Paintball

[ta2maki]

Before I start. You should know that I am a perfectionist and most of the things I pick out will go unnoticed by most. So take this review with a grain of salt.

I had ordered a gloss black pump plate and pump rod.

The plate itself is made well, the finish though, is not perfect. The tooling marks are still visible. Dust or matte finish versions may look better. Normally I would be highly bothered by this, but since this is for a workhorse gun that has and will get beat(I have dropped/thrown/stabbed into the ground/stepped on this gun many times in the past) So it isn't much of an issue. And in Hvacman250's defense, the time between the preorder and receiveing them was extremely quick.

The hitman part has a dip in the bottom side of this pic.


Some marks are visible on the face, although this part will be hidden by the actual pump.


The back has a worse finish. Don't mind the main guide hole, I did that and will get to it later.


Side shows some rough edges. Remember I have taken the pics so the marks are most visible. You can't really see them for the most part.


Installation - Whole install was pretty easy. Just remove the pump arm assembly take the delrin pump off the old plate, put the new plate on, screw the new arm onto the plate, and put back together.

However, I had some issues with the install. Again, most people probably won't notice on thier gun as I have massaged this gun extensively and the pump action is smoother and lighter than my carter buzzard. The main guide hole is too small. It slides on the arm fine on it's own but with the delrin handle on there, the air inside the cavity gets trapped and causes some drag in the pumping action. Also when you pull on the hitman lever, it torques the whole assembly and causes the plate slightly kink down and drag on the guide. I corrected this by drilling the main guide hole slightly larger with a 25/64" drill bit and then beveling the edge.


Another thing I noticed was that the hole for the secondary guide is oval. This is probably an isolated occurance. It looks like it the hole was incorrectly placed at first and opened up to make correct. Even still this caused some drag as the oval hole was pear shaped. I used a small drill bit to open up the hole to reduce binding. You can see in this pic that the hole isn't perfectly round(yes, I am reusing photos), this is after I messed with it.

I can't say if anyone else will have this problem as I do know that the bottom guide on my gun is slightly bent from hard use. But the binding and the trapped air prevented me from being able to use the hitman mod as intended, which is to hold the regulator and pull on the extention with my index finger like a trigger and let the return spring bring the pump back.

After tweaking the plate a bit, it works beautifully. I can easily pull the pump with 1 finger, if I add an autotrigger, this gun will pretty much be a semi with a 1" trigger pull. To give it a grade, I'd say it's a 7 out of 10 due to the fit and finish issues that I had.

Here are some pics of the whole setup, sorry about the quality(poor lighting) I will add better photos later.






EDIT: Ok, Here are better photos. As you can see, 1) The surface imperfections are not very noticeable and 2) My gun is pretty hammered and used. The marks all over the pump arm near the handle was caused by clamping it in a vice in order to cut more threads into the rod. This wasn't something that was done to correct a flaw, but was done to shorten the pump travel to my liking. Another thing you may notice is that I slightly bent the pump rod and the handle points up. This is to counteract some of the torquing that occurs when pulling on the lever from the bottom. Adding the second pump rod is very desireable if you plan on pulling on the lever only. I plan on doing this as soon as I can find a suitible back block.

[xkpxfatassxx]

Good review, lets hope others had better luck with it.

[T18CAPT]

I ordered a dust black and polished Aluminum Hitman plate. I installed the black one first and had the same problem with binding in the lower guide hole. I installed the polished plate and didn't have a problem. I PMed Hvacman250 and he quickly responed. He said he measured 3 different CCM kits and they all had different tolerences. That is why the bottom guide hole is oval. He hoped this would allow for the differances between kits. Also, as stated in ta2maki's post, my bottom guide rod may be slightly bent. I know with a little sanding/filing/drilling the plate will work correctly.


Hvacman250 don't feel bad about your product. The first run of any product usually has a few kinks that need to be worked out. Take our responses and use them to help improve the plates so you can continue selling them to the masses.

Thanks Again,

Darrin

[Warwitch]

Rather than widen the guide rod hole wouldnt it be easier to drill a hole in the front of the handle to vent the air? That way you could keep the tight tolerances.

[hvacman250]

Originally Posted by Warwitch

Rather than widen the guide rod hole wouldnt it be easier to drill a hole in the front of the handle to vent the air? That way you could keep the tight tolerances.

Excellent point. Hadnt thought of that.

ta2maki, thanks for the excellent review. Feedback helps me make a better product.

If anybody else has problems, feel free to PM me and I can walk you thru solutions.

In the next few weeks, I am doing a run of single rod hitman mods. I have just bought 2 brand new CCM pump kits to measure. Im sure some of the pump kits I went by had slightly bent guide rods. I dont believe CCM tolerances were off. The 3 pump kits I went by were well used. A slight tweak to the CNC code should make the perfect.

[ta2maki]

Originally Posted by Warwitch

Rather than widen the guide rod hole wouldnt it be easier to drill a hole in the front of the handle to vent the air? That way you could keep the tight tolerances.

Another problem with the tight hole(hey, no laughing) is that when you pull on the hitman lever, the whole assembly torques down. So it still binds on the large hole. This may not be a problem with dual pump rods, but I don't have a back block for it yet, and its a bit too late for me now. Drilling a vent hole would be the best bet for non-hitman style, which doesn't have the torqueing issue.

Originally Posted by hvacman250

...In the next few weeks, I am doing a run of single rod hitman mods. I have just bought 2 brand new CCM pump kits to measure. Im sure some of the pump kits I went by had slightly bent guide rods. I dont believe CCM tolerances were off. The 3 pump kits I went by were well used. A slight tweak to the CNC code should make the perfect.

I wonder if having a 'vortex' shaped hole would help with binding. By vortex, I mean that as you pass through the plate, the radius of the hole decreases then increases. This way when the plate is torqued, the hole that the pump guide runs through 'stays' round. Another suggestion would be to use a less 'bendy' pump arm than stainless steel, if there is such a thing.

One thing that the end user could do to reduce the torquing is to put the pump return spring on the bottom guide rod rather than the top to reduce the 'length' of the lever force.

The pump gets torqued quite a bit.
At rest

Pump being pulled

[Warwitch]

Originally Posted by ta2maki

Another problem with the tight hole(hey, no laughing) is that when you pull on the hitman lever, the whole assembly torques down. So it still binds on the large hole. This may not be a problem with dual pump rods, but I don't have a back block for it yet, and its a bit too late for me now. Drilling a vent hole would be the best bet for non-hitman style, which doesn't have the torqueing issue.

Hmmm, maybe by adding another guide inside the pump handle it could be made even more stable/smooth. As a matter of fact, I wonder why someone hasnt made delrin pump guide rods yet. That would be, dare I say, slick....

[splattttttt]

Are you planning to add that extra pump rod eventually?

[Altec]

Originally Posted by Warwitch

Hmmm, maybe by adding another guide inside the pump handle it could be made even more stable/smooth. As a matter of fact, I wonder why someone hasnt made delrin pump guide rods yet. That would be, dare I say, slick....

I made one for one of my snipers. Works good. Better then a aluminum, or stainless? In a sense that its easier to machine, and has a polished finish off the machine, yes. A well polished metal one will be just as good though.

[Warwitch]

Some more pics of Hitman mod and dual pump arms. Very sturdy. Had to get the pump arms adjusted perfectly and then things were unbelievably smooth.