Origin of the warp feed???

[Snooky]

I wanted to know exaclty how tom came up with the idea for the warp feed. i have heard different stories but the most promienant one is a dream he had. others were more far fetched such as saw a product at walmart and got the idea from that. could someone *cough* tom *cough* clear this up for me. thanks.

[FooTemps]

Could someone tell me some of the stories... I never heard them before..

[AGD]

Well, I was laying in bed but I wasn't dreaming. I have the ability to look at mechanical parts in three dimensions in my mind so I can just think up parts and put them together. I was mentally visualising the cupped wheel system like the one the Tippman uses. Each cup pushes the ball into the output port but the problem was if it jammed, the cup would smash the balls. I was thinking that you have to move the cup out of the way and get it out from behind the ball so if it jammed nothing would happen.

As I rotated the cup mentally out of the horizontal plane it became obvious that you could grip the balls from the sides and that would get the cup out from behind the ball. It was a short leap to grip them with a disk and then adjust the disk to get the right friction.

Most of the ideas I come up with are the result of many hours going over every concievable combination of parts. It has to be something that you do naturally because it's not something you can just focus on.

Thats the story.

AGD

[FooTemps]

Actually... I can do that too Tom... but I image different things. Like when I'm trying to get ideas for sketches, drawings, cel art, I imagine a character in my head and manipulate them into a pose I like...


I'm just getting into cel art so the best I usually come up with is just lineart...

[manike]

Tom, I think somewhere along the lines your description is missing something... :rolleyes:

The question wasn't just how you came up with the idea to do what the warp does or make it work, but how you came up with the idea for the warp...

manike

[BradPalooza]

I think he used to read APG back in the day and saw "Auto-Loto Balls" ; )
-Brad

[BTAutoMag]

i do that sometimes. thats how i came up with all the wierd things on my gun:D

[Bad Dave]

A guy from the mayhem tigers in the UK came up with one of the first force feed driven systems, he had it patented as well I beleive.

Stan Higgett told me back in '96 or '97 that a guy from the UK had been flown out to Chicago to develop some form of force feed system.


He might be the first.

[BTAutoMag]

has anyone ever heard of the promag???? it supposably is worn on the back and feeds the balls by air. its kind of like the warp but it uses air instead of grip. info pics?

[manike]

Originally posted by Bad Dave
A guy from the mayhem tigers in the UK came up with one of the first force feed driven systems, he had it patented as well I beleive.

Stan Higgett told me back in '96 or '97 that a guy from the UK had been flown out to Chicago to develop some form of force feed system.


He might be the first.

I wonder who that guy might be... :rolleyes: :D

Dave did you read this thread BTW... http://www.automags.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18908&perpage=30&pagenumber=2

I've seen and fired the pro-mag system. It was kinda cool when it worked but was a real pain to reload and I felt very restricted by the hose which feeds the paint. There used to a pic of it on Warpig somewhere...

manike

[SqueegeeKid]

What about the AT-10/85 loading system. It looks alot like a Warp only it uses little cups to push the balls. It would have the same problem Tom mentioned earlier about it crushing balls.

When i first heard of the Warp, that's the first thing that poppped into my head.

[BTAutoMag]

yea i saw the pic but its not a good one. it just shows the gun and the feed tube

[manike]

The AT has little pins on a chain that pushes the paint along. It's a neat design but has to be integral to the gun to work. That kinda limits you to just one gun the AT... :D

manike

[BTAutoMag]

the pins dont work all the time. the friend i sold the AT85 for used his in a local tourny (the refs oked it and they taped the FA switch down) but he was firing it so fastthat all the pins bent down at a 45 degree angle and he coulnt use it for a while til he bent them back.

[Bad Dave]

Manike: what are you saying, it was you who invented and designed the first force feed system (patented under UK patents if I remember). Did you get flown out to the states for this? Would the chicago based company be AGD?

Were there complications at the end, Dickie Donnegan told me that there were some issues at the end if I remember correctly.

Very interesting.

[manike]

Yes.

[t_wieneke]

"I have the ability to look at mechanical parts in three dimensions in my mind so I can just think up parts and put them together."

Wow Tom! You must be real good at undressing women with your eyes!

Seriously though, I look forward to what your mind comes up with next...

Tim

[Snooky]

Finally the mystery is revealed! Now get to work on that AGd clothing and formal wear line.

[AGD]

To be fair to Manike yes he did come up with his system long before we did ours. We were interested in his system but felt it was infringing on the Tippman patent so we urged him to get a patent. To our surprize he did but we could not come to terms to produce it.

To go way back the very first force feed system we ever saw was developed in Florida by a friend of Ron Howell's. It was an air pressure feed and used a rolled up hose in a backpack to store the balls. Worked well in any position but used air and was bulky. Viewloader looked at producing it and actually made protos but could never get the bugs out.

AGD

[Fred]

There was a link posted on the Tinker's Guild for Manike's Uber-Loader...
if it works as well as he claims it will (which i believe) it'll feed faster than any marker can shoot right now... :eek:

The patent is fun reading too...