Making the Qloader actually work

[L I T O]

6 prewinds is a bit much and after troubleshooting and understanding the Qloader internals. I found out why I am not not getting a full 100 rounds and it sometimes getting stuck. The Circular gear teeth are stuck half way and does not unload after depressing it. What can I do to prevent the nut at the bottom of the central rod from getting stuck on either end? Will DOW 33 lube help with the nut unscrewing when compressed against the washers and o-ring? Or what else can be done?

[Levi]

L I T O You want to make sure that nut spins freely on the threaded rod. With time and moisture, the threads can start corroding. First and foremost make sure the threads are clean. I use a little light oil on the threads (it doesn't take much). Also with the age these are getting to it doesn't hurt to put fresh O-rings on. I have a few pods that have O-rings starting to get a little mushy to the point they've caused feed stoppages.

Now, regarding the teeth in the pod not disengaging... this brings back a memory from waaay back when I first tried messing with Q-loaders in 2006 or so. I remember setting it up on a cocker using the standard socket at first and it worked really well. Then I changed it around a bit to use the CMS, and encountered frequent feed stoppages (multiple times per pod). I remember spending a decent bit of time trying to sort the issue out and vaguely remember thinking that the center pin in the CMS was a little too short. I did switch back to the standard socket and the problem went away. I never fully solved the issue, as other life events soon distracted me away from paintball for a number of years. When I later dove back into Qloaders, I bought a new setup as my original was sitting in a storage unit in another state.

My unproven theory is that those early Custom Mounting Sockets had a too short center pin. Do you have dial or digital calipers? I'd be curious what your center pin measures from the surface that seats against the socket to the tip?

Also, for what it's worth...6 pre-winds isn't terribly high in my experience.

[Havok]

I wanma thank Levi for getting me hooked by showing me the qloader at supergame this year. I got one, i fiddled, i faddled. It works BUT i noticed something. I have two types of pods. One with a darker internals and the other a lighter internals. The darker ones can do fullauto but the lighter struggle and i keep it at semi. When loading i can feel the lighter ones having a weaker tension on the spring. Is there a way to make em stronger?

[Levi]

I wanma thank Levi for getting me hooked by showing me the qloader at supergame this year. I got one, i fiddled, i faddled. It works BUT i noticed something. I have two types of pods. One with a darker internals and the other a lighter internals. The darker ones can do fullauto but the lighter struggle and i keep it at semi. When loading i can feel the lighter ones having a weaker tension on the spring. Is there a way to make em stronger?

Howdy! That's a cool setup!

It sounds like you need to adjust the pre-winds in your troublesome pods. I talk a little about this in post #3 of this thread. Also, this old Hustle Paintball video shows a decent walkthrough of the process. While you are at it, make sure the threads of the rotation limiters are clean and move smoothly. Dirty or corroded threads will add friction to the pod's rotation and can cause erratic feeding. To get a baseline reference you can try unwinding one of your good feeding pods while counting the number of pre-winds. From what I recall... the pods shipped from the factory with 10 pre-winds. In general I try to keep the pre-winds as low as possible while still feeding reliably.

[Havok]

Howdy! That's a cool setup!

It sounds like you need to adjust the pre-winds in your troublesome pods. I talk a little about this in post #3 of this thread. Also, this old Hustle Paintball video shows a decent walkthrough of the process. While you are at it, make sure the threads of the rotation limiters are clean and move smoothly. Dirty or corroded threads will add friction to the pod's rotation and can cause erratic feeding. To get a baseline reference you can try unwinding one of your good feeding pods while counting the number of pre-winds. From what I recall... the pods shipped from the factory with 10 pre-winds. In general I try to keep the pre-winds as low as possible while still feeding reliably.

Yes, i spoke to someone and showed me the same video. I miss understood your prewind portion. I did fix one pod already. Im gunna test the others and then adjust them. Thanks again. Know anyone sellin pods?

[Levi]

Know anyone sellin pods?

Hit up rutz777 the remaining inventory of new old stock Qloader stuff ended up in his hands. He has a posting in the dealer section.
https://mcarterbrown.com/forum/buy-s...der-kits/page2

[coaram94]

Smart people — is this just a pre-wind issue? Notice how the pod will only spin/feed more balls with a slight shake of the system.

Background — recently bought the Q-loader (new old stuck bundle) off eBay, feeling inspired to turn the longbow into qbow. Watched some YouTube tutorials the other night, tried to shoot this morning, but the pod would not feed balls, i.e. the spring was not pushing more balls into the feed tube. I had pre-wound them to 10 turns. Prior to this, they had been in the box from eBay for who knows how long. I blended some balls in this first run trying to “re-engage” the pod by turning it back and forth multiple times while in the socket (not a good idea). Now I’ve pre-wound 15 times and this was the result.

