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**infamoussmiley** · 05-15-2021, 07:27 PM

So this is what I started out with for Entry #2:

I wanted to do something way crazy and could compete on today's paint slinging field. I wanted Entry #2 to actually work and be resilient like a tank too.

I started the disassembly. Took the frame apart:

And then I got an idea. For those in the Merry Band of Brothers, they know about the Gen 5s. For the past 13 years, I have been building custom Tippmanns for the MBoB. Most of that arsenal consists of what the MBoB call "Smiley 98s". We were doing the WW2 games at Skirmish pretty heavily during those years. I was running the 101st Infantry and most of us were poor and couldn't afford high end electros to compete against the "angry Germans" with Eclipse and Kee sponsorships. Each year I built on average 25-30+ of these "Smiley 98s" (in a production run) that could sling paint at 16 balls per second with NO electronics. And they were legally the FASTEST markers at Skirmish during those years. Each year, some of the characteristics of the "Smiley 98s" would change like a different color scheme or improvements on the design and mods. This is where the "generation #" of the Smiley 98s came into play. From 2007 to 2011, I built Four generations of the Smiley 98s totaling 140+ of these markers.

In 2008, one of the MBoB Captains wanted a custom set up for his 98. He wanted it "back bottled". I designed it and had the back bottle ASAs machined up (4 of them). I made three prototypes. Two of them were completed and owned by the MBoB, but were never really utilized by those MBoB. One owner quit playing and the one Captain never really gave me feedback on the design. The third prototype was never completed as it was mine and I was super swamped in the shop during those years. In 2012, a Tippmann Salvo was abandoned at the shop. It had more broken parts than not. The only thing good on it was the body. Pissing around one Sunday before heading home, I pulled out the fourth back bottle ASA, and placed it on the Salvo. It kind of felt awesome, so I built up the Salvo and tricked it out pneumatically. The first chance I had to shoot it was the following week on a Combat Sim with the ROTC. HOLY Wow!! Evil. The Salvo was shooting 24 BPS (according to the chrono). And the Gen 5 Smiley 98s were born from this Salvo. Gen 5s are all back bottled and very fast firing markers. Aside from Phenoms, I never saw blow back Tippmann shoot this fast before.

I personally prefer the back bottle set up. My VM-68s are setup with back bottle ASAs. It's something about the feel of the marker with the tank as the stock. So, for Entry #2, I wanted to do something that has NEVER been done before. I was going to back bottle it and see it I could get the RT set up perfected.

So, this is the build process:

Scoping out the trigger mechanism:

What would it take to put the ASA here?

Attaching a back bottle ASA to the rear cap could be problematic with gauging how the threads will line up with the ASA and if the ASA will be level. The ASA duckbill from the bottomline on the other hand seems to fit under the rear of the receiver body of the Pro Carbine.

Sizing things up with the RT piston in mind:

This is going to have a heavy tank hanging off the ASA. Can't Epoxy the ASA into place. Can't drill and tap, and screw into place. Not enough meat to do that. Welding (tigging) is the only option.

Prepping for welding:

After some trial and error with getting the ASA angled just right and "inline" to the body, the ASA is welded into place:

I over welded, but that's okay. I wanted to be sure that the ASA and the body fused together. Last thing wanted is the ASA breaking apart from the body on the field.

I also had to modify the trigger for the RT:

Compared to the stock Pro Carbine:

Stock Trigger:

Modified Trigger:

Need to trim down the bulk of the ASA to fit better with the grip frame:

Now comes the part where I have to modify the grip frame to fit the welded on ASA:

Now that the ASA and the grip frame are "milled" with a dremel to fit together, it was now time to work on the trigger. I used a grinding wheel to smooth out and downsize the width of the trigger:

The trigger needs to fit in the center channel grove. I am decreasing the width as much as possible without compromising the weld:

What I had to do was enlarge the channel with the dremel and files:

Next, I needed a new return spring for the modified trigger since the RT piston was going to take up the space for the stock PA-34 Trigger return spring. I went to the hardware store and bought two of every type of possible spring they had that "might" work.

