fill own tanks questions

**SpongeBobSquarePants** · 08-27-2003, 05:55 PM

You probably dont have the cabilbilty to fill 4500 because you probably don't have a 4500 booster. Here is the cheapest and best thing to do. Go out, buy a scuba tank and a fill station. Cheapest and easyiest way to do it.

**FreakBaller12** · 08-27-2003, 07:48 PM

the thing is i can get a nitrogen tank cheap! like only a 80-100 deposit, if i set the reg on the bottle to 4500 psi
wont it push it all? (in bigger tank to smaller)

**SomebodySomeoneRTPcf** · 08-27-2003, 07:59 PM

No. if it does "push" tell the company to give you a new once since it says 4,500 and it wont fill that high so they shouldn't have "false advertisement"....The biggest problem you will have is getting the nitro tank to fill up to 4500 psi but once you transfer it to your pb tank the psi will go down quickly...

I never had my 3k psi tank filled to 3k, I never saw a 4.5k filled to 4.5k so dont hope on it unless you will risk the explosion...wear a cup that what I do

...I fill my 3k wih a scuba but the problem is the scuba can only go to 3k but no1 really wants to risk their balls to fill a tank to the max. since the higher the pressure comes a higher risk.....here is a saying I have "With great psi comes great responsiblilty" HA, I sort of ripped it off of Spiderman.

**SpongeBobSquarePants** · 08-27-2003, 08:16 PM

Yea you will be very hard pressed to get 4500 psi unless you have a compressor and a booster. I really dont like the idea of nitro, to scary for me.

**FreakBaller12** · 08-27-2003, 08:26 PM

you guys are scaring me....
i am really confused on this
i dotn want to mess uyp my tank

ahhhhhhhh

**brett** · 08-27-2003, 08:55 PM

Ok you have a 4500psi tank and the rating is on there for a reason. If you could explain more in detail about the tank your going to fill your paintball tank with it would help some.
if your running a scuba tank it most likely has a K-valve on it, but if it is a steel scuba they are usually rated to 3500psi with a din valve.
usually only bulk tanks and the big fiberwrapped tanks can be filled to 4500psi-6000psi(depending on the tank)
If you explain more about how your setting it up I can get the 4500psi steel braided line that you would need.

I cant stress this enough If your tank is rated to 4500psi or 3000psi DONT go over that limit. sure they have burst discs but guess what almost all of the explosions you here about(mostly in scubas) is because of overfilling that tank just a couple hundred psi every time,and When something gos wrong at the fill station your tank may be degraded enough that the burst disc may not help!

**FreakBaller12** · 08-28-2003, 08:11 AM

alright brett i will find out everything abotu this tank i am suppose to get that i can

**billmi** · 08-28-2003, 08:27 AM

Re: fill own tanks questions

Originally posted by toyotaboy12
ok i need to find hoses to withstand 4500 psi AT LEAST!
i need to find connecters for my tanks(normal size)
what grade does paintball tanks, like surgeical or what
how much cna my 68ci 4500 psi hold
what is the psi testing limit?
i am assuming fill it to like 4600 and it'll cool down to 4500 psi or less?

Your tank will hold 4,500 psi - that is ALL that it is rated to hold, and all that it's regulator is rated to accept. Period. End of sentance. If you fill it to 4,500 and it cools and the pressure drops, you can top it off.

If you are filling from a source tank that is 4,500 psi, you will never get quite to 4,500 psi in your paintgun's tank, because as gas leaves the large tank, its pressure drops, and there is no pump or compressor to make lower pressure gas in the large tank become higher pressure in your small tank. When the two are connected, gas will flow from the higher pressure to the lower pressure (empty paintball tank) until the two are at an equal pressure.

If you have a 6,000 psi bulk tank, and a regulator on it set to output to 4,500 psi, you can fill your paintgun tank to 4,500 psi. The most efficient way to do this is to get 2 or 3 6,000 psi tanks. Use the first two tanks to fill the paintball tank when it is empty. The quantity of gas they hold will drop off faster, as a significant amount is needed to fill up an empty tank. Then use the last tank to top off your paintball tank from nearly full (say it gets 4,200 off the first two) to 4,500 psi. This keeps the pressure in the third tank the highest for the longest number of fills, to maximize the pressure of the fills. This is how fills are done in Bad Boyz Toyz Lansing, IL store. I use a similar method for 3,000 psi fills with a pair of SCUBA tanks at home. I keep my red tank for the top off, and do the bulk of the fill with my blue tank (and I dive with the red tank while my wife dives with the blue - they get double duty.)

