1/2 straight Sportways valve question

[Herman]

I have an old Sportways tank and valve I am putting back into service. This is a little bit of an odd one. The tank valve is 1/2 straight thread with an oring, first one of those I have seen. Does anyone know what the proper Oring for the valve is? And does anyone have a few orings they would like to sell/trade? If you are in need of some and no-one else has them, I will put a pack in my next McMaster order....I just hate to buy 100 of them (or pay $3 each for singles).

[gj1963]

-114 is what the one on the 1/2 sportsways straight thread o-ring valve I have measures out to. It is old though. Hope that helps.

[Herman]

Thanks, I will give those a shot....only have 70 durometer ones, guess the next step is to order some 90s.

[Bryan]

Herman....Trident has an O-ring guide that you can download a PDF of in their on line catalog....See if that helps? If one of those sizes works let me know and I'll see if I have some.. I can bring them to PCB or mail them to you. I have Genesis Vitons that are for 1/2" I think....Geoffs idea would work as well I think.

[kgehring]

114 in a 90 dur. works.

[Herman]

Thanks all. Looks like I need some 114's in 90 durometer to get this old tank back in action.

[captain]

Never bothered with the hardness and never had one blow out. Mostly hardware store whatever it was.

[simonbeans]

Just make sure the valve is in tight. My experience with Sportsways is the the 114 from out of the dive shops drawers work fine. I have at least 4 of the Sportways and love them. Rebuilds are easy. Get the schematic from Roberts' book.

[crimediver]

I just saw this thread and it reminded me of a project I have on the back shelf that I had almost forgot about.

I bought a Sportsways twin manifold and figured to use it with some steel PST SCBA tanks I got for free from a local fire department. Should make a nice small set of doubles. As far as I can tell the valves appear to fit the SCBA cylinders and I believe the threads are the same but I have not checked to see what the threads are. I was wondering if anybody knows what the threads are for the Sportsways or if anyone has any experience using the SCBA tanks with Sportsways valves?

The SCBA bottles are rated for 2216 psi and should make a sweet set of doubles. They also appear to be approximately 6.9 in in diameter but I did not measure them carefully but held a ruler alongside and eyeballed them. I need to get my carpenter squares out to do it right but I suspect some 6.9 bands would work on them.

Steel SCBA bottles are easily obtained as they were replaced by aluminum tanks in the 80's and then later carbon fiber wrapped tanks replaced the aluminum. The harder part is finding Sportsways manifolds as they are not that plentiful. I bought a set from a LDS that had them in a display of old gear for 30 bucks and then got the tanks for free.

I want to make sure the threads are exactly the same before I pressurize it but they screw in without any issues and seem to be the same but I don't have anything to mike them out with at this time.

Has anyone tried these valves in anything other than a Sportsways tank?

[1969ivan1]

White Stag used a similar tank as did New England Divers.

[crimediver]

Ivan, were they SCBA tanks with a straight 1/2" valve?