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Thread: Fully pneumatic production marker?

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  1. #1
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    Fully pneumatic production marker?

    Been fiddling around with my pneuMag setups over the past couple of weeks. Still tweaking, but getting close where I want to be on them. I starting thinking about it though, and was wondering why are there no fully pneumatic production markers out there? Or are there and I am not aware of them? If I understand properly an AC is pneu assist, but still essentially a sear tripper right? Has it not been pursued due to the ease of using electronics? Seems like there would be a niche market for such a thing. And not something retrofitted, but an actal marker designed from the ground up.

    Thoughts?

  2. #2
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    Nova, Enmey



    oooo how I miss Novas

    Edit: I would love to see a full pnuemag production model

  3. #3
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    Ok, cool. Never heard of the nova.
    Last edited by OPBN; 02-08-2013 at 04:18 PM.

  4. #4
    Not the Envy, the eNMy or something like that. I would personally love to see BL somehow make his MVP pump into a mech-pneumatic marker.


  5. #5
    I was doing some fiddling myself about a year ago and came up on a build idea myself. Ive yet to start it, but I've accumulated most of the parts. I'm gonna replace the hammer in the lower tube of a cocker bodied pump with a mpa3 ram. My only concern is if I can get the operating pressure of the valve within the capable range of the ram to open it properly. Not sure if this is what you were looking for. It would be somewhat of a pneumatic replacement for an mq setup. Which if I'm thinking correctly isn't pneumatic at all.

  6. #6
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    ^^ Thats not production. Enmey sounds like what I was thinking of, but doesnt look like it comes with a double trigger, so still not the end result I would want. And guessing even if they did come out with a double, with 1lb force required, it woud not be walkable.

    Maybe I should be more clear. Why hasnt anyone come out with a walkable fully pneumatic production marker?

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by OPBN View Post
    Seems like there would be a niche market for such a thing. And not something retrofitted, but an actual marker designed from the ground up.

    Thoughts?
    I put a feeler out with the powers that be to see about striking some kind of a deal so I can make "something".
    I haven't started any designs or anything, just waiting to see if we can work something out.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by GoatBoy View Post
    ever owned* any of their frames (see earlier caveat). I'll take your word for it that they did the first 45 frame for Autocockers and Automags, but "45" comes from real firearms. So they took an existing gun frame pattern and used it on a different kind of gun... The prior standard to that was, what, the Lonestar grip, which again came from another firearm?

    The Y and Z grips were innovations.

    Never really owned* one of their frames. It's hard for me to understand the innovation that comes from making something people were already making anyways. If it were the Chinese doing this, we wouldn't be pointing it out as something historic, we'd be calling it "copying".

    Innovation would have been something like a single frame which allows both single and double triggers + guards (see BT/Tippmann).
    Ok, Lonestar grips were briefly popular, then Euroframes for a while, but 45s are what stuck and have been the industry standard for the bulk of paintballs existence as a sport. The use of a 45 frame on an autococker allowed for a wider variety of grips to be used, providing a wider variety of ergonomic customization - the first company to do that was Benchmark, followed by... literally everybody.

    That's trendsetting; that's changing the face of the sport.

    Technically compressed air was used for nail guns before paintball markers... Does that make AGD and AAs combined effort to bring compressed air technology to the sport "copying"? Does that negate the impact that the Armaggedon had on the industry?


    Quote Originally Posted by GoatBoy View Post
    But detentes weren't a new feature. They were already available, and already being produced, and already a standard part of other guns.
    Two guns, actually, the Tippmann 68 Special (all that "detente" did was push your paint into the clearing hole in the breech so it would chop) and the Automag which used wire detents (which had the potential to be a nightmare, hence their replacement with nubbins). I know, I was shooting both of them at the time - it wasn't until a few years later that finger detents started showing up (IIRC it was with the 2nd Gen F1 and the VM68)

    Autocockers and Snipers were not shipped with detents, and ball detents were still a ways away. Your choices were to pay someone to modify your marker for the flawed and significantly less effective wired detentes or to put nail polish drops in the barrel and hope. Automags had an inferior detent system (sorry Tom) that was prone to issues a marker shouldn't have (i.e. rust, or sharp things in your breech).

    There were plenty of DIY garage jobs, and pro shop modifications, but the reason everyone at my field (myself included) ordered from PTP is they were the only company offering a full production marker with a quality factory detente (one made from self lubricating plastic and a spring, not a paper clip). Yes you could get a made-to-order marker from an Airsmith with a wire detent for twice the cost, but again this was a production marker with a production marker price tag that anyone could but from the catalog.



    Quote Originally Posted by GoatBoy View Post
    Never really liked the X-mag or the E-mag. Never owned either. Without details of what exactly went on with these "working sessions" it really is hard for me to understand just what they did, exactly.
    The partnered with AGD on the design of the Emag frame and warp feed. They created the unibody automag and made the first threaded (non drop-in) sear pin. They designed the the LVL7 bolt. They built the original FN303 concept, and worked with Tom and FN Herstal to create the final product.


