yo dawg, i herd u liek air fills

[GoatBoy]

How would I make a fill station out of a normal paintball tank?

I play with a 22ci tank, which is usually enough to get me through at least two games of speedball.

But it's the third game that's kind of sketchy.

What I want to do is take a normal (like, a 90ci) tank and use it as a portable fill station so I don't have to walk all the way back to get air, and/or to top off if necessary.

I suppose the easiest thing to do would be to take the HP gauge off and run a hose from that to a manifold which has a gauge, on/off, and a bleed.

What's the cheapest way to do this? Your typical cheapie "scuba fill station" has almost all the right parts, except for the reliance on a scuba k-valve.


Any suggestions? On the cheap?

[mostpeople]

two asa's connected by a macro?

[WUNDERWAFFEN]

Thinking about this I think it would just be cheaper, easier & safer to buy a second or third 22ci tank.

[smeek]

Considering the price of real fill stations, there really isn't a good, cheap safe way to do this just so you "don't have to walk all the way back to get air." Like mentioned earlier you're better off just buying an extra tank or two.

Mostpeople: using an ASA you can only fill the 22ci tank to the output of the larger tank, so around 800-1000 psi or less than a third of a full fill. Also you probably shouldn't fill tanks through the output of the regulator if it's even possible depending on the design.

[GoatBoy]

So what exactly is the safety difference between a normal HPA tank with a gauge on the HP side, and an HPA tank with an on/off on the HP side of the regulator which then leads to a gauge and a normal mini fill station?

Or do you guys happen to mistrust the mini scuba fill stations as well?

(I'm talking like one of these)

[drg]

two asa's connected by a macro?

= explosion

[GoatBoy]

Alright, so I started to assume I'd be on my own for this one so went poking around a bit on the interwebs some more. Guess what?

http://www.airhog.com/mini_tanks.htm

ZOMG SAFETY!!!111

[tribalman]

let me get this straight, you want to skip having to go to the fill station after 2 games to refill your current 22ci, so instead you want to carry around a 90ci(this is what you listed in your first post) and a 22ci? why refill the 22 off of the 90ci? just use the 90. or even better bump up to a bigger tank to use on your marker, a 68ci/4500 is lots of air. or you can even just get another 22ci/3000 and carry that and when the first tank is out unscrew it and pop on the other. no messing around with hose connections.

OMG! the price of those airhog tanks is just nuts! an 88 cu ft @ 4500psi is $600! for that price you can get a bunch of smaller tanks and just carry 3 on you. do you really want to invest that much money to avoid having to walk to a fill station? and seeing as how paint isn't a problem bringing with you for 3 games i assume you have a big podpack with lots of paint on you, just carry another tank instead.

2 weekends ago at Spring Pump Event my 88/4500 lasted 2 days. i did refill at the start of the 2nd day because it was the tournament and i was at 2000 from the previous day. i could have easily just kept playing but i didn't want to risk it. still got a full 7 games in with out having to refill air, just the 40 paintballs we were allowed each round. this is what i'd get http://www.actionvillage.com/031-536-0014

[kcombs9]

let me get this straight, you want to skip having to go to the fill station after 2 games to refill your current 22ci, so instead you want to carry around a 90ci(this is what you listed in your first post) and a 22ci? why refill the 22 off of the 90ci? just use the 90. or even better bump up to a bigger tank to use on your marker, a 68ci/4500 is lots of air. or you can even just get another 22ci/3000 and carry that and when the first tank is out unscrew it and pop on the other. no messing around with hose connections.

OMG! the price of those airhog tanks is just nuts! an 88 cu ft @ 4500psi is $600! for that price you can get a bunch of smaller tanks and just carry 3 on you. do you really want to invest that much money to avoid having to walk to a fill station? and seeing as how paint isn't a problem bringing with you for 3 games i assume you have a big podpack with lots of paint on you, just carry another tank instead.

2 weekends ago at Spring Pump Event my 88/4500 lasted 2 days. i did refill at the start of the 2nd day because it was the tournament and i was at 2000 from the previous day. i could have easily just kept playing but i didn't want to risk it. still got a full 7 games in with out having to refill air, just the 40 paintballs we were allowed each round. this is what i'd get http://www.actionvillage.com/031-536-0014

That 88ci @ 4500 is not a normal air tank though, its like a scuba tank so it says 88ci but its not the same ci as a Paintball tank, its much more...

[tribalman]

the 88cubic incher tanks that i have ARE paintball tanks. they are only slightly larger than a 68ci. it's not huge like a SCUBA. SCUBA tanks are rated in cubic feet, if you were to use a ci tank you'd have like 5 minutes air. want pictures of my tanks?

[smeek]

Alright, so I started to assume I'd be on my own for this one so went poking around a bit on the interwebs some more. Guess what?

http://www.airhog.com/mini_tanks.htm

ZOMG SAFETY!!!111

You said "on the cheap" and that isn't.

If I really wanted to do this I would buy a scuba fill station and cut the k-valve part off and then tap the input for an 1/8" NPT steel line. Although I'd buy a second 22ci tank or walk for fills first because both of those are easier and cheaper, and I don't trust my machining skills with 4500 psi. Also there's no way to depressurize the line to the fill station you have to drain the air out or leave that line sitting with whatever pressure is in the tank.

[behemoth]

on/off asa, with a line to a female QD.

Put it on the tanks fill port, crank the on/off to the on position, and the pressures will try to balance. Since theres more in the bigger tank, the 22ci will get moar air.

Unless you already have the bigger tank, I'd buy another 22ci. They're cheap.

[smeek]

on/off asa, with a line to a female QD.

Put it on the tanks fill port, crank the on/off to the on position, and the pressures will try to balance. Since theres more in the bigger tank, the 22ci will get moar air.

Unless you already have the bigger tank, I'd buy another 22ci. They're cheap.

Like I said before, that only fills the 22ci tank to the output pressure of the larger tank, which is usually 800-1000 psi at the most. Doesn't matter how much air is in the larger tank.

I know very well because at big games in the past I ran a gun on tank and then when it got low ran a remote tank to the fill nipple, on field.

[smeek]

Actually now that I think about this you could do it really easily with a dynaflow/hyperflow tank reg. The push button on/off shuts off the flow before the gauges and bleeds the line when you shut it off. All you would have to do is take the HP gauge off and put a steel line with a female Q/D with the proper pressure rating, nothing else needed.

You may be able to use the normal output instead of the gauge port, but I don't know what the max pressure is on those regs.

[behemoth]

Like I said before, that only fills the 22ci tank to the output pressure of the larger tank, which is usually 800-1000 psi at the most. Doesn't matter how much air is in the larger tank.

I know very well because at big games in the past I ran a gun on tank and then when it got low ran a remote tank to the fill nipple, on field.

Yeah, i guess you're right.

My vote is still to just pick up a 2nd 22ci, OR, upgrade to a 45/45