DIY APTA using bazooka style bead blaster

This one is only $72 on Amazon. If that barrel will unscrew it would be perfect for an APTA. I like the trigger idea instead of lever ball or butterfly valve. For $50, I made mine of 1.5 inch PVC and a 3/4 NPT brass ball valve. It works okay for me but a trigger would be an improvement.

This is first I heard of a bead blaster. I had to purchase new tires for my chipper because we could not get the old tire to seat on the rim. Afterwards, an old timer told be to fill the tire with propane and light it up. Boom your tire is seated. How's that for an APTA idea!

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How bad of an idea would it be to cut about 4" off of that tank and weld the back on? I wouldn't trust MY welding skills...but its not a complicated weld for a half competent welder. Not holding a lot of pressure either.
 
ATH said:
is there a good portable way to efficiently get 8L of compressed air into one of those?
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You might look at the high volume compressors that off-road 4x4 drivers use. It takes lots of volume to air up those mondo tires from trail/low to road/high times four tires. After looking at this path I realized its the wrong path.

There are easier ways to get compressed air.

Side story...related. A neighbor kid, 14-15 yo, was clever and was working on a fixup car. It was time to paint and he didn't have money for the compressor so he cruised the alleys for scrap. He got a 120v motor out of a drier or washing machine, lawn mower to use as the compressor Not sure where the tank came from. With a plumbers nightmare of fittings and a regulator he painted the car. Turned out nice too.

For the needs of arbos things always seem to loop back to a bicycle pump. Unless you've got airbrakes to tap into.
 
Camdo said:
This one is only $72 on Amazon. If that barrel will unscrew it would be perfect for an APTA. I like the trigger idea instead of lever ball or butterfly valve. For $50, I made mine of 1.5 inch PVC and a 3/4 NPT brass ball valve. It works okay for me but a trigger would be an improvement.

This is first I heard of a bead blaster. I had to purchase new tires for my chipper because we could not get the old tire to seat on the rim. Afterwards, an old timer told be to fill the tire with propane and light it up. Boom your tire is seated. How's that for an APTA idea!

View attachment 95240
Click to expand...
I'm betting that valve is the same design/concept as a modified sprinkler valve
 
Tom Dunlap said:
You might look at the high volume compressors that off-road 4x4 drivers use. It takes lots of volume to air up those mondo tires from trail/low to road/high times four tires. After looking at this path I realized its the wrong path.

There are easier ways to get compressed air.

Side story...related. A neighbor kid, 14-15 yo, was clever and was working on a fixup car. It was time to paint and he didn't have money for the compressor so he cruised the alleys for scrap. He got a 120v motor out of a drier or washing machine, lawn mower to use as the compressor Not sure where the tank came from. With a plumbers nightmare of fittings and a regulator he painted the car. Turned out nice too.

For the needs of arbos things always seem to loop back to a bicycle pump. Unless you've got airbrakes to tap into.
Click to expand...
A bike pump is great for the APTA. I wouldn't want to get an 8L tank to 90PSI with a bike pump. Going back to the truck for each fill up pushes me to the Big Shot. That's where I would like to see a smaller tank on the bead blaster (which I also didn't know existed before this thread!) so you can fill it with bike pump.
 
Camdo said:
Maybe with a larger tank, high pressure is not needed to hurl a throwball aloft. Has anyone studied the relationship of volume, pressure, and throw height?
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How quickly can you get all of that air out? That's a big part of the equation. You need a really big (expensive) valve to get it out quickly enough.
 
ATH said:
How quickly can you get all of that air out? That's a big part of the equation. You need a really big (expensive) valve to get it out quickly enough.
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Exactly. A ton of the air potential is lost just from the action of turning a ball valve or butterfly valve when you're needing a sudden burst of air on something like the APTA.
 
Camdo said:
This one is only $72 on Amazon. If that barrel will unscrew it would be perfect for an APTA. I like the trigger idea instead of lever ball or butterfly valve. For $50, I made mine of 1.5 inch PVC and a 3/4 NPT brass ball valve. It works okay for me but a trigger would be an improvement.

