Sugar in your gas tank? How about dirt in your air tank!

[zinger565]

Been having some fits with my Empire peanut tank, namely around the fill nipple. However, I've always noticed that sometimes it sounded like something was inside the tank, so I decided to take the reg off and inspect. Lo' and behold, metal shavings and some dirt. The metal shavings have got to be from the regulator screwing into the tank, because those reg threads were SHARP! The dirt could've been from anywhere, just another reminder to use a nipple cover!

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[pearcem]

My buddy has an eclipse impulse he hadn’t used in about 10 years (he hadn’t played at all in that time). He is notoriously beyond terrible with anything mechanical, figuring out how stuff works, etc. his ability to function in society as an independent adult is a miracle.

He got the gun all tuned up before fulda, bought a new tank, and just couldn’t get it up and running, so ended up using one of my setups. He put it all back in the bag until fulda the next year, and surprise surprise, same deal. I swapped the tank to one of mine, and the impulse was perfect.

so i took his regulator apart to see if it was shimmed too low, and instead of shims, there was a bunch of small gravel. He somehow managed to take apart a brand new reg a year before, which there was no reason to do, remove the shims, which he still had in a bag, and replace them with gravel, all allegedly unknown to him.

short version: in case you are wondering, gravel is not a substitute for shims in a tank regulator

[scottieb]

Gravel? How?

[Brokeass_baller]

Alcohol is the cause of many wonders.

[Spider!]

One local-ish field was in cactus land and the owner was using a mil-surp air compressor with minimal maintenance. The air was full of compressor oil, cylinder shavings, and dust. However, what killed my maxflo reg was his helper hooking up to the remote outlet instead of the fill nipple.

The nice part about dirty compressors is that they are self destructive. If you know where the dirt came from and like the field, you should show the owner.

[zinger565]

True! I don't think it's from my local field though. I bought the tank used, and it's always had a bit of a rattle. Also, haven't heard anything on any of my other tanks.

[DocsMachine]

I once got a 'shoebox' Shocker, brand-new in the box, straight from Smart Parts... full of aluminum chips. Like the partially-assembled gun was left parked near an open, manual mill for a couple of days. It could NOT have been assembled that way without somebody knowing- and either not caring or having done it deliberately.

I also once got in a nonfunctioning Max Flow from a customer. Turned out the compressor must not have had a functioning moisture trap, and the tank had at some point had quite a bit in it. The inner tank liner had corroded, and literally filled the regulator with white aluminum-corrosion dust.

I have photos of both of those around here somewhere.

And, in my early days, I'd use 20-pound CO2 tanks to fill the gun tanks- and without a siphon tube, that meant you had to pick up and turn over the tank. Dangerous then, dangerous now, but hey, I was young and indestructible back then.

Anyway, one tank- the 20 pounder- caused us a TON of trouble. It had a bunch of rust-dust in it, and we'd get a charge of that in every fill. Which would cause the pin-valves to leak (often audibly) and damaged at least a couple of marker valves.

Doc.

[latches109]

The dirt could've been from anywhere, just another reminder to use a nipple cover!

dirt in the fill nipple is a possibility.. also you would be surprised by how much sh*t a poorly maintained field compressor will add to your tank

[zinger565]

I once got a 'shoebox' Shocker, brand-new in the box, straight from Smart Parts... full of aluminum chips. Like the partially-assembled gun was left parked near an open, manual mill for a couple of days. It could NOT have been assembled that way without somebody knowing- and either not caring or having done it deliberately.

Doc.

Could you imagine the outrage if that happened nowadays with social media? Holy smokes, I would be livid.