Anyone still selling or threading Phantom Valve Body for gauge

[gogi19]

Just getting in to stock class and I like the looks and practicality of VSC Phantoms with the rear gauge. I emailed Air Soldier to see if they plan on doing a restock or one off but in the meantime was wondering if anyone knows of a shop that has or individual that wants to sell a gauge ready valve body. Thanks !

[jetenginekyle]

How confident with a drill are you?

https://www.amazon.com/Drill-America-POU1-8NPTW-DRILL/dp/B01M4RXY21/ref=sr_1_3

[gogi19]

Haha fairly competent, but this was my last option on the list though. I would be upset if my phantom came out looking snaggle toothed. I could use it as a justification to finally get a drill press though ...or to model and 3d print a drill jig

[Carp]

ASP Have Blue may be still taking that works. It's a side gig but, steady pace. Bout the time, you forget(maybe sooner😋) you sent it off to get drilled/threaded. I'll have a few bodies to get a detents mod. 😉

[gogi19]

Lol awwww yea, group order time. I'm in no hurry though, I just picked up an EV era setup from Jeep and have just been enjoying reading old tech posts and bugging my friends and family to play stock class in the turf farm by our house with me for Thanksgiving

[flyweightnate]

I have a crappy lathe in my garage, and access to a better one, and could put gauge threads in it. What part of Texas are you in?

[gogi19]

PM'd ya

[latches109]

superman, Docs Machine, Mozak Machine, BMC Fabrication can all do it

I had my 2.0 valve body drilled for 1/8th NPT with no issues.

[gogi19]

Ah nice Bearded has my new trilogy body to cut right now, I should of thought to ask him. Thanks for confirming.

[SignOfZeta]

You’re on the right track. Both my Phantoms have rear facing gauges and they are *so* helpful for strategizing your 12g usage.

[Winklebottom]

You’re on the right track. Both my Phantoms have rear facing gauges and they are *so* helpful for strategizing your 12g usage.

Are you being facetious? Genuine question, I’ve never had a rear facing gauge or used one.

[Chuck E Ducky]

I don’t find them Useful. By the time the gage drops you should have already changed out. You can visually see the paint slow down when it’s time to change out. You will pick up the feel with a lil practice. I have never looked at one outside the staging area to see if I had a 12g charged in a benched marker.

Count shots / tubes it’s part of the Art.

[gogi19]

Yea I mostly like the aesthetics. It kinda completes the Adam West era Batman grappling hook look that make Phantoms appealing to me

[Chuck E Ducky]

Your phantom is gloss black I bet you could trade someone for a gaged one pretty easily. Post up a WTT.

[Handy]

I'm most definitely in the "feel" camp on when to change 12ies. I don't know if it's the play environment I'm in (usually open play with up to 50v50) or just adapting over the years, but I'm usually paying attention to what's going on in the game. Maybe it's just having played with the same Phantom for years, but I can usually feel/see/hear a shot that, while useable, is below a full strength shot and know I've got 1 or 2 decent shots if I'm in a pinch or it's time to change.

With a little practice, changing a 12gram is pretty quick. I can only remember 1 specific time it caused me to get shot, and that's because a piece of shell wedged itself between the bucket and 12ie and I couldn't get it out while 2 guys decided to run me down (which is not a fight I would have won anyways, just bummed I couldn't take one with me).

gogi19, I should have either a gauged valve body, or one with at least the hole for it already if you'd like to swap.

[SignOfZeta]

Are you being facetious? Genuine question, I’ve never had a rear facing gauge or used one.

…what direction should it face? I’m being serious.

[Winklebottom]

I was just asking if you thought they were useful, sometimes it’s difficult to get intent from just text.

[SignOfZeta]

I don’t find them Useful. By the time the gage drops you should have already changed out. You can visually see the paint slow down when it’s time to change out. You will pick up the feel with a lil practice. I have never looked at one outside the staging area to see if I had a 12g charged in a benched marker.

