Spring Tuning

[Laku]

Really?

Foamie is there to prevent a ball rolling back and allow the next ball in stack to drop partially in which leads to chop. Also cushions the bolt tip a little.

Bolt movement only pushes the ball into the barrel, it's the air that launches it. You really need to brush up your understanding on paintball gun working principles.

Hint. Higher pressure short burst vs lower pressure longer burst. And mag doesn't use the same pressure that is input to fire the ball. As I recall it's around 450psi that launches the ball (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

[2BAD4U]

[kfletch]

You are correct it doesn't use the same pressure that is inputed, but neither does low pressure paintball guns. The Dye NT uses around 150 psi in its chamber to launch a paintball. No one has yet to explain if the bolt has little effect in launching a ball how low pressure guns achieve the same fps as high....but I'm done. Shoot your guns as you like. As for Dawgs original question, I've been shooting 20 years with gold springs and have had no reason to change.

[blackdeath1k]

You are correct it doesn't use the same pressure that is inputed, but neither does low pressure paintball guns. The Dye NT uses around 150 psi in its chamber to launch a paintball. No one has yet to explain if the bolt has little effect in launching a ball how low pressure guns achieve the same fps as high....but I'm done. Shoot your guns as you like. As for Dawgs original question, I've been shooting 20 years with gold springs and have had no reason to change.

Actually laku did answer. LP HV or HP LV. Really simple. Same principle works with electricity. Higher the voltage the lower amperage needed. Lower the voltage higher amperage needed.

[Laku]

Off topic, but here's a really good video where you can see the bolt speed in slow motion and the point where the air chamber is opened and the air starts to propel the ball forward as it accelerates. This is from PE Ego, so low pressure high volume.

[athomas]

If you measure the actual pressure behind the ball as it starts to accelerate, you will find that all paintball guns operate at approximately the same pressure. The restriction in how the bolt delivers the air determines how much chamber pressure is required to deliver the required pressure behind the ball.

The ideal paintball gun would deliver exactly the required pressure to the ball instantaneously. The air impulse would be perfect and ideal. It would use the least amount of air for any given velocity. As soon as you add a restriction to the air path, you need to increase the chamber pressure to maintain the proper air pressure behind the ball. You could still have near ideal conditions if you could shut the air off instantaneously once the ball was properly accelerated. A smaller chamber would help here. This is the premise of high volume, low pressure or low volume, high pressure.

The "low pressure" guns open the chamber completely and hold it open using a piston that is not affected by the air in the chamber. The chamber can effectively dump all the air at once, creating a nice instantaneous air pulse. A "high pressure" gun like the mag uses the chamber air to hold the bolt open. Since the spring is holding back against it, the bolt stem acts like a regulator and restricts the air flow. The air impulse in this case starts fast but trails off as the air is depleted. There is always a significant amount of residual air left in the chamber after a shot is fired by a mag. Since it takes more force to push the air past the restriction it requires higher chamber pressure just to maintain the required pressure behind the ball. In both cases, the pressure to actually fire the ball is essentially the same.

[athomas]

I always had issues with that Planet Equlipse video. It illustrates a problem that exists, but they didn't compare apples to apples when showing the problem and their solution using paint. The first yellow paint bulges and deforms when pushed into the chamber. It is that bad. The second orange paint is much stiffer and stays round.

[kfletch]

Yeah but it is a great example that the bolt does lititle in the acceleration of the paintball and the air does most of the work. I wouldn't have believed it without seeing it myself. I stand corrected.

[The Dawg]

I'm a little proud i started this thread. Not only am I learning quite a bit, I'm also very entertained. Thanks for the info all.