Super Soaker Central forums

LimpetBlaster · 06-04-2008, 05:05 PM

Greetings SSCentral members. This is my first post on your forum, I'm very excited to learn about the wonderful world of water guns.
The nature of this post is in regard to modifying the CPS 2000. I'm currently experimenting in marine environments, attempting to develop a model for the wave forces necessary to remove "Owl Limpets" from their rocky substrates. I have performed a number of "removals", easily blasting the little blokes from their stony perches. The pressure is awesome, perhaps a bit too high for my specific purposes. My questions are as follows:

1.) Will the salt environment damage the internal components of my CPS 2000? If so, what modifications can I make to increase the life-span of my water gun?
2.) How can I modify the pressure of the CPS 2000 to different levels?
3.) What tools can I obtain to easily measure/quantify the pressure of my gun, or any guns I purchase in the future?

Now that I've gotten the formalities out of the way, I'd just like to say that my "experimentation" is really just me having a bit of fun with limpet ecology. I don't take it that seriously, but I'm in dire need of help to get my experiment off the ground. Any feedback would be much appreciated. I'm glad I found this forum, it looks like a great time. Toodles!

Ben · 06-04-2008, 05:18 PM

Welcome to SSC!

Salt should not damage any of the components of your CPS 2000, however, it might build up inside of it. I would suggest running regular water through it when you're done for the day to prevent any salt from building up on parts. If you have any doubts about what can go through your water gun, look up chemical compatibility of the components. The part that would be least compatible is the latex tubing in the water bladder and here's a chemical compatibility page: http://www.primelineindustries.com/n...compchart.html

The Colossus modification will give you some level of control over the pressure of your water gun, however, you will not be able to reduce the pressure below its standard level. PC replacement, normally a repair, will also give you some control over the pressure of your water gun. It will allow you to lower the pressure as well so it would be better for your purposes.

With that being said, either method would be very tedious to control pressure. I would suggest some sort homemade water gun with a pressure regulator that makes adjusting the pressure easy. If you have an air compressor you would only need to build a water tank to do this.

A pressure gauge can measure water pressure easily. No manufactured water guns have a good way to measure pressure built in aside from some air pressure ones, and the gauge has no scale on those water guns. You can cut the tube going from the pump assembly to the nozzle valve and install a pressure gauge there if you wanted to. I can help you though this process if you want. I've considered doing it myself. You can see some of the parts that would be affected in this guide to replacing firing valves: http://www.sscentral.org/repairs/fir...placement.html

Silence · 06-04-2008, 05:50 PM

Welcome to the forums! Dislodging snails is definitely a unique application for water guns.

As Ben has mentioned, you can change the operating pressure, but it's not very easy. You have to take apart the water gun and replace the components each time, and with lots of screws to work with, the process is impractical. If you want to actually be able to vary the pressure, a constant air pressure system like in SuperCAP would work. But in applications where a regular water gun already fits the bill, CAP is probably overkill.

If what you really want to do is vary the output (or the range) of the water gun, it may be much easier to add a nozzle selector to your CPS 2000. There are also many commercial water guns that come with nozzle selectors. The CPS 2500, for example, is basically a CPS 2000 with a nozzle selector, although its maximum range is slightly smaller.

LimpetBlaster · 06-04-2008, 05:51 PM

Thank you very much for the feedback, Ben and SilentGuy. I'm currently contemplating whether to go through with the PC replacement (and constructing some form of PC with lower pressure) or to construct a home-made water gun to suit my needs.

I have lots of experience making projectile weapons out of PVC/ABS pipe due to my fiddling with potato guns and tennis ball launchers, so hopefully my tinkering years ago will come in handy if I decide to make a home-made blaster. Approximately how many hours should I set aside to construct something home-made with the aforementioned pressure control, with a oz/sec output and spray diameter similar to the stock CPS 2000?

