Paintball

[Ivan]

Thanks guys. I removed that danged sticker. I printed off the rules, found here: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_20...cfr180.209.pdf and here: Requalification of Aluminum Cylinders And I will be showing those to them. Along with a CO2 tank showing that its rated for 1800 PSI, whereas this tank is rated for 3000 PSI. Thanks all for the help!

[Grivooga]

4500 regs work just fine on a 4500 tank filled to 3000. Therefore one will work just fine on a 3000 tank. All you have to do is change the burst disc to the appropriate 5k burst disc (for reference a 4500 tank uses a 7500 psi burst disc) so that the tank cannot be pressurized past it's engineered safety margin.

Many techs will refuse to put a 4500 reg on a 3000 tank for reasons I've never understood because they're just stupid. I don't think there's a reg currently on the market that can't support either tank with the appropriate burst discs. Maybe some real old school regs but every old reg I've seen is built like a tank compared to the current crop for sale.
I took a Guerilla Ambush off a 3000 tank and put it on a 4500 myself because no one local would do it despite me being able to produce a statement from the manufacturer stating that the ONLY difference between a 3000 reg and a 4500 reg was the burst disc rating. The whole thing was stupid and I was more than willing to pay someone to break the damn thing loose for me.

[Ivan]

So you are saying that all regs are the same and it's only the burst disk that varies between a 3000 PSI reg and a 4500 PSI reg?

So to make the 4500 PSI reg a 3000 PSI reg I would put a 5000 PSI burst disk on it? I wouldn't want a 3000 PSI burst disk?

Checking a CO2 tank, which is rated to 1800 PSI, the burst disk is 3000 PSI, so I guess that makes sense.

[russc]

Nope, he just means that people are freaking out about putting 3k regs on 4.5k rated tanks, and vice versa. As long as you don't over fill past either the tank or regs working range you're fine.

[drg]

3AL3000 = aluminum 3000 psi service pressure

[Railgun]

The burst disc is a safety device so the value is picked to blow before a rupture occurs. For 3000 psi tanks this safety point is up around 4500. If you use a 3000 burst disc it'll blow at some point when you're doing a perfectly safe fill and annoy both you and everyone around you.

[brycelarson]

yup, the safe fill rating of any system is the lowest rated item.

So, on a 3k tank w a 4500 reg or a 4500 tank w a 3k reg - the safe fill is 3k.

The fear is the someone who doesn't know that its a mixed rating system would read the wrong part and over fill it.

This isn't likely to cause a real dangerous situation - unless someone has installed burst disks with a higher rating than the other parts of the system. If every bad option happened - let's say a 3k tank, a 4500 reg and 7 k burst disks a 4500 fill could be dangerous. That's the situation that people who worry about stuff like this are concerned with.

[Grivooga]

And understandably worried if you're a "professional" who could incur some liability. But why would three different local shops turn me down on taking a 4500 rated reg off a 3000 tank and putting it on a 4500 tank? The only reason I can come up with is that they're too stupid to think the situation through. They heard 3000 and something clicked in their heads, "no, can't do it," and that was end of discussion. I'm pretty certain that 99% of people that call themselves airsmiths or techs have no clue what they're doing beyond the most meaningless superficial level. If they can't fix it by changing an o-ring, battery, or swapping out a disposable part they're stumped and you'll have to send it back to the manufacturer (you're screwed if the manufaturer no longer exists according to most).
As far as that tank goes I eventually just did it myself and three hours later (manufacturer was a red loctite fiend) I did eventually get the damn thing off the tank and on a different tank but I sure as hell would rather of paid someone else to break those regs loose if I could have convinced them to take my money.

[Ivan]

I do kind of agree with that. Today I had a nice chat with the guy who fills tanks. I had to explain to him what the markings of the DOT and TC stamps meant in order for him to understand why my 13 ci HPA tank wasn't a CO2 tank. And then he still wouldn't fill it because (and he admitted this) he has never seen one that small before and therefore it's unsafe.

[russc]

Maybe you should start printing off photos of NPPL pump players using them? Maybe talk to the manager? That's pretty ridiculous...