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Hey, somehow managed to finish this in between commissions. Has been a fair bit of work involved, and still a bit left in the cosmetic's dept. So, without further delay, I present the:
Tooling:
Rotary tool with sanding, grinding and cutting wheel attachments
Drill and drill bits
Hot glue gun
Basic modding tool kit
Materials:
BBUMB tank, valve/trigger attachment with connecting rod, and pump tube
Alpha Trooper shell and trigger w/spring
Vinyl tubing
Aluminium sheeting
3 x 10mm bolts, 50mm long, with nuts
Barrel material/coupler of choice
Sports/ball pump
25mm PVC pipe
25mm PVC endcap
JB Weld or similar
Barbed air fitting (brass or nylon)
First off, we'll start by doing a tank expansion to the BBUMB air tank. Remove the tank from the blaster, keeping the orange piston attachment, and connecting rod.
Remove the stock pump, and cut a piece of 25mm PVC long enough to protrude about 20mm past the pump tube. Place this pipe over the pump tube, and secure it with JB Weld, and glue the PVC endcap on as well. Now set it aside to cure. Once the new tank expansion has fully cured, pick a place to insert the barbed air fitting. Drill the corresponding sized hole, insert the fitting, and glue in place with your adhesive of choice. I would recommend either 72-hr Araldite or JB Weld.
Cut the original barrel off the front, fairly close to the tank, and add your coupler. And that's the tank expansion completed.
Next, open up the AT, and remove everything except the trigger and spring. You'll need to gut the shell for the BBUMB tank to fit. I just used a Dremel with grinding stone, and most of the plastic came out fairly quickly. This will take a bit of time, with test-fitting, but it's a fairly simple task. You'll also need to cut the shell, to allow the bulb tank to fit, and also for the tank expansion to sit outside of the shell, where the stock would normally attach. Once you're happy with the placement of the tank, glue it in place with hot glue or similar. (I had run out of hot glue, and was unable to source any locally, so I've used sikaflex, which was all that I had lying around.)
Once that is completed, mark out where you want your pump to fit, and cut the AT shell to suit. Secure the pump in place with some strong adhesive, as it will need to be fairly solid, so it doesn't dislodge during priming. I had wanted the vinyl tubing to be external, so I cut some of the tac rail out to allow the air fitting clearance, and drilled a hole through the side of the shell for the vinyl tubing to connect from pump to tank. You would have no issues doing this internally though. Glue the vinyl tubing in to the pump, and connect it to the tank.
I had originally planned on using the AT shotgun grip to prime the pump, but it just didn't feel comfortable, with the pump handle underneath. If you wanted to do this though, you could use some polycarb or similar, to cover the entire SG grip and pump handle, which would make it much more ergonomic.
So, I cut the shell down, allowing the conduit coupler to protrude a little bit. I then cut some plastic to fill in the big gaps from the shell butchery, and plastic-welded them in place. This is entirely for aesthetic's, but does add another attachment point for the coupler, making the barrel more stable.
I connected the orange BBUMB piston attachment to the trigger of the AT, using the original connecting rod, shortened, and bent to shape. Drill a small hole in the top of the trigger for the rod. Make sure though, that the trigger is completely released, and the piston is closed, when measuring for the length of the rod. If the trigger won't allow the piston to fully close, the air tank won't seal, and obviously won't fill with air.
This shows the external vinyl tubing, and the cuts required for the bulb air tank to fit.
Drill a hole on either side of the shell, in-line with the orange trigger attachment. Use one of the bolts to secure it in place.
To finish-off, I bent a piece of aluminium sheeting, and secure it in place with the final 2 bolts. Purely for aesthetic's.
I've used 30cm of 20mm conduit, with petg nested inside for my barrel, and a short piece of 25mm conduit for the coupler. A couple wraps of e-tape around the 20mm conduit makes the barrel a very snug fit in the 25mm coupler/conduit.
The dual-action ball pump I've used, takes around 15 pumps to completely fill the tank. Using heavy sili-tips on inf0rm3r's blue foam, ranges are:
385 feet on average, at approximately 30 degree angle.
I ran out of daylight to perform a flat range test, but I'll try to get that done in the next couple of days.