LimpetBlaster · 06-04-2008, 06:23 PM

After browsing the startling selection contained in SSC's home-made armory, I have decided that it would be impractical and not cost effective to build a home-made gun for my experimentation, since it will only be used for a few days of shooting limpets. However, I have decided to build a home-mad blaster just for kicks and weekend water wars, rather than for my experimentation.

Back to the subject of shooting marine gastropods. Since the CPS 2000 is a bit more powerful than I need, what would the knowledgable aficionados of Super Soaker Central recommend as an alternative? I'm looking for something with a large-diameter spray/beam, akin to the CPS 2000, but with lower pressure. Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Drenchenator · 06-04-2008, 07:09 PM

The Arctic Blast offers a large diameter spray with lower pressure than the CPS 2000. It sports a riot-blast nozzle that doesn't have the power of the CPS 2000 but does get a good spray out.

I won't hold out on a homemade water gun just yet. Just because many of the creations on the site are expensive and impractical doesn't mean that a smaller scale project would be. Just a thought.

Ben · 06-04-2008, 10:32 PM

The Arctic Blast should work if you don't want a homemade option. If you replace the pressure chamber with a variety of tubes you and install a pressure gauge you can figure out which pressures work best.

One thing to be aware of though is that the pressure applied to the animals won't be the same as the pressure in the water gun. It should be similar but lower due to viscous forces or drag and some other things. You can approximate the force applied by multiplying the pressure by the nozzle area too if that's what you're looking for.

06-04-2008, 05:05 PM	#1
LimpetBlaster Limpet Blasting Marine Biologist Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Orange, Ca Posts: 3 UserID: 1589	Modifying Pressure of CPS 2000 Greetings SSCentral members. This is my first post on your forum, I'm very excited to learn about the wonderful world of water guns. The nature of this post is in regard to modifying the CPS 2000. I'm currently experimenting in marine environments, attempting to develop a model for the wave forces necessary to remove "Owl Limpets" from their rocky substrates. I have performed a number of "removals", easily blasting the little blokes from their stony perches. The pressure is awesome, perhaps a bit too high for my specific purposes. My questions are as follows: 1.) Will the salt environment damage the internal components of my CPS 2000? If so, what modifications can I make to increase the life-span of my water gun? 2.) How can I modify the pressure of the CPS 2000 to different levels? 3.) What tools can I obtain to easily measure/quantify the pressure of my gun, or any guns I purchase in the future? Now that I've gotten the formalities out of the way, I'd just like to say that my "experimentation" is really just me having a bit of fun with limpet ecology. I don't take it that seriously, but I'm in dire need of help to get my experiment off the ground. Any feedback would be much appreciated. I'm glad I found this forum, it looks like a great time. Toodles!

06-04-2008, 05:18 PM	#2
Ben Founder Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: College Park, Maryland Posts: 6,054 UserID: 1	Re: Modifying Pressure of CPS 2000 Welcome to SSC! Salt should not damage any of the components of your CPS 2000, however, it might build up inside of it. I would suggest running regular water through it when you're done for the day to prevent any salt from building up on parts. If you have any doubts about what can go through your water gun, look up chemical compatibility of the components. The part that would be least compatible is the latex tubing in the water bladder and here's a chemical compatibility page: http://www.primelineindustries.com/n...compchart.html The Colossus modification will give you some level of control over the pressure of your water gun, however, you will not be able to reduce the pressure below its standard level. PC replacement, normally a repair, will also give you some control over the pressure of your water gun. It will allow you to lower the pressure as well so it would be better for your purposes. With that being said, either method would be very tedious to control pressure. I would suggest some sort homemade water gun with a pressure regulator that makes adjusting the pressure easy. If you have an air compressor you would only need to build a water tank to do this. A pressure gauge can measure water pressure easily. No manufactured water guns have a good way to measure pressure built in aside from some air pressure ones, and the gauge has no scale on those water guns. You can cut the tube going from the pump assembly to the nozzle valve and install a pressure gauge there if you wanted to. I can help you though this process if you want. I've considered doing it myself. You can see some of the parts that would be affected in this guide to replacing firing valves: http://www.sscentral.org/repairs/fir...placement.html __________________ email: / Forum rules / Read this page before emailing me. Do not send me a PM or email with a water gun question if someone else could answer the question. Post at the forums. You will get a response from me along with others' views or ideas.

