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Pnuematic nail gun = piston valve ready made!

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 6:52 am
by SubsonicSpud
I was helping fix a leaking nail gun today, and discovered they may be an easy source for a large QEV/Piston valve, trigger and grip, all in one package.
Has anybody looked into using nail gun components?
Seems they could be used as very reliable valves, think of the number of cycles a builders nail gun would go through!
They are a coaxial style setup, with the piston and cylinder being around 45mm in diameter, most of the bulk of the nail gun is actually an air chamber . Looking at the nail gun It seems it could be turned into a golf ball size cannon with just the fitting of a barrel in replacent of the front flange assembly. I will be buying a cheap one to see if it can be easly converted for spudding use.

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 6:59 am
by al-xg
I've used one before for a 6mm canon.

I only had semi-auto firing from the nail gun though, no automated reloading.

I brought the barrel all the way up to the QEV piston and sealed off the whole front chamber to reduce dead volume.


Worked quite well, then I actually need the nail gun :)

A semi-auto reloading shouldn't be to easy to add on or incorporate as there is quite a bit of room in the front chamber.

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 7:01 am
by jackssmirkingrevenge
Tried it with my blow forward breech, it was so powerful it destroyed it on the first shot :roll:

Later turned it into a semi-auto coin launcherwith a bit of lego.

This was a more succesful version on spudtech but I don't know if the media still work.

To be honest you can get the same results from a QEV+slide valve or similar 3 way valve combo, probably not worth the modding effort.