UPDATE: Tuesday 9:00pm

The marker is completed. And in full working order, Has been since sunday night. Sorry but had no time to update it since. Nun Notes* In the pic you can see other details left out of other pics and descriptions. We used set screws in the top and back of the trigger. The back set screw can be seen directly above the actuator rod for the 3-way. The set screws make the trigger pull length VERY short. With the pull weight at its current level, it makes fanning the trigger at a high ROF easy. We need to play with it and tune a bit to get it to a walkable level. The air line from the lpr goes through a neat little channel we milled before final assembly. Barrel is an older J&J - SS back that takes inserts - smaller ones like the older OTP barrels. More pics and descriptions to come...need to fill in some gaps. We will get these pics sorted out probably at Red Eye 1.2, which will be held February 25-26.

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PROGRESS UPDATE: Sunday, 7:00pm

Anodize process on this is COMPLETE. This marker now needs reassembly, seals checked, and testing. And we will have yet another marker finished! Rainman liked this so much he is thinking of offering this job as a regular work order for customers. Nun Notes* All the parts we could ano, the LPR pieces, rail, body, feed neck, frame, ASA, and barrel tip. They have just been rinsed in cold water and then sealed over a pot of boiling water - the steam helps set the dye. The final curing stage is rubbing the exterior with 3-in-1 oil and letting the while thing sit for about 24 hours.

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PROGRESS UPDATE: Sunday, 4:50pm

In the anodizer. Polished all the parts nicely, took a while to not half ass it. Right now they are dunked in the fluid getting the electricity flowing. Nun Notes* After test firing, Rainman got a silly grin on his face. He really liked the PneuMag - which meant is probably needed to be his. Thus, the color choice of Gold Ano. At this stage, the parts have been stripped in drain cleaner and then degreased in another bath. Then another prep bath. Then the acid ano bath. Immediately after coming out of the ano bath, the parts are dipped in a concentrated dye solution, warmed up. Here you see the parts about 1/2 way through the dying process. I promise to get more pics of the ano process and details of how it is done.

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PROGRESS UPDATE: Sunday, 6:10am

Ano process has begun. Starting to strip off the old ano that was on it. Soon it will look pretty.

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PROGRESS UPDATE: Sunday, 5:30 am

WE HAVE A FULLY FUNCTIONING PNEUMAG! *rejoice*

As the process went along we finally got the ram mounted properly to move the sear. And a piston to go inside of this ram had to be made from scratch on the lathe. Also on the frame drilled/tapped 2 set screws on either end to ensure it stays snug in place.

What we then did was assemble the parts necessary and tried it out. Eureka, success. Nun Notes* To mount the actuator, a bunch of the front portion of the frame had to be miled out. Another trick to get it to fit, was to actually trim the actuator a bit. There is a small lip on the actuator beyond the snap ring that holds in the spring. We milled that lip off, right down to the groove for the snap ring. It helped wiht the fit. We, however, did not have enough room for the QEV to fit on there. A great source for all these pneumatic components is Air-Soldier Products. If Have Blue doesn't have it, he will order it for you if it is out there. What you can't see in this picture, is that when the gun is aired up, the sear presses forward and rests right against the actuator pin. We held the actuator in place with 4 x 4/40 set screws, two on each side. This makes the position of the actuator adjustable. The best way to adjust the actuator is to gas up the marker and push it against the sear. Leave a tiny gap and set screw it into place.

Not 100% finished. Still needs some hose trimming/routing and the whole ano process. But that's coming up soon. Nun Notes* It worked - very nicely. Crisp trigger pull, Very short. Electro short. However, a bit heavy. We need to do a bit of tweaking to get it fully walkable. Here you see the first pic of the actuator mounted. More on that above.

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PROGRESS UPDATE: Sunday, 4:50am

Took a properly cut rod to the lathe, made a rod to fit into the trigger frame to activate the air switch. Result...Nun Notes* More of the same.

