Hose Routing

One of the first things I did to my Mk15 was to improve the hose routing somewhat. The original Sherwood 1st stages that originally came with the Mk15 were replaced with these Apex units during the rigs refurb. The only problem is that the ports are not in the same location. The HP lines coming out of the 1st stage stuck straight out and made the case difficult to close. This also put a crimp in the HP line.

HP Swivel

With the right-angle swivel installed, the hose no longer poked into the side of the case. It also allowed me to route the hose below the sphere.

LOCTITE

One of the problems that I encountered when shipping my rig is that the many little screws that hold the unit together would vibrate loose. It wasn't fun to get to your dive location and have to retighten these screws. Many of them are only accessible when the unit is taken apart. I used LOCTITE 242 to solve the problem.

LOCTITE

A small dab of LOCTITE on the threads of the screws before the nut is put on keeps things snug. The 242 grade is removable without to much difficulty. It also prevents the stainless steel threads from galling.

Note: Only use LOCTITE on threads that are OUTSIDE the breathing loop. It is only used on screws that hold the components into the chassis and not on any of the hose or tubing connections.

Inspection Indicator

There are lots of small screws that hold this rig together. When working on the unit it is easy to forget to torque down a screw before moving on to the next component. The Inspection Indicator is a tamper evident seal that goes on after you have securely tightened down a connection.

Inspection Indicator

After the nut is tightened down, a small dab of this material is placed on the threads. Now all that is needed is a visual inspection to confirm that the nut has been properly torqued down. It dries hard so it also serves the function of a thread-locker to keep the nut from backing off. If a nut were to back off, the inspection indicator would break away indicating a problem. Since I have started using this method, I have not had a problem with screws and nuts vibrating loose.