Paintball

[Blacksheep32]

I'm thinking a valve on the side would be the quick fix. A slight amount of agitation is all that's needed, and I'm assuming the "snapper" is cracking the paintballs (that what mine did on my other marker.)

Great work!

[calvin]

After another evening of work on the issue, here is my report.

I made my 2nd port 1/8" after of the hammer's seal area behind the valve. After hooking the Turbo loader up to it, I discovered that it didn't even have enough pressure to actuate the flipper. Seeing as how I had been stumped by the Turbo Loader, it seemed a good time to give some thought to the simple Air Assisted Indian Creek Maxi Loader. I have 7 of them, so I have a little leeway in experimenting.

Step one was to put about 15 balls in the Indian Creek Hopper and play with it to see where the mathematical cam happened naturally. In this particular loader it was quite apparent that the natural cam was three balls forming a triangle along the top line of the feed trough directly over the hole.

I marked the spot in the center of this natural cam on the side of the hopper and drilled/tapped a 10-32 hole for the air nub. I elected to use a direct valve attachment as the air sent directly into the hopper was obviously less violent then the same air into the Turbo Loader piston. Here is what resulted.







After loading up with about 40 rounds, the effects of the Air Assist were obvious, but not too violent. I turned the pressure up from the usual 520PSI of this VM to 600PSI and cranked up a little more restriction in the bolt inlet. That should allow a little more air into the Air Assist while simultaneously preventing any recock issues due to the gas being used in the Air Assist. 100 rounds fired in the cold spitty night worked great. I'll fire a few hundred tomorrow in the daylight and report the success or failures experienced then.

-Calvin

[Anonymous Coward]

Sweet-tastic information! What type of connector did you get to replace the valve screw exactly so I can replicate your work?

You sir are a wizard!

[calvin]

I didn't replace the valve screw. I drilled a 5/32 port into the body to line up with the valve outlet port at 3 oclock. I then tapped it for 10-32 and screwed in one of the air nubs from an old Tippmann Reactive trigger kit. The air nub in the hopper came with the Turbo Loader.

In my valves the center of the 3 oclock valve outlet is 15.5mm from the center of the valve screw. That's where i drilled my new port and it lined up perfectly. Even if you screw it up a bit, you have a little leeway since the valve outlet is much smaller than the 5/32 hole required for a 10-32 threading.

-Calvin

[Azzy]

Yeah, you want to tap into the body behind the valve, all of these things work on the gas that is pushing the hammer back. In the case of the VM and most other blowbacks (running at full 800psi, that is) there is so much gas pushing the hammer back that you can use some of it to do other things, like push a feeder, move a ram, etc. Best part is, it always happens after the ball is fired, with makes for handy timing.