Doc's Adapter

[factoid]

So I just got my new cocker thread adapter in the mail from Doc's Shop. Great service by the way. I bought the thing and it was in the mail literally within an hour.

I'm wondering if there's a good way to tighten the fit, though. My biggest complaint with Mag barrels has always been the slop. There's a definite waggle in those things, which I'm' sure has to affect accuracy at long distances.

I read a thread once where Doc claimed that his adapter was tighter than a normal mag barrel and eliminated most or all of the slop. Mine still seems a bit loose. Is there a way to tighten that up? Maybe just a piece of scotch tape around it?

I am also wondering about the detent which seems REALLY long in the barrel compared to a mag wire or plastic nubbin. I feel like if I shoot a ball over that nubbin it's going to pop it. Is that normal?

Lastly I was curious about the inner diameter. anyone know what it is? I'm assuming it's overbored to .700 or something so that any paint can fit through it, but I can't really tell. The only paint I have in the house is fairly small bore so of course it rolls into the breech easily.

[Spider-TW]

Mag body tubing varied a bit. The ID on my old one was 0.996, most were over 1". Actually, a wrap of packing tape will keep the adapter tight and the detent won't fall out when you take the adapter out.

The adapter should have a slot to accept the detent when it bends over. Doc's ID may have varied a bit over the years, so you'll have to check yours. He originally made mine small (sub 0.684), but he opened it back up to 0.690 for me. I didn't notice at first because the event paint I tried it out on was smaller than any insert I had (MOUT paint). I don't get a lot of consistently small paint around here.

[factoid]

I will try out the packing tape idea. I think that might tighten it up nicely. The adapter does have a bit of a slot in front of the detent. I suppose it makes sense that this is for the nubbin to bend down into.

Isn't .684 pretty small? My mag barrel is a .691 which I know is sort of a medium-large bore. The shop recommended an eclipse two piece with a .689 back.

Shouldn't this adapter have something like a .700 so that it's bigger than the barrels and you can use any size bore you want?

[Spider-TW]

The larger the bore, the more gas escapes around the sides. Also, I think the paint fills or shells they use now are more sensitive to the weather. Some people don't seem to be seeing much paint over 0.684, but a 0.688/9 bore here is usually the "sized fit", just grabbing the wider sides of the ball. I'm not sure how Doc decides on the bore or if he has always used the same one.

I like my crown point barrels, so I mainly wanted an adapter for small paint. The smaller bore on mine wasn't a problem until I had some fragile and inconsistent sized paint that made me wish I could go back up in sizes throughout the day.

You would like it to be the same size or larger than the barrel you are using, like you said.

[factoid]

I don't know if Doc reads these forums regularly or not. I sent an email through his website asking about the ID of his adapters and what bore paint he recommends for them.

I'm wondering if the bore has a .684 diameter if there's any point in buying a barrel with a larger ID than that.

[SockMonkey]

is it just me or is his site down? (sorry for hijacking )

[factoid]

is it just me or is his site down? (sorry for hijacking )

I noticed the same, but it seems OK now.


I ended up just putting one small piece of scotch tape over the detent. It doesn't even wrap all the way around the adapter because that added too much thickness. Now it fits very snugly, though I suppose technically it's off center but it shouldn't be enough to cause any problems.

Still waiting on a response from Doc on the interior diameter, but I'm guessing it's a bit bigger than .684 I put some pretty small paint into it and it still has wiggle room.

[factoid]

OK, new problem.

I was diagnosing some regulator problems and noticed that when I shoot I'm getting whitish vapor from the breach, and the front section of the valve is heating up slightly.

I removed the adapter and it went away.

I wonder, am I rubbing the adapter with my bolt? Is that vapor some kind of "steel dust" or possibly just a condensation cloud caused by the friction and heat?


I was just tinkering a bit this morning before work so I didn't have time to try lots of things. I am wondering if my little scotch tape fix might have been a bigger problem than I though and perhaps it's causing the adapter to be too far off center.

Or is this just normal when using this adapter? Perhaps it happens in every barrel but you just don't see it because the vapor disappates before it reaches the end. I don't actually have a barrel to screw into this yet...I'm picking that up later in the week.

[Spider-TW]

Doc is not known to do too many things consistently, even though he does them very well. I think it's because he does many things.

If you only have half a wrap of tape, see if you can keep a small piece on the detent and put another small piece on the opposite side.

