SpudFiles

I really love making piston valves now. They are so much fun and so powerful. I whipped this one up in about an hour or so including the time I spent staring at the wall because of a short attention span that day.

<img src="http://www.spudfiles.com/uploader/uploa ... naldo6.JPG">

From the picture, it may or may not look like some gigantic beast to you, but it's actually a 1" porting valve. It's more powerful and better looking than any sprinkler valve, that's for sure. (Maybe not those 2"ers.)

<img src="http://www.spudfiles.com/uploader/uploa ... naldo7.JPG">

So I stuck a 3 way pilot on it, a 1.5"x16" chamber, a 4'x1" barrel (Also 4'x3/4"sch 80) and I was all set.

Additional Pictures:
<a href="http://www.spudfiles.com/uploader/uploa ... >Ronaldo's back end</a>
<a href="http://www.spudfiles.com/uploader/uploa ... G">Another Valve Picture</a>
<a href="http://www.spudfiles.com/uploader/uploa ... 5.JPG">And another Valve Picture</a>

Does anybody build stuff like this on a whim these days or is it just me?

Oh, and the name. I didn't know what to name it so I asked Mr. Plow. He said Ronaldo. So his name is Ronaldo.

Another great piston valve! I love how you grind down the hexigonal part to fit in the valve. I will be making another piston valve now. Maybe a 2inch one. Good job. By the way would you tell me what you use as a sealing face?

Haha, i build stuff like that ALL THE TIME on whim; thats like where 50% of my stuff comes from

Anyways, looking good. I really like piston valves that are done on lathes; did you modify those bushings? It appears so...

So you got the mauler, the shredder, and...maybe the cutter?!

Make a 1/4" one with 1/8" porting... you can call it the creaser!

Okay, that was really really funny. I about fell off my chair there.

Yes, I did modify the bushings. For some reason I like to take the hexes off all the valve parts and countersink them perfectly but I don't do anything for the rest of the gun. Hahah.

To andswer Amadeus's question, I use 3/32" soft neporene sheets from McMaster. I order it in 4"x36" sheets. I might go longer for the next order. I've used up this last one pretty quickly.

Edit: I do, though, want to sell a full line of valves ranging from 3/4" porting to 3". I've got 4 of them made now, 3 tested. I got to make a 3/4" and 3" yet. I don't think I'll do 2.5" but maybe. People just tend not to use that size but I'll see if there's any demand for it.

how much for lets say, a 3" valve?

i love it its so nice and white and clean very nice work

Yeah, I try to keep all my work extremely neat. It shows a higher level of craftsmanship and patience.

So, 3" valves... They are expensive in parts and because of this, it is going to be somewhere up to $200 for one of these monsters. The benefit of this valve is that one is more powerful than 2 2" Mauler Valves and would be the same or less in price.

Hmmm. Pretty expensive. I guess I could make one for half that price.

How much for the "Milk-em dry"valves??
That's the latest in the Uber-priced series isn't it???


Gort those things are pretty nice, I really like them better than Supah's, but I would NEVER pay that kind of cash myself.Sorry...
Anyways..there are people that buy Supahs, so there must be people that want Maulers.

Wouldn't you earn more if you sold more valves with a smaller profit?????
in the long run I mean... If you sell for a less re-dick-ulous price than Joel does, you would tempt more people to buy.

If the price goes up, demand goes down..

You raise a good point and I've been considering all that from day one. I want to lower the prices so I could possibly get more sales, but I also want to raise them because it really does take some time to make, special tools, and of course, certain skills. In the end I may have more money, but how much more did I have to work? There's a happy medium I'd like to reach between my work time and my free time. I'm willing to sacrifice a little bit of money in some cases for more time to myself.

Let's do it this way, for work like this, what would you pay someone per hour knowing that machine shops commonly charge $100 per hour for work? Seriously, I want to know what you guys would value my time as and I will use it to reconsider my prices.

I'll seriously think about dropping the prices on these if you really think people will buy more. At least for now. If they prove to be what they are hyped up to be, maybe then they will deserve the bigger price. You guys can be the judges on it though.

As for the 3" valve, maybe I could go with $170 or so. Sound like a decent price?

and patience.

Damn, the one thing i dont have.


Thats really clean, whats the range like?

So Kevin needed a little brother?

"machine shops routinely charge 100$/hour"

...which always perplexed me, considering how average machinist's pay is about 15$/hour.
I geuss those 400,000$ CNC lathes must affect the cost of operating a shop, hu?

I made my valve, a 4 inch one, for somewhere around $40-50 bucks. the only downside is the size.but with some recent modifications, It has been shortened several inches, and the power has gone up. maby after a while, with the profits buy a lathe, and then lower the prices. good luck, though. i really like your work, and hope you do well.

Edit: oh, and which do you like better now, pneumatic, or combustion?

the part that has always confused me about valves like this is how does the end cap hold pressure when its just screwed in?