Free safety inspection

[Gunslinger-ActionBob]

East Stroudsburg, PA
Gunslinger's Paintball would like to announce that they will be doing free safety inspections upon Co2 tanks at their events. After a recent accident in California which claimed a life, they will be doing visual and torque inspections of any paintball Co2 tanks at events. We will inspect the tank for visible defects, check the torque of the valve to the tank, and apply Loc-tite where needed at no charge. Please be aware that this is not a hydrotest, and does not exempt a tank from hydrotesting.Please bring them to us empty and let us know if any internal modifications have been done. Any tanks that need additional service or parts will be addressed at the event by the Gunslinger's. Gunslinger's tech service will be attending EMR Paintball Park events, MXS Sportz scenario games, the Global Paintball League tournament series, select Blue's Crew events and more to be announced. For more information please visit the Gunslinger's on the web, visit the event producers websites, or call at (570) 424-6084.

[Mag_SEAL-6]

I live in Folsom CA which is right near where the accident happened (Roseville I think). It's been all over the news and then last night I saw another thing on the news too.

They discovered that the same thing happened up in Washington. A 17 yr old kid was degassing his gun and the CO2 tank shot up and cracked him between the eyes. He died 5 days later. Very sad.

Both of the accidents involved the same brand CO2 tank. It's really cool that they're doing free inspections.

[QUINCYMASSGUY]

I have to up this message, and hope it gets stickied. Equipment safety is a huge PBall concern and way too many fields neglect it, it's good to see one take a huge step in the right direction.

EDIT: was the brand ever identified? what were they?

[FreakBaller12]

i thought loc tite was not suppose to be applied onto tanks!?
check the thread glen palmer investigating pball incident, or somehting like that, somebody took a quote from tom.

[Gunslinger-ActionBob]

at the current cost of Co2 tanks vs the cost of hydrotesting I use a bit of loc-tite above the pressure bleed hole. The issue you are talking about is thread galling due to bonding of the aluminium to the brass. IMO a small amount of L-T at the valve head is just a bit more insurance angainst future problems. I torque test all new tanks that come into the shop as in the past I have up to 4 in a case be loose from the manufacturer.

[edweird]

Gunslingers: its very nice of you all to offer this free service to paintballers as a whole. I hope this sets a standard that everyone else will adopt as well

for the betterment of paintball

[MayAMonkeyBeYourPinata]

Glad to hear someone is taking the initiative to help the safety of the PB community.

Now what we need is the companies to test their own tanks for defects.

[akscubainst]

Originally posted by MayAMonkeyBeYourPinata
Glad to hear someone is taking the initiative to help the safety of the PB community.

Now what we need is the companies to test their own tanks for defects.

I hear this!

I ordered a bunch of CO2 tanks for inventory last year from one of the big name distributors and one of the 9oz showed up with the valve only half in it. A large portion of this industry has no quality control whats so ever.

Dave

[AGD]

Last time Budd tried this (10 years ago) he snapped off about 20% of the valves. You better have a plan if you break someones valve. Also lock-tight is not DOT approved so you are setting yourself up for a big lawsuit if something happens to those tanks afterward.

AGD

[punkncat]

It has always been suggested to me to apply a small amount of thread lock to the last few threads near the "top" of the valve.
What would be even better would be to inform people to actually pay attention to the tank as it is being unscrewed to be sure the valve is turning, as well as the tank.

Its really messed up that anyone who takes upon themselves to try and make sure tanks are safe open a big liability issue on themselves.

[Gunslinger-ActionBob]

Thanks for the heads up Tom - I remember when Jim Lively had the same issue when he was doing his tourny series. I believe we have a way to cover it. I plan on using a torque wrench for inspection rather than a standard wrench.

[than205]

Originally posted by AGD
Last time Budd tried this (10 years ago) he snapped off about 20% of the valves. You better have a plan if you break someones valve. Also lock-tight is not DOT approved so you are setting yourself up for a big lawsuit if something happens to those tanks afterward.

AGD

I'm sorry to resurrect this thread, but I've been searching for the relavent documents and I'm having no luck.
Could someone point me in the direction of the document that states that loctite is prohibited? I'm not questioning that it's not true, it's just that a 'lot' of people think that loctite is the way to go.

What I have been able to find is that co2 valves are to be torqued to 40 foot pounds. It doesn't mention loctite. And I imagine people think it couldn't hurt to put some on.

Much thanks ahead of time!

[akscubainst]

You mean Like this?

http://www.carltech.com/new-composite/valves.html

Carleton makes HPA cylinders not CO2 but....
Quote:


CAUTION!

Some manufacturers of paintball valves apply a small amount of Loctite to the valve threads before screwing the valve to the cylinder. This practice of 'sealing' the valve to the cylinder unfortunately makes it extremely difficult to remove when it comes time for reinspection (hydrotesting). We do not condone the use of Loctite and strongly recommend all paintball valve manufacturers refrain from its use.


Dave

[GT]

every gun should come with a bleed down on/off. It would add what 15-20 bucks to the price of a gun and insure that the line is properly degassed.

I guess I am just crazy..........

[Gunslinger-ActionBob]

I wish the solution was that easy - even with the pressure removed you can still unscrew the valve from the tank causing the accident like the one in Cali. The only true solution is that the valve be properly torqued onto the tank.

TK could tell you exactly where in the DOT/FMVSS the loctite is addressed.

here's an incomplete list of organiztions that touch upon the sport
DOT
MSHA
USPO
BATF
GAO
ASTM
ANSI
INDIVIDUAL MANUFACTURERS GUIDELINES
UL
NIA
and odds are just about any other org. you can make in a box of alpha-bits

[Beemer]

Originally posted by Gunslinger-ActionBob
The only true solution is that the valve be properly torqued onto the tank

True, torque specs need to be followed but the TRUE solution would be not to create the problem in the first place.


Originally posted by AGD

No other industry in the world uses inline threads the way we do because of this very problem. They all use some form of 90 degree fitting. Why we do I will not get into because I have vented enough in other threads today.
AGD



Originally posted by AGD

Mounting the valve on a gun which is basically a two foot long lever and then diving into a bunker is an overall bad idea. Only ONE regulator on the market has a fail safe shut off if the reg breaks off. Three letters, starts with A, you can guess the rest.
AGD

[Gunslinger-ActionBob]

the problem if it truely a problem first raised it's head back in the mid 80's when Gramps and Grizzley first made the CA tank available. I know there is no unified database on the "accidents" over the years but in the last 2 end user modifications were directly reponseable. So are these accidents or negligence?

Will we see any major changes in the near future? I highly doubt it, I'd would like to see cases of actual failure of parts that do not involve user intervention. To be honest I see more ( in numbers ) injuries caused by macroline than anything else.

From what thread did you pull TK's quotes? I'd like to read them. Also I'm not sure of the dates but Air America's also shut down when the external reg is removed

[Beemer]

Originally posted by Gunslinger-ActionBob
From what thread did you pull TK's quotes? I'd like to read them. Also I'm not sure of the dates but Air America's also shut down when the external reg is removed


Here ya go, middle of 2nd page

http://www.automags.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=125502&perpage=40&pagenumber=1

[Gunslinger-ActionBob]

Thanks Beemer.