<div align="center">GOLF BALL VALVE

Provided By - Clide

Ok, I have been working on this sucker for a long time(probably about 2 months) and I finally got it to where I wanted it for the most part. I still have a small leak problem I need to take care of, but hopefully it won't be too much of a problem. My goal was to build a valve that allowed full 1.7"(1.68 actually, but I'm rounding) flow for a golf ball and I wanted to be able to build it in a 2" tee, which is much harder than it sounds. Also, there were no special machines such as lathes used when making these valves, only a saw, dremel, drill, and one of those grinding wheels, and all the parts were found at my local Ace hardware store. I went through 3 1/2 different versions of this thing and 2 piston designs until I finally got it working. I have noticed several people talking about valves similar to this lately so I figured I would share my experiences so people can have more to base their designs off of.

My first design was a piston in 2" pipe that blocked a hole in the side of the pipe leading to the barrel, and I was hoping releasing the pressure on one side would slide the piston sideways and open the hole. But when I released the air I could never get the piston to slide enough to allow full flow. It just opened partially and let out all the pressure through the small crack it made.

My second design was similar to my final (diagram below) but instead of the bushings and 1.5" pipe as the barrel entrance I tried to use slit 2" inside 2". and on this version I neglected to make sure the sealing surface was flat before glueing it into the tee. I couldn't get the thing to seal very well at all.

This is where the 1/2 version comes in. I kept the same tee, but I busted the slit 2" out with a screwdriver and air pressure. The air pressure was a bad idea, it sent a piston flying into the ceiling in the garage(pics below). Then I cut a shorter piece of slit 2" and reglued it in there, but this time I left about a quarter inch of 2" unsleaved on the inside of the tee. I was hoping I could use an o-ring to seal against the wall of the unslit 2". Well, this actually worked and I managed to get a perfect seal after much testing and retesting. Well why did I build another version then? Well the way I finally got it to seal involved a loose o-ring and whenever I would fire the gun it would shoot the o-ring out at very high speeds (put 2" holes in a cardboard box and dented the ceiling) No matter what I tried to glue the o-ring to it would shoot off still.

That brings me to my final version, it was easier to make and should be easier to seal (still working on that), and it uses my simple piston and opens all the way. I forgot to mention that on my previous versions that I had to build a complex version of the piston because the valve would only crack open sometimes and not fully open.

Concept

<img src="http://www.spudfiles.com/official_pics/golfball_valve.jpg">

<img src="http://www.spudfiles.com/official_pics/tee.jpg">

<img src="http://www.spudfiles.com/official_pics/fullview.jpg">

View of simple and complex piston and bumper which is a rubber 1.25" coupler.

<img src="http://www.spudfiles.com/official_pics/disassembled2.jpg">

Simple Piston

<img src="http://www.spudfiles.com/official_pics/golfpiston.jpg">

Complex piston. Basically the back end is built on a lamp bolt (hollow) and when the air pressure is dumped the back end slides back, compresses the spring, then unseals the front end from the barrel when it reaches the back of the bolt, and the compressed spring pulls back the front end away from the barrel once it is unsealed. I will see if performance is affected any with this one vs. the simple one once it warms up and i get around to doing some testing.

<img src="http://www.spudfiles.com/official_pics/golfpiston2.jpg">

I also had many different ends for the pistons when trying different sealing methods, in these pictures they just have the classic rubber washer.

And finally here's my blooper of shooting my piston into the ceiling.

<img src="http://www.spudfiles.com/official_pics/oops.jpg">

<img src="http://www.spudfiles.com/official_pics/oops2.jpg">

Well when I tested it I only got one shot off. On the plus side I did find a weak spot without a violent explosion. When I fired the shot I felt the blowgun on my sprinkler valve come off in my hand, I figured the threads had ripped out of the top of the sprinkler valve, so I was afraid to look back. I was surprised to see my male adaptor to the sprinkler valve snapped off. I got a speed of 397.3 fps on the one shot so with that and knowledge and ggdt it should have an opening time of about 50ms possibly faster because i was guessing that I put 70 psi in it, but that guess is probably a little high.

<img src="http://www.spudfiles.com/official_pics/ouch.jpg">

Inside After The Shot

<img src="http://www.spudfiles.com/official_pics/inside2.jpg">

Provided By - Clide</div>

looks interesting but does it work?

Yeah, works great.

Clide, does the piston require any o-ring grooves? I was looking at the coupler for the piston and it just looks like the O-rings are compressed by the washers. Just mwanted to make sure.

EDIT: Nevermind, I just reread the post and saw that you said you didn't use any special tools.

You could technically use a lthe though, right?

EDIT: Could you use 1.5 SDR26 instead of the SDR21?

The o-rings just rest on 1.25" pipe and use the couplers washers to hold them in place., but yes you could use a lathe, although it may even be easier not to... no measuring.

And yes, you could use sdr26, although that sdr21 is already the weak spot in the valve, my first one fell wrong and it broke off the barrel connection at sdr21 between the two bushings. Using one piece of sch80 or cut up 3 bushings so there is one bushing in the middle connecting the tee and the adaptor would probably make it stronger though.

If the complex piston doesn't work try removing the middle washer.
I think the middle (static) one will move the entire piston without the second one compressing the spring.But I could be wrong.Hope I am cause I love the concept.

