16 replies to this topic

[Gengar003]

I broke down and bought a Magstrike today... out of the box it was loud and fun, but very short range. Still, I was expecting to mod it, so no biggie.

After reading up on the magstrike mods returned by the "search" feature, I have a few questions...

1.) Has anyone pumped the bladder until it bursts? At what point does this happen? If not, how many times do you pump it safely? It would be nice to know an upper limit since I intend to plug the release valve.

2.) How risky, or, how much extra wear'n'tear, if any, does banding the bladder put on it?

Thanks in advance.

Edited by Gengar003, 17 January 2007 - 09:20 PM.

[nerfer34]

Well you can pump the gun as much as you want stock. If you mod it, you'll have to figure out how many it takes, because you can give the bladder more room or less room.

Banding your bladder is risky. It only adds around 7' at best. Some say it isn't risky. It's preference. It definitly puts unwanted stress on your bladder. I'd do Forsaken Angel's Magstrike mod.

[Forsaken angel24]

Somebody over on NerfHQ burst their magstrike bladder by doing my mod and then double pumping. I think his burst around 80-100 pumps.

I have pumped my gun to 60 several times and let it stay primed a couple times for 30 minutes. Still fired off two clips at around 70+ feet.

Edited by Forsaken_angel24, 17 January 2007 - 09:41 PM.

[Gengar003]

New question: Proceeding through Forsaken_Angel's Magstrike mods, I saw the "rubber-banding the piston to increase power" (link) bit, and thought "Brilliant! That looks really easy!"

...

But it didn't work for me. I stuck one rubber band from the first narrowing of the piston to that screw peg, and one from the arm to the peg, and tested it out -- I lost about 3 feet in average range per clip.

I thought "My rubber bands do look skinnier than those in the picture... maybe if I double up," so I put two rubber bands from each spot. I was now down ~5 feet.

Then I tried it with only one band, and fell just 1-2 feet short of the un-banded range.

I double-checked the picture many times, and I did put them where it shows. It also took more pumps to get the piston to repeat while banded, and it repeated less... but the darts didn't go as far. The more I put rubber bands on the piston, the more range I lost...

Is there some secret to it that I missed?

[Forsaken angel24]

The extra air output from banding the piston is going to be useless unless you brass barrel your clip. I am assuming the clip is not ready for more air output untill the clip itself is modified. A similar thing happened to my Titan when I first modded it. At around 15 pumps the missile would fire 50 feet. At around 20-22 pumps the missile would only fire 35-40 feet. The missile's barrel was not designed to handle that kind of pressure and neither was the magstrikes clip.

Do the brass barrels and you should be fine. (Trust me alot of air is being wasted through leaks in the clip.)

Edited by Forsaken_angel24, 19 January 2007 - 10:31 PM.

[Gengar003]

The extra air output from banding the piston is going to be useless unless you brass barrel your clip. I am assuming the clip is not ready for more air output untill the clip itself is modified. A similar thing happened to my Titan when I first modded it. At around 15 pumps the missile would fire 50 feet. At around 20-22 pumps the missile would only fire 35-40 feet. The missile's barrel was not designed to handle that kind of pressure and neither was the magstrikes clip.

Do the brass barrels and you should be fine. (Trust me alot of air is being wasted through leaks in the clip.)

I see. I assume it's the length the barrels provide, and not the tighter fit, that makes use of that extra air, right?

I don't have a dremel (), so I probably won't be able to follow your writeup verbatim.

Edited by Gengar003, 19 January 2007 - 10:37 PM.

[mini]

Based on my experience the blatter is more likely to shoot off the front clamp than burst. But thats just what happened too me.

[Gengar003]

Gah, the damn thing's leaking. At the base of the pump, the pump shaft -> clear tubing connection leaks. I thought I had it fixed with epoxy, but it only held for (45 pumps max) half a day. I've re-epoxied it, and it's drying as I type this, but... It seems like a losing battle.

How would y'all reccomend plugging that leak for good? The full pressure of the air in the bladder pushes on it.

[Retiate]

I have the exact same problem. Right now I've got it to a tiny hissing leak after about 10 pumps, but it's enought to stop it from shooting. I've got layers of hotglue amd it's not working. I think I'm going to cover the whole thing in plumbers goop.
If anyone has solved this problem, it would be really appreciated if you could post it here.

[Forsaken angel24]

As I said in the write up, I was able to solve the problem by using constant tension springs. I have plenty of spares of the same size I used for the mod. am willing to sell 4-6 of these things for a dollar + shipping. Even though you will only need two for one magstrike.

Edited by Forsaken_angel24, 20 January 2007 - 10:16 PM.

[Gengar003]

I think you misunderstand, Angel... Borrowing the internal pic from your modification thread:

[Retiate]

Are you kidding me?!?
I've been glueing the wrong spot the entire time?!
Grrrrr....

[Forsaken angel24]

My apologies I did misunderstand. If you are still having problems because just epoxy wont hold. Try to epoxy something small to the leaking area.

Edited by Forsaken_angel24, 21 January 2007 - 12:12 AM.

[Gengar003]

Are you kidding me?!?
I've been glueing the wrong spot the entire time?!
Grrrrr....

I had to do the "stick-it-in-water-and-watch-where-the-bubbles-come-out" trick to find where it was leaking from after much frustrated listening and feeling with fingers.

And Angel... the epoxy "holds," but the air forces its way out underneath the glue. It's just as if I hot-glued a pressurized airway, except the epoxy doesn't give out as fast.

[Forsaken angel24]

So the air doesnt break the epoxy it just slips between the epoxy and the plastic? If thats the case then sand the plastic a bit. And then epoxy and give it the full 48 hours before you test it.

Edited by Forsaken_angel24, 21 January 2007 - 01:42 AM.

[Retiate]

Doesn't plumbers goop give a better seal than epoxy? I'll layer that spot in plumbers goop tonight and post the results tomorrow when it dries.

[Retiate]

Sorry for the double post, but I just got the results from the plumbers goop.

It actually helped a lot. The leak started at around 16 pumps, but it stayed at a very small air loss, so I was able to continue pumping. Though this would not work for a war since you would need to pump it 60+ times a couple minutes before you shoot someone, but it's a nice improvement. I'm going to put more plumbers goop on it tonight and see how that does.