This is first I heard of a bead blaster. I had to purchase new tires for my chipper because we could not get the old tire to seat on the rim. Afterwards, an old timer told be to fill the tire with propane and light it up. Boom your tire is seated. How's that for an APTA idea!

View attachment 95240
Click to expand...
We've used ether in a pinch to seat beads, but it isn't always a realistic option, (and it ALWAYS scares the piss outta me). One of my 3 vans is a big P30 Step van and since I got a flat, I decided I needed a bead blaster. Wish I'd have bought the bazooka style to begin with, but if nothing else, I've got another reserve tank if I end up now getting the bazooka style.
 
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I asked Gemini to calculate how high a 14 oz. throw weight will go if the tube is angled 60 degrees and initial tank pressure is:
40 PSI answer 3.73 meters (12 feet)
90 PSI answer 19.8 meters (65 feet)
The APTA used for the calculation is a bead blaster 2.1 gal with 1.5 I.D x 36 inch long tube. Assume 1 inch of space between back of throw weight and valve, and a perfect immediate valve opening.

Conclusion: Pressure makes it go high.

Attached is the dialog with Gemini to get the answer:
 

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In my modified sprinkler valve with PVC pipe, I filled a tennis ball with BBs and had a string run through it to hold the throwline. Ball weighs 16oz. Here are my measured PSI:Height measurements. Shot at 90 degrees, using throwline to measure height of travel.

PSI Height in feet
30psi 50'
35psi 73'
40psi 82'
50psi 91'
 
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Matias said:
With a 12 oz weight, my launcher gets about a foot of height per psi.
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That seems reasonable...compared to what I was using for my measurements, the a throw weight in the APTA doesn't make a tight seal and APTA has a smaller tank and slower air release. That 1' per pound of air pressure estimate won't hold...it will start to taper off pretty quickly at some point. Gravity is causing it to "accelerate" downward at 9.8 m/s^2 even as it travels up so without continued force pushing it up...well, what goes up, must come down. (I'd guess that drop off will happen between 60'-80' - based on anecdotal experience with things not APTA...APTA will still taper rapidly, I just don't know for sure where that happens.)
 
ATH said:
That seems reasonable...compared to what I was using for my measurements, the a throw weight in the APTA doesn't make a tight seal and APTA has a smaller tank and slower air release. That 1' per pound of air pressure estimate won't hold...it will start to taper off pretty quickly at some point. Gravity is causing it to "accelerate" downward at 9.8 m/s^2 even as it travels up so without continued force pushing it up...well, what goes up, must come down. (I'd guess that drop off will happen between 60'-80' - based on anecdotal experience with things not APTA...APTA will still taper rapidly, I just don't know for sure where that happens.)
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They say that the stubby pressure tank delivers the air more all-at-once, maintaining greater consistency in this calculation. That is it's big selling point over the less expensive APTA.
 
Matias said:
They say that the stubby pressure tank delivers the air more all-at-once, maintaining greater consistency in this calculation. That is it's big selling point over the less expensive APTA.
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With a little practice, the butterfly valve in the APTA works very well at dumping all the air fast. I set the throw bag tight against the valve with a short wooden pole. One foot of height per one psi is a close approximate.

It really wouldn't that hard to spring load the valve handle and setup a trigger release.
 
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The 9.81 meters per second squared doesn't change. Think about the power a rocket engine has at lift off. It's massive....but with that initial burst, it won't get the rocket very high - it needs continual force acting on it. At some point, the initial burst isn't enough to keep it moving. I don't know where that is for the APTA.

Sure, it releases all of the air at once because there isn't very much air. Having more air wouldn't help if it isn't all released at once. To release more, you'd need a bigger valve. They made a decision to keep a reasonable size valve for (I'd assume) cost and portability.
 
Here is my big game rifle. Coming in around 7 ft long I can consistently hit crotches well over 150 foot. Because of its length you shoot it like a mortar so the accuracy is much better than the over the shoulder style of my APTA from TS. The silky smooth valve also adds to its accuracy.

IMG_4197.JPG
 
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