Magnets instead of springs?

[Chubby McFatso]

Ok, maybe this has been discussed before. I rarely enter this forum but I have an idea for a Mag thats been bugging me.

Rather than use a spring to reset the bolt (and act as an opposing force there by increasing pressure) why not use some kind of electromagnet instead. In case I'm not being clear about this, an electromagnet is one in which a coiled core becomes magnetized when a current flows through it but then returns to normal state when the current stops. Most likely to use this concept you would be required to redesign the body of the mag to accomodate. Basically you would need some type of electromagnet resting in front of the bolt and a regular opposing magnet (opposing as in polar opposite) some where attached to the bolt itself. The trick would be obviously to make these magnets elegantly designed and small enough to be usefull. But the result could be that the bolt moves forward unrestricted by an opposing force and then BAM! the electromagnet kicks on when the bolt is fully fired and sends it back to the original position at which point the current stops. Now you have a more efficient Mag not to mention no more spring wear. Might be worth looking into if and when AGD decides to get back into electro's.

So........do I get my Nobel prize now or later?

[Onryou]

what about the potential (prolly more then potential) polarization of all ferous parts of the mag? would that make it unreliable in the long run?

[Joni]

Interesting idea. Although, I suspect that the electromagnet should be rather large, and will use a lot of power.

[Chubby McFatso]

Onryou,
I could be wrong but I don't quite see that as being an issue. If in fact it is, possibly a substitute material could be used to replace those parts but that would probably increase costs.

Joni,
Yeah. That was my concern. I don't quite no how much juice we're talking about or how small of a magnet you can use to do the job. I could look it all up but its kind of technical (boring) and I know I aint gonna dive head first into this project. But if anyone is familiar with this type of subject matter it would be interesting to see if its possible.

[Aleis]

Magnet Strength

It depends on where the bolt needs the presure to recock if it needs a constant presure teh entire return cycle magnets wont be ideal, however if they really only need one good push right after a ball is fired then they might work out. This is because a magnets force disperses in 3 dimensions while a springs force only disperses in one providing a more constant force on the bolt. Unless you get the magnet to hit hard enough in the beggining to "throw" the bolt back (not sure how much presure is behind the bolt at specific given times in the cycle)
The other big problem is that you could forget about having any other electronics on the marker since this big magnet would simply kill any of them, as seen in e-mags and x-mags if you move the trigger magnet too close to the frame, the Display shows giberish and the gun stops working till you move it farther back, and thats a small magnet.

Electro magnets also have the problem of needing a large surge of power in a very short period of time, while most batteirs tend to be the oposite in that they are low power over a long time, this could be over come by have a capaciter but that would require a recharge time.

[athomas]

Interesting concept. However, the force of the bolt on the ball is somewhat controlled by the return force of the spring. If we eliminate the spring, then the level 10 will not function.

We could possibly employ opposing magnets on the bolt and on the body. This could replace the force of the spring. The problem with magnets is that really good ones are fragile and probably wouldn't take well to the impacts they would experience.