Cheers,
BUM-TROOPER
Tooling:
Rotary tool with sanding, grinding and cutting wheel attachments
Drill and drill bits
Hot glue gun
Basic modding tool kit
Materials:
BBUMB tank, valve/trigger attachment with connecting rod, and pump tube
Alpha Trooper shell and trigger w/spring
Vinyl tubing
Aluminium sheeting
3 x 10mm bolts, 50mm long, with nuts
Barrel material/coupler of choice
Sports/ball pump
25mm PVC pipe
25mm PVC endcap
JB Weld or similar
Barbed air fitting (brass or nylon)
First off, we'll start by doing a tank expansion to the BBUMB air tank. Remove the tank from the blaster, keeping the orange piston attachment, and connecting rod.
Remove the stock pump, and cut a piece of 25mm PVC long enough to protrude about 20mm past the pump tube. Place this pipe over the pump tube, and secure it with JB Weld, and glue the PVC endcap on as well. Now set it aside to cure. Once the new tank expansion has fully cured, pick a place to insert the barbed air fitting. Drill the corresponding sized hole, insert the fitting, and glue in place with your adhesive of choice. I would recommend either 72-hr Araldite or JB Weld.
Cut the original barrel off the front, fairly close to the tank, and add your coupler. And that's the tank expansion completed.
Next, open up the AT, and remove everything except the trigger and spring. You'll need to gut the shell for the BBUMB tank to fit. I just used a Dremel with grinding stone, and most of the plastic came out fairly quickly. This will take a bit of time, with test-fitting, but it's a fairly simple task. You'll also need to cut the shell, to allow the bulb tank to fit, and also for the tank expansion to sit outside of the shell, where the stock would normally attach. Once you're happy with the placement of the tank, glue it in place with hot glue or similar. (I had run out of hot glue, and was unable to source any locally, so I've used sikaflex, which was all that I had lying around.)
Once that is completed, mark out where you want your pump to fit, and cut the AT shell to suit. Secure the pump in place with some strong adhesive, as it will need to be fairly solid, so it doesn't dislodge during priming. I had wanted the vinyl tubing to be external, so I cut some of the tac rail out to allow the air fitting clearance, and drilled a hole through the side of the shell for the vinyl tubing to connect from pump to tank. You would have no issues doing this internally though. Glue the vinyl tubing in to the pump, and connect it to the tank.
I had originally planned on using the AT shotgun grip to prime the pump, but it just didn't feel comfortable, with the pump handle underneath. If you wanted to do this though, you could use some polycarb or similar, to cover the entire SG grip and pump handle, which would make it much more ergonomic.
So, I cut the shell down, allowing the conduit coupler to protrude a little bit. I then cut some plastic to fill in the big gaps from the shell butchery, and plastic-welded them in place. This is entirely for aesthetic's, but does add another attachment point for the coupler, making the barrel more stable.
I connected the orange BBUMB piston attachment to the trigger of the AT, using the original connecting rod, shortened, and bent to shape. Drill a small hole in the top of the trigger for the rod. Make sure though, that the trigger is completely released, and the piston is closed, when measuring for the length of the rod. If the trigger won't allow the piston to fully close, the air tank won't seal, and obviously won't fill with air.
This shows the external vinyl tubing, and the cuts required for the bulb air tank to fit.
Drill a hole on either side of the shell, in-line with the orange trigger attachment. Use one of the bolts to secure it in place.
To finish-off, I bent a piece of aluminium sheeting, and secure it in place with the final 2 bolts. Purely for aesthetic's.
I've used 30cm of 20mm conduit, with petg nested inside for my barrel, and a short piece of 25mm conduit for the coupler. A couple wraps of e-tape around the 20mm conduit makes the barrel a very snug fit in the 25mm coupler/conduit.
The dual-action ball pump I've used, takes around 15 pumps to completely fill the tank. Using heavy sili-tips on inf0rm3r's blue foam, ranges are:
385 feet on average, at approximately 30 degree angle.
I ran out of daylight to perform a flat range test, but I'll try to get that done in the next couple of days.
Cheers,
Last edited by clunk07 on Thu Jan 31, 2013 2:33 am; edited 2 times in total
