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New for 2012, we now are offering our budget-minded straight-bore "Null" CF barrel with more than just autococker threads. Just released are now Kingman (ie, Spyder), Tippmann (Phenom, A5, X7), and even Smart Parts (the Ion style threads, including GoG markers). Check out http://www.deadlywind.com/p/103/null-carbon-fiber-barrel for more information.
Oh and Happy 2012 to you!
We've added an animation to our paintball animations page for our Hollowpoint bolt for the Ion. Check it out.
If you haven't visited out paintball animations page before, go check it out as well.
This was an autococker converted to have the pneumatic ram inside the upper tube, and the valve moved inside the grip.
This wasn't our project, extra points for anyone who remembers what this was.. and who made it ;)
Anyone remember the Mayhem? We experimented with some alternative valving for the gun, with good results. We decided not to have anything to do with the gun once we realized how much bolt force was applied - the numbers say it could have chopped your finger right off.
The valve in this Micro Mag was modified to reduce volume and run at higher pressures, thus the chopped off back.
That same body kept getting carved down, until it became an exercise in minimalism.
(Just for fun, we're reprinting the original content for a project we did in our early days, late 90's and early 2k's. Enjoy)
(by Colin Moritz)Those familiar with the 3D-digitizing industry will recognize this design instantly. Its based on the slop = activation principle.. except its not exactly the same.. It has no slop, but it does have an adjustable "null" area in the center. What this means is it has a spring in it that returns it to dead-center w/no slop. But to actually 'activate' it, it must be moved off-center some distance (typical distance is around .003" (or .01mm) at the end of the tip) for it to activate the switch. this movement can be adjusted down to.. umm... theoretically nothing? But reality sets in and requires us to abide by physics and give it a little bit of a null area.. or else every time you bump your marker it would fire.. not good! (or is it?!? heheheh)
Another aspect of the FiddleStick is the ability to "legally?" (NPPL as of 1/18/2002) shoot in a type of re-active firing mode. It will fire upon pushing it forward (against the spring), then letting the spring return it to the center, and change the push to a pull with a second finger (again against the spring). Thats two 'pulls' = two shots. still "legal"! now think of repeating that push/pull process continuously with two fingers... double the rate of fire! This is all in theory of course, as it would take a little learning to do this efficiently... but look out if you do!! :)
Here is the first prototype. Yes, it's ugly!! Im sure ones to follow will be all aluminum (anodizable to any color) and have some 'wicked' look to them. Shown on a SP Vision Impulse, but could be setup on almost any electronic marker.. Angel, Ematrix, etc. Since it houses its own microswitch, It requires two wires to to be picked (soldered) onto the marker's existing circuitboard (piggy-backing the existing switch).
(Just for fun, we're reprinting the original content for a project we did in our early days, late 90's and early 2k's. Enjoy)
After having focused most of our attention to building RAIL kits, We here at DeadlyWind decided it was time to show off a few more of our product ideas. One of these is the "Inchup" grip style. With the Inchup, gone are the days of the Spyders with their grips and regs spread so far apart. After all, if you are going for that style, you might want to look into the Tipman Model 98. I personally have not been much of a fan for the power-feed-only body style (which the X-tra has broken!) and the fairly large gap between the grip and the front regulator/ex-chamber.
So, I give you the DeadlyWind Railgun.
The Railgun is the result of possibly all the best Spyder parts out there, mixed in with some cutting here and milling there, turning out a Spyder like no other. At the heart of the Railgun is a modified RAIL closed bolt kit which is married with a vertical-feed body. The billet trigger frame is then mounted to it an entire inch farther forward than stock, resulting in a tighter, balanced, more appealing package. After hammer modifications are done, the overall travel of the hammer is reduced, which results in more consistence strikes, less kick, and less re-cock effort. A custom-made aluminum/delrin hybrid bolt is 8 times lighter than stock bolts while allowing more flow. Add to that a valve board out to the max, low pressure springs, and a high-flow vertical asa adapter, and it just screams "LP!".
(Just for fun, we're reprinting the original content for a project we did in our early days, late 90's and early 2k's. Enjoy)
(by Colin Moritz)
OK, what exactly was being smoked when this was built?!? PVC fumes have got to be toxic.. because that and only that can explain this contraption. This is a paintball marker, with the body made entirely of PVC. It is closed bolt, and it operates at around 60PSI! Its valve design is based on the old pressure-difference "pop" disk. While it does allow an ungodly amount of air to pass through it when opened, it is VERY in-efficient. Also because of the spring-returned single-acting home-made air-ram (any more hyphens??) controlling the sleeve bolt, its re-cycle rate is pretty far down there.. around 3 or 4 per second.
The trigger mechanism is based on that of an Automag.. It performs dual actions upon firing. As it is pulled, it first seals the air chamber off from the air supply via an "on-off" valve. Then it releases the "dump" port on the back via a ball-bearing "sear".
If you are looking for a 4 or 3-way, keep looking.. its not there. The air ram operates off the main air chamber.. as the chamber is pressurized, the air ram moves the bolt forward. After firing, and the air chamber is empty, there is no longer any air pressure on the air ram, so the spring returns it back to the open position.. as long as the trigger is held and the air is cut off from it.