    Quote Originally Posted by GoatBoy View Post
    But still, I can only look over my equipment, past and present, and not see the stamp of Armson/Benchmark/PTP (other than incidental CL stuff that I just got rid of anyways).
    Again, not owning an Emag (PTP helped design the frame) or an Xmag (PTP created the Autococker unibody) is a choice YOU made, but I highly doubt that the AO community as a whole would discount them or their place in AGD history. They may have been late to the electro game, but they have a much stronger following and much higher value now than any of their predecessors or competitors.


    Quote Originally Posted by GoatBoy View Post
    Do you have a better list of stuff they pioneered? Because the list so far isn't really... convincing.
    Buddy, your idea of innovations are things that never took off and never will.... The twistlock barrel is dead and has been for years, the Z-frame was dead before it went full production, the Y-frame was only very briefly produced (both from AGD and ICD), and the convertible trigger guard is only found on low-end markers because the three of the four companies that did it with high-end markers went out of business (Hybrid, WDP, System X) and the fourth one stopped doing it years ago (Bob Long).

    Meanwhile people use spring loaded delrin detentes every day and every production marker comes with some kind of double feed system, almost every autococker in the last decade and a half came with a 45 frame as a standard, every kid on PBN wants to "half block" their autococker, and the demand for pneumatic automag frames (granted it's a niche market) is through the roof. A used Xmag commands a $1000+ price tag, an Emag a $500+ price tag, both have been out of production for literally a decade. Ten to twenty year old Micromags sell for a minimum of $200 if and when they come on the market, and that's for the plain jane models with plenty of miles on them - many sell for as much as $650.

    Here's a list...

    -Halfblock Autococker Design
    -Removable Feedneck
    -Pneumatic Trigger Frame
    -45 Style Gripframe ("for Automag and Autococker Applications")
    -Unibody Automag Design
    -Level 7 Automag bolt
    -Rifled Barrel (for paintball applications)
    -Emag Frame Design (the first hybrid electronic/mechanical marker)
    -Offset & Adjustable Regulator Cradle (designed for the AA Armaggedon reg at launch)

    Quote Originally Posted by blackdeath1k View Post
    Anyone that can't see PTP as a trend setter and pioneer in paintball apparently was not around in the 90s at all. And in any business you need to patent everything for chance of profiting from your work. And stopping others from steeling it.
    That's what I was driving at... At the time, their stuff was a godsend, and the effects were felt throughout the sport and can even be seen today in lowend/midrange mechanical markers as well as midrange electros (specifically the Tippmann Crossover, Tippmann Phenom, Proto SLG, etc). In the last decade, it's really hard to see their effect on the sport because by 2002 they were dealing with "dead" or dying platforms (the Autococker and Automag) and the sport took a sharp turn around that time... By 2004 they were barely engaged in the sport, who knows what they might have come up with if they'd been in 100% instead of 5%? But I'm starting to sound like that crusty old curmudgeon now, so I'll shut up. Sorry for being a dick.

  9. #9
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    not a dick. a player from years past.

    You don't come off as a dick to me. You come off as someone that was more or less an adult in the EARLY 90s. And was big in the game and equipment. I started playing in 94. But. I was in 6th grade. So when you point a lot of that out. I think back and.... yah! That really is how it was. The 96 autococker was a revelation in new products at the time. Still did not come with a 45. And had the big heavy square cocking block. That was the first mods most did to it though. A benchmark is what my brother in law used for a frame. And a ptp cocking block. It was also the first year a cocker came with a factory screw in ball detent. It worked well for what it was. And I do believe ptp had a lot to do with that. Magazines back then were covered with ptp innovations. Or ptp copied work.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by luke View Post
    I put a feeler out with the powers that be to see about striking some kind of a deal so I can make "something".
    I haven't started any designs or anything, just waiting to see if we can work something out.
    Great, I hope you get the OK. I know AO would love to see this get done by a name they trust.

  11. #11
    Basically, you're attempting to flood the issue with a lot of fairly minor achievements, maybe the strongest of which was the detente -- the design for which was interesting but not exactly widely in use today, which I guess is a legitimate counter-argument since you used it against things that I would consider innovative. So their claim here was that they made them production-available... Which is something of a lesser claim.

    Most of the rest of the stuff is about "bringing stuff to production" etc., or is of questionable technical merit unto itself. I didn't know about the L7 bolt, but I'm not sure where it belongs in the hierarchy either.

    Bounding the list on the other end, the worst has got to be the rifled barrel. And again, this is why I'm saying you might actually be doing the opposite of what you're trying to do if you bring the rifled barrel up.

    I very well remember seeing Pro-team products in stores and catalogs, etc.

    I just never bought into it. Some stuff I acquired incidentally from my Craigslist habit, and if I can't sell it to the next sucker, I just put it in a box and keep it as a tragicomic reminder of just how bad the bad old days used to be. Kind of like this aftermarket Venom bolt that I recently liberated from a friend because it amuses me. Plus I heard it has titanium in it, so it must be worth something.

    Just because something became a trend doesn't mean it was a good trend. If the bar is lowered so far that we're just happy with anything that the manufacturers throw at us, then I completely acknowledge your points. The sheer volume of minor notables that Pro-team tried to sell us is indeed impressive, and you have clearly demonstrated this.
    "Accuracy by aiming."


    Definitely not on the A-Team.

  12. #12
    Is there any way this argument of the merits of PTP can be exorcised into its own thread?

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