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Scott, Guess I agree with George in that you are better off with a rubber mounted valve handle than the metal ones. The major problem is that the metal ones were produced because they are less likely to bump closed . however when the metal handle closes sometimes it takes a pair of vicegrips to reopen the valve. This means that on a dive you could not get it open. I agree one should not hit the ceiling or other areas that would bump the valve closed. But fact is most all of us have bumped at least once in our life and students bump frequently when they first begin cave training, as they have not developed an accurate sense of placement in the water column until a few days into the course. If you truly wish to buy some metal handles I will sell you some as I certainly have no use for them and consider them far more dangerous that the rubber/plastic ones. At least you can always turn these back on. I think the valve closure on the left post is probably one of the highest points of liability to manufactures in technical diving. It would be so simple to place a reverse thread into the valve so that it could not bump shut yet no manufacture has elected to do that. Tom Mount You wrote: > >[This message is converted from WPS-PLUS to ASCII] > >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. >-- >Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@terra.net'. >Send subscription/archive requests to `techdiver-request@terra.net'. >
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