10 replies to this topic

[Buffdaddy]

A few days ago, before leaving for Massacre 5, I had an idea. I had sen things like Kid_Flash's Salvofly, and the Mirage, and wanted to experiment for myself. I had leftovers of a Big Salvo, where I had removed 3 tanks for a future Marvelous Salvo. It also finally dawned on me that I didn't need a bunch of Magstrike bladders - my sales thread had a bunch of Iron Man Super Soakers I'd been attempting to get rid of for quite a while, and those used bladders. They are't ideal, for sure, but for purposes of experimentation, they'd do.

First, we have the Big Salvo pump and trigger assembly. I plugged the tubing that goes to the other 3 (nonexistent) tanks, then drilled out the side of one. There's actually a spring-loaded check valve in there, that gets pushed in by the trigger. It made sense in retrospect, but it's different from the hornet trigger. Hornets have double o-rings and such to keep the entire thing pressurized, allowing blast button use. This setup, meanwhile, means that after firing the first tank, the pump and trigger assembly become unpressurized, along with the first tank firing. This will be touched on more later.



This is the bladder container from the Iron Man Super Soaker. As it turns out, 1/2" CPVC slides PERFECTLY into the plastic clamp. How nice!



I have 1/4" OD vinyl tubing running from the CPVC tee, back to the hole I drilled out in the trigger assembly. Something small, that gets the job done. Also something I can run on the outside of the blaster for later modification.



After assembling, sealing everything, and securing the tanks into place, we have this thing:




As of right now, thee's a leak I need to fix. Also, due to the fact that the trigger assembly itself depressurizes, I lose a ton of air out pf the bladders with each shot. So at the moment, I get 3 powerful shots. AFter fixing he leak, it'll help a bit.

However, the next major step is playing with the tubing I ran outside (and the tubing to the BS tank, I have a hole cut in the side for access, done after these pictures). I'm going to install a check valve at the base of the air line, so it won't leak back with every trigger pull. Secondly, I'll run a tee of that hose, put a magstrike button or some other valve on the grip, then run it into another tee on the BS tank line. Not sure if that was clear, but you get the idea: stop leaks, use my free hand to repressurize the tank, and fire at will. I'm gonna guess 6-7 good shots out of that if I get everything sealed up correctly.

Questions?

[blitz]

Holy shit..... that thing is awesome! Just whatever you do, don't paint it pink

That thing must be really heavy.

From experience from my Super Soaker, I think that you will get a lot more than 6 shots.

One question: why gut 3 super soakers, when you can just use pvc?

Edited by blitz, 24 January 2011 - 03:51 PM.

[nisaburo]

Where are you hooking all of your tanks up to the trigger assembly? It seems like there must be a way to prevent venting without a check valve in this set up, similar to Boot's design.

[Buffdaddy]

It's actually not too heavy; it's not like it's approaching Vulcan levels of awkward balance or anything.

I know it can get a lot more shots; it's the leaking in the trigger that kills everything. You would not believe how much air escapes there. One of those things you learn, I guess.

Why supersoakers, and not PVC? Simple - Pressure! A bladder is going to keep the pressure somewhat constant the entire time. with a PVC hard tank, your shots will lose range each time. If I'm gonna have semiauto, I'm gonna have something that I can fire flat each time, and not have to arc subsequent shots and lose that accuracy.

Also, when you've found a ton of these Supersoakers on clearance over the past semester, you can afford to gut a few.

[blitz]

It's actually not too heavy; it's not like it's approaching Vulcan levels of awkward balance or anything.

I know it can get a lot more shots; it's the leaking in the trigger that kills everything. You would not believe how much air escapes there. One of those things you learn, I guess.

Why supersoakers, and not PVC? Simple - Pressure! A bladder is going to keep the pressure somewhat constant the entire time. with a PVC hard tank, your shots will lose range each time. If I'm gonna have semiauto, I'm gonna have something that I can fire flat each time, and not have to arc subsequent shots and lose that accuracy.

Also, when you've found a ton of these Supersoakers on clearance over the past semester, you can afford to gut a few.

Hopper time?

[Buffdaddy]

Where are you hooking all of your tanks up to the trigger assembly? It seems like there must be a way to prevent venting without a check valve in this set up, similar to Boot's design.

I checked, but that won't work. the Hornet's double O-ring trigger depressurizes ONLY the tube it's going past. ON a Big Salvo, you have a little cone-shaped tip pushing the check valves for depressurizing, with only 1 o-ring, meant purely for sealing the system while you pump it up. Once you push that tiny check valve in to start firing, you have an open gap to the outside world, and everything leaks out.

I certainly hope someone has a picture to explain that, b/c I forgot to take one.

Hopper time?

Naturally.

[cheyner]

Holy shit..... that thing is awesome! Just whatever you do, don't paint it pink

If experience has taught us anything, it will be white and pink when the time comes.


You never fail to amaze me Buffdaddy. I love the way that thing looks.

[imaseoulman]

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your setup here, but I fail to see how a check valve in your line of tubing is going to help your problem. If the check valve is between the trigger and blast chamber, then the blast chamber won't exhaust => no firing.

If it's between the tanks and the trigger, it will still allow flow to leak out. At best it will work as a restricting orifice.

From what I understand, you basically have tanks with a tube to the back trigger port and one tank attached to the first trigger port. Is that right? If so, a check valve isn't going to help.

[Buffdaddy]

Dream setup:


As of right now, the extra check valve does not exist; in retrospect, I shouldn't have drilled out/plugged/messed up the remaining check valves on the trigger assembly. But with this check valve in place, all air would stay in storage.

Then you tee off the existing lines, and put a push-button valve in the middle. Makes it not truly semi-auto (unless you do as JSB has suggested and rig that to the trigger), but it keeps the air from leaking out and would make thi much better.

[TantumBull]

Look into directional control valves. Clippard makes some good and cheap ones. They cut off and vent in the same motion, eliminating the need for several valves.

[nerkum]

Look into directional control valves. Clippard makes some good and cheap ones. They cut off and vent in the same motion, eliminating the need for several valves.

Just made a video of the Clippard Valve. I used the MAVO-3P in this video. It is a three way valve, normally open.