# Another paintball co2 diy project



## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Hm, good post. Man, I just got a 15# last week, too!

Oh well, hope someone saves money on this if they're running a small tank.


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## dbltrubl98 (Aug 25, 2006)

At risk of sounding stupid, How do the regulator and solinoid work? do you need to plug the solinoid into anything to get it to work? and how do you control flow rate?


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Coil Rating: 24 VDC, 6.9 watts, class F continuous duty service
Coil Termination: 18" lead wires
^ that's for the solenoid, so yes, you'll have to plug the solenoid in to make it work.

The solenoid controls the on/off function of the CO2 flow, and Rex's needle valve will provide finer control of the flow rate into the tank.


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## jgc (Jul 6, 2005)

Is there any issues with the output pressure of your co2 tank exceeding the imput limit on that regulator - or is that addressed with the tank adaptor? I am being forgetful, but thought co2 tanks maintained a fairly constant 900psi, and if I am not misreading, the valve has a max imput pressure of 250psi (but I could be easily mistaken).


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## Snazzy (Sep 24, 2006)

well this took a while to find out but you are right. it looks like the output psi is probbably is around 600-800. does anyne know if home depot sells air gauges up to 1k psi? if so i could go out to test the psi on my 12oz and 9oz. i just had them refilled so they would be at max psi


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## Snazzy (Sep 24, 2006)

you will have to also put in In-Line Regulator to reduce the pressure from the tank down to 200psi its from PMI Pure Energy In-Line Regulator - Black at ActionVillage.com : Paintball ~30$ its called PMI Pure Energy In-Line Regulator then that would just screw into the bottom line (the adapter that i said was 10$) its 12 for the adapter at AVI 2 Hole With Screws Bottomline Adapter at ActionVillage.com : Paintball then that would screw into the mini regulator to a fine psi probabaly ~5psi? 

it just jumps the price from 70 to ~100 for the equipment if you have a tank and bottom line and it jumps it to 130$ if you dont have a bottom line and co2 tank 

i also have another idea-->

mabe using a paintball remote set ~20$ to ajust the pressure but im not sure its that reliable.

or use a co2 tank that has a on/off valve in it(smart valve) whitch you could probably get it down to 200psi ~15$
like the smart valve idea you could go eBay: NEW 3A Paintball Flame Drop Forward w. On/Off Valve -NR (item 130036558872 end time Oct-19-06 19:10:52 PDT) thats the bottom line adapter and a valve on it
it looks like the valve is just a simple ball valve or screw valve so you could get the pressure down i think


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## Snazzy (Sep 24, 2006)

scratch the smart valve idea above it wont work, it works in a compleatly diferent way as the regulator. best bet is to find a mini regulator that will work with about 1000psig imput pressure, i did put a gauge at the end of my tank and it went way over 200psi which was the max on the gauge. im going to keep looking for a regulator that will work


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## Snazzy (Sep 24, 2006)

i have found a regulator that will work that would replace the one listed above thats only rated at 250psig. the new one i found is rated at 3,600psig its the P5 model on this page Cashco Pressure Reducing Regulators

looks like:









theres only one big problem i have no idea how much this little guy is so...anyway...it looks like you'll have to go threw some distributer  mabe some one wants to call 1? i emailed the sales at cashco mabe they will gove some answers


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## jasonh (Oct 26, 2003)

You know, I kept thinking about using the bottomline stuff from a paintball gun to get this stuff to work. The main question really is how to regulate it though. I know regulators from a pb gun can work, but they're expensive, and would also require expensive custom stuff to make them work...

I would love to find a super cheap way to use pb cylinders for the aquarium.


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## joemomma (Oct 12, 2006)

Anybody been down to their local welding shop? I know that the local guys here helped us get a setup so we could refill our own paintball tanks back when we used to play. We got an 80# cylinder from the Coke guy (or from them even, rent for like $5/month). They helped us make an adapter to refill our tanks from welding parts, with on/off and all the required fittings. I'm sure with their knowledge they could come up with something cheap and effective to maintain a low pressure/output that could be used for a CO2 setup for an aquarium.
Best I remeber the output on the small paintball tanks is very high going into the guns. The guns would have different valves/regulators built into them to change the pressure to a "working" one for the guns....some were high while others were low. The more expensive guns (like Shockers, Impulse,etc) were low pressure operation (around 180psi) while the less expensive ones were higher.


