Levi I just picked one of these up from Supernova.... Might have to have you start modelling and printing some adapters for those of us still willing to rock one! I had one way back in the day on a Spec Ops Longbow/Qbow.
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Finished a couple more Q-Tools a while back. Because I can't make up my mind there are now 4 versions.
Top row from left to right - Knob, Mini Key, and Key. At bottom is the "Driver" which is modeled on an old Craftsman screwdriver I use frequently. The Key style is proving particularly nice for pre-winding pods because it's easy to hang onto and count the turns. The Mini Key is nice and compact for bringing on the field.
STL's for anyone who wants to print their own:
Q-POD TOOLS.zipLast edited by Levi; 11-03-2023, 01:20 AM.Comment
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Ok, this is cool...
The Custom Mounting Sockets (CMS) are the preferred choice because you can clock the feed port to whatever angle you need. Way better than the standard socket. The downfall of the CMS is the way they are designed causes them to be prone to cracking. The root of the problem is that the body of the CMS is held to the mounting bracket by the metal center pin and this places all the stress at the center of the back wall of the socket body. This is where the cracks start and work out from there.
A few months ago I was really looking closely at these and the other sockets in my stash when I realized something. The body of the CMS and the body of the loading sockets came out of the same mold. All the molded features were exactly the same, even the parting lines left from the mold matched exactly. The only difference between the two is the boss that holds the crank handle has been machined away to create the CMS body.
Shown below: CMS left - loading socket right
Last edited by Levi; 11-05-2023, 11:06 AM.Comment
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I got to test this idea out today.
That's about as close as it gets to a "like new" CMS these days. I would wager that there are more crack free loading sockets out there than the custom mounting sockets at this point. This could be a viable solution to keep the die-hard Qloader fans going. I'm really happy with how this turned out.Comment
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Back 15 years ago I had qloader pushing 32 bps on a spyder shutter with spyder rocking e trigger with a custom board it came with eyes but I the acs antichop bolt did its job after 30 bps it would just uncock instead of chop paint. And I had a 40mm scepter grenade launcher. But fuck it blew valve Owings almost every time I shot it 🤣 ....then it all got stolen 😔Comment
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Tippmann adapter!
I got this in a box of stuff from a member here. It's going to be heading up the road to another member soon. But before I let it go, I wanted to create a 3D printable version to make available for all.
Step one is to create a model of the parts as-is... I will modify from here to make it more friendly to being printed. The original parts look to be die-cast aluminum & the wall thickness is too thin to make a durable part when printed. I will probably integrate the elbow (not shown) into the "printer friendly" part so I can thicken it up in the appropriate areas.
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I have a little cleanup to do still, but something about like this for a printable adapter might work.
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Awesome, liked this thread enough, I had to register. I thought I had an account previously, but was not able to recover it. This has inspired me to bust out the Qloader I purchased for a project that has gone long unfinished. I always liked the concept and enjoy a challenge. Now of course I wished I had picked up more pieces. I only have one CMS. I do happen to have an extra loading socket and now a way to make a spare if needed. Great to see members of the community run with the creation of 3D print models as well!Comment
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You may have had a previous account. The original MCB died in 2017 (I think?) after a ransomware attack. So we're rebuilding. -
Hey welcome (back) to MCB! Yeah, like Brokeass_baller said... the whole forum got restarted a few years ago due to a ransomware attack. I was a member back in the day and only came back in the last year myself. Would be cool to see some more Q-loaders in action. -
Thank you. Good to be back Damn ransomware. Seems a lot of content must have been recovered. Kudos to all those that have been working on rebuilding. I have managed to do some tinkering with my pieces parts, but won't clutter up this thread. I did manage to find a crack developing in my working CMS. However, not in the place I would suspect. I also happened upon a really old video for strengthening CMS. I will post here just in case others have not seen. https://youtu.be/KiQYYQ4fCUY?si=svFY-KrUJKm9c-_5Last edited by SwinGenX; 12-26-2023, 05:53 PM.
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I have tried 4 diffrent qloadsr set ups on my ats 85, one with it feeding into the hopper neck chain fed mag which obviously works the best and dosnt give me any chops, then I have the one with warped touristfeed I 3d printed with a zeta mag in it, but I see you said you do 10 winds and you looks like you have 2 90dagree angles on your setup but my balls in my qpod get stuck is they are any thing below 14 winds I tried a setup with no hose and just mounted directly into thr warped tourist feeder and seems to work okay but I'm not getting 20 bps , still get chops on 10 bps.
