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mr. chapman,

send me all of you brass valves, pronto!  i'll give you $10 each 
for teh sherwood ones.  if george dooley <g> told you to get rid 
of your mother to be a better cave diver, would you do it?  have 
you really thought logically through all this.  why are you 
bending it in the first place.  let's get to the root cause 
rather than solve it after it becomes a problem.  

1) i disagree with george that you will dent the knob.  you will 
   NOT dent the knob.  you will bend the valve stem that it is 
   attached to.  this may or moay not prevent you from operating 
   the valve on a dive.  it can't bend any further than the valve 
   handle hitting the manifold bar, so you should still be able 
   to shut the valve if you have a good grip on it.  your buddy 
   will definitely be able to close it.  

2) now if you are bending the valve stem, what the hell are you 
   doing running into the ceiling that hard.  if you are doing 
   this in caves, please improve your technique before you ruin 
   any more ceilings.  if this is happening in a wreck, improve 
   your technique just to avoid ruining your gear.  you have got 
   to be scootering to hit the ceiling that hard.  get off the 
   scooter and swim until you don't hit the ceiling.

3) i recommend the brass on the left post (behind your left 
   shoulder).  i have shut down one of the big rubber sherwood 
   ones in very tight cave.  that was a fun breath.  i wasn't 
   hogarthed yet which is why i was breathing off that post to 
   start with.  i have never shut down a brass one.  i have never 
   bent or broken a valve stem.  i am gathering up quite a 
   collection of valves handles from people that have broken 
   their valve stems in the caves.  i pick them up off the cave 
   floor.

4) if you are this concerned, do the following.  keep the brass 
   to keep from shutting down your reg if you must hit the 
   ceiling.  next, take a valve stem to a local machine shop and 
   have them duplicate it in stainless steel with a larger bore 
   where it comes through the valve handle.  enlarge the hole in 
   the valve handle, and you will now have a stouter stem that 
   will hold up to abuse.   the cheaper fix is to stay off the 
   ceiling.

scott

p.s.  i'm not on techdiver, so don't respond to me on the list.  
      i only venture over when cavers get's a little quiet.  i 
      have to see what irvine is up to over here.  

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