• Welcome to the DeeperBlue.com Forums, the largest online community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing. To gain full access to the DeeperBlue.com Forums you must register for a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:

    • Join over 44,280+ fellow diving enthusiasts from around the world on this forum
    • Participate in and browse from over 516,210+ posts.
    • Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
    • Post your own photos or view from 7,441+ user submitted images.
    • All this and much more...

    You can gain access to all this absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!

Tomba - All in One barrel sealing

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
Water must be drained from the Tomba muzzle before loading the shaft. Otherwise the O-ring could not be pushed into the muzzle.
There are a few way how this inconvenience might be solved. For usual on breath diving while preparing for next dive one can insert the shaft under water and then just for a moment rise the gun above water almost level but tip toward the water surface so the water can be drained from the muzzle. Then push in the o-ring and the line slide. That is how I do it. This way is not possible for scuba divers.
Without changing the existing design one way might be accomplished using slightly different way of inerting the shaft with the O-ring and the line slide.
Only tiny intervention is required on the shaft. That could be accomplished using small diamond powder coated file. A small shallow indent should be made below one part of the O-ring as on the image so the O-ring won't seal well in that position. It could be only 2 mm long and 0.5 mm deep.

1573910149668.png

After the shaft, cone ring, O-ring and the slider were inserted (fig a.) additional push to the shaft itself (fig b.) have to be done for 1-2 mm so that the indent will pas the O-ring and 100% sealing is obtained.
 

Attachments

  • 1573910149255.png
    1573910149255.png
    156.8 KB · Views: 315
Last edited:
As has been mentioned before you could add a ring valve with just one hole for the hydraulic lock to be automatically released, either an "O" ring or just a rubber band with a rectangular cross section to fit a matching groove cut into the muzzle.
relief valve.jpg

That is the solution used for the LG-Sub muzzle, although it ejects water through the nose of the short muzzle. That reminds me that I was going to buy one of those “Black Head” muzzles, but forgot about it.
 
The hole must be made in front of the piston and not behind the piston! The piston abuts against the shock-absorbing sleeve and, under air pressure in the receiver, blocks the access to water by the shock-absorbing rubber hose on the sleeve!
 
Unless the piston has a hole in it as well, as once they did have. It is not difficult to drill a small hole in the side of the piston.
Mirage CRX.jpg
Mares metal piston 3 seal type.jpg
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Zahar
I already have the O-ring solution ready in my design schematics but did not applied it yet. Actually it is not very important to me. Other thing is because Marko made everything as light as possible so there is no place for the grove for O-ring. I do not see any problem if I just have to push the O-ring and the slider into the muzzle above water surface. It takes only few seconds. And it is better not to have any water left in the muzzle especially for Tomba700X model. This is because Tomba700X has tiltable delrin insert in muzzle (that makes loading more fluent if the shaft is bowing) and water left behind it in muzzle might damage it.

1573997415413.png
 
Last edited:
I already have the O-ring solution ready in my design schematics but did not applied it yet. Actually it is not very important to me. Other think is because Marko made everything as light as possible so there is no place for the grove for O-ring. I do not see any problem if i just have to push the O-ring and the slider into the muzzle above water surface. It takes only few seconds. And it is better not to have any water left in the muzzle especially for Tomba700X model. This is because Tomba700X has tiltable delrin insert in muzzle (that makes loading more fluent if the shaft is bowing) and water left behind it in muzzle might damage it.

I think it could become a slightly bigger hassle the longer the gun is. I personally don't feel like yielding a 140cm long gun out of the water. Also, when I boat dive, raising a gun out of the water is our sign to be picked up;).
For shorter guns, sure it should be easy enough.
 
Well, you are right Davide, there might be situations when it is not convenient.. My son Marko also had been loading his Asso130 this way. But anybody can nowadays choose between large number of different guns and kits.. :)
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Diving Gecko
The plastic ring replaced the conical front rubber barrel bore wiper seal, early versions of the "Mirage" used the three rubber seal piston shown in the photo. The grey plastic ring had a crack splitting it on one side so that it could be fitted over the piston nose and then sit snugly in the recess provided for it on the metal piston body. The idea was to stop the piston wobbling in the inner barrel as the plastic ring provided a bearing surface. Piston sliding friction was reduced compared to the three seal piston, but if sand got trapped in the plastic ring it could scratch the inner barrel.
 
The plastic ring replaced the conical front rubber barrel bore wiper seal, early versions of the "Mirage" used the three rubber seal piston shown in the photo. The grey plastic ring had a crack splitting it on one side so that it could be fitted over the piston nose and then sit snugly in the recess provided for it on the metal piston body. The idea was to stop the piston wobbling in the inner barrel as the plastic ring provided a bearing surface. Piston sliding friction was reduced compared to the three seal piston, but if sand got trapped in the plastic ring it could scratch the inner barrel.
Thanks. I have the same piston, so nothing is missing.
 