I had to dremel out a "hole" for the return spring and I began testing spring tensions. I needed the right amount of spring tension to get the RT to sweet spot.

Once I had the return spring and modified trigger correctly engaging the sear, I was ready for the next phase of the Trigger Assembly - installing the RT piston and clippard fittings. Since the piston itself is almost as wide as the trigger frame, this was going to need some very delicate precision with the dremel. The following are pics of the process that took about two hours to complete:

As one can see, the Piston takes over the essential realstate needed not just for the trigger return spring and pin, but also for the grip body nut. Luckily, all I had to do was move it, melt polymer, and dremel a new mount for the trigger frame body and nut.

Inside the grip frame - The new mount:

Fully assembled with the RT Piston and hardware:

Top view of the modified grip frame without the fittings so one can see the RT piston in place:

In the end, I found that the hardware store springs were either too big or TOO stiff. I found a trigger return spring from an unlikely source - left over Patriot 1 and 2 parts from the factory that we acquired about ten years ago. (We run them as rentals / loaners).

At this point, I need to drill a hole for the Clippard fitting that the "flow control" screws into from the outside. Again, delicate precision, so I took the slow road and used really sharp drill bits and a handle = drill hand tool.

AND, it's a cramped fit too:

And for the modified trigger to work with the RT piston, the trigger itself requires further modification:

And after five minutes on the grinder wheel:

But with the RT piston in "rest" position, the Piston pin is way too long:

And I can't pull the trigger back at all:

So, I carefully shortened the RT piston pin by 1/8th inch. And now the trigger can be pulled.

**infamoussmiley** · 05-15-2021, 07:28 PM

Here is the RT flow control mounted. See a problem?

The problem is the flow control is in the way of the .45 panels.

I modified the .45 panels to work with the RT flow control:

Yes, those are nice brass flat head screws

The other side of the grip frame:

For the next part of the RT assembly, I was a bit cautious as it was a "high stakes" maneuver. If my hole, not just after drilling, but also after threading was off either 1/32nd inch to the rear of the marker or 1/16th to far forward, the body would be ruined. Explanation: Too far back to the rear of the marker body, the hole will intersect with the valve body head or go past and totally FUBAR the recock ability of the marker. Too far forward, the RT will be difficult to sweet spot. Either way, the body would need to replaced and rewelded and redone for the trigger frame.

So even more delicate precision was required. Measured the lateral exhaust position of the valve in relation to the compression fitting. And remeasured. And then measured again. And then went to bed. Came back two days later and did this with a 5/32nds drill bit and handle. NO power tools. Too much room for error. Too dangerous.

And the hole so far is in the right place. Time for the 10/32nd thread tap.

And now Entry #2 is ready for assembly of internals.

But first, it was time for a bath in boiling Dawn detergent and degreaser that is not harmful towards anodizing:

And NEW screws and nuts and so forth:

There was SO much grime and grit inside of the Pro Carbine, this is what it did to the hammer:

And some light polishing:

Same as what I did for Entry #1 - Polished AND cored out the power tube:

Polished (BELOW)

Stock back of the powertube:

Cored Out for maximum flow:

And I did this to not just one, but to a bunch:

What can I say? I was bored that day

The Valve Rebuild:

Well, the techs at Tippmann have ALWAYS said that the valve cartridges are not meant to be rebuilt. They are supposed to completely swapped out instead of rebuilt because the rebuild itself can't be guaranteed. Plus, rebuild is problematic with tear down, burs, nicks, and "mashing" from the compression fitting and the valve removal from the body itself. Regardless, their are no new valves or valve bodies to be had anymore. Tippmann ran out of them back in 2013. I was able to disassemble the valve with little effort. Here is what the seals look like:

I flipped the valve seat seal on the cup seal assembly and replaced the rotted o rings (sl-25) with high grade urethane o rings. I even polished the brass valve seat too:

Fully assembled RT and Trigger Assembly:

Installing the plumbing (fittings, quick disconnect coupler, and 15 inch steel braided hose):

Upon initial assembly, Entry #2 gassed up and had no leaks. The triggering was stiff, but the marker cycled. The RT, once tuned in was sluggish and difficult to sweet spot, but it worked:

I had the RT really cranking at this point. You can see how frosty the RT is here:

But I was having troubles still. The RT piston pin was pushing itself downward and jamming under the trigger shoe. The reason for this was because the RT piston pin had no guide path like the 98 Customs and Salvos have to keep the piston pin moving straight forward. So, I disassembled and made a guide path for the piston pin with melted polymer.