I tried with halo b hopper and it works really wellComment
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I'm really interested in getting a Qloader, posted WTB, but I don't have much hope seeing how these are pretty much unobtainium.
I also checked patents ... two patents that hit on "qloader" or "q-loader" aren't relevant to the loader discussed here ... so I wander if this is in public domain now. BTW, unless you are making parts for sale, I don't believe that patent would prevent you from printing your own.
I'm still fuzzy on how the extracted balls go from hopper into linear order (tube) I can see that rotary strips them, then the snail pattern in the receptacle makes them lined up into a line, but that doesn't make great sense when I am modeled a prototype.
Would anyone be open to loan one to me for modeling? I can put up cash as assurance or meet you if you are close to Boston area?Comment
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Hi Boris!Originally posted by _Boris_ View Post
If RAZRBAKK doesn't have one for you, I probably have enough extra stuff to set you up, or at least get really close. I have seen a couple pop up on eBay within the last year, so they're still out there but not common. I think every so often a former paintballer cleans out their closet and these pop up.
Patent wise, anything that was there is most likely expired. These first hit the market 20+ years ago. Even if you did make and sell some parts I wouldn't expect any trouble.
The Q-Pods are a really ingenious design. The balls are not all in one line that is wrapped around into a coil. There are 6 "stacks" of balls in the pod that wrap around the center axis to form a helix. Picture the DNA double helix, but it's 6 instead of 2. Now look at the screw that runs down the center of the pods... this screw stays stationary and the six helically wrapped stacks rotate around the stationary screw and are driven toward the end of the pod. The stacks are timed so they present their next ball at the correct elevation by the time the stack comes around to the outlet port. So one complete revolution gives you six balls. The rotor piece rotates with the stacks of balls, so each stack has its own dedicated paddle on that rotor. This rotor strips the ball off the stack at the outlet port and imparts the driving force to the balls in your feed tube.
Printing a functional and durable pod might be difficult, but the sockets and accessories are definitely doable. Would be cool to have another Q-Loader tinkerer in here. I look forward to seeing what you come up with. And welcome to MCB!
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Thank you!Originally posted by Levi View Post
I looked into the design once before and I am familiar with other screw driven mags for FAs (bizon, calico), but paintballs are a bit different and you can't squeeze them too much. Technically, you just need two surfaces at an angle to propel balls (or rounds) forward, so the inner tube could be lined with straight grooves, as long as inner screw surface at an angle to them, that should be enough, why they have both inner and outer at opposite angle, I'm not sure.
I think that Ancient Innovations put quiet a bit of thought into it. I'm not entirely sure why they did what they did, but I'd love to look into the pod and see if there are other methods could be used to fabricate different length or capacity magazines. 3D printing is one technique, but also laser cut plastic parts can be bent and shaped / glued for bigger surfaces from sheet ABS or UHMW.
I think that Qloader may be was a great idea at a wrong time, things like that happen, unfortunately. 20+ years later there is more tech available that wasn't back then like much higher capacity LiPos (for electrically driven mags) and faster/cheaper chips. Same electronic board footprint, I can ran a webserver on it today.
I am really looking forward eventually finding a setup and playing with it. I know that there were issues with qloaders and I think that feed system through various adapters was probably an issue. I'd love to build a custom marker that's custom to the loader. I think that theoretical limit on them was 40-50bps. If they can really feed that, it would be awesome to have a marker match that.Comment
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If I were to guess why the tube is at an opposing angle to the screw instead of straight... Looking at it in my hand the angle of the helix on the "tube" is roughly perpendicular to the direction the ball travels as it is pushed around and up the "screw". So its more of a wall pushing the ball like this: |O >> where the straight channel would end up pushing the ball more like this: /O >>. I could see it being gentler on paint than the straight channel. The other possibility that comes to mind is marketing... the helix looks cooler especially when rotating.Originally posted by _Boris_ View Post
Overall I've been fairly pleased with the pods, the sockets and accessories can leave a bit to be desired though. There's much that can be improved and re-engineered given interest, ability, and time. My limiting factor is time right now. Much like you I had (still have) dreams of making a fully custom marker built to accept the Q-Loader pods directly. My Q-Mag in this thread was meant to be a first step in this direction and something I could get onto the field with much less effort than anything full custom.
Looks like you have a few responses between your WTB and this thread for buying a whole setup. If none of those pan out, I could send you a beat up old pod at the very least so you could start modeling some of your concepts. Qloaders are pretty cool once you get around their faults. There are some gameplay advantages too with the low profile and the loader not caring if it's right side up or not.
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