Water Warriors PC Replacement Mod

Threads about water gun modifications.
mr. dude
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Joined: Tue Apr 04, 2006 12:10 am

Water Warriors PC Replacement Mod (It's Aliiiive)

Post by mr. dude » Sun Jul 10, 2011 5:11 am

I was looking through the remains of my old site attempt, Extrawater, and I saw this topic. The soaker is now broken as the PVC snapped under the weight of my other soakers (bad storage habits, left it in a box with a bunch of other soakers, including a CPS 2700+1200+WW Orca if I might add), but I think the idea has promise and felt it should get some better exposure as it's probably the only useful mod I've ever brainstormed (look up my history if you don't believe me :P ). It especially applies now that WW are all air pressure, they're well built but might need a slight power boost. PC replacements are a good way of doing that.
It was a really simple mod and I already covered what I did in the original topic, so I'll just go over improvements that needed to be made.

-1, as was discussed in the topic, laminar flow was a big issue. Don't build it the way I did, it really kills performance. My reasoning was that the Lightning's reservoir extends to above the PC area, so it would interfere with the expansion of the tubing/not allow me to put in a good PC case, but my solution made things too hard. In hindsight, Croc's suggestion in the original topic, to cut the interfering part of the reservoir out of the way (and obviously seal it with something), isn't too bad. There are many solutions out there, but it's late and I can't think of anything :)
My plan around the laminar flow issue was a heavy colossus, but with so much piping to get through, it would take a very heavy colossus to get any real performance out of it. That's neither safe for the soaker's internals nor is likely to get much range due to how quickly the stream would break up.

-2, it needed a big power boost, but that's why I did the mod. We know how to power up cylindrical (or spherical, very easy to go that way) bladders better than how to power up diaphragms or air pressure chambers.

-3, durability is important. I was asking for it by piling all my biggest soakers on top of it, but it's never a good idea to have a big long pipe sticking out of your soaker without any protection.

All I can think of for now, just thought I'd share this. It's a reasonably easy mod to do and the stock blasters are readily available. I know CA-99 did something similar here, his results were better than mine. I feel like this is the best way to power up a WW blaster, and of course it'll work on any seperate PC soaker.
Last edited by mr. dude on Tue Jul 12, 2011 11:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

mr. dude
Posts: 183
Joined: Tue Apr 04, 2006 12:10 am

Re: Water Warriors PC Replacement Mod

Post by mr. dude » Tue Jul 12, 2011 12:22 am

Yay for double posts!
I discovered that 1/2" hose barbs fit perfectly inside 1/2" PVC nipples, so I just went out and got a hose barb. I need to get me some epoxy, then likely go for a balloon PC, that way I can use the Lightning's old PC case instead of hacking up the reservoir to put a 3" pipe in there.

atvan
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Re: Water Warriors PC Replacement Mod

Post by atvan » Tue Jul 12, 2011 1:17 am

Spherical would be good.

mr. dude
Posts: 183
Joined: Tue Apr 04, 2006 12:10 am

Re: Water Warriors PC Replacement Mod

Post by mr. dude » Tue Jul 12, 2011 3:19 am

I decided that too.
I'm in the middle of layering balloons, I'm at 20 now. I bought 45, JLSpacemarine apparently used around 50 for his homemade, so I'm optimistic.
Layering them has been really easy, just jam them onto a pen (non pointy end) and layer.
EDIT: Putting the balloons on a pen is really easy, but it makes putting them on a hose barb a lot more complicated... I am in the middle of relayering them onto a hose barb, on the tenth one now. Still using the pen trick, but only to help put the balloons directly on a hose barb.

EDIT #2: UPDATE
45 balloons on, it definitely has more power than it used to as a hydropower. I think range is worse, that could of course be down to shooting into the wind or leaks, but I'm assuming turbulence plays a big part (the stream breaks up as soon as it leaves the nozzle). One of the balloons, maybe the second or third one I put on, has a leak which will be problematic.

I'm happy with it so far, just needs some slight tweeks and some nozzle work, it is as powerful as my CPSs now (as it should be, given that it is a CPS now). Webcam pictures to follow once it's dry enough to have indoors.
Last edited by mr. dude on Tue Jul 12, 2011 11:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

mr. dude
Posts: 183
Joined: Tue Apr 04, 2006 12:10 am

Re: Water Warriors PC Replacement Mod

Post by mr. dude » Wed Jul 13, 2011 12:31 am

Double posty bumpidy pump!
Image
Image

Like I said, power has definitely increased. For instance the biggest nozzle, where before it was a calm but thick 5x (that hit 40'), it now bursts out and the output looks closer to 10x, but it might fall 5 or so feet short. Nozzle mod, here I come!

atvan
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Re: Water Warriors PC Replacement Mod

Post by atvan » Wed Jul 13, 2011 12:49 am

Looks very profesional. Could we get pics of it pressurized? And a better lit ahot of the connection? Im tempted to try this.