Filling in the open space in front of the RT piston with molten polymer. Yes, it's fused with the trigger frame and is not going to break free. JB Weld would not be a permanent substance to use instead as it "lifts" free from the surface it is adhered / cured to over time.

And after some dremelling for the channel that allows the RT piston pin to pass through:

During the second tear down I also addressed the stiff trigger pull by eliminating a bur that was restricting trigger movement. Plus I shortened the Patriot 2 return trigger spring by two coils.

After the second assembly, Entry #2 is cycling like a angry mother fucker at 10-12 BPS; and the triggering is smooth with the RT easy to sweet spot. Woot!

The Front Bolt -

For the past year or so, I must have made over 50 Prolite / Procarbine "star fire" venturi pattern front bolts for the fleet of "free" community loaners that belong to the MBoB crew in Western PA. These were machined from tubing in a lathe and then CNCed for the star fire pattern. I even had extras and gave them out to folks to test. People were happy. Problem for me is that I can not use them for my builds as no CNC or machine work is permitted for the low brow showdown. Moreover, all of my Low Brow Showdown Pro Carbines came without front bolts. And I have none extra to scavenge for Entry #2. I did have a "vintage" star fire bolt from the 1990s, but only one to spare.

And so, I had no choice, but to go old school and make my bolt from scrap tubing with an old Black n Decker power drill that used a reemer bit, and then fine tune with a dremel:

Enlarging the scrap tube for the OD of the Pro Carbine power tube. The tubing was off from 1/16th inch.

Creatively using a reemer bit in a drill:

Now, I have been using a dremel / rotary tool of some kind since 1996. It was something that I invested a lot time learning to use. Plus, I spent a lot of what money I had on the actual rotary bits. I even clean out the local dentists every so often of old bits. BELOW is my airsmith kit for the rotary tool:

With the one ball stone bit, I concave the bolt face:

Once the face is sanded to a smooth "bowl", I then use the diamond burrs for the notch indexing that make the "star fire" venturi pattern:

After some light buffing:

The Barrel...

For the barrel, I was significantly limited. For the actual testing of Entry #2, I was limited to using a 16 in Custom Products barrel that I bought for 5$ on MCB that had the OD ground down (ugly looking too) to fit in the forearm shrouds of prolites and pro carbines.

I asked the original owner what happened. He said he used a grinder and a grinding wheel. Then he painted it black. Jebus!

The ideal would be to get a vintage Prolite barrel and use it for this project, but I could only find the one barrel. In the past, they went for $75-90 since they are considered so rare. That's nuts! I lucked into one for Entry #1 and it was a fair price. But I still needed a barrel for Entry #2. Prolites and Carbines take a 7/8 inch outer diameter barrel. Since the original 7/8th inch OD smart parts barrels are no longer available, I figured I would take some clearance Smart Parts All American barrels for the A5 that I recently bought for 15$ each and demonstrate how to turn down the barrel from a 1 inch OD to the much needed 7/8 inch OD for a Prolite / Pro Carbine. The trick being that the contest does not allow for lathes to be used. So, I went old west school - I used a vice and files, and gently filed them down to the 7/8 inch OD to fit the Procarbine/Prolite/ProAm shroud and then poor-man powder-coated (baked on spray paint) the raw aluminum to a dust black. They look really nice.

The process of turning down the OD of the barrels with files took about a movie each. What that means is I diligently worked on these as I watched Netlfix. Roughly two hours for each barrel. I did three of them... because I was in the mood and couldn't do anything else.

