G-Force T-Handle for Armson Elbows

Feed elbows. Unless you have a center-feed paintgun, or a ’gun with a built-in elbow, they’re a necessary evil. If you have a slip-on elbow, it can twist around and come off in the middle of a game. But if you have an elbow that clamps tight around your feed tube and hopper neck (like the Armson elbow) if you break a ball in the neck or breech, you’re screwed until the end of the game.

The G-Force handle is a screw and nut set designed to allow you to have the best of both worlds by allowing you to tighten or loosen the clamp ends of your Armson elbow without tools.

The T-handle is an extremely simple design. It replaces the stock screw and nut that clamps the elbow down. The screw replacement is a stainless steel Phillips-head screw with a square nut threaded all the way on and is fixed in place. The nut replacement is a tapped cylinder (available in stainless steel or brass) with a small rod through its top that acts as a handle. Just install it in place of the stock nut and screw. Rather than tightening down the screw, though, you tighten the cylinder down over the screw. The small bar through its top makes this very easy to do by hand.

Apart from the obvious advantage of being able to adjust the tightness by hand, the T-handle offers another advantage. Anyone who has used an Armson elbow for any extended period of time knows that the plastic can get worn out such that when you try to tighten down the screw, the hex-nut can spin around in the worn out space and not allow you to tighten it down sufficiently. The square nut on the screw-end of the T-handle completely eliminates this problem as well, holding the screw tightly in place as you tighten the collar down.

Despite the fact that this is a small and simple part, G-Force has really designed it very nicely. The parts are beautifully machined, constructed, at fit the Armson elbow perfectly. If I had to nit-pick, the only thing I could come up with to criticize is that the cylinder part of the T-handle seems to be about twice as long as it really needs to be.

Design/Construction rating [4]

I’ve been using the T-handle for a few months now, and in all honesty, I can’t imagine how I lived without it. There really isn’t much to say about it. It works perfectly as advertised. It’s very easy to hand-tighten the elbow down enough to keep it from ever twisting around or coming off. But when I want to take the hopper off, all I have to do is reach up and give the handle a quick 1/2 turn and it comes right off.

Performance/Versatility rating [4]

The brass version of the T-handle retails at $11.00 and the stainless version retails at $17.00. This might seem pretty expensive given that those prices are two and three times the cost of the already expensive (for an elbow) Armson elbow. On the other hand, these are a completely unique and I’ve come to see them as absolutely indispensable. This is such a headache-saving product, you just might save that much on reduced aspirin purchases anyhow.

G-Force warranties the T-handle for 1 year from the date of purchase. That’s more than long enough to cover any manufacturing defects that might crop up. If they go longer than a year, they’ll definitely outlive your elbow, and very well might outlive your ’gun.

Price/Warranty rating [3]

The G-Force T-handle has got to be the coolest product I’ve seen in years. It is a simple, clever, perfect solution to a problem that a huge number of paintball players experience all the time, but which most probably thought they would just have to live with. If you buy a pair of the brass ones for your elbow, I think you’ll find that it’s the best $22 you’ve ever spent on paintball equipment.