Paintball

[HP_Lovecraft]

Oh I see, so its the reverse. The primary 3way actuates the sear, but then the exhaust is used to actuate a seperate 3way for the primary ram.

Still not sure about the timing, since the sear and bolt still have to work independently, at seperate times. It seems you are depending on a "race condition", meaning that both the sear will be actuated at the exact same time that its exhaust is actuated the #2 3way, and bolt ram. The part for the #1 ram is much shorter, and wins the race, so to speak.

But then how will the sear release before the bolt is closed, otherwise the hammer will not catch the sear and recock? This seems like another race-condition, though it could possibly also work in your favor under that scenerio

[Contour]

Yeah, I was thinking about the hammer reseting too. I was thinking though that it wouldn't cycle the gun until you let go of the trigger so the hammer could exhaust (qev rather than the hole in the side of the ram), and then activate the 3-way ram.

Another idea brought to my attention by yoda900 on pbn

"You could have a 3-way valve (normally closed) directed into a tee. From that tee, split the flow to a ram that drops the sear, and to a ram that actuates the 5-way for the cocker. Between the tee and the 5-way though, have an FCV like in an RT setup from a Tippmann, combined with an adjustable volume delay chamber (after the FCV so it doesn't drain from the air to the sear ram as much). Adjusting the combination of flow with the FCV and volume in the delay chamber should give you a consistent delay between the sear dropping and the 5-way getting actuated. Fully pneumatic, difficult to short stroke, all available with off the shelf components, a custom delay chamber would yield much better results though, and probably a lot smaller than those from Clippard."

This idea seems like it could be more reliable and a little simpler.