The small questions you've never asked.

[Siress]

this annoys the crap out of me. At least in the US we have 11/16" tooling. Poor int'l folks are stuck looking for 11/16" or 17.5mm tooling, accepting it being oversize.

[Hp_lovecraft]

THEN, Smart Parts appeared. According to rumor, one of the early All-Americans came up with an idea for a "self squeeging" barrel. He took a stock barrel off of whatever gun he was shooting at the time (probably a Sniper, this was pre-semi-auto by several years) and drilled a series of tightly-spaced holes in a spiral pattern. The idea being that if you broke a ball, the next ball fired would "squeegee" the paint out and blow it out the holes.

To add to that, I remember originally, they didn't sell barrels. They sold a porting "service", where you would send in your factory barrel to have drilled. They were not the only one. A few other companies had a similar "self squeegee" type modifications, but they didn't have the backing that Smart Parts had. I remember one, around 91 or so, that had long 5" spiral slots cut into the factory barrel. Same idea, terrible efficiency.

[Siress]

-I think I have a partial one, buried deep in one of my hard drives. I'll see if i can find it one of these days.

When you do, shoot me a PM and I can host it for all to benefit from.

[DocsMachine]

I think T.K. did/does hold a patent on the AIR valve.

-Even if true, and I'm not saying it isn't, it's long expired by now. The 'Mag first came out in, what, '89? '90? And patents only last for seventeen years. Even if TK got around to patenting it in '92, that was still thirty years ago.

What happened to the Rat's Nest? Does anyone have a copy?

-I think I have a partial one, buried deep in one of my hard drives. I'll see if i can find it one of these days.

Doc.

[Siress]

What happened to the Rat's Nest? Does anyone have a copy?

[Jordan]

I think T.K. did/does hold a patent on the AIR valve. Have Blue used to have a list of paintball related patents, possibly in the Rat's Nest? Wish that resource was still up.

[DocsMachine]

Has the patent for the original Automag expired?

-I'm.... not sure there ever was a patent on the Automag. Point in fact, I seem to recall Tom Kaye specifically refusing to patent the first compressed air systems, in order that more manufacturers could produce them and eventually bring the price down.

Doc.

[Cunha]

That's a classic.

[Cunha]

I bet it was available tubing diameters. One size seemed too big and one size seemed too small. Just guessing.

[Cunha]

I dunno but there's always an automag valve around for only 50 bucks plus the cost of a few seals.

Sears wear out

and after a while bolts wear out.

[Cunha]

Angel threads, G7 threads, A1 threads.

G7 barrels fit on A1's with a " beauty ring" or without. There is a step on the barrel you can see if you use a G7 barrel in an A1.

The original angel barrels can have the breech end turned off to fit a g7 and then a beauty ring added to fit an a1 if one was so inclined.

The original angel barrels are also almost good to go for blazers by just removing the threads themselves.

Regarding the spiral porting, palmer has offered it and continued to offer it for years. I assume they had some prior art and smart parts never prosecuted anyone over their porting?

Except the "tear drop" porting, I bet.

[cfos00]

KAPP was owned and operated by someone who had a drug problem. Th company folded, and then, in the end, that person passed away from said drug problem. The company's rights are currently owned by a couple of other people. Not sure exactly what their plans are on what to do with it.

[Extreme Max]

Has the patent for the original Automag expired?

[smiffington]

I'm jumping in late here but the t15 is a vertical valve as well. The housing around the valve stem they call manifolds, and are easily replaceable. My guess is they just want you to replace those parts every now and then. I think for them it was rh best valve to cram into the tiny space they wanted. Very finnicky, definitely a case of form over function.

[DocsMachine]

I knew paintballs shrank to size, but I just started thinking about how that works with a liquid filling. Does the filling get compressed? Does some filling escape? Is a certain amount of air left inside to allow for this?

-Yes, they shrink, but not much.

When the paintball is molded, the gelatin shell is soft and rubbery, so that when the two molds close with paint in between, the fill pushes the shell into the cavity, forming the ball. The two shell halves being soft and sort of "uncured" also helps them seal together, kind of like closing up an uncooked pie crust.

Then, the balls are sent into a tumbler-dryer, that, well, gently tumbles them while they dry. The tumbling action helps keep the balls spherical, otherwise they'd dry with a flat spot if you just laid 'em out on a cookie sheet or something.

As the shell dries, it shrinks slightly, which also helps make the ball more spherical, but the volume of paint inside is really what determines the final size of the ball- it can't compress, so the shell can only dry/cure to a certain size.

Doc.