Count shots / tubes it’s part of the Art.

There’s a lot more to it. 12gs don’t just “run out”. You know that. They don’t really have a set number of shots to count unless you have all day to hit that number of shots. They cool off as you use them. They produce more shots the longer they have to recover. The gauge helps you know the state of the gun. The combo of VSC and rear racing gauge (is that not the term for it?) allow you to have more control if you need it.

For example…if it’s 60F out and you crank out a half dozen shots you’re down to 450psi and the next one isn’t going anywhere. You could scrap this 12g already and be ready for the next shot or or you can wait. This is stock class 101.

With gauge and VSC you can not only grab the changer to accelerate the process with the heat of your hand but you can see when the gauge gets to 725 or so and will start producing full range performance. You know this.

I consider “visibility slower paint” to be a waste of paint and CO2.


Now of course someone else may have a multidimensional lookup table in their head that tracks time, number of shots spent, number of balls in gun, ambient temp, hand temp, time, and all that but I’m a dumas so I simplify it to a gauge. I find it gives me a window into what the gun is doing.

It’s like a tach on your motorcycle. You don’t *need* it but it’s pretty much the heartbeat of the machine and will bring you closer to mastering it even during the %99.9 of the time you’re not looking at it.

With HPA it’s totally useless. I suspect this is why they aren’t on so many new Phantoms, EV has greatly deemphasized CO2 since they took over…which is odd to me since the Phantom is the most popular stock class gun but…we have no control over other people’s suicidal decisions.

[Chuck E Ducky]

I don’t over shoot my 12g like that. But given the same example you just made. In the amount of time it takes you to look at your gage to determine that you need to change out. I have already realized shoot down by feel / trajectory and changed out. I’m not taking my hand off the pump to play hot hands with a 12g. In that situation I’m dumping it and getting a fresh 12g ready to go immediately. I also have a very good idea what my SC setups do at a given temperature. I find them useless.

The art of Stock Class is learning to play within the limitations of the 12g. I play very different on HPA than I do true SC. Again by the time that gage drops you should have already changed out.

If you need that on your setup cool. It works for you cool. But they make both types of valves for a reason. I don’t need a gage to tell me what my markers doing. I find them useless.

[Grendel]

While having a gauge is is far from a necessity and I do not have one on all of my markers. I do find them handy in the staging area to help me remember where I stand in relationship to number of shots left after last game ended. I sort of use it as a go/no-go for changing cartridge before the next game. Most of the time I am not stingy with my CO2 cartridges and when in doubt just opt to change before the next game but if I have a gauge and it looks pretty topped off I will give that cartridge another 10 rds before changeout. Not a perfect system but it works for me. I drill and tap my own valves it it pretty easy to do with a simple center punch, drill press and appropriate drills for an 1/8th NPT tap.

[latches109]

+1 gauge body valve looks good.

My gauge body phantoms seem to have better efficiency than non-gauged phantoms.

[gogi19]

Add some racing stripes and flames to that bad boy for extra horsepower 🔥🔥 In all seriousness, I might just finally end up buying a decent drill press and vise and make a go of tapping it myself when time allows

[flyweightnate]

+1 gauge body valve looks good.

My gauge body phantoms seem to have better efficiency than non-gauged phantoms.

Must be that extra air volume inside the gauge - like a "magic box", if you will...

[latches109]

We pushed the gas a little on the drill press, not just for a gauge port - the valve chamber is enlarged similar to a back bottle valve body, there was an old MCB thread on the BB valve having the best efficiency of the bunch - here is a photo of my valve:

https://www.mcarterbrown.com/forum/paintball-news-aa/the-armory/cci/457483-phantom-2-0-frame-velocity-issues?p=554109#post554109

[gogi19]

Interesting so if I'm tracking correctly, the BB valve body has say 1-1.5 extra cubic centimeters of volume and drilling the VSC valve body for a gauge adds some of that volume back, which helps increase struggling FPS with lower power main springs?