TargetTalk

Can anyone tell me what the requirements may be to ship empty compressed air cylinders from Europe to the USA? I'm talking about those used with .177 PCP pistols and rifles. Thank you,

pardoctor

Easy way is to disassemble to a tube and seperrate end caps. Depending on the brand you need either a C spanner or pin spanner to fit the tank end caps.

David, thanks for the information.

Put them in a cardboard box and ship them. I wouldn't disassemble them at all.

GCSInc wrote:Put them in a cardboard box and ship them. I wouldn't disassemble them at all.

But unfortunately thanks to recently introduced rules on what is and is not allowed to be carried by air freight, compressed gas cylinders are prohibited items. When detected (all mail items in Europe are x rayed) your cylinder will be removed from the system and destroyed. I know that Royal Mail in the UK take the attitude that this will still apply even if the valve has been removed.

This applies more to private individuals than businesses, as generally contract customers are able to operate under different rules though. These new regulations at times seem to make no sense. For example you cannot ship lithium batteries, but you can ship items with lithium batteries correctly installed in them.

It really is best these days to consult with the company that you are planning to use with regards to shipping any item, or component of item that is on these new prohibited item lists.

Alan

BigAl,
Thanks for your reply and information. Do you know whether FEDEX, DHL and UPS have the same restrictions?

The reason for my question:

My local dive shop has identified a source to inspect, rebuild, hydro and recertify air cylinders. These cylinders would not necessarily be used in sanctioned competition, but for practice and recreational use. In order to provide cylinders to determine whether this is viable, I located a source for expired cylinders in Europe. I would like to obtain a few cylinders for this purpose. But, I don't even want to try if they will be destroyed in the process. My second option is to try to identify a source in the USA. Like I said earlier, I don't know if this is even viable.

Pardoctor

Check with our host ... I'll bet he has some expired cylinders

As I said in the last line of my last post, you need to check with who ever you are planning on using for shipping, in the originating country. If items are being shipped from the EU then it should really be up to the person doing the shipping to check with the available companies in their country. International shipping is really even more complex than shipping within one country, even for stuff moving within the EU.

Alan

In the life of a SCUBA tank in 10 years, you have 9 visual inspections at 15-25$ each and 2 Hydrotests $50-75 apiece.

PLUS the hassle of hauling them back and forth to a dive shop.

At a minium you are talking $235 Plus the cost of transporting them back and forth. lets say $10 a trip, for 9 trips. Now you over $300.

You are smoking crack if you think you think you can do better safety wise and efficiency wise than buying a new cylinder every 10 years.

Scott,
Thanks for your sage advice re: air cylinders.

Vince

pilkguns wrote:In the life of a SCUBA tank in 10 years, you have 9 visual inspections at 15-25$ each and 2 Hydrotests $50-75 apiece.

PLUS the hassle of hauling them back and forth to a dive shop.

At a minium you are talking $235 Plus the cost of transporting them back and forth. lets say $10 a trip, for 9 trips. Now you over $300.

You are smoking crack if you think you think you can do better safety wise and efficiency wise than buying a new cylinder every 10 years.

Well, in that case please sell me new dated cylinders for our 4 Hammerli 480K pistols. Wait! Now you admit that buying a new cylinder every ten years isn't even possible for most CO2 and many PCP guns. Apparently you expect us to throw away perfectly functioning guns and spend $2K per buying replacements. We certainly don't have the funds to do that. Finding a way to get around this stupid rule that bans cylinders that have never even been used is the only reasonable financial decision. Even $400 for a re-certified cylinder is less than 25% of the cost of replacement guns.

In any market there are winners and losers. Some car models stay around because they work, and there is popular demand for them, and others are soon replaced by other names and designs. Some guns, (Steyr,FWB, Anschutz) use the basic system for almost two decades, and some have been changed numerous times in those same years, and yes, the Hammerli is probably the most notorius example. It is sad for me, since I was raised on the Hammerli brand being somethign great and wonderful, but sadly none of its CA air pistol designs were worthy of its previous fame.