We now have the switch and the activator securely mounted in there. Very light trigger pull with this, will make walking without batteries/electronics quite possible. Nun Notes* The pics below show more detail about the 3-way, rod and trigger placement. The 1/4" SS rod we used fits very nicely in the hole we drilled for it. For cosmetics and weight, we turned the front portion of the rod in a lathe. I will get a more detailed pic of the pin so you can see how the rear portion acts as the pins own guide.

Here is a current mock up of the progress thus far. Next stop, getting the ram secured in there! Nun Notes* You can see how we mounted the 3-way. The front threaded piece of the 3-way fits perfectly inside the 1/4" hold we drilled. It holds it snugly. We also milled a bit of the plate in the frame normally used to hold a microswitch for the "Intellifeed" feature on the AGD Warp Feed. Since the 3-way has "flats" on it, we designed the fit so the flat would fit against this piece, helping to hold it firmly in place. We also drilled and tapped for two 4/40 set screws. I will have to get a better pic of that. Here the rod, 3-way, and trigger placement are clearly visible, showing how the rod presses the trigger forward to its natural resting position in a normal mag.

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PROGRESS UPDATE: Sunday, 3:00am.

Who needs sleep? DaVinci never slept. I know that fact because I saw it in a movie once. Now onward to show some details on our progress...

Drilled a actuator rod slot hole area in the trigger frame. The air switch needs a rod to activate it, it'll go in this hole. So far so good. We needed to dril throgh the meat of the AGD Intelliframe we used for the project. Since the 3-way could not be easily placed directly against the trigger, we needed a rod. 1/4" SS seemed to fit the bill. Easiest way to get to the place behind the trigger, through the trigger guard. So, 1/4' drill bit and here we go, weeeee. Placement, as seen in the pic, is about 1/2 way down the trigger. This gives a dual benefit, with the best combination of leverage and length of pull.

What's done here is to open up the flow inside the on/off assembly. We will then use an RT pin in the classic valve. Better recharge, higher flow. Overall we'll need all the speed we can get. Nun Notes* Tom Kaye would NOT be happy. We took an AGD on/off assembly and pin. Now, the RT on/off works in a classic, but there are some short stroking and shootdown issues. Guess that's why they made the RT valve for this piecs. However, the RT on/off pin has better flow characteristics than a stock classis mag pin. Part of the reactivity in the RT on/off comes from the tight restriction around the RT pin, specifically at the end that goes first into the valve. So, we drilled it out. We opened it up to the same dimentions as the top of the Classic on/off pin, drilling to depth just above the o-ring about 1/2 way down inside the on/off body. Pretty simple - brass drills like butter. Be careful not to drill too deeply, or you'll ruin the on/off body.

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PROGRESS UPDATE: Sunday, 2:10am

Many cans of Mt Dew later we have a PneuMag that seems to be taking shape. It won't be too long now...Nun Notes* At this point in the night, we had most of the design and milling worked up. Pics and explanations are above. This was a simple, yet exciting project to take shape. There is something very satisfying about creating an entirely pneumatic marker than can cycle pretty quickly.

These are the special internals we got in order to do this project. They are your average pneumatic devices, just so happens to be used in paintball now :) These will be added into the frame. The left item is the mechanical switch and the right item is the "ram" that will fire the marker. Nun Notes* The SMAV-3 and MPA-3 from Clippard were used for this project. The MPA-3 is the actuator, seen on the right. It is a simple piece with one air inlet at the back (where the QEV is located). Air inputed pushes on a delrin plunger which extends toward the other end of the cylinder. The cylinder is spring-returned. It can cycle very quickly. The SMAV-3 is a tiny 3-way valve, with an inlet and two outlets. It is also held in the forward position by spring. Did we leave these pieces stock, hell no.

Working on the body, cut off some dead weight and added a lil flare. Nothing too fancy yet, needs to be smoothed out. I wanted a flower design but they wouldn't listen. Nun Notes* Here you can see the body we actually selected. The AGD ULE body really is Ultra Light Engineered. There is very little material to take off of this. There is a piece in the front that is at a downward diagonal. We removed all but the bottom lip of this. We trimmed it so it would be flush against the lip of the rail, seen in the pic below. We kept the small tab on the bottom to cover the top of the screw that goes through the rail and holds the ASA on. Rogue Paintball Gear - which can be purchased through the Mag Smith is a great source for Mag parts. They carry AGD products as well as their own line of gear. They work very hard to hold to the ultra high tolerances set by Tom Kaye at AGD. Some of the tolerance specs on AGD parts are quite literally in the realm of the insane.