This entire marker was built mostly from PVC, 1/8" think aluminum, some nuts and bolts, and some R/C car ball joints and shock cartridges (for the air ram and modified internals for the on-off valve). It takes stock Spyder barrels.. but they thread directly into the PVC... so thread life will probably be pretty short. :/
All it needs now is a nice adj. output tank (60 psi?!?) and a (pvc?!?) dropforward..
(Just for fun, we're reprinting the original content for a project we did in our early days, late 90's and early 2k's. Enjoy)
(by Colin Moritz)
I dont know about you, but I just cant understand why WGP took so long to upgrade their main valve body to a high flow design! Dont get me wrong, I am not bad-mouthing WGP at all. I play with and own some of their products. But to think that just opening up a little piece of metal will make their Autococker shoot much more efficiently, and ultimately overall last longer due to less stress of a now-lighter mainspring setting... I dunno!
I wondered this for so long that I actually ripped one of the valves out of a pre-2000 AC body and chucked it up in the ol' lathe. The valve assembly I used has the plastic type cup seal on it. I bored out the inside of the brass valve body to just inside of the O-ring lip (dont wann go tooo far!) and still making sure the plastic would seal up to it on the edge, lapped the two together again with valve lapping compound. Then I ground down the diameter of the valve shaft to allow more air flow. Since I had to remove some of the thickness of the valve body, the valve shaft now sticks too far out the other side (shown in the "after" picture). I had to remove some of the length off the end of the valve shaft to allow the hammer to build up a little extra speed before hitting it. This is a dangerous fine-line here as you do not want to get greedy and remove too much off the end, or else you run the risk of the hammer "bottoming out" on the jam nut keeping it from opening the valve far enough.
By doing all of this, I was able to drop the operating pressure of my autococker by over 180psi! Not to mention i can now lighten up on my mainspring behind the hammer and that all results in a much smoother running marker shooting at a lower pressure. This of course will all vary on your bolt and paint/barrel match, but overall, the change was like night and day!
before and after
(Just for fun, we're reprinting the original content for a project we did in our early days, late 90's and early 2k's. Enjoy)
(by Colin Moritz)
What seems to be rage these days? Electric Autocockers! But with prices ranging from "out-of-my-price-range" to "waaay-out-of-my-price-range", not just everybody can have one-including myself.. until now. The basic operation of an electric Autococker is fairly simple. Your trigger moves a switch, which feeds juice(via batteries) to some sort of a solenoid which pulls the sear, firing the marker. Then, after the firing is commenced, another solenoid (electro-pneumatic valve) is activated which controls the recocking mechanism. The whole tricky part to all of this is timing it all out to make it function properly and smoothly. Since the input(trigger) and the outputs(the two solenoids) are all electric now, everything can easily be controlled by a chip or some other timing circuitry. OR you can keep all the timing mechanical by making the two actions (fire/recock) interact with each other.
The second approach is what I used to build my home-brewed EAC. It is a very simple, cheap electric conversion, but it inherently does not have all the bells-and-whistles as the all-electrically-timed rout can have. There are only two drawbacks to my approach. First, you only have one fire mode.. Semi. But since this is the only legal mode of fire in tournaments, its not really that bad. The second drawback is the fact that it cycles directly with the trigger, just like non-electric Autocockers. But since non-electric Autocockers can shoot just fine, this is not really much of a problem either.
"So why bother?!" you may ask.. well, to shoot an Autococker with a trigger pull of 1mm is pretty dang nice. That also allows consistent shots because there is almost no marker body movement as you "stroke" the trigger. Also, with a little practice, you can rap some pretty impressive BPS out. I have measured mine at 14bps. I know its not all about BPS, but it sure is fun, and nice to have when needed!! :)
On to the details..
The test-bed of my project is a 32* Pro Autococker with the Bob Long "bloated" grip. At first I didn't like this grip very much, but it provided some extra room inside the grip to mill and fit stuff in.. which turned out wasn't necessary, but the extra bulk gave me a sense of security while milling. I started off by building a combo manifold/microcylinder block to mount to a very small 3-way electro-pneumatic valve, which was all mounted in the grip. The micro-ram pulls a linkage connect to the sear. Then, on to the front block of the Autococker, I made another manifold which mounted and provided air to a regular electro-pneumatic 4-way valve, and also split air off to go to the 3-way in the grip. This manifold was fed air from the output of the Rock reg. Back inside the grip, where the micro-ram is pulling on the sear, I mounted a micro switch (angel switch, same as trigger) which was tagged when the sear was pulled down. This switch feeds power the 4-way on the front block. Everything is run off of the hopper batteries.
So, operation is very simple. Pull trigger(switch1), feeds power to 3-way inside grip which pulls the sear(firing marker), and tagging the second switch(switch2). This second switch then powers the 4-way on the front block, causing the back block to move back. As long as you hold the trigger in, everything stays in this state(just like a regular AC). As soon as the trigger is released, power is lost the 3-way in the grip, causing the sear to move back up, releasing the second switch, causing the 4-way to move the back-block forward again.
It may not be the best setup, or the most efficient, but it gets the job done on the field- and pretty dang well most of the time… :)
