Can we try the discussion about the self-adjusting barrel again?

[hitech]

Most everyone seems to agree that as implemented the barrel wouldn't do much. However, the idea is an interesting one. What if the "bearings" went the entire length of the barrel? For now, forget about how it would fit in an existing marker. When the paintball was chambered the bearing would expand at the breach and narrow toward the barrel. To avoid this what if something like a "sway bar" in a car or the bar in the space bar on a keyboard were placed on the bearings to keep them parallel to each other? What do you think?

Here is the description of the barrel and a picture:

The new Core Pro Series Slayer SA Barrel has a unique bearing design within the barrel. There are eight separate bearings that carefully grip the sides of a paintball. The bearing system is self-adjusting so there is no need to worry about what size paint you have. Simply put, perfect barrel to paint match every time you play. The best part is that there are no inserts to mess around with. The eight different bearings act like an insert and are permanently attached to the barrel. The design is truly awesome.

Let's not forget that the barrel shoots like a dream. Line up your target, pull the trigger, and down it goes.

[cphilip]

Oh! you want me to tell another Rabbit story don't cha?

[shartley]

[Danny77]

Now shartly! you wouldnt want barrel and paint making companys to lose money, and save all of us paintballers money AND time...that would just be a crime:)


ok, whats this about a barrel with bearings? Is that barrel real, or just an idea? If the barrel had bearings, wouldnt they have to go down the whole length of the barrel(I think u might have said that) anyway, can u give me more info. oh yeah, good idea:)

[cphilip]

Standardize!?!?!?!? What a novel concept. I don't know how though. I can't even get the people who make those smell good thingies that go in your bathroom to make them all fit the same holder. Nor can I even get paper towel manufacturers to make em fit the same holder. Don't even bring up those wet mop style heads neither!

[Muzikman]

I am not so sure the ball wouldn't explode when it would hit the bearings. The ball traveling that fast would hit the bearings like a brick wall. Anyone know how much one of these things cost? and what guns are they avalible for? I would love to just see one.

[manike]

Originally posted by shartley

They can't make a perfect one bore size with the normal encapsulation process. The manufacturing tends to make balls of slighlty different sizes from batch to batch depending on the gelatin used, drying required, roller wear... etc.

The whole reason Diablo made small bore 'darts' was a manufacturing accident and then rather than scrap the paint they labelled it small bore and sold it all... A great publicity stunt by Craig Miller made people think it was more accurate so they started asking for small paint

To ensure a consistent ball diameter would mean much higher manufacturing costs and thus higher paint prices for the player or a different process a la the perfect circle paintballs which are made from injection moulded halves, and which is again more expensive manufacturing.

So in the real world the paint manufacturers will never just make one consistent bore size of paint. It's just not going to happen in the forseeable future. And certainly considering the wars between them you won't see them agree on a size in case one makes it out of tolerance...

You'd be amazed at the difference in size between paintballs and some of the out of shape paint that gets sold. People have different bore barrels to deal with this.

What should happen though is gun manufacturers set a standard on the barrels. This is already happening towards cocker threaded barrels, but not really enough. I'd like to see one standard implemented by all.

Then at least we could just have different bores of one type of barrel to fit all guns. Even SP haven't standardised it on their guns, which to me is just a rip off.

manike

[shartley]

manike

[rhetor22]

i'm still wondering how the barrel seals. Its like a 1.5" effective length ball accelerator. I think its an alright idea, but it seems like Core is just trying to make money off an idea they know doesn't do what it makes people think it does. I'd like to see one of these be tested on ball size range, accuracey, *consistensy*, and efficiency.

[hitech]

Originally posted by Muzikman
I am not so sure the ball wouldn't explode when it would hit the bearings. The ball traveling that fast would hit the bearings like a brick wall.

How about my idea of having the bearings the entire length of the barrel?

Originally posted by Muzikman
Anyone know how much one of these things cost? and what guns are they avalible for? I would love to just see one.

Here is a link:

http://www.paintball-online.com/shop/product_information.asp?number=BRCCR14&variation=&back=yes

[hitech]

Originally posted by Danny77
ok, whats this about a barrel with bearings? Is that barrel real, or just an idea?

The picture is of a real barrel (I thought it was a joke at first also :) ). Follow the link above for more information.

[Toxic Dave]

I've test shot one of those Slayer barrels, and to be blunt, it was terrible. The "sizer" only got as small as like .689 so it was worthless for smaller bore paint. It was very inaccurate, and seemed to raise my operating pressure around 20psi, which is alot on an impulse. This thing works more like a ball detent in the middle of the barrel than it does a ball sizer.

To be positive though it was pretty well made with noce machining and polishing.

dave

[meanelvis]

i'm surprised nobody's mentioned it yet, but wouldnt the extra friction on the ball as it contacts the "auto-sizing bearings" have a significant impact on velocity? That is reason enough, to me, to keep the auto-sizing portion of the barrel to a small inch-long section rather than the whole length of the barrel.

other probs i forsee are, what if a number of the bearings sieze up (due to paint breakage, dirt, sand, etc) and fail to "conform" to the ball's shape? I forsee ball deformation, weird spin, and ultimately broken balls as the result of not keeping the bearings squeaky clean.

Not having shot the thing or seen it up close, these are all theories.. cant wait till ravi, ronin, our beloved mr. kaye, doc n., or a similar non-biased reviewer gets ahold of one of these.

[Webmaster]

My reply is - what good would it do? Assuming you could create a 10" barrel where the bore adjusted to the size of a paintball - what good would it do?

First off - no paintball - other than AGDs perfect circle is completely round.

2nd, while having an ILL fit (grossly too large, or grossly too small) will have an effect on performance, I havent seen any "perfect matching" of bores with any kit to really improve accuracy. There for - what advantage is there to having something that fine tunes the bore size? Balls dont make the best projectile, its why we no longer use muskets!

Finally - even if every manufacture made the same sized ball - environement, at the field, at the store, in the truck, would change the diameter of the paintballs.

Heck - I have seen people "fine tune" thier freak sets, go out, shoot up paint, and get nailed with penalties because they had a pod of paint swell up on them and create a better seal, resulting in a hot gun.

[Webmaster]

ONE other thought - you think its hard to clean out ported barrels with breaks... what about roller bearings, where only 1/4 of the surface area could be cleaned with each swab of the squegee... yuck