Drill and tapping vertical feed for volumizer

[FlightMedic938]

I’m getting close to finishing up a very cool 98c build and I decided I wanted to drill and tap the vertical feed for a volumizer. I picked up a pretty cool and vintage AC low pressure reg I plan on gutting. I was thinking though, how many threads could I possible get when tapping the VF? Im concerned about stability. Should I put the volumizer straight in to the VF or buy a fitting and put the fitting in the VF and then the volumizer in to the fitting?

[Trbo323]

I'm confused what you mean by vertical feed. The way it's typically done is a 1/8 male to male fitting into the valve and then put the volumizer on that.

Either that or get one of the tippmann specific kits that replaces the front grip with a expansion chamber.

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[FlightMedic938]

I'm confused what you mean by vertical feed. The way it's typically done is a 1/8 male to male fitting into the valve and then put the volumizer on that.

Either that or get one of the tippmann specific kits that replaces the front grip with a expansion chamber.

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Sorry, I meant vertical adapter. The LPR already has a 1/8th NPT fitting. I’m thinking a 1/8 npt male to 1/8 npt female 45 degree and have the LPR angled towards the gas thru. That way there is some weight distribution on the threads

[Trbo323]

That's a lot of fittings to try to flow though. Also, where is your air going to come in with this setup, ASA air goes where?

Gutting a regulator isn't always possible. Depends on the design and even if you can use it you often can't use the full internal volume because you often have to leave something like the piston inside so it will seal properly even if it's not regulating.

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[Toestr]

So you're considering tapping the vertical adapter at the elbow where the tube goes into the valve? I don't think there would be enough meat (depth wise) there to even get NPT threads to seal properly regardless of pressure.

The Tippmann low pressure kit vertical adapter has a T instead of an elbow so a volumizer can be screwed in. I believe Jordan had a vertical adapter on his ebolt build that he desoldered and replaced it with a T so that might be an option.

[Jordan]

I used a "Tee" fitting like this one:

Anderson Metals Brass Pipe Fitting, Barstock Street Tee, 1/8" Female Pipe x 1/8" Male Pipe x 1/8" Female Pipe https://a.co/d/800xLFT

I de-soldered the vertical adapter pipe from the 90° fitting already on the VA, threaded the pipe for 1/8"-npt, and red Loctite'd it into a female port on the tee fitting, then threaded the assembly into the valve like normal. I ran a gutted LPR off the bottom port of the Tee.

I don't have any pictures of the process but I do have a shot of the finished product.



And then the last picture I have before I sold it:

[FlightMedic938]

Unfortunately you lost me at desolder and resoldering. That is beyond my skill level I believe. Very clever though!

I was thinking of going straight in to the elbow and then run a 45 degree 1/8 male to 1/8 female nitrous fitting to try and take some weight off the threads at the elbow. It sounds like this might not be possible though because the vertical adapter might be too thin

edit- I’ve been studying and it appears to NPT needs to have at least 5-6 threads engaged to create a proper seal. I counted the threads on the lpr and that would be almost all the threads . It doesn’t look good for my plan.

[Jordan]

That's why I went with the new fitting - came to the same conclusion myself.

I'd never soldered anything until a couple years ago, other than the occasional wiring repair for work... my motto is "you never know until you try". Ask questions, watch some YouTube... I think you'll amaze yourself with what you can do.

[FlightMedic938]

Jordan, do you think a pipe cutter could do the job instead of desoldering? Cutting it off at the elbow, thread the end of the vertical adapter with a 1/8npt die head, and then install your fitting?

[Toestr]

If you cut it off the tube will be too short to line up with the valve.

Soldering really isn't too hard to learn and price isn't really a huge barrier to entry either.

[FlightMedic938]

Thanks Toestr, I’ll start looking in to it for sure

[FlightMedic938]

Got the job done! I ended up cutting it with a metal saw instead of desoldering it. I also used a 1/8th stainless steel street tee I found on EBay, a metal drill bit and a dremel to hollow out the lpr, and JB weld cold weld worked great to seal it all up