Proposition for those looking for that custom edge...

[mobsterboy]

http://www.sdplastics.com/polycarb.html

[geekwarrior]

it says it holds up to high impact, but what about the wear of the bolt being cycled thousands of times? i'm ignorant, may be a dumb question

edit: from the site

Wear factor against steel 40 psi 50fpm : 2500x10~10
Coefficient of friction 40psi 50fpm : 0.38 Dynamic

[personman]

glhf

[DaveSM]

1- the maximum tensile strenght is 3,2 times weaker then aluminium
2- It's UV sensitive so playing outside would shorten it's usefull life and after some time it even may snap.

If you want to use it as a body you will still have to use a steel ring and clip as the aluminium body. I wouldn't recommend Lexan for the main body because of wear and reduced mechanical properties over time when exposed to UV. If you want to make parts out of Lexan then you should do grip frames, grip panels and AM/MM rails or RT PRO rails. Lexan shouldn't be used to hold any pressurized gaz as you would have to recalculate dimensions on the part if you don't want it to blow up on you when you are tucked tight on it in a bunker.

So my advice as student in mechanical engineering, you may use it but I really don't recommend it and if you want to get optimal results you willl have to change a few dimensions on the parts to stay within a correct safety factor.

[mobsterboy]

ok, these are kinda the same things i hit with Shawn while chatting with him about it. I kinda knew id have to use a steel ring insert on it, like most ule bodies.

Dave, I kinda understood the value of tensile strength, but just by looking at the numbers and thinking the basics of tensile strength is the maximum pressure (basically) the part can take without taking permanent deformation. Now if its things like a karta or a xmag body, thats definitely gonna be a lot thicker than a ule body. Assuming that, the ule, as thin as it is, has anyone actually done anythign to kill one of those ON THE FIELD? :ninja edit: so is the strength really an issue? I mean, i dont see too many ppl running these over with their cars to see what happens. With a body, im not aware its actually holding air. I dont know if this was too general, but im hoping just to do mag parts. I knew that no air could be held, and thats fine with me. when i said foregrips, i meant non gasthru... The UV part...could that be combated with the "anno" coating?

personman...do you ever make sense? GLHF? Good Luck....

[Rudz]

first

i would suggest battery packs, and triggers first, maybe rails, and move on from there, i would be intrested in battery packs, maybe even a full marker if the project is a success

[athomas]

The body, while strong enough, would physically wear due to the back and forth motion of the bolt and spring. Lexan doesn't have good wear properties. You could combat this by using a metal insert where the bolt and spring resides. Then, the metal insert would protect the body in that area.

[the mag guy]

The body concept is pretty sweet. I'm pretty sure there are different grades of Lexan so you'd havr to make sure you got the good one. My reasoning behing my statemenet is that I once had a computer case made of entirely lexan. One day last semester, in a freak accident, I watched it fall from a shelf about 3/12 ft off the ground. My poor computer broke into 40+ pieces! The two biggest side were not shattered, but the attachments brok off those. Btw the lexan that was used on my comp was barely over a quarter inch thick.

My point is not that someone might drop their marker from 4 ft, but that a player running and diving into a bunker (roughly the same distance) could possibly shatter their marker.

I think I agree with DaveSM about resizing the body, but not due to pressure, you're just gonna have to make the sucker thicker than you initially thought.

Oh, and cracks. When Lexan gets a tiny crack in it, you might as well kiss it goodbye. Its just like if a window gets a crack in it. It may be small, but if any other force acts on it, it either gets larger or breaks entirely.

So, a crack from a dive then repetitive shooting and the possibility of the marker getting shot makes me think the lexan would break a lot more easily.

I'm not trying to bring down your idea at all, I'd be interested in the idea if it gets off the ground. I wouldn't mind being a contributor of smaller amounts of funds now and then if we could get all the details banged out. Just think if everyone here donated like $X.XX with the promise of however much they donated off the price of the body. Some people here might just throw a few bucks at you to donate. i dunno.