Also, if you use a large enought hose barb, you could put the pen through the barb.

mr. dude
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Re: Water Warriors PC Replacement Mod

Post by mr. dude » Wed Jul 13, 2011 1:57 am

When I find my real camera, I'll take better quality pictures. Pressurized, it just looks fatter. I have yet to try pumping it all the way until the PRV goes off (too scared), nor do I need to because it's CPS. It expands the way it should, except for that one leaky balloon that also expands at its base.
It's a fun modification, I recommend it. I started by wanting an LRT pressure chamber, you seem to have a thing for balloons (they are cheaper and more readily available), either one will work. LRT can get a higher capacity, but you would need to cut a piece of the reservoir off.
1/2" PVC (male threaded) fits snugly inside the PC socket if you file the threads off. Get a threaded hose barb, layer the balloons/LRT on it first (so much easier to do it before you glue) file its threads off, glue+epoxy putty it into the socket, and you're done!

4 more steps and I'll consider it completely done,
1) Fix the pump shaft that just broke
2) Laminate the streams
3) Fix the leaky balloon
4) Put the top half of the PC case back on (for general protection and coolness. It looks a lot better than the half a water bottle I just taped on :D )

atvan
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Re: Water Warriors PC Replacement Mod

Post by atvan » Wed Jul 13, 2011 2:07 am

You vould try to just take the inside balloons out.

mr. dude
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Re: Water Warriors PC Replacement Mod

Post by mr. dude » Wed Jul 13, 2011 2:17 am

In an ideal world, that's what I'd do. However, I'm not putting myself through that pain.

atvan
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Re: Water Warriors PC Replacement Mod

Post by atvan » Sat Jul 16, 2011 2:38 pm

Any progress?

mr. dude
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Re: Water Warriors PC Replacement Mod

Post by mr. dude » Sat Jul 16, 2011 3:39 pm

I haven't done anything new yet. I was busy yesterday, and the day before was a CPH day.
Right now, the pump shaft is broken near the handle, so I'll fix that first. Essentially the mod is finished, all I need to do is open up the soaker, then put it back together and I'm done.

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C-A_99
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Re: Water Warriors PC Replacement Mod

Post by C-A_99 » Sat Jul 16, 2011 6:23 pm

I was lazy with mine and merely epoxied a 2L bottle on it instead of stacking balloons.

mr. dude
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Re: Water Warriors PC Replacement Mod

Post by mr. dude » Sat Jul 16, 2011 7:32 pm

It gave you performance didn't it?
Right now, mine can't handle the power boost it got. The stream storms out of the nozzle and breaks up immediately, stream speed is high, sting is high, but range drops because of the lack of lamination.
In direct contradiction to the post I just made about PRVDs, it turns out I cut this one off. I don't remember doing this, but apparently I did when I originally opened the gun 3 years ago. I guarantee I will be tempted to stack on more balloons, though I'm afraid to do so now.

atvan
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Re: Water Warriors PC Replacement Mod

Post by atvan » Sat Jul 16, 2011 7:40 pm

Since there are 3 nozzles, drill one of them as big as you can. This will help more than a laminator. It will slow the stream down some and reduce drag. If the PC lacks the power of that, go ahead and add more balloons.

If you do get that PC case back on, this will be the perfect shell mod. The next best ones have needed a backpack. Drill that nozzle huge, then range test it for us!

You may want to reinforce internals as well.

mr. dude
Posts: 183
Joined: Tue Apr 04, 2006 12:10 am

Re: Water Warriors PC Replacement Mod

Post by mr. dude » Sat Jul 16, 2011 9:28 pm

The biggest nozzle on the Lightning is already the maximum size it can support, so there's not much I can do there. I'll have to improvise something, because planning for lamination isn't easy.
Reinforcing is tempting, I might end up doing that, but it'll also encourage me to put on even more balloons which I really don't want to do (thing already has more power than it can handle, laminator added or not, any more would be comparable to strapping a rocket to a Volvo).

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