Finally got around to dismantling my Diver/BB tank combo today after working great for about a week-and-a-half. Just got too antsy to do a rebuild. Got some pics ... wanna see 'em?
No? Too bad, you'll have to scroll past 'em.
A comparison between the stock Diver tube body and the one that was shortened. Shaved off just under 2mm total.
A comparison between the stock Diver base and the one that had the flange ground off. Took just over 0.75mm off the diameter.
Diver center pin in position. Not sure exactly how much was ground off, but it was enough to be level with the thread collar.
Profile comparison between the four components.
Modified Diver assembled, compared to a standard Boge cartomizer.
Stock and modified Diver assembled, compared with a standard Boge cartomizer.
First successful NR-R-NR coil build using 32 AWG Nickel NR wire and 36 AWG Nichrome resistance wire connected with reef knots - a solid 3.3 ohms. And ... it sucked.
For the Diver I do NOT recommend anything over 3.0 ohms. The Diver just doesn't hit as hard as a carto there.
It seems to perform best between 2.0 and 2.5 ohms. I used 2.0 inches of 32 AWG Kantal A-1 with the same NR wire to hit ~2.3 ohms, which runs great at 5.0 volts.
Close up of the 3.3 ohm coil. The 2.3-ish ohm coil I eventually achieved has a couple more wraps around the doubled-up 2.0 mm silica wick.
BTW, I also don't recommend dry-burning to clean the coil. The discoloration you see in this ceramic cup is due to an attempt at dry burning, which did not really do a good job of cleaning the coil and wick anyway.
Diver in the tank, bottom view.
Diver in the tank, top view. Since the tube body screws on to the base, there's about 0.5 mm of play in the total length once the tube mates up with the o-ring on the base, depending on how far it is screwed down.
Diver in the tank, front view, filled.
As for wick position relative to the hole, I'm pretty solid in the "wick just next to the hole" camp. If I turn it 90-degrees out from the hole there's too much gurgling, and if either wick end is lined up with the hole it's Dry Hit City.
Now that I'm comfortable with rebuilding and pretty confident of the performance ... Maybe tomorrow, maybe next weekend I'll grab some pics of the modification process and
maybe make a coil building video. Atmistique has already made one which helps a lot, but I might have a tip or two and/or some additional info to throw into the mix by then.