my son grabbed them and brought them home to me here in Minnesota. As you can see, they were rusty and dirty. I cleaned them up with car wash soap.
- They are a home made set of twin tanks made from military surplus tanks. As you can see they had a USD "dog bone" back pack. Two different tanks bands were used with what looks like a home made J-Rod. The manifold is a very odd looking Voit model with tapered thread 1/2 inch connections in reducer bushings. The stamped working pressure on these is 1800 psi. That and their shape are the same as my "Twin 38s" except these tanks are a little longer. I think these are approximately 50 cf tanks.
- They looked like heck on the outside but when I took the valves off and looked inside they are totally clean and look brand new on the inside. So, the next thing was to get them inspected and hydrotested... I really expected the outside rust would disqualify them. But it turned out to just be surface oxidation and not pitting. The tanks passed inspection and hydro with flying colors.
- Here are the tanks before and after rust removal via bead blasting. It's surprising how tough the old paint can be after curing for a few decades. I decided to only blast off the rust and leave any paint that was tough enough to withstand the blasting.
- This is a photo of the second coat of Galvalite 96% Zinc paint... Note the paint is still wet. Just like zinc plating, galvalite protects steel by galvanic reaction... The zinc oxidizes instead of the steel oxidizing. So, these tanks are WELL PROTECTED.
- I plan to replace the oddball manifold with the original USD styled Voit manifold... I got a like-new one from the Scuba Museum. My buddy Rich is polishing some original chrome tank bands which I'll mate with an Allan Klauda military style harness. Should be pretty neat.