Solutions - Bad Valve - Bad Regulator

[Bob La Londe]

I was planning to shoot some over Christmas. My dad and my uncle both came, and we spent some time in the back yard shooting PCPs.

Sadly a week or so before Christmas the fill adaptor for my Air Venturri pony tank sprung a leak around the valve stem while I was adjusting the .25 Marauder. The stock guage on that gun was worse than any I had ever seen, but fortunately I had ordered spares from McMaster when I regulated the .177. I swapped the gage and hand pumped the gun. My shot string changed dramatically indicating the regulator on the bottle had not been putting out anywhere near its rated 2900 PSI.

I contacted Pyramid Air, and the emailed me a shipping tag to return the bad tank and the bad fill adaptor. Since I might have need to adjust the .25 to shoot from 3200 in the future I decided I didn't want a replacement. They are just going to give me a refund. I finally got it shipped yesterday. I'll order a larger tank with a slow flow valve when everybody gets back from the holidays and gets back to taking care of customers again.

After that I would fill the .25 directly from my compressor since it had a gauge that was within a couple hundred pounds now, but I had to fill my other guns with the Xisico hand pump to be safe. I had to hand pump the .177 Marauder as its McMaster gauge shows regulated side pressure, not fill pressure. I also had to hand pump the BAM!-50 since it doesn't have a gauge at all.

Even having to hand pump 2 out of the three guns was quite tiring when you have 3-4 guys shooting for hours. LOL.

Anyway, in the mean time I ordered some high pressure rated parts from McMaster. They must have arrived on Christmas Eve, but I didn't find them on the step of my office until late Christmas Day. I also stopped by Harbor Freight, and picked up a couple 5000 PSI high pressure gauges they were closing out for about $11. I used them along with the gun fill extension hose I had made over at CSC to make a pressure manifold for filling guns. The extension hose is and fittings are normally used on pressure washers and are only rated for 3000 PSI so I can't use it for filling a tank, but it will be fine for filling guns directly from my compressor now. I have a nice big gauge I can keep an eye on when I fill so I know when to shut the compressor off. I just filled all three guns in about 20 minutes.

Pictures of my high pressure fill manifold.
Overview: http://allairgunners.com/gun-chat/index ... view;pic=5
Manifold: http://allairgunners.com/gun-chat/index ... view;pic=6

Later on when I can get a chance I'll swap the hose and the quick couplers for higher pressure rated items so I don't accidentally blow something up, but they work for filling guns just fine for now. Yes that gauge says 3200. That's the .25 and I plan to tune it for a higher fill. I'ld like to get a string shooting 31 grain domed pellets at 900+ to 930. I may tune for even heavier pellets in the future.

FYI: I don't recall which one, but I emailed one of the air tank guys a couple weeks ago now I guess. He doesn't have an e-commerce site. Its just a "call or email" site. I was going to buy a similar fill manifold from him, but I never heard back from him. Good thing I ordered some of the parts to make my own.

[Bob La Londe]

FYI: Other than not being able to get FedEx to pickup the return process was pretty easy. PA sent me a shipping label. I dropped it off at a FedEx shipper in town when I had a chance. PA said 7-10 days after they got it back, but the money was put back on my credit card in about 4 from the day tracking said they received it. I have to say I was a bit disappointed that the tank tank setup was bad, but PA did their part and didn't hassle me or question my assessment.

[Motorhead]

I too did away with the Regulated Bottle valve thing simply unscrewing ( Empty tank ) reg assembly out of the bottle.
Replaced with a Slo-fill 2 gauge valve from Joe Brancato

Now have the small guppy set up i should have done all along instead of screwing around with the NINJA