Making the Qloader actually work

[Levi]

It really wouldn't be too hard to make that happen. I have some preliminary stuff modeled up in Solidworks. When I get around to making that aluminum socket I'll probably print a couple iterations first anyway.

[GingerBreadPaint]

Never fully grasped how to use a Q-loader. But this guide has convinced my to dig my Tipx drum mag project back out and give it another try (when I actually have time to work on projects again). Problem I kept having was the last ball would always chop with out fail. Now I have an actual list of things I can try, checking prewind, may not have given a half turn when I loaded, or I just built it wrong and the spacing was off by half a ball.

[uv_halo]

Please post up anything you think could be helpful. I remember reading a lot of your posts back when I was actively trying to sort this thing out.

Also... I was running the pre-winds around 7 ish. So we are in the same ballpark there.

You addressed many of the same things I did- For the elbow issue, I had a custom, tall-feedneck made (by Tarantula Customs) and I used the pro-team warp adapter. This allowed me to cut down the height of the feedneck until my stack was the right height and not bound up (the pro-team warp feed adapters also do not have a 90deg inner radius).

Something that may turn out to work better for you is that you're using a left feed. I never used one, most people didn't so, there may be a slight geometry difference (IRT the detents, etc) that migh make this side feed a bit better suited.

For loading the pods, I used a Viewloader 300rd Tripod (which needs a new home) that I had a strap attached to and slung it over my shoulder (like a bag), I had a length of hose that put the socket down by my waist and allowed me to load sitting or standing.

[Levi]

Nice find! That adapter is pretty sweet too. Siress The one I remember seeing was a homemade job. I'm certain there wasn't a factory 50 rd Q-pod. Heck, this could be the same one for all I know.

[Carp]

Siress most definitely, I've never seen or heard of a factory 50rd Q-pod. I'm still searching MCB and UMS, using the wayback machine, looking for any write-up for it.

[Siress]

Possible - but even just having a source of 3D printed sockets with reinforcements where needed would be huge. At present, I'd never adopt a qloader due to the fragility and scarcity - so solving the scarcity would get someone like me back on board.

[Siress]

looks like someone just cobbled it together out of a standard one.

[Carp]

Not what you mentioned but, proof the 50rd Q-pod exists. 😉

https://sellswordspaintball.com/prod...-qpod-adapter/

[Levi]

would be interesting to see if you could make 50 round pods for a more compact setup.

I can swear I've seen one done somewhere. It was way back... like 2007ish give or take. It was on one of the forums, don't remember which. A 50 would be pretty sweet.

[Levi]

I think it may be worthwhile talking about what your usage pattern and conditions are.

Yeah, for sure. My recent usage was at Supergame which saw a pretty good mix of play. There were periods of aggressive "front" type play, and other periods of nothing fired for 10+ minutes on the field. I didn't make any efforts to keep the pod disengaged while not in use. I loaded up at the campsite (Supergame is a 3day event with camping on site) and locked the pod in before making the walk up to the field. I'm certain there were periods of at least 30 minutes of pod engaged without a shot fired.

I have experienced the situation of balls becoming compressed before like you describe... however that was pre-hiatus and I don't remember the details of how things were setup well enough to be of any use today.

I think your point about heat and humidity is very relevant. I'm in western Oregon and we aren't desert dry, I'd call it moderate humidity. I've experienced North Carolina and that is a completely different world to someone who's used to Oregon weather. I assume Virginia is similar.

I'm not sure I'd have the same results with the humidity you have out there. I might start taking note of temp and humidity and see if there's a correlation with performance issues.

Please post up anything you think could be helpful. I remember reading a lot of your posts back when I was actively trying to sort this thing out.

Also... I was running the pre-winds around 7 ish. So we are in the same ballpark there.

[Chemical-x.....ahain]

This is the best write up I've ever seen on them.

My only issue I ever had was getting the terribly designed "silo" to work as intended.

[uv_halo]

I think it may be worthwhile talking about what your usage pattern and conditions are. I say this because I had one for a couple years and, I ran into many of the same problems and solutions you did (breach stack height, using a warp feed adapter instead of the Qloader one, tuning the number of balls in the feed tube, fixed feed tube length, reducing pre-winds, etc). One of the final nails in the coffin for me is that I could get it working in my apartment flawlessly and absolutely ripping (I'll link a video here later) and when I took it out the field, the very next day, with the same case of paint (RPS Marballizer when they were putting out their best product), it was nothing but blending.

I surmise that the reason came down to two factors to me:

1. I'm a sneaky player, when a game starts, I may go several minutes before I start shooting (i.e. as I'm doing a deep, J-hook flank). With my pod engaged (because you never know when you may make contact), the drive spring is continuously pushing on the balls in the stack and, the ball in the breach gets slightly compressed and / or dimpled and, now more than one ball fits in the breach and the second shot gets clipped by the bolt and it's all over at that point, and also, now an odd number of balls fits in the feed tube and you can clip the balls in the socket end.
2. I tended to play in the warmer months and, here in Virginia, that means more humid too. Heat and humidity make the balls softer which means the aforementioned problem happens even more readily.

I'm confident that if I played speedball (shooting seconds after the break and not really stopping until the end of the match) or similar matches, the qloader would've done a lot better. I had the pre-winds all the down to six and I still had this problem. If I went lower they didn't feed reliably (to include stopping enough for a gap in the feed tube appearing, and then starting again with a bump or such and cracking balls in the stack.

The only setup that worked reliably for me was a direct mount on my SP-1 (over the top) with the Winds at six or maybe 1-2 lower (I can't remember for sure), unfortunately, it was ungainly, it defeated the primary reason I used it (getting the hopper off the top), and I had already migrated my Woodstalker Ion over to the Warp Feed and, a year or two after that, FS rounds came out.

I always wondered about the Qloader SSI and how well it did /does (I suspect a lot of the used pod market would be going towards keeping those guns relevant).

[JeeperCreeper]

I do have one in a box. Some of the pods fed wonderfully, and others always gave me trouble. I had it on my Blackcell Ion, and with the virtue board and ramping, that thing sounded like a m134. But I took it off mostly because I didnt like the balance. It would be interesting to see if you could make 50 round pods for a more compact setup.

[Levi]

I hope you can get it dialed in. When they are working right it is awesome. Feel free to hit me with any questions that arise.

[iamthelazerviking]

Never have used one, never will, but I can appreciate this in-depth breakdown. Awesome info, fun to read!