Paintball

[sdawg]

Ok, I know I have been asking a lot of questions lately. Mcarterbrown is the only place on the internet to go to ask questions about paintball and expect to get a good reply.


I have a second-hand PMI PE 45/45 that has ended my frustration with CO2. After I obtained it, I took apart the regulator and regreased the spring pack with dow 33. I put it back together, and it seemed to work this past weekend (although my minimag was giving me velocities all over the place, while my trusty pro/carbine was shooting an amazing +/-3 with crappy paint... but that's another thread).


My question is: how often should the regulator on this tank be rebuilt (i.e., taken apart, cleaned, regreased, whatever)? After every day on the field, or less frequently?

[Hobbes]

I would only rebuild it as necessary. Have you tried replacing the reg. seat in your Minimag?

[sdawg]

Originally Posted by Hobbes

I would only rebuild it as necessary. Have you tried replacing the reg. seat in your Minimag?

I'm going to have to watch the automag training video again to figure out which part is the reg seat... I have a parts kit, though, so perhaps that's a part I can replace.

Really, I think the problem was the crappy "white box" paint I was using.

[pwpaintball]

Originally Posted by Hobbes

I would only rebuild it as necessary. Have you tried replacing the reg. seat in your Minimag?

My dad all ways says "if it not broke don't fix it"

I would think you velocity problem was with the position o-ring on the mag and not the bottle. The mag should compensate for the pressure fluctuation from your tank.

[BigOldSkool]

YEah normally with tank regs.. just leave them alone..

Even more so with the PMI tanks.. just makes sure you loctited the bonnet back on or you sir have your self a missle

[sdawg]

Ok, so I just took apart the mag...

Replaced the regulator seat (the clear disk that the valve pin goes through)

Cleaned the piston and piston o-ring... it was pretty dirty, and tom kaye says in the training video that the piston o-ring should be cleaned regularly.

The only trouble-spot was the valve spring... the tiny spring that the valve pin sits on. I really had to pry it out, and then I had a hell of a time getting it back in. It is cone shaped, which I guess prevents it from falling out when the body is disassembled. I don't know if this thing is going to work when I put it back together (no air to test it with at the moment).

[sdawg]

Originally Posted by BigOldSkool

Even more so with the PMI tanks.. just makes sure you loctited the bonnet back on or you sir have your self a missle

What do I loctite? The two set screws on either side of the bonnet?

Having missile sounds really bad...

[DarkStar]

Also, keep in mind, now that you have replaced the reg seat with a new one, you want to avoid taking apart the valve. Everytime you unscrew the valve halfs and put them together the reg seat will get a slightly different seating against the reg half and this eventually causes velocity issues. If you look at your used reg seat you can probibly see a few different circular impressions on one side that don't line up with each other.

-MR

[sdawg]

Originally Posted by DarkStar

Everytime you unscrew the valve halfs and put them together the reg seat will get a slightly different seating against the reg half and this eventually causes velocity issues.

Yeah, that sounds bad. When I watched the automag video again, I realized that I may have installed the reg seat backwards, because I didn't "snap" it into the regulator portion of the body.

[DarkStar]

Originally Posted by sdawg

Yeah, that sounds bad. When I watched the automag video again, I realized that I may have installed the reg seat backwards, because I didn't "snap" it into the regulator portion of the body.

Don't worry about it. First off some of the reg seats are a bit too tiny to "snap" in. Secondly the only reason for the snap is so the reg seat doesn't fall out on the field when you open it up. It doesn't actually matter as far as functionality goes (In fact, somewhere on AO or AGD's site they tell you to flip the reg seat if you don't have a replacement handy).

Good Luck,
-MR