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## dbltrubl98 (Aug 25, 2006)

The low pressure markers are also not designed to work with co2 as the cold would freeze the o-rings inside and you would have all sorts of issues


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## joemomma (Oct 12, 2006)

Not necessarily true....although they worked better on compressed air or nitro, they can work well with plain old CO2. Lots of us used to run CO2 on our Shockers and Impulses, and a couple Automags. The key was to keep it clean and lubed.


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## dbltrubl98 (Aug 25, 2006)

hmm any new leads on this thread?


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## Snazzy (Sep 24, 2006)

im still waiting to hear back from the place that sells the regulator


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## madman280 (Jul 9, 2006)

A cheap CO2 regulator is avalible from welding shops for small MIG welders. Usually has a high presure gauge so you'll know when its just about empty. They usually have a 1/4" pipe thread inlet. Adapt that to the paintball remote hose with high presure fittings. Then the solenoid, a needle valve, a check valve, a bubble counter and then to your injection device of choice.
Thats how I made mine, minus the solenoid at the moment. The solenoid I had laying around wasn't rated for 100% duty cycle and over heated. My tanks still lasts about 2 months with my external reactor into my 75 gal bow front tank.

CJ


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## crazy loaches (Sep 29, 2006)

epicfish said:


> Coil Rating: 24 VDC, 6.9 watts, class F continuous duty service
> Coil Termination: 18" lead wires
> ^ that's for the solenoid, so yes, you'll have to plug the solenoid in to make it work.
> 
> The solenoid controls the on/off function of the CO2 flow, and Rex's needle valve will provide finer control of the flow rate into the tank.


You might want to find a 120VAC selenoid instead... unless you happen to find a 24V adapter which is rare or your going to hook up a bunch of bateries to it. if you hook up that selenoid to a regular outlet timer she'll blow.


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## Snazzy (Sep 24, 2006)

madman280 said:


> A cheap CO2 regulator is avalible from welding shops for small MIG welders. Usually has a high presure gauge so you'll know when its just about empty. They usually have a 1/4" pipe thread inlet. Adapt that to the paintball remote hose with high presure fittings. Then the solenoid, a needle valve, a check valve, a bubble counter and then to your injection device of choice.
> Thats how I made mine, minus the solenoid at the moment. The solenoid I had laying around wasn't rated for 100% duty cycle and over heated. My tanks still lasts about 2 months with my external reactor into my 75 gal bow front tank.
> 
> CJ


can you give what the regulator name is? and price range on it? i know of a huydrallics store that i pass everyonce and a while but i doubt they have suff for welding...im going to try to find a welding shop around town(shouldnt be hard)


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## biggecko (Aug 30, 2009)

why no use this? http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/239900/product.web?gdftrk=gdfV2226_a_7c268_a_7c713_a_7c239900


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## hybridtheoryd16 (Mar 20, 2009)

biggecko said:


> why no use this? http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/239900/product.web?gdftrk=gdfV2226_a_7c268_a_7c713_a_7c239900


 
This thread was 4 years old.

And its possible that the reg you showed was not availiable at that time. There have been many improvements in co2 reg's for paintball use since 4yrs ago.


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## killacross (Oct 15, 2009)

not to mention, it isnt a regulator...its an on/off controller (though you can crudely control bubble rate) and in my experience...its a $35 piece of crap


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## hybridtheoryd16 (Mar 20, 2009)

killacross said:


> not to mention, it isnt a regulator...its an on/off controller (though you can crudely control bubble rate) and in my experience...its a $35 piece of crap


Might want to open the link and take a look. It is not the reg you are thinking of. 

On another hand I wish I could find someone selling one of those crapy 35 dollar regulators like you speak of. I would love to have a 3rd one for a used price.


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