21 replies to this topic

[Buffdaddy]

I have several attachments for my couplered guns, such as shotgun barrels, Nerf Arrow fittings, etc. However, carrying these extra fittings in your pocket can result in adapter loss while running. And it takes time to undo your hopper clips and RSCBs, making their use very limited. So what if you could make it easy to switch things up?

Part 4757K57 from McMaster-Carr is a 3-way PVC ball valve that looks to be an excellent way to solve these problems. It is made to fit 1/4" tubing, but the plastic base on each side is for all purposes the same size as 1/2" PVC pipe. Which means that (with a bit of sanding) it can fit couplers on it. With the flick of a switch, you can change barrels. Handy for when you need a shotgun blast, or for those game types where you want an arrow to hit someone with a shield.



These do cost $15 each, unfortunately, but my place of work was lucky enough to have spares that I could take. I'm looking forward to trying these out at the next Columbus war to see if the make life easier.

EDIT: Valves also exist for the 3/8" and 1/2" tube sizes, and these should work better in terms of airflow.

Edited by Buffdaddy, 27 July 2010 - 08:53 PM.

[debandgeek12]

Those sound and look incredibly useful. Is the flow through each end unrestricted?

[Buffdaddy]

Those sound and look incredibly useful. Is the flow through each end unrestricted?

It's certainly restricted some, as the barbed fittings are made for smaller tubing, not PVC or CPVC. But there's also fittings made for 3/8" and 1/2" tubing, and those would certainly provide better airflow. But hey, I'm not gonna complain, since I got these for free!

[minsc]

3 WAY VALVE BARREL ADAPTER: THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A BIG BLAST AND 3 WAY VALVE HAVE CH
FEAR THIS GUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Very nice find man, I like it a lot. My only concern is how wobbly the assembly is, but that can be easily remedied with more structure and PVC cement. Is the switch difficult to turn, and did you have to lubricate it at all?

[Buffdaddy]

3 WAY VALVE BARREL ADAPTER: THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A BIG BLAST AND 3 WAY VALVE HAVE CH
FEAR THIS GUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Very nice find man, I like it a lot. My only concern is how wobbly the assembly is, but that can be easily remedied with more structure and PVC cement. Is the switch difficult to turn, and did you have to lubricate it at all?

It's actually really stable; I used copious amounts of 2-part epoxy for all the connections, and (not shown) put a layer of hot glue over top for something extra. It shouldn't be moving around any time soon.

The switch has very little resistance to turning, and didn't need lubing up. It'll stay in position all right, though.

I'm actually kinda excited about the things you could do. I think of it as 1/2 an integration - not truly there, as it's not another gun, but easy enough to use and abuse that it could fill in for one under many circumstances. It does increase the ammo you can fire off, and allows for different ammo (arrows, etc).

Instead of the Double +bow "OMG, so bright, so vivid" creation posted in the past week, you could just throw one of these on a gun and have two hopper clips. You'd have more sustained rate of fire if needed, just by turning the knob. Reload time would be longer, but if you are firing off rounds so fast as to empty both hoppers, then you're doing something wrong, in my opinion. The second hopper is more emergency than anything.

Not slamming the double +bow or anything; I thought it was a cool extension of that particular branch of the homemade family. I just think that for many of us, an option like this would be more practical.

[jerm78]

This is a great find. I will have to try this out on one of my blasters.

[Coop]

Nice job, man. It seems like it could be cleaned up and slimmed down a bit in future versions, but I'm looking forward to seeing this in action on Saturday!

[Buffdaddy]

As an afterthought, a tee and two regular plastic ball valves is cheaper, but adds bulk and dead space, not to mention harder-to-turn handles. I'm sure many of you have these lying around, and could accomplish essentially the same thing. But I'll try this out; preliminary tests are perfect, I'm not seeing any difference from my old RSCB setup to this, and arrows whiz off very nicely.

I made another one for my +bow, as well.

Edited by Buffdaddy, 27 July 2010 - 10:11 PM.

[SonReeceSonJensen]

Yes yes YES! No more having to sacrifice silliness because you need to commit to it for a whole round or lug an entirely separate (and usually larger) blaster around. Very good find, props. I’d say it could be a truly significant contribution to the sport if they were…you know…not a million friggin dollars.

Hmmmm, so if you connect two of these with a third one you could have 4 fully-loaded hopper clips at the ready…

[Buffdaddy]

Yes yes YES! No more having to sacrifice silliness because you need to commit to it for a whole round or lug an entirely separate (and usually larger) blaster around. Very good find, props. I’d say it could be a truly significant contribution to the sport if they were…you know…not a million friggin dollars.

Hmmmm, so if you connect two of these with a third one you could have 4 fully-loaded hopper clips at the ready…

True, $15 is a bit expensive. But you could buy one, attach couplers/pipe to the ends, and make it a universal piece of your armament. Mine are semi-permanently attached since these are the only two guns of mine that would benefit. Anything else I have with that kind of power is either already turreted (Doomsayer/Triple Shot) or already capable of shenanigans (Big Salvo - 1/2" CPVC slides very nicely into those arrow holders...).