Video too large for upload, Google Drive link below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1irK...w?usp=drivesdk

[coaram94]

I tried adding a few more turns for the spring and now I’m back at my original problem — I insert the pod, it engages the spring, but then only the balls in the tube feed and breech fire because the Q-pod isn’t backfilling the feed tube, i.e. I can’t get the balls to leave the Q-pod and start moving into the feed tube.

[Levi]

coaram94
That doesn't look like a pre-wind issue. You either have binding going on in the pod, or the balls are getting stuck as they make the transition from the pod into the socket. Check the O-ring on the travel limiter inside the pod. The original O-rings are old enough to start deteriorating and I've found a few of mine getting floppy enough to fold around inside and bind things up. Also make sure your travel limiter nut spins smoothly on the threads. If you remove the pod when it stops feeding does it remain stuck? The ones I've had with O-ring issues remained stuck after removal from the socket. If it remains stuck, try using the loading socket to turn the pod and see how it feels. Does it feel like there is resistance and then you break through and the pod spins freely again? Are all of your pods doing the same thing, or do you have some that work without trouble?

To troubleshoot the transition from pod to socket, remove your feed hose from the socket and keep the black "top hat" piece in the socket. Load up a pod and with your thumb over the socket outlet, lock the pod into place. Carefully let a ball or two out at a time and see if the pod stops feeding. If you can get it to stop feeding, look closely at what's happening with the ball exiting the pod... is it getting pinched against the socket? What happens if you change the angle that the black "top hat" sits at?

[coaram94]

Thanks for all the info. I just spent another 2 hours and am still not successful. The spring fed 20 round magazine for this longbow keeps looking more and more attractive!!!

A few things:

1. The nut on the spring was hard to move. On both pods I’m testing, I was able to work them loose enough to get them hand tight and dropped a little tri flo on them to prevent them from self tightening again.
2. Pod 1 I’ve been messing around with a ton. Pod 2 was stock and I didn’t make any changes.
3. A lot of my tests, I’d only load 15ish balls in. I think this is a mistake as it doesn’t trip the threshold of engaging the spring when I insert the pod into the mount with only a few turns of loading balls in.
4. I have 2 adapters that the pod can go into. 1 has the bracket already on it, and the other is the one that fits on the q-bow that came installed on my Tac One. I’ve been using the bracket adapter primarily to test with because the adapter that has different plastic molding (not bracket one) is attached to my mag. I noticed they have a different “prong” to engage the spring. For a while there, I thought that may have been my problem because all tests worked when I used the bracket adapter. By worked I mean I’d slide the pod in, it would engage, the spring would wind, a ball would be pressed against the inner bracket wall, I’d spin the pod, and then all the balls would rip out of the adapter into a bag I had below (as the q-loader should work!).
5. I’d then reload the pod, do nothing differently, attach the pod into the adapter on my mag, it would spin up, I’d then rotate the pod, and alas it still wouldn’t feed into the feed tube in my gun (no backfill pressure from any balls behind the one in the opening of the pod).
6. I’d try these tests with no balls, i.e. just wind the pods up and insert into both adapters to ensure the spring component worked and it would, for both. No problems there.
7. I removed the adapter and feed tube from the gun, and even the “hat” that could prevent a ball from feeding from the pod into the feed tube…

HERE IS THE ISSUE:

Pod engages in the adapter, spring spins, the lead ball gets pressed forward against the inner adapter wall, I then spin the pod to the “ready” position… and nothing happens. In theory, that ball should exit because there is no force against it holding it in place anymore (previously it was the inner wall of the pod) and then the spring should backfill balls behind it. I cannot get the spring to continue to apply pressure after that initial “spin up” after inserting the pod into the adapter (prior to spinning the pod into “ready” position).

I’ve now broke paint about half a dozen times in these pods. Then have to clean, reload, and try again.

Thoughts?

[coaram94]

Just to try it… I would up to 18 spins. The whole pod shot! I broke a couple balls near the end. I’ve also been using the same paint over and over again in my testing and it was getting pretty dimpled/not symmetrical so I figured that would happen.

Still a few times I had to shake it/move the system to get the balls to feed, but most of the time I heard the balls feeding on its own into the feed tube.

Does correlation equal causation in this case… I don’t think I’m smart enough to answer that question. But it did renew my hope that I can keep tinkering with it!

Question for you Levi and any others that have used a q-loader a good bit. How much of a variable is the paint outside of the obvious good paint vs bad paint. Are you setting a spring pre-wind setting once it works for your setup and it works independent of the paint you’re using that day?