Ion Solenoid armature?

[DocsMachine]

I've been going over my lists of projects, and came across one I've had on the table for... I think about two years now.

I'd been told the "armatures"- the center poppet portion- of the Ion solenoid eventually wears out. The seals go bad, and SO/GOG is of course no longer manufacturing replacements. I had an MCB'er send me a complete solenoid, and I have a functional-last-I-checked Ion, so I think I can dupe the part fairly easily.

I'm wondering, before I do, if anyone else had started making them, and/or is it even worth trying to re-make? I know SP used to brag they'd made something like a quarter million of them, but it's also been a while, and I can see a bunch being tossed or parted out (or mech'ed) if parts can't be easily had.

Anybody have the straight poop?

Doc.

[DieManInTheRough]

There is a gentleman by the name Keion Doss making new armatures.
Very well known/saturated in the Facebook smart parts community, but he is the only one, and only deals via Facebook.

[William the Third]

Keion Doss is a great guy. I bought some armatures from him last year to fix a customers ION. The first batch I bought from him had some sealing problems. It turned out to be a material spec mistake, and he sent out some corrected ones quickly. You can buy from him off of Facebook if you email him directly at keiondoss at yahoo dot com.

[JeeperCreeper]

I've seen them on FB, but I would buy some if you made them. I have a bag of old boards that are otherwise useless without new armatures.

[uv_halo]

IRT SP making millions of them, there is an individual on Ebay who I beleive ended up with SPs inventory when they closed down their Latrobe location. He's sold around 1K of new old stock for the last few years. Understanding that the failure of these is due to the sealong material breaking down over time, I bought a pair and they were in decent shape but, I know they could go at any point.

[William the Third]

I would avoid those. I bought ten from him in 2023, hoping at least a few would be good. They weren't, as they were all suffering from age problems. He tried to blame it on the lubrication I used, even though I never even installed most of them. I checked them for soft/sticky right out of the box. I only installed the "best" two of the ten, hoping that they might work. They didn't. I also gave him a lesson on lubes that I'm sure he TL;DR.

Keion Doss's new ones are the only way to go right now.

[russc]

If those seals are urethane, age related decline is to be expected. Urethane o-rings have a typical shelf life of 5-10 years.

[DocsMachine]

A couple years back, either an MCB'er or a Guilder pointed out there's two kinds of polyurethane- ester base and ether base.

Ester is cheaper, and undergoes hydrolysis- basically, it depolymerizes- much more readily than the more expensive ether base.

You can't tell by looking at them- you'd need to get a spec from the manufacturer, but I know I'm still using tank O-rings out of a big bag a field-owner gave me when he closed his indoor down in 2001. Those tank 'rings are as good today as they were when he gave me the bag.

The Ions were very much made to a down-to-the-penny price point, so you can guarantee that SP used the cheapest O-rings they could get their hands on.

Doc.

[Sdawg]

The Doss Armatures work but some need to have the bottom seat trimmed with a hobby knife and sanded with like 2000+ grit.

It would be good to have an alternative. A lot of people still have Ions lying around, the mech kits are now hard to come by, and the armature is really the only part in short supply.

[uv_halo]

What do you mean by "the bottom seat", can you post a pic? As I understand it, the only sealing surface is the top of sealing material that contacts the top of the solenoid when in the closed position.

[DocsMachine]

I double checked and it seems I'd even bought the material back when I first looked into this. I suppose I might as well run some...

What's needed for the mech kits? Maybe I can make some of those, too?

Doc.

[JeeperCreeper]

https://www.mcarterbrown.com/forum/paintball-news-aa/the-armory/smart-parts-gog/82483-so-you-want-to-build-a-mechanical-ion

[Sdawg]

A mount to hold the switch, a tee Union, tubing, fittings.

[Psycho91]

I'd be down for this, iv been wanting to build a couple ions

[ChuckLove]

I'd grab a mech kit for my ion that's been sitting for years now.

[Sdawg]

Actually, one important part of a mech Ion is a dual tail oring bolt. The stock bolts are still plentiful and inexpensive, and as it turns out they can be ordered new for the Tippmann Stryker.

https://tippmannparts.com/products/tippmann-74323-bolt

[JeeperCreeper]

DocsMachine 4mm air hose, 1/8 air hose, a T where the 4mm fits across the 2 top fittings and the 1/8 out the bottom. A Smav-3 and a mount. The big one is a bolt with dual tail o rings. SSC used to just cut the extra groove on stock bolts.

[uv_halo]

I double checked and it seems I'd even bought the material back when I first looked into this. I suppose I might as well run some...

What's needed for the mech kits? Maybe I can make some of those, too?

Doc.

I'd go for six of them I think. A couple for my Woodstalker Ion, A couple for the Epiphany that I've been meaning to build and maybe a couple for a Spare APE Rampage board I think I have laying around :P

[Sdawg]

DocsMachine A Smav-3 and a mount. The big one is a bolt with dual tail o rings.

The mount is the most important part, as everything else is off the shelf.

Doc, I have a mech kit I am not using if you want to copy the mount design.