**infamoussmiley** · 05-15-2021, 07:29 PM

ENTRY #2 Build Process CONTINUED

For the next phase of the custom build of Entry #2, I had to conceive something that really hasn't been done before - Mount a cyclone to a Pro Carbine feed shroud. And I could not machine a bracket or 3D print one. Instead, I had to get old school again with a dremel, a shit ton of files, and a really hot flat iron for melting and sculpting polymer. Here's the final phase of the build for Entry #2.

A little preface for this one. With the RT getting the Pro Carbine cycling up to 16 BPS, a force loader was greatly needed. I could have simply attached a force feed loader like a VL Force, or a Dye Rotor, or what ever other fancy force feed loader was out there. But, nothing beats using a Cyclone with an RT because they operate on the same exhaust flow. AND, they are in tune with each other as they both function on one trigger pull at a time. It takes a lot to make the cyclone chop, where as force feeds can sometimes (not always) be problematic (from my experience).

I had one problem to overcome. If the spacing was off on the Cyclone to Breach mount, it would be chop-chop-city. I started with a spare 98 Custom Cyclone adapter mount. A5s and Phenoms and the original X7s don't have them because the cyclone feed hook is already integrated into the body shell of the marker. 98s don't have that feature which requires them to use an adapter that has the feed hook. Problem with this is that I would need to adapt the 98 Custom version of the cyclone adapter to the Pro Carbine feed shroud. Remember, 98s have the "clip in" roll pin configuration at the bottom and the "latch" for the "front sight" at the top. The Pro Carbine does not.

To make this work, I needed to make and attachment for the bottom and top of the 98 Custom Cyclone adapter. Thank you to Al Iba for the extra Pro Carbine front shroud. I gave away my original to a student who needed it for his problematic Pro Carbine build project. This is where I started:

Envisioning how the Cyclone adapter needs to line up with the Pro Carbine shroud:

Committing to the action:

And I'm not going to throw away the feed neck as I will need it for melting into malleable molten polymer for modifying the Pro Carbine shroud and mounts.

Measuring again:

Needed more to come off.

And now it seems just about right with how the ball feed ports line up.

Now, the "clip-on" roll pin ports need to be installed / MADE. After careful measuring:

And using the remnants of the feed neck to melt into globs of molten polymer:

JB Weld would only be a temporary solution to use as it eventually "lifts" away from the surface it is adhered to. Plus, the polymer has a sense of Teflon no stick to it to make them easier to clean. Just boil in hot water and Dawn dish detergent and anything but melted and reshaped polymer will break free or begin to break free.

Continuing the process of adding a few grams of molten polymer at a time:

By this point, I am using a 90 watt solder iron with a sharp point to melt the polymer into the Pro Carbine shroud. This is how I fuse the chunks of plastic to the polymer of the Pro Carbine shroud.

Once I had the shape of the roll pin mounts, I needed to carefully drill the holes without creating slop or cock-eyed shenanigans. I used a drill bit and installed one hole at a time by hand. Yes, it took a bit of time, but careful is sometimes time consuming. I didn't mind. I was watching Netflix.

And bottom mounts are attached and ready for the cyclone adapter.

I needed a cyclone. I had a "for parts" A5 that I salvaged a cyclone from for the build of Entry #2:

For the top latch for the Cyclone adapter to Pro Carbine front shroud, I needed to devise a way to "latch" it to the shroud. I thought of using the Generation 1 and 2 feed neck of the Carbine and cannibalize the bracket latch, but I could not find one in a timely manner. So, I devised a simple bracket the would be held down with screws.

First, I had to build up the surface of the Pro Carbine to be level with the Cyclone adapter with molten polymer:

I had some aluminum strips from doing custom trim work. I used a piece of this material as the bracket to hold the Cyclone adapter to the Pro Carbine shroud. But I had one problem with this idea being that the polymer was not really good and retaining threads under tension. So, I heli coiled with 10/32nds heli coil.