This how I calculate the hydro-damper slider or piston:

1574424582611.png


S0, S1, S2 - surface exposed to water in m2;
mk, Vk - mass and speed of the slider relative to the shaft;
mv, Vv - mass and speed of the water expelled by the shaft tail end;
Ek, Ev - kinetic energy of the slider and the water - should be Ev equal or higher than Ek.

I've already tested this calculation on several titanium and stainless steel sliders and on two pistons, one of them was my Mirage hydro-damping piston/shock absorber and the other of my russian friend Сергей (ECK). It seems to be acceptable for real life calculation.
 
Last edited:
This is a reply about Tomba800 about loading under water. Even I was surprised, but it is possible and it is very easy.
If you hold the slider pushing the O-ring against the muzzle, while loading the shaft, only for few mm, the vacuum would be preserved.
After that few mm when the O-ring enters the muzzle you can proceed the loading as usual.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20210110_093859.jpg
    IMG_20210110_093859.jpg
    265.6 KB · Views: 285
  • Like
Reactions: Diving Gecko
This is a reply about Tomba800 about loading under water. Even I was surprised, but it is possible and it is very easy.
If you hold the slider pushing the O-ring against the muzzle, while loading the shaft, only for few mm, the vacuum would be preserved.
After that few mm when the O-ring enters the muzzle you can proceed the loading as usual.

That’s great news Tomi. And congrats on that feature, even if unintended:)

You know, I have long been an advocate for being able to do this, especially on long guns or if the sea state is rough.

So, now, this slight limitation of the Tomba is no longer:)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Yes, Davide you are right. I did all improvement to Tomba design thanks to interaction with happy or unhappy users. I had not much opportunity to test Tomba in water because I am few hundreds km from the sea and I could test it myself only once a year during vacation. All the feedbacks from the users were very helpful for me, and I appreciated them a lot. This Tomba800 was an earlier design or it was maybe Tomba800X, I am not sure, but the same method of loading under water is applicable in both designs. The main advantage of Tomba800X over elder Tomba800 is easier loading if the shaft would bowing during loading. This last case revels another new possibilities without any change to the basic Tomba design but different method of loading, I always prefer designs as simple as possible because they are also more reliable. It seems that the O-rings life time on the shaft is also much longer than any would had been imagine.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Diving Gecko
I thought that everything had been already told about the Tomba kit.
I was saying that the speargun with Tomba kit must be drained of water before pushing the conical ring, O-ring and slider into the muzzle. It was true for the previous versions of Tomba.
But, with the Tomba700X it is not necessary - still it is better, safer to do!
I was traying to solve the problem of loading in the water, without draining the muzzle first, but the design of the Tomba700X already solved the problem itself. It is solved thanks to the muzzle insert that allows bending the shaft during the loading. That insert moves forward when the O-ring is being pushed into the muzzle under the water, so displacing the water in front of the O-ring and the slider behind the insert, pushing it forward.
Before next loading the insert must be pushed into the muzzle before inserting the shaft.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, given their small shaft size range, I was thinking they may not be very flexible. I know this is outragous speculation, haha, but that imperfection almost looks like they could be 3D printed in TPU/TPE. Would need better pics to see if there are any layer lines. But he had such a huge bag of them, that I wouldn't think it made sense for them to be 3D printed...
Yes, they are 3D printed..
1638085529500.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jegwan and Zahar
This a respond from Duccio group at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/elaborazionioleopneumatiche
"Miguel Angel
Tomislav Romic tuve el kit tomba 800 en un asso 75 hasta hace unos días y lo cargaba debajo del agua y cero problemas. Funcionaba perfecto . Ahora tengo ese mismo asso 75 con el kit de duccio porque lo estoy usando con varilla 7 mm . Pero ambos son una maravilla . 100 % recommedables

Miguel Angel
Tomislav Romic I had the kit tomba 800 in an asso 75 until a few days ago and loaded it under water and zero problems. It worked perfect. Now I have that same asso 75 with the duccio kit because I am using it with a 7mm rod. But both are wonderful. 100% recommendable"

Duccio makes his version of Tomba: Duccio-Tromba. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Zahar
DeeperBlue.com - The Worlds Largest Community Dedicated To Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing

ABOUT US

ISSN 1469-865X | Copyright © 1996 - 2024 deeperblue.net limited.

DeeperBlue.com is the World's Largest Community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving, Ocean Advocacy and Diving Travel.

We've been dedicated to bringing you the freshest news, features and discussions from around the underwater world since 1996.

ADVERT