All, I've recently been experimenting with a new venture that could have some positive side effects for this hobby. Many battlers in this hobby (myself included) like to build their own guns, or at least experiment with them. All the parts to build your guns are easily available except one - the spring. The spring is one of the most important parts to your guns and is vital for proper gun performance. Without it, the gun will fire slow or the piston may jam and the gun won't fire at all. But, not just any spring will work. The spring must be strong enough that it will return the piston quickly, but not so strong that it requires a lot of air flow to force the piston up. Now you can buy springs from Strike (expensive) or you can bulk order springs from a spring company (figure on buying over a 100 to get even decent pricing). But now, I may have a better solution. I've been experimenting the last few days with making my own gun springs. This looks to be a cheap and effective source for springs as far as I can tell. Here are a few I made today. You'll notice they are a little crooked, that's because my mandrel wasn't exactly straight. Now I've tested these in a couple of my guns and they work well. What I don't know, is if they will last. I'd like to get some battles on these springs before I even considered producing them for others. That's where you come in. I'm looking for a couple battlers that know their way around guns and battle fairly often to try these springs out and see how they perform. I'll provide you with enough springs to outfit 5 or 6 guns for the cost of shipping them to you. In return, I'd just like to know how many battles you use them for and how/if they wear any. If there are no negative side effects after a period of time then I may start selling them at an economical price. If you're interested, PM me and we'll get the details worked out. Thanks!
Sounds like a good idea, it'd be nice if some more of the cannon making tricks and sources for parts were readily available. I get the feeling most people don't like to share that.
Oh I don't know about that. If there wasn't a readily available and affordable source of cannons, I'd imagine we'd see more cannon building tutorials IMO. Since you can buy cheap base level guns from BC and Strike, let us cannon tinkerers keep some of our hard found secrets private, at least till we can no longer overcome the narcissistic desire to show the stuff off! Plastic mags anyone?
Oh, I am not looking, at least not for myself. Honestly I just buy or trade for my cannon. I understand the building of them well enough, I just don't have the time to mess with them vs just buying them from someone who does. There is some great info on the construction of them, PortPolarBear I believe has some good information, and there is a fair bit buried here in the weapons section. The details are a lot more open now than they used to be. Despite all that it is still in many ways an 'art' because of the tweaking involved, the importance of the spring, how many coils, of what gauge, of what material, etc. There is a fair bit of 'feel' to the process, and shifting seemingly minor things during construction and assembly can have a major impact. This makes their construction harder to detail in text and photo. They are easier to explain and show in person. I prefer to not be bothered by most things.
Then why do you care that there isn't a bunch of gun building info out there? Anyway, I'm still looking for guinea pigs. If you feel comfortable switching out the springs in your guns with these and battle testing them for me, PM me!
I will test your springs, they look pretty good! I post all my gun info in build threads. I have found that drilled pistons gave the single best performance boost. I'm hoping to do more extensive testing this winter with different configurations and the required velocity to get belows, but i will probably have some projects in the way.
I've been wanting to experiment with drilled pistons as well. I have found that once the piston seats, 90% of the airflow to fire the cannon has to go through the magazine. Airflow through a magazine full of bb's isn't all that great. Great! PM me your address and I'll get them shipped tomorrow.
The mag has to pressurize no matter what. Even with a drilled piston (which will get the bb to the o-ring faster), nothing happens until the entire system reaches firing pressure. As the CO2 reaches firing pressure, the gas flow is reducing constantly until it reaches almost zero. At which point, the bb pushes past the o-ring and the gas in the system expands and accelerates the bb down the barrel. It's my opinion that the gas reserve in the uptube is doing the brunt of the work of pushing the bb out of the barrel and by the time the gas back in the mag is vented the bb is well on its way.
The gun does have to pressurize before it will fire. The question is how fast does it pressurize. If you have two identical guns, which one do you think will fire faster, one that most of the air supply has to travel through a mag full of bbs, or one with a direct path through the piston?
Gas still has to get to the mag to pressurize. You can't avoid this. A drilled piston will get the bb to the restrictor marginally quicker, and so will close the circuit for pressurization a bit faster. How much faster? Were probably talking milliseconds and it would require an extensive sensored test setup to quantify. The cannon with the lowest pressurized volume will pressurize first. A 1 unit cannon will pressurize faster than a 1.5 unit for example. The gun with shorter supply lines from the solenoid to the cannon will pressurize faster. A cannon with a thicker walled mag (versus thin walled), will pressurize faster. Solenoid orifice size effects it also. Tons of variables.
The magazine does have to pressurize, yes, but if the air to pressurize the mag and the whole gun has to travel out through the mag supply hose, then back through a magazine full of bbs before the gun starts to build pressure, it will no doubt be slower to pressurize the gun than a gun with a direct air route through the piston. At least that's my belief.
Why not add a third inlet? I seem to recall mention of some hard hitting cannons having an inlet in the 90 at the top of the up-tube?
Just wanted to quick say that I'm not looking for volunteers anymore. Now it's a waiting game till next year when we can get some battles on these springs. If all goes well and there are no negative issues, these spring will be on the market sometime next year. Also wanted to say thanks to the beta testers. I appreciate you guys taking the time to try these out for me.