Well, there is the Titan. But that doesn't get used too much for wars. more for messing around.

But you could buy one and use it for everything with decent air output.

4 hoppers? That's just overkill.

[cheyner]

What is this adapter actually used for? I tried looking at work, but realized I have no idea what section to look in. Is it for use with air lines?

[Buffdaddy]

What is this adapter actually used for? I tried looking at work, but realized I have no idea what section to look in. Is it for use with air lines?

It's made for any fluid line - air, water, etc, although I'd look at the liquid section first. It's certainly not a common piece - this is the first time I've come across them, but they were apparently used for liquid. You're making me feel less than helpful, bro!

Edited by Buffdaddy, 28 July 2010 - 09:58 PM.

[cheyner]

You're making me feel less than helpful, bro!

Just showing the existance and usage of such a piece is more than enough help.
This seems like it should be used for many things, I just wanted to make sure it wasnt exclusive to one thing. It should be easy enough to find.
As soon as I can find the right fittings in my area, I should have a decent homemade version of this as well.

[Salmon]

3 WAY VALVE BARREL ADAPTER: THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A BIG BLAST AND 3 WAY VALVE HAVE CH
FEAR THIS GUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Nerfhaven now has it's own meme.


This is pretty cool. If you could hook one of these up to a minimized Titan, you could easily make yourself a compact, modular, war-worthy blaster. I would like to see a 4 or 5 way one of these for even more options in "selective fire."

[minsc]

Nerfhaven now has it's own meme.


This is pretty cool. If you could hook one of these up to a minimized Titan, you could easily make yourself a compact, modular, war-worthy blaster. I would like to see a 4 or 5 way one of these for even more options in "selective fire."

Yeah, I figured since we're a sufficiently matured meta-community and all, with the social networking aspects of the open source web 2.0 connectivity gigabytes modem internet sounding words.

Anyways, thats good that the epoxy is stable enough to hold the thing, I couldn't tell what it was from the picture.

Also, does the thing turn 360 degrees, or only 180 back and forth?

[Buffdaddy]

Nerfhaven now has it's own meme.


This is pretty cool. If you could hook one of these up to a minimized Titan, you could easily make yourself a compact, modular, war-worthy blaster. I would like to see a 4 or 5 way one of these for even more options in "selective fire."

Yeah, I figured since we're a sufficiently matured meta-community and all, with the social networking aspects of the open source web 2.0 connectivity gigabytes modem internet sounding words.

Anyways, thats good that the epoxy is stable enough to hold the thing, I couldn't tell what it was from the picture.

Also, does the thing turn 360 degrees, or only 180 back and forth?

It only turns 180 degrees back and forth, so no worries about having it line up or anything. If the handle stops turning, then you're in the correct position. Depending on your handedness (Righty/Lefty), this might make a difference as to the orientation of the piece when you use it, but nothing major besides that.

[Buffdaddy]

Update:
Just finished up at the Columbus War, and it worked like a charm. Although my RSCB was shooting double most of the time (current hypothesis: with that area of the blaster constricted, the pressure is being held long enough to shoot a second dart out. Just need a slightly larger PVC piece between the valve and the RSCB tee), it worked wonderfully; at least one of the two was hitting 100 ft and with accuracy. More importantly, the valve allowed me to do so much more.

Having the valve meant that I could switch to the bottom barrel of whatever while reloading the clip - making rushing me that much harder, as I'm still armed. It also made my rushing better, as 1) I have a shotgun if desired, and 2) for safety reasons, it's really not good to get close with an RSCB'ed BBBB. It also allowed for me to throw shenanigans in the mix - I was firing Nerf arrows in one of the rounds as my second option, and while none of them hit, they fired accurately at 30-50 feet, and were pretty close.

I used xet's mod here for the shotgun option, fyi.

All in all, this valve made war life THAT much better on my end, and I'd certainly recommend anyone to have one in their collection for couplering onto their primaries. My +bow (minus it's current sealing issue - fixable) will certainly benefit, but I'm wondering if this would be too powerful on a BBBB using a basketball pump. Any thoughts?

EDIT: Yes, I do realize you'd need to do Zorn's mod to keep the stock OP valve.

Edited by Buffdaddy, 31 July 2010 - 06:40 PM.

[cheyner]

*cough* $1.98 *cough*

Son of a bitch!, thats the exact peice I have been trying to find! And in plastic none the less. I can only find those guys in brass around here.
They have a bit more deadspace in them, but it will still get the job done.

[Buffdaddy]

I'm with Cheyner on this one; I haven't been able to find any of those in my area, either. Those would definitely work the same for a lot cheaper! Thanks!

EDIT: Found it on McMaster, for those of us who can't seem to find these in stores...part 6308T12

Edited by Buffdaddy, 06 August 2010 - 12:24 PM.

[cheyner]

I found something else that will work, it is a shower diverter.

They are both $9 however.

An insanly simple idea just hit me while searching those photo's, I should have something shortly.