I like the idea

[Pacifist_Farmer]

The tensile strength is the point at which once crossed the piece will neck and break, the yeild strength represents the point at which permanent deformation occurs. Yeild strength is often 1/3 to 1/2 of the UTS.

*This being polycarbonate we would need to do more research as to its performance, the yield for lexan is probably very close to the UTS*


I think the only viable way to do this is with a steel or aluminum insert, thin walled but designed to hold all the moving parts and pressurized volumes. Place that in a lexan, slug like body with whatever milling you please. The lexan reinforcement will allow you to use a much thinner wall on the metal.

[the mag guy]

makes sense, you would have only been able to see the bolt move a couple times anyway before it scratched the crud outta the lexan. So I agree, an aluminum insert would be the way to go.


You could run some el wire or led's on your gun if you were runnin electro! that would be so ghetto. I wouldnt mind seeing it done though. Put some black light el wire spiraling around where the paintball sits to get it glowin all fancy like! once again an entertaining yet completley impractical idea form me. sorry guys.

[CoolHand]

ok, these are kinda the same things i hit with Shawn while chatting with him about it. I kinda knew id have to use a steel ring insert on it, like most ule bodies.

Dave, I kinda understood the value of tensile strength, but just by looking at the numbers and thinking the basics of tensile strength is the maximum pressure (basically) the part can take without taking permanent deformation. Now if its things like a karta or a xmag body, thats definitely gonna be a lot thicker than a ule body. Assuming that, the ule, as thin as it is, has anyone actually done anythign to kill one of those ON THE FIELD? :ninja edit: so is the strength really an issue? I mean, i dont see too many ppl running these over with their cars to see what happens. With a body, im not aware its actually holding air. I dont know if this was too general, but im hoping just to do mag parts. I knew that no air could be held, and thats fine with me. when i said foregrips, i meant non gasthru... The UV part...could that be combated with the "anno" coating?

personman...do you ever make sense? GLHF? Good Luck....

Read Pacifist_Farmer's post, and take it to heart. UTS is NOT something you want to design to.

Most parts in the world operate at about a 3:1 factor of safety. Meaning, you take the yield stress (NOT the UTS) of the material, then divide that by three. That number is your permissible stress in service.

Also, polycarbonate is VERY sensitive to stress risers, meaning that threaded holes are basically impossible. Every sharp inside corner or scratch is a stress riser, and it will start a crack that will very quickly develop into a feature that will render the part useless (IE, it will break in two).

Trust me on this one, we used to machine polycarb for water block tops, and it was basically pointless. Machined fine, but once assembled, would shatter into about 8 pieces after a week of setting on the shelf. There is just too much residual stress in the material to cut stress risers into it and expect it to live.

And, on a final note, polycarb will turn white when you machine it, scratch it, or clean it with a solvent. So any work you do turns the part a milky white color. In order to get it back to clear, it takes a crap ton of sanding and buffing, of every single surface you machined, inside and out.

I don't understand the fascination with clear parts anyway, but regardless of why you want them, it simply isn't possible to "port" over a design from aluminum to polycarb. If you want to build one at all, be prepared for it to be massive, and for it to last about a week, or one day of play (if that), whichever comes first.

[rtjrom]

If you really want to know more about clear parts i would try and get in contact with Doc cause i know he used to make clear parts kits for phantoms and i never heard any trouble about them and they looked really nice. i also agree with the steel or aluminum insert i think that would take down the stress on the lexan itself making it far more durable and i still think it would look really nice.

[p8ntball72]

Hit up "haveblue" and the "Tinker Guild" for info.

[personman]

personman...do you ever make sense? GLHF? Good Luck....

Good luck, have fun

[the mag guy]

Hit up "haveblue" and the "Tinker Guild" for info.

I bet that it hasnt been fired tho, b/c as soon as you do it will scratch like crazy. anyway awesome pic