Breaking tons of paint w/ X-mag

[souvy32]

I have an x-mag (level 10, anti chop eye, x-valve) with the warp feed. I was using marbaliizer paint and had a good paint to barrel match.

I ended up shooting soup for the first few games. I then changed from the medium to the heavy, longer spring and also switched to Draxxus Artcic Inferno paint. That paint has a thicker shell for playing in cold temps.

So here's my question; it looks to me like the paint was the culprit. Any other ideas? I have a hard time believing that I can't shoot thin shelled paint like marbalizer.

I also had a similar problem once before using evil, but it cold out and I blamed the temperature. Is there anything that I can do in order to be able to shoot thin shelled paint? Thanks in advance.

[Russ]

Lemme guess, black AGDE X-Mag...Fox 4?

Did the longer spring stop the breakage?

Were you initially chopping paint (with the marbs) or was it busting in the breech (probably hard to tell the difference) Sometimes, because of RPS' paints matte texture, the warp feed will apply too much feed pressure the balls. Sometimes smearing a little paint on the warps drive disks will help lessen the pressure. Others have shimmed the wheels outward for the same effect.

Setting the proper dwell time on the warp is important, too. This setting can & will vary with different paints.

[souvy32]

Thanks for replying so quickly. Yeah, that was me at Fox 4 (despite all the tech problems, I have to say it was a blast overall). I just got the warp and was trying it out for the first time. So anyway, I had the same problem while using the Halo. Initially I thought the problems yesterday were due to the warp, so I switched to the Halo but still had the same problem.

A couple of weeks ago I tired using the Halo with Evil paint and had the same problems. It was cold out that day and figured that was the reason.

Basically, whenever I have used the Artic Inferno (with the Halo) I have never broken a ball (about 3 or 4 times), even when I rail on it. It could be the finish on the ball as you had mentioned though. Also, for the warp, how do you adjust the dwell time? I just picked it up and haen't played around with it too much yet. Thank you again, I appreciate your help.

[souvy32]

My X-mag was leaking from the front while gassed up (while not pressing the trigger). A very helpful person at the field suggested changing to the longer spring for the breakage. While this did not help the breaking problems (still shooting spray paint) it did stop the leaking, so I stuck with the longer spring.

[Russ]

A very helpful person...
That'd be me :)

Knowing that the gun is breaking paint WITHOUT the warp is a big help. Try dropping the O ring carrier down 1 size. That will eliminate the leaking out the front, and will help slow the bolt down, which may help stop the breaking of brittle paint.

Inside the warps' control panel, there are little switches (EDIT: jumpers, not switches, doh!). Setting them in various combinations to adjust the dwell time. I haven't had a warp in a while, so I forgot the actual settings, sorry. Maybe someone else will speak up?

[souvy32]

Russ,
Thanks a lot for all of your help, especially yesterday, I really appreciate it. I'll try changing the carrier and playing with the warp settings. Thanks again.

[BlackVCG]

Do a bounce test on the paint in the same condition that you were playing in. Hold the paint 6 feet up and drop it on a hard surface like a metal plate or concrete. If it's consistently breaking on the first drop or the second drop, it's pretty fragile paint.

Even if it's fragile, you shouldn't be breaking it that often. I've been shooting 0-1 bounce paint with my E-Mag and LX with the short gold spring without any breaks.

What kind of barrel are you using? How does it line up with the module? If it's offcenter, it can create a lip that will cause the paint to break on that. Try different barrels. Also, make sure your detent is not protruding too far into the breech. It might be possible that the detent is going in too far and causing problems.

Set your WarpFeed so the block of four jumpers on the right of the board has two going vertical and two horizontal. That's all you need to adjust on the Warp. Are you using the interlink cable?

Last, but not least. Take off all of your feed systems and drop as many balls into the vertical breech module as possible and fire them. If you can get it to break in slow fire with no feed system attached, it's a barrel, detent issue.

[souvy32]

Thank you both very much for your help. So I was putsing around with the x-mag and I decided to adjust the level 10 according to the manual. I took out the heavy spring and wnet back to the medium one. To fix the leak from the front (it was leaking without the trigger being depressed) I actually went up 1 carrier size. The leak is fixed now at least.

As for the paint breaking, it seems that the barrel and module line up evenly. I usually use either an Armson 13', a 32 degrees Whisper 14' or a Lapco Big Shot 14' depending on the paint match. I'd say that the paint is definitely 0-1 bounce paint. I haven't had a chance to try firing it slo-mo using the vertical module, but I'll give it a shot this weekend and see what happens. Hopefully all will be well. I figure worst case scenario, I may hjust have to use thicker shelled paint. If that is the case, do you guys have any recommendations? I was thinking about trying Diablo's Inferno. The Arctic Inferno worked very well for me. Thanks again.
-John

[cphilip]

If it is a AGDE X Mag I would almost bet its the old Barrel thread issue. Black was heading there already with his questions I bet! If it is then its bottoming out a thread turn or two before it actualy mates up with the module leaving an ever so slight lip. Many of the first ones over here showed that problem and the solution was to remove a thread turn or two from the modules so that the barrels would line up BEFORE they ran out of threads. They have now redesigned and build them all that way but some of the early ones with barrels from Europe still have the issue which will not rear its ugly head until you start using American barrels on them. Seems the threading standards are not exactly the same.

This would be what I would look for.... since you are close to ruling out all other things.

[Ghost24]

Hey Souy, did you check the ball detent as Black suggested? Take the module out and look and see if you see any of the detent's thread protruding into the breech. The balls could be catching the threads as they are shot. Does the detent have an o-ring on it so it doesn't seat too deep into the module? What kind of detent are you using? The angel detents I had, seated to deeply and I was breaking paint in my warped X-Mag (US). Once I backed them out some, no breaks. Now I'm using the AGD detents, no problem about seating to deeply. I have shot 12 cases of Blaze and the Inferno Artic no breaks using the standard X-Mag barrel, a Lapco Big Shot and my CP Kits barrels. Good luck with finding a solution.

[souvy32]

Thanks guys. The first thing I did was try to back the ball detant almost all the way out (I backed it out until it had no effect and then screwed it back in just enough to have it stop the balls form going down the barrel. That didn't seem to help out to much. I'll have to compare how the stock barrel (which I'm assuming fits the module as it is supposed to) fits the module compared to the other barrels I usually shoot. Thanks again for all of your help guys I really appreciate it, and if you think of anything else, please let me know. Hopefully I can get the situation fixed before this weekend.

[cphilip]

Originally posted by souvy32
I'll have to compare how the stock barrel (which I'm assuming fits the module as it is supposed to) fits the module compared to the other barrels I usually shoot.

That indeed would be the definative test. And hopefully that will at least tell you the problem is there or elsewhere. And put you on the road to recovery.

[souvy32]

So I checked last night and it seems that regardless of what barrel or module (vertical feed or warp) there is a little bit of a gap between the end of the barrel and the module. This gap is tiny and I'm not sure if I'm nit-picking or am becoming a gun hypochondriac or something. I think that if it was breaking the winter ball too, that this could be a problem. I'm not really sure if the small gap may be enough to affect thinner sheeld paint only. I'll have to take a picture of it and post it to get you opinions, so if you coul check back late to night or tomorrow, i would appreciate it. Also, the x-mag from AGDE is pretty new (maybee a month or two) and was fresh off the line, so at this point I don't know what to think. Thanks again and I'll work on gettting those pictures up.