Scared Silly
Contributor
I thought I would start a fun thread about tales from the workbench and jury-rigged regs. Perhaps it will become a sticky. The purpose is to post up jury-rigged reg discoveries. Some may even be a good resource for when one is out diving and needs a field repair with less than optimal parts.
Today I had two Atomic regs come across my bench. These were early versions with the old sharp pistons (circa 2000). Those with the sharp piston have a trim piece that looks like a donut. The current version, the trim piece is more like a beanie. So it is easy to tell them apart.
As I took out the HP seat it had a "J" on it indicating it was for the "newer" jet piston. I thought oh someone must have replaced the piston but used the old trim piece. Nope, they used the new HP seat with the old piston. The mating between the two was probably not optimal so the reg most likely had IP creep.
With the piston out, next was to remove the HP o-ring which is surround by a metal washer on the spring side and a teflon washer on the reg body side. There was no HP o-ring but instead a FlexiSeal o-ring (picture attached). That was a first in multiple ways. I want to chat with Atomic and see what they think about such o-rings. Probably over-kill.
On to the second reg which was sealed which meant the ambient chamber was filled with Christolube or similar. However, while the chamber was sealed, the trim ring was not the sealed version but the normal version with holes which lets water pass into the chamber. It probably helped some but...
I have other tales about jury-rigged regs that have come across my bench but these are the most recent. I am sure others have some tales that are far better.
Today I had two Atomic regs come across my bench. These were early versions with the old sharp pistons (circa 2000). Those with the sharp piston have a trim piece that looks like a donut. The current version, the trim piece is more like a beanie. So it is easy to tell them apart.
As I took out the HP seat it had a "J" on it indicating it was for the "newer" jet piston. I thought oh someone must have replaced the piston but used the old trim piece. Nope, they used the new HP seat with the old piston. The mating between the two was probably not optimal so the reg most likely had IP creep.
With the piston out, next was to remove the HP o-ring which is surround by a metal washer on the spring side and a teflon washer on the reg body side. There was no HP o-ring but instead a FlexiSeal o-ring (picture attached). That was a first in multiple ways. I want to chat with Atomic and see what they think about such o-rings. Probably over-kill.
On to the second reg which was sealed which meant the ambient chamber was filled with Christolube or similar. However, while the chamber was sealed, the trim ring was not the sealed version but the normal version with holes which lets water pass into the chamber. It probably helped some but...
I have other tales about jury-rigged regs that have come across my bench but these are the most recent. I am sure others have some tales that are far better.