Take your bolt out and put it in the adapter by hand and see if it has easy clearance. Check for rubs on the inside of the adapter and the outside of the bolt. It would be unusual, but not something to dismiss. Also, check that the twist lock can't push the adapter out of alignment; some twist locks seem to sit a little higher than others.

The steel itself won't make a vapor. Is it possible you were just shooting fresh oil vapor out, or can you take the adapter out and in and the fog goes away and comes back?

[factoid]

Doc is not known to do too many things consistently, even though he does them very well. I think it's because he does many things.

If you only have half a wrap of tape, see if you can keep a small piece on the detent and put another small piece on the opposite side.

Take your bolt out and put it in the adapter by hand and see if it has easy clearance. Check for rubs on the inside of the adapter and the outside of the bolt. It would be unusual, but not something to dismiss. Also, check that the twist lock can't push the adapter out of alignment; some twist locks seem to sit a little higher than others.

The steel itself won't make a vapor. Is it possible you were just shooting fresh oil vapor out, or can you take the adapter out and in and the fog goes away and comes back?

If it's out it goes away. If I put it back in it comes back, so it's definitely the adapter.

I thought it might just be oil at first so I put a bunch of shots through and nothing changed until I removed the adapter.

I am wondering if maybe this isn't just a strange side effect of dry firing with the adapter in. It's obviously altering the air flow, so maybe the tight fit in conjunction with the air is causing a condensation cloud to form.

I didn't see any wear spots or scratches.

I noticed the valve was getting a little warm around the power tube area. Is that normal while firing a classic valve? I can't say I've ever paid much attention to it. I was shooting pretty fast.

[Spider-TW]

The adapter will definitely block most of the shot air from mixing with air from the feed neck, as opposed to letting it all mix and entrain before it gets out of the body. I may just be the concentrated shot versus the diluted shot. You may have to compare it with a barrel.

The valve might get a little warm, but even RTs don't get "hot". If you have the muzzle covered, I can see it getting a little warmer than if you were open dry firing or shooting paint, from the re-worked air and lower air flow. I've never really noticed it in a classic though.

You might check the power tube and power tube tip for extra wear. I have seen one picture of an oval worn in a power tube tip. Make sure your field strip screw is at least finger tight (not wrench tight), your frame screw is snug (a little wrench tight), so that your body and valve are secure and aligned.

[factoid]

The adapter will definitely block most of the shot air from mixing with air from the feed neck, as opposed to letting it all mix and entrain before it gets out of the body. I may just be the concentrated shot versus the diluted shot. You may have to compare it with a barrel.

The valve might get a little warm, but even RTs don't get "hot". If you have the muzzle covered, I can see it getting a little warmer than if you were open dry firing or shooting paint, from the re-worked air and lower air flow. I've never really noticed it in a classic though.

You might check the power tube and power tube tip for extra wear. I have seen one picture of an oval worn in a power tube tip. Make sure your field strip screw is at least finger tight (not wrench tight), your frame screw is snug (a little wrench tight), so that your body and valve are secure and aligned.

It's not "hot" it's definitely just a little warm. I only had a couple minutes to diagnose the issue this morning, so I'll put some more testing into it this afternoon. I've got the house to myself tonight so I'm going to do some tinkering. Taking the adapter out, back in, twist-lock barrel, cocker barrel, etc...

I wish I had some re-balls. I live in the city so I never run paint through the gun unless I'm at the field.

[factoid]

So I don't think it was any big deal. I put my twistlock barrel back in and I could definitely see a slight vapor cloud from the front when dry firing. It's more faint becuase the barrel is ported, but it's there. I guess this is probably just always there but I never noticed it because I rarely dry fire with a barrel on, and if I did I wouldn't be able to see the vapor unless I was looking for it.


I took the tape off the adapter for now just in case there was any rubbing. The bolt fits into the adapter with about as much clearance as it fits into my twist lock barrel.

[factoid]

For historical reference the ID of the adapter is somewhere between .689 and .693

I put a .693 back on and couldn't see the edge of the barrel inside the adapter

I put a .689 back on I couldn't see the lip. My money is on .690 but I don't have any exact way to measure it other than putting different size backs on and eyeballing it.

[Big_Magnum357]

just got my adapter very little to no wiggle room. Adapter is tighter then barrel. Works great.