Recently, I discovered that the baffle just below the thumb hole is removable. This solves a major problem I’ve been having with this pipe, which is the amount of water that resides just below the thumb hole and leaks out if you tilt it at all. It was a tedious process of Covering the thumb hole and blowing your back into the chamber to clear the water that resides inside of that baffle. Now that the baffle is removed, I no longer get leaks out the thumb hole, I have no issues with water coming up the chamber enough so that I’m inhaling it. Big upgrade for cleaning as well now I don’t have this baffle stuck there with resonance impossible to remove.
I do still have some issues with the metal disk sealing properly, not every time but frequently. I’ve tried to be very methodical and careful about reinstalling the disk, making sure that the groove was dried, but I can’t seem to determine a pattern for when it will and won’t leak.