Helium as an air source?

[C¥borg]

Has helium ever been used as an air source for paintball guns? It seems like it would be a good gas to use, it's lighter than air, so it seems like it would expand faster, is probably cleaner, and it would make your voice sound funny during rapid fire ;) The only drawback I can really see is price, it's probably more expensive than normal air.

For that matter, how about hydrogen (yes I know it is flammable) it's the most common element in the universe, and it will probably be powering our cars in the near future, imagine, filling up your paintball tank at the gas station :)

Don't mind me, I'm probably just saying stupid things cause I haven't slept in 42 hours.

[DRAGONSLAYER]

Hmmmmmmmmm, let me do some research. Sounds interesting.:confused:

[Army]

The helium would be cost prohibitive, and the hydrogen would be stupid?:cool:

[DRAGONSLAYER]

OK, 'nuff research for me, buddy of mine said about the same thing.:)

[M-a-s-sDriver]

Both gases carry very little mass as compared to the surrounding air it would have to push out of the way and replace. For that reason it would probably require greater amounts of pressure or volume to drive a paintball compared with air or co2. I don't know how stable thermally it would be. There. I have exhausted every opinion or ubsubstantiated fact, real or otherwise, that I have on this subject. Until I think up some more.
Brent Jackson, PFB.

[Restola]

is anyone really have a problem with (basicly) free air?

when guns start melting fron putting compressed air through them it is time todo some more research. although if my memory serves me someone once said xenon makes a great air source?

[AGD]

Of course you know what I'm going to say,,,, Yes we have been there.

Helium is a very bad choice, as Massdriver said it's mollecule is too small to do anything. It makes a very loud noise and shoots the paintball at about 100 fps. Every seal leaks because the mollecule is so small it gets through stuff.

AGD

[mag_pbg]

I thought we had a HUGE descusion over what types of air there were out ther that you could and couldn't use for paintball, but I could be wrong.

[billmi]

And hydrogen - being half the atomic weight of helium (both of which are normally diatomic molecules) has even more problems from leakage. Hydrogen even leaks out of steel compressed gas tanks - it leaks THROUGH the steel, especially at high pressures, because the molecule is so small. Storage is one of the problems (probably the biggest) with using hydrogen as a fuel source leading options involve bonding hydrogen with other elements to form bigger molecules that can be easily broken apart when the hydrogen is needed (it's easy to bond it with oxygen to store as water, but the energy needed to break it apart is equal to the energy produced by burning it - which of course produces water). In WWII the Germans used hydrogen as a fuel for trucks when oil reserves were low. They built platforms on top of the trucks that held big gas bags, and the hydrogen was stored at atmospheric pressure, which minimized leakage issues.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills

[cphilip]

Originally posted by mag_pbg
I thought we had a HUGE descusion over what types of air there were out there that you could and couldn't use for paintball, but I could be wrong.

Yes we did. And I am not going to try and post all of that chemical structure and vapor pressure stuff again. Search for it...

[ben_JD]

When thinking of using hydrogen as a paintball propellant and having vast quantities around the paintball field, all I can envision is the Hindenburg.

[C¥borg]

Actually the Hindenburg didn't start burning from hydrogen, it was actually the special paint they used on the shell, it used some special chemicals at the time to make it reflective so it wouldn't generate heat, what they didn't know about the special mixture is that it is very flammable, I think it's even used in explosives nowadays, but don't quote me on that, I can't remember very well. It is actually estimated that only about 1/3 (or something like that) of the hydrogen within the hindenburg actually burned, because of hydrogens very low weight, it mostly just floated away before it could ignite.

And as for xenon as a source of air, I think it would be more expensive than helium. I realize how dumb this post was in retrospect, but lack of sleep can do some wierd things to your head.