Running on air??

[Bad Ass Wallace]

There are plenty of quality CO2 air arms on the seconfhand market but the cost of a CO2 cylinder is ridiculous!

Has anyone tried running a CO2 gun on just compressed air?

[Black Beard]

It has been done on several air guns (eg QB78) but it isn't a great idea. CO2 runs at 700psi. Air typically at 1500-3000. Mess up the conversion and you get the same effect as an overcharged cartridge. Not worth the risk to me. The time/money you spend on the conversion plus the price of the CO2 gun would get a gun that is designed to run on air.

[cbashooter]

Walmart has the 50 count crosman for $18 right now.I bought 5 boxes last weekend.C02 cost does suck so I stock up when cheap.

[rsterne]

In addition to the safety concerns if the conversion is not done properly, or too much pressure is used, the shot count on air will be a lot less than with CO2....

Bob

[jcwit]

I have a Disco that I'm thinking of using CO2 in, course I'll be using bulk tanks.

[NavyVet1959]

It's going to depend upon what sort of CO2 gun you have. If it is the one that takes the small cartridges, it's going to be a bit more work to convert it. If it is one of the ones that take a small tank that you refill, you can probably save money if you get a 20-lb CO2 tank and do the refills yourself. Just switching a CO2 based system to high pressure air with an appropriate regulator to get it down to the normal CO2 pressure could work, but the number of shots that you can get from a full tank would be less since the air would just be pressurized whereas CO2 is a liquid in the tank.

[jcwit]

It's going to depend upon what sort of CO2 gun you have. If it is the one that takes the small cartridges, it's going to be a bit more work to convert it. If it is one of the ones that take a small tank that you refill, you can probably save money if you get a 20-lb CO2 tank and do the refills yourself. Just switching a CO2 based system to high pressure air with an appropriate regulator to get it down to the normal CO2 pressure could work, but the number of shots that you can get from a full tank would be less since the air would just be pressurized whereas CO2 is a liquid in the tank.

Correct, this is another reason I've looking into CO2 as all I plan to kill is paper.

[NavyVet1959]

Correct, this is another reason I've looking into CO2 as all I plan to kill is paper.

Per volume of gas at a given pressure, CO2 is going to be cheaper than HPA unless you already have a HP (SCUBA type) air compressor. At least it will be if you buy your CO2 at a gas distributor (like the welding and beverage guys do) instead of at a paintball shop.

I don't do paintball or any of the high end pellet guns that take the large canisters of CO2 or HPA, but I dive, gas weld, carbonate my own beverages, and built my own kegerator, so I'm somewhat familiar with high pressure gases.

[Pardini]

It's going to depend upon what sort of CO2 gun you have. If it is the one that takes the small cartridges, it's going to be a bit more work to convert it. If it is one of the ones that take a small tank that you refill, you can probably save money if you get a 20-lb CO2 tank and do the refills yourself. Just switching a CO2 based system to high pressure air with an appropriate regulator to get it down to the normal CO2 pressure could work, but the number of shots that you can get from a full tank would be less since the air would just be pressurized whereas CO2 is a liquid in the tank.


Depending on the gun it might be possible to run a dummy 12 gram or a remote line.

Biggest problem with CO2 is the pressure variation.

[Black Beard]

Don't buy any CO2 bottle with a HP air adaptor welded/bolted in the bottom. Some people have done some really dangerous conversions that could get them badly hurt.

Nitrous oxide powerlets do work in CO2 guns but are probably a lot more expensive than CO2.

[farmerjim]

NavyVet1959 "carbonate my own beverages, and built my own kegerator"

I carbonate water right in 2 liter plastic soda bottles. I use a 20 lb CO2 cylinder ( $10 at the welding supply) The wife drinks 2 to 4 liters of seltzer water a day. $1 a bottle in the store ,$0.015 when I make it. I have also carbonated Beer , homemade ginger ale, and root beer.
CO2 goes a long way, but you need a drop tube tank ( or hold the tank upside down) to charge small cylinders with liquid CO2.

[NavyVet1959]

NavyVet1959 "carbonate my own beverages, and built my own kegerator"

I carbonate water right in 2 liter plastic soda bottles. I use a 20 lb CO2 cylinder ( $10 at the welding supply) The wife drinks 2 to 4 liters of seltzer water a day. $1 a bottle in the store ,$0.015 when I make it. I have also carbonated Beer , homemade ginger ale, and root beer.
CO2 goes a long way, but you need a drop tube tank ( or hold the tank upside down) to charge small cylinders with liquid CO2.

Yeah, I made my carbonator out of a 2-liter soda bottle also. Used a metal schraeder valve and O-ring with a hole drilled in the top of the bottle cap. I've noticed that the bottle caps these days are using thinner plastic than they used to. The regulator on my 20-lb CO2 tank goes to a tire chuck and I just put it on the schraeder valve after "burping" the air out of the 2-liber bottle with the liquid that I want to carbonate. Some things taste good carbonated, some don't...

The following do not taste good carbonated:


Milk
Chocolate Milk
Tea
Coffee



The following are good carbonated:


Water
Water w/ lemon
Lemonade
Fruit punch



It works best if you cool the liquid that you are going to carbonate first. What I would do when making carbonated water or soft drinks was start with filling the 2-liter bottle about 1/3 full with water, laying it on its side in the freezer, and letting it freeze. That way, I could have quite a few of them ready to be carbonated. When I needed to make a carbonated water or a soft drink, I would use a hammer (a dead blow hammer seems to make the bottle last longer) to break up the ice into somewhat smaller chunks, then fill the bottle with the soft drink syrup (if for soft drinks) and water until it got within about 3" of the top. I would then put the top on loosely and squeeze the bottle to "burp" the air out of it and then tighten the schraeder equipped top tightly. I believe that I set my pressure at around 30-45 psi. I would fill the bottle with CO2 via the tire chuck attached to the CO2 tank and then shake the bottle vigorously. This would cool the liquid and it would absorb the CO2. I would need to do the fill and shake cycle probably 3 times to saturate the liquid with CO2. You can easily tell when you're done by the feel of the bottle after the shake. If it flexes easily, then CO2 has been absorbed and you can go for another round of pressurize and shake. In the end, you'll have a cold carbonated beverage with perhaps minimal ice. If you want more or less ice, adjust the amount of water that you freeze in the bottle initially. The temperature of the tap water that you add to the syrup during the mixing of the beverage will also affect the ice consumption. When you are experimenting to see if something is good carbonated, using the 1-liter bottles mean that you won't be stuck drinking a lot of something really bad if turns out that it does not taste good carbonated.

Since I already had the CO2 tank, regulator, and tire chuck, making this carbonated system just cost me a couple of bucks for the metal schraeder valve and O-ring.

Unfortunately, the metal schraeder valve that I could find at that time was just chrome instead of stainless steel, so over time, it developed a bit of discoloration from the corrosive aspect of the carbonic acid. It eventually turned almost black in color.

I wish someone would make a stainless steel 2-liter cap and stainless steel schraeder valve. If I had a lathe (and was actually *skilled* in its use), I would make myself a stainless (or bilet aluminum) cap.

It is possible to charge small cylinders with liquid CO2 without a drop tube. You just need to turn the source tank upside down. I use this technique for refilling the small propane cylinders for my propane torch from my gas grill propane tank.

[Tritium]

Stumbled across these the other day: http://www.rap4.com/p/018555/reusable-refillable-12g-co2-cylinder-5-pack-

Might be useful in some circumstances. Kind of pricey though.

Thurmond