On a side note about steel SCUBA tanks and their pressure ratings, my preference is to avoid them altogether. Steel is far more susceptible to corrosion damage than aluminium. When I first moved to Florida in '97 a worker at my local dive shop was killed filling a steel tank, just a couple of miles from my house. About a year and a half ago, a dive shop owner who I knew personally (he'd serviced my regs about 6 months prior) was killed filling a steel tank that a SCUBA diving magazine reported had both expired hydro and visual inspections - and showed signs of rust in the shrapnel it created. These incidents give me concern over steel tanks, and underscore the necessity of up to date hydro and visual inspection certifications.

There was a man killed last year when he overpressurized a component on a booster pump (as I've learned from someone who has the OSHA report, the pressure rating of the component was misrepresented in an online auction ad where he bought it.) I would not recommend building the parts for your fill station (hoses, fittings, etc.) by just taking comments from discussion forums from people who often have little to no professional experience in dealing with high pressure air (I would include myself in that category as well, I know a bit about it, but I am definitely not an expert.) Considering the potential of serious injury or death, I would highly suggest contacting a professional in the compressed gas industry. I have found both Charlie and Shane Townsend of Compressed Air Specialties to be helpfull and knowledgable (paintballcompressor.com) and the same goes for Mr. Galagher at Hyrdro2go.com, though they have recently gotten out of the paintball air industry. Compressed Air Specialties sells fill stations, hoses, regulators, fittings, compressors, etc., so in addition to sound advice they can provide you with the necessary parts to do it safely.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills

**Creative Mayhem** · 08-28-2003, 08:57 AM

Originally posted by SpongeBobSquarePants
I really dont like the idea of nitro, to scary for me.

What are you worried about... its Nitrogen(an inert gas) not hydrogen, or nitrous oxide(not inert and can go BOOM)

Nitrogen will not do anything, unless you have a tank issue, which could happen anyway if you were using compressed air. Inert gasses = good remember that...

CM

**beam** · 08-28-2003, 09:47 AM

I wonder if he was talking about the pressure. Not the gas itself. There was a link here on AO a long time ago that linked to a site that detailed an accident where an aluminum scuba exploded. Won't go into all the details of cause and what happened but I remember the site saying that there is enough energy in an 80cu.ft. 3000psi tank to lift a 60ton ladder truck 40 feet into the air! I believe that is the correct statement. If not, I apologize but it was something very similar. Now, a 68 cu. in. tank equates to what, just over .4 cu. ft.? So it isn't enough to life a truck into the air, but I imagine can be quite dangerous when close to your body.

I'm not anti-HP. I use it. You just have to use your brain when using it. That means looking at the 4500 psi rating and realizing they really mean 4500psi. not 4600 or 4501....4500.

**FreakBaller12** · 08-28-2003, 10:53 AM

ummm.. i got my tank gileld to 4700 psi
i got it topepd off if that's a difference
got it filled cooled down to 4100
then came back the enxyt day and got it filled and it cooled at 4700
is this an uh oh?
or is my tank fine

**Dayspring** · 08-28-2003, 11:07 AM

There is a REASON why the tank says 4500... NOT 4700. NOT 4501. 4500...

**brett** · 08-28-2003, 01:38 PM

Originally posted by toyotaboy12
ummm.. i got my tank gileld to 4700 psi
i got it topepd off if that's a difference
got it filled cooled down to 4100
then came back the enxyt day and got it filled and it cooled at 4700
is this an uh oh?
or is my tank fine

I'm betting it wont explode but the part where you said it cooled down to 4700 scares me. what pressure was it at before it cooled down?
as a general rule I try to follow is that if you fill your tank and it cools down to the point you want to fill it again you did it TO FAST. I fill all my own tanks and do about 1000psi/minute its still to fast for what the industry recomends but its a LOT slower than any field I was ever at.

**f3rr3+** · 08-28-2003, 04:21 PM

what does the industry recomend?

fill own tanks questions

fill own tanks questions

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