DIY APTA using bazooka style bead blaster

S

Stelzer

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Location
Portland, OR
Wondering if anyone has ever considered doing this? The nozzle part of the bead blaster could be unscrewed and aluminum pipe installed for the APTA in less than a minute. Most of these are 1.5" NPT. Much more refined valve mechanism controlled by 1 finger, seems it would facilitate more accurate shots than a ball valve. They all come with pressure gauges as well as a safety valve to eliminate over pressurization. Quite a few goodies included that'd cost you quite a bit of time and tinkering to DIY.

TS is currently selling the APTA for $349, which seems pricey given the crude design and a complete lack of any of the features on a bead blaster. Even including the aluminum pipe, this could be made for about $100. I already have a big shot and I've made a PVC APTA, but ball valves aren't great. I know some retrofit with sprinkler valves and all that, but this seems like an easy conversion at an affordable price. The only downfall I see is the more bulbous tank end.

Thoughts?
 
Matias said:
That sounds like it could work. Do have the parts to experiment with?
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No, I just have the regular 5 gallon bead blaster with the ball valve release. Just got to looking at the parts breakdown for various models and my mind went off on an arb tangent, lol. If not too many people tell me it's an idiotic idea though, I'll probably have a go at 'er.
 
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Tom Dunlap said:
Field of Dreams

Build it...and they will come
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Do you see any inherent flaws in the idea Tom? Your insight would be greatly appreciated. Not looking to bring this to market since anybody could build it in a few minutes. Just looking to have cool toys like you pros without spending the big bucks, lol. For someone who doesn't do this for a living, I spent a ridiculous amount of money this last year in genuine gear. Time to even the scales by going back to my diy roots.
 
To me the bead blaster idea sounds like a great concept - not sure if you'd even need the length of barrel that the APTA has but a shorter length could be possible (??) - similar to CO2 powered T-Shirt cannons available commercially. The compressed gas cartridge thing might be handy rather than hooking up to a compressor or to a pump (unless you have air on the truck).
 
I painted my APTA black and it resides in a snowboard bag - the thought was that if you took a long barreled black thing, with a mounted scope, outta a gun case, and pointed it somewhere - well SWAT might get kinda excited if the neighbours called . . . . . :-)
So far, so good tho . . . . . but this is Liberal gun averse Cant-ada we're talking about here.
 
96coal449 said:
I bought my APTA some years back. It does not use a ball valve but rather a butterfly valve. Think throttle plate in automotive.
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Images online showed what looks to be a ball valve, but I'm sure you know what valve you have. Maybe they changed the valve design? Nevertheless, a butterfly valve, although a big step up from a ball valve, still wouldn't be as favorable as a valve that's controlled by the push of a button, due to the action required to open a butterfly valve, and what that action does to one's aim. I do know that some have still learned to be pretty accurate with the APTA, despite the valve design.

This is the image that pops up for the APTA from TS. I've always associated those type of handles with ball valves, but I just found a butterfly valve made by Milwaukee Valve with that same style handle. I've got probably 30-40 valves at my shop that I use to make portable sprayers and sprayer skids and have never seen a butterfly valve like that with what looks (to me) like a ball valve handle. In any event, I was wrong, so thanks for the clarification. Second image is the butterfly valve by Milwaukee Valve.
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My Dad gave me a basic intro to ballistics when I started hunting. He had a 22 caliber rifle, 12 gauge shotgun and 30-06. With a variety of ammo that covered our hunting needs. He had our 06 re-loading spec'd to the ranges we would expect in the woods of northern Minnesota. He had the ballistic charts of various bullets/powder loads and chose the flatest. This made aiming easier since there was less need for adjusting windage.

Years later when I was looking at spud guns that were being DIY engineered for paintball games I saw a LOT of engineering. There are ballistic variables that could be designed around to give very accurate shots. More like the accuracy of rifles than shotguns.

Along the way I met a guy who was on a mortar team in Vietnam. They used slide rules to be able to quickly setup mortars and adjust their trajectories. Now, with laser sights and range finders it wouldn't be hard to use a keypad to input variables for accurate shots. and production costs would be low but I wonder how many would be sold. Volume would keep costs down.

I wouldn't be surprised if engineers who play with paintballs haven;t already done this. Seeing how hydraulic experts have maximized the accuracy of the valves, triggers and air volume/pressure makes all this easy..for them.
 
I like the idea @Stelzer but is there a good portable way to efficiently get 8L of compressed air into one of those?

Absent that, is there a way to permanently fill that tank with a lightweight solid to take up some volume? I really don't think you need more than 1-2L to launch a throw weight. Even 0.5L instantly released is probably enough.

I made a PVC one with a modified sprinkler valve and it works great. But I use the Big Shot mostly because filling the air tank isn't ideal...especially after the 3rd or 4th...or 8th :rolleyes:... miss/re-shot.
 
ATH said:
I like the idea @Stelzer but is there a good portable way to efficiently get 8L of compressed air into one of those?

Absent that, is there a way to permanently fill that tank with a lightweight solid to take up some volume? I really don't think you need more than 1-2L to launch a throw weight. Even 0.5L instantly released is probably enough.

I made a PVC one with a modified sprinkler valve and it works great. But I use the Big Shot mostly because filling the air tank isn't ideal...especially after the 3rd or 4th...or 8th :rolleyes:... miss/re-shot.
Click to expand...

ATH said:
I like the idea @Stelzer but is there a good portable way to efficiently get 8L of compressed air into one of those?

Absent that, is there a way to permanently fill that tank with a lightweight solid to take up some volume? I really don't think you need more than 1-2L to launch a throw weight. Even 0.5L instantly released is probably enough.

I made a PVC one with a modified sprinkler valve and it works great. But I use the Big Shot mostly because filling the air tank isn't ideal...especially after the 3rd or 4th...or 8th :rolleyes:... miss/re-shot.
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I guess even the little 5 gal reserve air tanks they sell at harbor freight would only get you 2 charges, so maybe just an inflator plugged into a cigarette lighter? Would be a pain I'm sure if you weren't by your rig though. Definitely has some limitations in that regard.
 
Those work....but they are slow. At least the few I have tried. Not sure about the Milwaukee. (says "tops off" a 33" light truck tire in under a minute. Is that going from 28 to 32 psi??? and a 33" light truck tire???? So I have reservations...but I'm generally a Milwaukee fanboy)
 
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