06-04-2008, 05:50 PM	#3
Silence Administrator Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Virginia Posts: 3,293 UserID: 576	Re: Modifying Pressure of CPS 2000 Welcome to the forums! Dislodging snails is definitely a unique application for water guns. As Ben has mentioned, you can change the operating pressure, but it's not very easy. You have to take apart the water gun and replace the components each time, and with lots of screws to work with, the process is impractical. If you want to actually be able to vary the pressure, a constant air pressure system like in SuperCAP would work. But in applications where a regular water gun already fits the bill, CAP is probably overkill. If what you really want to do is vary the output (or the range) of the water gun, it may be much easier to add a nozzle selector to your CPS 2000. There are also many commercial water guns that come with nozzle selectors. The CPS 2500, for example, is basically a CPS 2000 with a nozzle selector, although its maximum range is slightly smaller. __________________ Forum rules

06-04-2008, 05:51 PM	#4
LimpetBlaster Limpet Blasting Marine Biologist Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Orange, Ca Posts: 3 UserID: 1589	Re: Modifying Pressure of CPS 2000 Thank you very much for the feedback, Ben and SilentGuy. I'm currently contemplating whether to go through with the PC replacement (and constructing some form of PC with lower pressure) or to construct a home-made water gun to suit my needs. I have lots of experience making projectile weapons out of PVC/ABS pipe due to my fiddling with potato guns and tennis ball launchers, so hopefully my tinkering years ago will come in handy if I decide to make a home-made blaster. Approximately how many hours should I set aside to construct something home-made with the aforementioned pressure control, with a oz/sec output and spray diameter similar to the stock CPS 2000?

06-04-2008, 06:23 PM	#5
LimpetBlaster Limpet Blasting Marine Biologist Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Orange, Ca Posts: 3 UserID: 1589	Re: Modifying Pressure of CPS 2000 After browsing the startling selection contained in SSC's home-made armory, I have decided that it would be impractical and not cost effective to build a home-made gun for my experimentation, since it will only be used for a few days of shooting limpets. However, I have decided to build a home-mad blaster just for kicks and weekend water wars, rather than for my experimentation. Back to the subject of shooting marine gastropods. Since the CPS 2000 is a bit more powerful than I need, what would the knowledgable aficionados of Super Soaker Central recommend as an alternative? I'm looking for something with a large-diameter spray/beam, akin to the CPS 2000, but with lower pressure. Any feedback would be much appreciated.

06-04-2008, 07:09 PM	#6
Drenchenator Administrator Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Maryland Posts: 718 UserID: 320	Re: Modifying Pressure of CPS 2000 The Arctic Blast offers a large diameter spray with lower pressure than the CPS 2000. It sports a riot-blast nozzle that doesn't have the power of the CPS 2000 but does get a good spray out. I won't hold out on a homemade water gun just yet. Just because many of the creations on the site are expensive and impractical doesn't mean that a smaller scale project would be. Just a thought. __________________ The Drenchenator, also known as Lt. Col. Drench.

06-04-2008, 10:32 PM	#7
Ben Founder Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: College Park, Maryland Posts: 6,054 UserID: 1	Re: Modifying Pressure of CPS 2000 The Arctic Blast should work if you don't want a homemade option. If you replace the pressure chamber with a variety of tubes you and install a pressure gauge you can figure out which pressures work best. One thing to be aware of though is that the pressure applied to the animals won't be the same as the pressure in the water gun. It should be similar but lower due to viscous forces or drag and some other things. You can approximate the force applied by multiplying the pressure by the nozzle area too if that's what you're looking for. __________________ email: / Forum rules / Read this page before emailing me. Do not send me a PM or email with a water gun question if someone else could answer the question. Post at the forums. You will get a response from me along with others' views or ideas.

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