And secondly..How is the entire piston going to move if the front and back are all the same diameter??
Cause that is what it looks like to me.

The middle washer and the rear washer are both on the lamp bolt so they both can move back.

But I did do testing on it and it didn't improve performance any, in fact I think it made it worse, but that could have just been because of more leakage through the equalization hole. Knowing what I do now, I don't think it would ever be worth the effort to build a complex piston like that. Even if it did manage to increase opening speed, performance increase would be very very small in most cases.

It's not quite the same diameter. The rear is 2" sch40 (2" ID) and the pipe that the front seals against is 1.5" srd21 (OD 1.9"). Such a close size in a barrel sealing valve means the pilot pressure drops very low before it fires, so the valve will open very quickly even with a small pilot valve. Since I have a check valve built into the piston, I can even fire it by letting air out the schrader valve and the piston still opens very fast.

doesnt it feel weird to fire it cause its kind of a weird shape

Sorry, I had to!

nice! jack, I love your sense of humor!

for all those who do not have any idea what he's talking about, this is it!
(oops, Ifeel stupid! there's already a link to it! )

schmanman wrote:nice! jack, I love your sense of humor!

Quick, Lolcat bible translation!!!

Jenacis won.

1 Oh hai. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat maded teh skiez An da Urfs, but he did not eated dem.
2 Da Urfs no had shapez An haded dark face, An Ceiling Cat rode invisible bike over teh waterz.
3 At start, no has lyte. An Ceiling Cat sayz, i can haz lite? An lite wuz.4 An Ceiling Cat sawed teh lite, to seez stuffs, An splitted teh lite from dark but taht wuz ok cuz kittehs can see in teh dark An not tripz over nethin.5 An Ceiling Cat sayed light Day An dark no Day. It were FURST!!!1
6 An Ceiling Cat sayed, im in ur waterz makin a ceiling. But he no yet make a ur. An he maded a hole in teh Ceiling.7 An Ceiling Cat doed teh skiez with waterz down An waterz up. It happen.8 An Ceiling Cat sayed, i can has teh firmmint wich iz funny bibel naim 4 ceiling, so wuz teh twoth day.
9 An Ceiling Cat gotted all teh waterz in ur base, An Ceiling Cat hadz dry placez cuz kittehs DO NOT WANT get wet.10 An Ceiling Cat called no waterz urth and waters oshun. Iz good.
11 An Ceiling Cat sayed, DO WANT grass! so tehr wuz seedz An stufs, An fruitzors An vegbatels. An a Corm. It happen.12 An Ceiling Cat sawed that weedz ish good, so, letz there be weedz.13 An so teh threeth day jazzhands.
14 An Ceiling Cat sayed, i can has lightz in the skiez for splittin day An no day.15 It happen, lights everwear, like christmass, srsly.16 An Ceiling Cat doeth two grate lightz, teh most big for day, teh other for no day.17 An Ceiling Cat screw tehm on skiez, with big nails An stuff, to lite teh Urfs.18 An tehy rulez day An night. Ceiling Cat sawed. Iz good.19 An so teh furth day w00t.
20 An Ceiling Cat sayed, waterz bring me phishes, An burds, so kittehs can eat dem. But Ceiling Cat no eated dem.21 An Ceiling Cat maed big fishies An see monstrs, which wuz like big cows, except they no mood, An other stuffs dat mooves, An Ceiling Cat sawed iz good.22 An Ceiling Cat sed O hai, make bebehs kthx. An dont worry i wont watch u secksy, i not that kynd uf kitteh.23 An so teh...fith day. Ceiling Cat taek a wile 2 cawnt.
24 An Ceiling Cat sayed, i can has MOAR living stuff, mooes, An creepie tings, An otehr aminals. It happen so tehre.25 An Ceiling Cat doed moar living stuff, mooes, An creepies, An otehr animuls, An did not eated tehm.
26 An Ceiling Cat sayed, letz us do peeps like uz, becuz we ish teh qte, An let min p0wnz0r becuz tehy has can openers.
27 So Ceiling Cat createded teh peeps taht waz like him, can has can openers he maed tehm, min An womin wuz maeded, but he did not eated tehm.
28 An Ceiling Cat sed them O hai maek bebehs kthx, An p0wn teh waterz, no waterz An teh firmmint, An evry stufs.
29 An Ceiling Cat sayed, Beholdt, the Urfs, I has it, An I has not eated it. 30 For evry createded stufs tehre are the fuudz, to the burdies, teh creepiez, An teh mooes, so tehre. It happen. Iz good.

31 An Ceiling Cat sayed, Beholdt, teh good enouf for releaze as version 0.8a. kthxbai.

From the Lolcat bible project: http://www.lolcatbible.com/index.php?title=Genesis_1

Those cats are SOOOOOOO gay.
I thought Joan was the only girl on spudfiles.

O noes, sjog haz bean pwnorzed bai Cieling Cat. Srsly.

sjog wrote:Those cats are SOOOOOOO gay.

in reply.....




and....



and...



this cat wants you, sjog!



just for you :

Now that was a great come back.
Thanks,a good chuckle, I just hope I don't have night mares!!