Inspect your parts... closely

[Glovebox Operator]

I fished this out of a brand new CP on/off I was just about to put the fitting onto. Probably wouldn't have done good things to the the RT valve that was downstream of it. What have you guys found upon inspection of new parts?

[C26G]

Oh crap, glad you found that before using it. I've usually encountered broken things and the odd misplaced part but nothing like this so far. Yep, inspect then inspect again

[evilfishsticks]

I had gotten a new ninja tank about a year and half ago for the wife, just gave it to her and away we went. She was complaining about her emek not working right when trying to shoot faster. After that day of play i took her gun apart and found it full of aluminum shavings. The tank reg was absolutely jam packed solid with shavings. The tank must've never been blown out at the factory before the reg was put on. Ninja sent me out some rebuild kits and some other stuff for my troubles. But it was a complete pain in the ass.

[DocsMachine]

Back in the Shoebox Shocker days, and before I got a good digital camera, I got in a gun- I seem to recall straight from Smart Parts, somehow?- that was literally full of mixed chips. That is aluminum, steel and brass.

I can't recall the exact scenario, but I believe it was something like a customer bought it- new from SP- and sent it straight to me. I was one of the top shoebox mod shops at the time. I can't recall if the guy just sent it on knowing it needed upgrades, or he took it out of the box, tried it and it didn't work. I think the former, but that was nearly 25 years ago, and I've slept since then.

I do have paper photos somewhere, and I'll post 'em if I ever find them.

But when I say "full", that's almost literally true. The only way it could have gotten that much garbage in it, was deliberately. Somebody intentionally assembled the gun with a fistful of factory floor-sweepings. Whoever assembled it, deliberately sabotaged it.

Why? Your guess was as good as mine. Disgruntled assembler on his way out the door? Who knows.

Thing is, I couldn't really say anything publicly. I mean, I told the customer, and we speculated on the cause, but really, I just cleaned it out, replaced a few O-rings, added my mods, and sent it back, 100% functional. But I kind of couldn't post the pics- I was an authorized SP dealer at the time, and at the very least needed to be able to regularly buy replacement parts.

This was pre-patent-suit, but SP already had a bit of a rep, and I worried that they'd yank my dealership and refuse to sell me parts. Shoebox mods at the time were an easy two thirds of my work at the time, so that would have been a big hit to my bottom line.

Doc.

[Ecapnation]

In recent times the most egregious one I've ever encountered was purchasing a trigger that infamous made for emeks... It shipped so poorly deburred and so razor sharp that it would physically cut my finger regardless of where I touched it and I have shop hands!

In historical memory back when I used to work with the people that made the vanguard, I practically gave them a life lesson on why you need to deeper and post process parts coming off their machining centers. They had such an issue with poor quality guns that were unexplainable until I got my hands on one directly from the factory. As any tech would I took it apart and saw that it was not only full of burrs still it also had severely sharp edges where o-rings would hit and other issues that seem to not be addressed. What I ended up doing was reworking my personal vanguard and then having the main body re annoed. After assembling it and testing it I immediately got three pods more out of a regular tank fill at the field I worked at the same velocity.

I explained to the owner what I did he was shocked and amazed at that actually worked but refused to put the money into post processing because it was just as he put it "not worth the expense on something we're already not making a lot of money on" I ended up making several hand belt vanguards for a team somewhere I forget the team but the guns were black red and yellow. It was about this time when word got out of what I was doing and they canned me as a tech and took away my personal vanguard. And that was the story of why I will never work with a paintball company again.

[DocsMachine]

In recent times the most egregious one I've ever encountered was purchasing a trigger that infamous made for emeks... It shipped so poorly deeper and so razor sharp that it would physically cut my finger regardless of where I touched it and I have shop hands!

-Took me two reads to realize you meant "deburr".

And that was the story of why I will never work with a paintball company again.

-I'll name no names, but I worked briefly with a manufacturer that's still out there today. Had 'em make some parts for me, developed a part for them, etc.

'Til they asked me to help them copy a patented piece in a way that would bypass the original maker's patent. I said "sure, sounds like fun!"... and then ghosted them. To this day I won't deal with that shop.

Doc.

[Chuck E Ducky]

I picked up something it an air system that smoked the reg seat on an older powerhouse reg they no longer make reg seats for. Powerhouse did offer a small discount for a new reg I didn’t take them up on it. They’re newer regs they offer parts on for now but due to that practice I probably will choose a different reg.

Haven’t really had issues with new stuff having debris in it.

[Myrkul]

I've figured out why some people have a love hate with CP.

MOST, and by most I mean 85%+ of their regs are great, but I have had at least two that had a noticable niche on the tip of the reg piston that was making them pretty inconsistent. Literally 5 minutes and some sand paper and they were rock solid, but yes it is definitely worth it to inspect parts, especially if they are acting up.