Could a classic mag regulator piston be safely rebuilt?

[caylegeorge]

I'm way more annoyed than I should be having to replace the reg pistons on my mags every X years when the urethane discs go bad...

Now bear with me here -

I fully understand that the reg piston assembly is designed to vent at a pre-set pressure for safety. I also understand that essentially the moment you take it apart, the setting is "lost" and therefore it is no longer safe once reassembled by feel/look.

But, could you take the reg piston assembly apart, replace the polyurethane disc and then reassemble it and test it such that it was safe?

What pressure are they set to vent at?

...If you could test it, and have it set to that same pressure to vent, that would be safe would it not?

----


So I was thinking, what if you did this:

Rebuild the regulator piston with a new urethane disc.

Set the locking screw in the piston looser than factory (so that you are starting with a piston that vents at a lower pressure)

Re-assemble your automag AIR valve, BUT, bypass/disable the regulator by removing the regulator valve pin and the regulator seat.

Put valve in gun and lock in place with thumbscrew.

Now, use a regulated air source into the input of mag (like a palmer's inline reg) and gradually increase the pressure until the Regulator piston starts to vent.

Record that pressure, de-gas marker, remove piston, tighten piston screw, reassemble, re-test....

Wash repeat until you arrive at the desired piston vent pressure.


Thoughts? 😜

[tunaman5]

considering all the cash we all spend on paintball items, is messing with the 18.00 reg piston worth it? I say no. It is there for your own safety. Even I don't mess with them. They last virtually forever.

[DocsMachine]

considering all the cash we all spend on paintball items, is messing with the 18.00 reg piston worth it? I say no. It is there for your own safety. Even I don't mess with them. They last virtually forever.

-While I can more or less agree, there will likely come a time, and probably in the not too distant future, where replacements no longer exist. And in order to keep using the older markers, one will have to fix things in this type of manner.

Doc.

[Jordan]

ANS Genx2 regs use a similar piston and it would be nice to be able to repair them. I'm interested in seeing if this could be done.

[caylegeorge]

Yeah, I guess my question was not so much considering the economics, but more so if the method sounded safe and sane.

[lew]

With regulators being what they are today, is it absolutely necessary to have an overpressure release in the Automag regulator?

[Grendel]

Sure it is permissible to rebuild these pistons. I would not hesitate for a moment to do so if I needed a replacement. That said you need to take responsibility for what you are doing and learn how to do it correctly. If I can rebuild a high pressure steam valve a little reg. piston does not intimidate me nor should it you. If you have the time, knowledge and skill to rebuild it go for it. I have not done so because I have replaced only 2 reg pistons in all the time I've owned mags (I was an early purchaser from Tom when he was hawking personally). Both of those reg.s were associated with migration from CO2 to HPA in the early days.

Lew I'm with you there really is not need for the overpressure protection with a Mag that is on HPA because your bottle reg is handling that issue. Now if you are on CO2 the overpressure protection in the Mag's valve could be important if their isn't another reg. inline.

[Olsson]

The possibility to repair or service any part, on any paintball gun, is greatly appreciated for all of us who doesn't live within reasonable mailing distance of the U.S.A. It is annoying beyond belief, to be force to pay shipping, tolls, fees, and whatnot up to ten times the value of whatever screw, gasket, o-ring, or other small part you might need, and is utterly impossible to get hold of over here.

So what might seem like a foolish exercise and completely needless for you guys, might be the best, cheapest and fastest option for a lot of paintball enthusiasts. In fact, if I was eligible to vote in any U.S. election, I would gladly vote for the resurrected zombie of Hitler for dictator for eternity, as long as he promised to implement the metric system immediately, while simultaneously implement a slow and painful death penalty for using the imperial system.

[Jordan]

With regulators being what they are today, is it absolutely necessary to have an overpressure release in the Automag regulator?

It's my understanding that it's there as a safety net... if the reg seat were to fail, Automags will shoot dangerously high at full bottle pressure.

I still think it's a viable component to Automags.

[lew]

Got it. Never really thought about it before.

[caylegeorge]

Can the dump chamber handle 1000+ psi? For some reason I had assumed the safety measure was against the dump chamber blowing out, versus crazy hot velocity.

[Jordan]

Can the dump chamber handle 1000+ psi? For some reason I had assumed the safety measure was against the dump chamber blowing out, versus crazy hot velocity.

The Classic valve is able to handle 3000psi input, apparently, although I'm not 100% sure that includes the dump.

That's another reason AGD took so long to develop an aluminum valve - TK wanted the valve to be able to handle several thousand psi input, and until 7xxx series aluminum was developed, aluminum couldn't do it.

[LukeAO]

I would assume the reason it is advised not to rebuild these is because the average guy isn't setup to properly re-calibrate the proper blow-off pressure(?) It doesn't look like it would be all that difficult to build a test setup to rebuild these properly.

[DocsMachine]

With regulators being what they are today, is it absolutely necessary to have an overpressure release in the Automag regulator?

-On the one hand, it's a safety device. I'd be a bit hesitant to disable such things entirely.

On the other hand, it was developed back in the CO2 days, and as Grendel notes, HPA is considerably more stable, and without the 'liquid' issues.

On the third hand (I was never very good at anatomy) tank regs, too, can leak, overpressuring the whole system.

On the fourth hand, the chances that the tank reg and the valve reg both fail at the same time, is generally pretty low. Not impossible, but certainly very low.

On the... fifth hand? If the tank reg does fail, these days the weak link in the system is the macroline, which will generally blow out at less than 2,000 psi, which the typical 'Mag reg can handle without significant issue.

So honestly? I see no reason you can't crack one open and swap the seal, as long as you're willing to go through the effort of "recalibrating" it.

Doc.

[Alexndl]

Good FMEA right there,
Also occurance is never 0 as you pointed out (unlikely yes but never impossible)

[lew]

Couldn't a pressure relief valve be installed somewhere pre-regulator or am I missing something?

[DocsMachine]

Couldn't a pressure relief valve be installed somewhere pre-regulator or am I missing something?

-Wouldn't do the same job. The factory overpressure vent is to keep the chamber pressure from climbing too high. An add-on popoff of some kind would have to be tapped into the post-reg-seat system, such as screwed into the side of the valve body like a "Magic Box" pipe.

Now, if you disabled the body reg, as some people have, in order to run a foregrip reg, then you could screw the popoff into the VASA, or 'tee' it off the macroline-to-body fitting, etc.

Not sure you'd be able to find a nice, compact, 450-psi rated blowoff valve that isn't close to the size of a roll of quarters though.

Doc.