Same thing, weight reduction. Milled the inside of the rail to junk out excess metal. Body fits on top, won't have any cosmetic appeal... Nun Notes* You can clearly see the 3 sections where we removed some meat on the mill. We were a little conservative, but it did make the rail lighter. Since something like this won't be seen on the finished gun, one could feasibly do this with a drill and a dremel. It would take a long time...it would be ugly...but it would make the rail lighter.

Trimmed the sides of the rail also, and tapped the LAPCO front ASA to mount the PALMER LPR. Slowly it's all coming together baby. Nun Notes* This was truly for weight savings, milling out the rail. We had the capacity with the mill and decided to do it. In terms of the LPR - some who do this conversion try to put the lpr in the frame. Quite frankly, it is a very tight fit and requires some rather unattractive plumbing to get it all done. It is also a bit hard to adjust all jammed in there. We wanted a design that would allow us to tinker with the performance characteristics of the Pneumatic Frame. So, I slapped two 1/8" NPT fittings on to a LAPCO Paintball Automag 2-hole Vertical Adaptor. If you want a good source for all types of air fittings for paintball guns, check out Air-Soldier Products. The fittings helped stabilize the Vertical Adaptor in the vice on the drill press. Drilled a small pilot hole. Drilled it out for the tap. Tapped it 1/8" NPT, facing out the front. Done. I actually like the way an LPR looks sticking off the front of a gun. It gives it a sense of balance. For out project, we used the Rock Solid Palmer's-Pursuit Products Micro Rock LPR. Don't worry about the purple, that will ano right out.

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PROGRESS UPDATE: Saturday, 11:15pm

Started this project, it's coming along all dandy. Mostly doing research, had to have a piston at a specific length before we could get started. This one is still not too far off the ground. Considered still in the brainstorming. Nun Notes* We knew we needed a SS piston and had several diameter rods we could use. We settled on 1/4" SS rod, as it was just about the exact OD as the inner snap ring/washer on the actuator. We wanted the length to be such that it fit roughly to the delrin plunger at the bottom and extended just about 1/8" beyond thelip of the exterior. Why? Just seemed like a good idea at the time. Other issues we noted during design. The actuator needed to fit in front of the vertical piece on the sear. While the actuator is small, it was going to be a bit tricky to get it to fit in there. Also, taking a look at the 3-way, it was apparent that we would not be able to mill the frame in such a way, without total butchery, so that the trigger contacted the 3-way rod directly. We knew then we would need some sort of rod or connector between the trigger and the 3-way pin.

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This is our "before" picture, not fully assembled more of a mock assembly, but you get the idea. Nun Notes* Classic Valve with Level X. Classic rail and sear. AGD ULE body - black in this pic, got swapped for a blue one later - which matters not, as it will get anodized.

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We are going to take a stock ULE mag and create our own custom pneumatically-operated grip frame. We will mill and anno the mag body. We will modify the mag internals. We will modify/create a pneumatic grip frame. We hope to get a walkable mag frame with high rof.

We will fabricate the following parts
•Brackets and Mounts for the pneumatic grip frame components

We will need to have donated or purchase the following parts:
•ULE Mag Body
•Adjustable feed neck
•Mag Vertical Adaptor
•Classic Valve
•LX or Level 7 bolt kit
•RT on/off assembly
•Clippard MPA3 or similar
•Clippard SMAV3 or similar
•2-finger Mag Aftermarket Frame (RPG, Logic, Intelli, etc.)
•Cocker lpr
•3/56 to 1/16” hose fitting
•10/32 to 1/8” hose fitting
•10/32 to 1/16” hose fitting
•Macroline fittings
•On/off ASA and rail