Bill Mills weighed in on my questions over at the warpig forums, as well. I thought you guys might be interested in his spin on this whole schmeer. Here's what he said.
Does Pure Energy have low output bottles? If not, it's going to be putting out around 800 psi which will do fine for you.
No, it won't make any difference at all. Level 7 and above it has no performance benefit.
The AIR valve in an Automag is a regulator that feeds through an on-off valve to an air chamber that holds air behind the bolt/piston assembly. The only thing that can be done to reduce the operating pressure is to increase the size of that air chamber.
The extra holes in the ANS body are in the regulator portion of the valve, not the air chamber portion.
The extra holes are based in concept on the 6 hole mod that was used to increase the flow rate of gas between the front and back half of the valve assembly to reduce the chance of shoot-down under rapid fire. Back in Level 6 and earlier model 'mags there was an issue with the pressure feedback holes in the two valve halves not lining up - drilling a bunch of holes in the back half made sure that at least one hole from the back was close to the hole in the front - for unrestricted airflow. With Level 7, the two holes line up perfectly, due to a changed manufacturing process. Since they line up perfectly, having extra holes doesn't change anything, flow wise.
Not significantly.
Modifying the Flatline to output more than it is rated to output would be very dangerous. Regardless, you don't need it to output more than 1200 psi, the valves you are talking about will work fine in the 700 to 800 psi range.
It sounds to me like you are confusing pressure with flow rate. Flow rate is not measured in psi - that's pressure. Flow rate is measured in cubic feet per minute. I don't know of any air systems for which the flow rate has been published, though many claim high flow rates.
I'd really suggest trying it with your existing air system - then investigating the use of regs with higher flow rates if you start having shoot-down problems.
_________________
Bill Mills - WARPIG Technical Editor
It was at that point that I admitted my obvious confusion about what was up. 
And that more or less brings us to now.
Arkhangel wrote:
My train of thought has been that since I'm hearing (both here and at automags.org) that the min input pressure is ~650 psi, I wouldn't think that they'd work off my Pure Energy bottle.
My train of thought has been that since I'm hearing (both here and at automags.org) that the min input pressure is ~650 psi, I wouldn't think that they'd work off my Pure Energy bottle.
The questions I have right now are:
Would the aftermarket ANS reg give me a lower required min input pressure on my existing valves?
Would the aftermarket ANS reg give me a lower required min input pressure on my existing valves?
No, it won't make any difference at all. Level 7 and above it has no performance benefit.
The AIR valve in an Automag is a regulator that feeds through an on-off valve to an air chamber that holds air behind the bolt/piston assembly. The only thing that can be done to reduce the operating pressure is to increase the size of that air chamber.
The extra holes in the ANS body are in the regulator portion of the valve, not the air chamber portion.
The extra holes are based in concept on the 6 hole mod that was used to increase the flow rate of gas between the front and back half of the valve assembly to reduce the chance of shoot-down under rapid fire. Back in Level 6 and earlier model 'mags there was an issue with the pressure feedback holes in the two valve halves not lining up - drilling a bunch of holes in the back half made sure that at least one hole from the back was close to the hole in the front - for unrestricted airflow. With Level 7, the two holes line up perfectly, due to a changed manufacturing process. Since they line up perfectly, having extra holes doesn't change anything, flow wise.
Would an RT valve have a lower min input pressure?
Would an X-valve have a lower min input pressure?
Would an X-valve have a lower min input pressure?
Not significantly.
Yeah, I agree that it'd be possible to input more than 1200 psi by doing some creative work on the Flatline, but if I can avoid doing that, I'd like to.
I haven't been able to find a bottle with a higher flow than 1200. Do you know of any?
I'd really suggest trying it with your existing air system - then investigating the use of regs with higher flow rates if you start having shoot-down problems.
_________________
Bill Mills - WARPIG Technical Editor
And that more or less brings us to now.
Comment