And the extra polymer I added gives the helicoil extra depth and strength to hold the bracket in place.

It's not pretty, but for now, it works. Given more time, I would devise a "Quick Release". Time for some black spray paint:

Add a "D" ring for a new sling mount:

And more black spray paint:

Pics of the shroud before the bracket attached:

Fully assembled front shroud:

And this is what's left of the original feed neck. I used that much polymer

Lacquering the new homemade .45 grips:

And Installed with new brass flat head screws:

**infamoussmiley** · 05-15-2021, 07:30 PM

FINAL ASSEMBLIES:

Before I post the pictures of the finished products of Entry #1 and Entry #2, I first need to clarify that no machining, CNC, 3D printing was used. I used sand paper, dremels (rotary tools), hot irons for plastic welding, and a tigg welder. Oh, and files. I get pretty serious with files:

I do a lot of my work with files. There's something about the intimacy a file creates between the worker and the piece he is fabricating. Anyhu...

For Entry #1, it is a Low Brow build of a Pro Carbine using the conventional methods of upgrading a rental Pro Carbine for today's paintball field with what is available today. Here are the final assembly pictures:

Please keep in mind that I gave away half of the bits for this Pro Carbine so others could fix their own Pro Carbines. I had to "make do" with what I could get to finish this build.

**infamoussmiley** · 05-15-2021, 07:32 PM

The FINAL ASSEMBLY pictures for Entry #2 (which has now been dubbed, "The Padre Killer"). Inside joke with Pastor Adam Stump and his Pro Carbine build.

I am having troubles with getting video, but I have "The Padre Killer" (Entry #2) cycling with the RT and Cyclone at 16 BPS. Fuck!!! And it's not chopping paint either. I'm using different kinds of paint too. NO CHOPS! It's 28 degrees F here in West PA and I am using a 20 oz CO2 tank. Wow!!!! This rifle is awesome.

Pics, Pics, Pics!!

Shroud moves forward to reveal breach and home made front bolt:

And Entry #2 (The Padre Killer) is so balanced, it stands by itself:

**infamoussmiley** · 05-15-2021, 07:47 PM

FINAL PICTURES of both Entries. (Entry #2 is The Padre Killer):

**infamoussmiley** · 05-15-2021, 07:47 PM

So, it has been something like 4.5 years since the contest. Both Carbines still work great. I have used the RTed Carbine called "The Padre Killer" more. It is a great sleeper. Most folks that have seen it action tend to disregard the marker since it is a crusty Pro Carbine at first glance. Then the "Ching, Ching, Ching, Ching, Ching, Ching, Ching, Ching, Ching, Ching, Ching!" of the RT kicks in and then folks tend to ask questions like "WTF is that thing!" Funny stuff! No one really understands or appreciates what really goes into make The Padre Killer so vicious.

Still have not chopped paint in it yet. I have shot at least two cases of paint through it since the ending of the contest.

The downside of the marker is that it is so time consuming to make more. And very cost prohibitive too. The RT bits and cyclone are expensive if a donnor is not readily available. And let's not talk about the discontinued bits like 1/8th inch banjos. Suck, Suck City!

Placement of the RT and Cyclone exhaust is critical. Too far forward, or too far back and the body is ruined.

The back bottle set up is the real take away from the build. I tigged a few more bodies to be back bottled Carbines. With how cheap O rings are, the one youth group is going to rock them very well.

Any Questions, just ask

Enjoy

All the best,

Smiley

**infamoussmiley** · 05-15-2021, 08:03 PM

BretG :-P

**MattV** · 05-16-2021, 02:35 AM

Damn, lengthy post but well worth the read. Nice work!

**Meleager7** · 05-16-2021, 09:39 AM

I started off enjoying this post, until the lack of pictures really de-railed it for me! 😋

Announcement

RTed Tippmann Pro Carbine from Low Brow Showdown Contest Entry #1 and Entry #2

RTed Tippmann Pro Carbine from Low Brow Showdown Contest Entry #1 and Entry #2

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