Water Warriors Argon nozzle drilling?

[cantab]

I have a Water Warriors Argon, and am somewhat dissapointed with performance. The AquaMaster system has great potential (it's what SuperCannon II uses). But the problem with the Argon is the stream lacks proper lamination, causing it to break up and reducing range. I've found that partially bleeding the precharge pressure helps, so I'm wondering if the gun is essentially too powerful for its nozzle?

To get to the point: Would drilling the nozzle increase range?

(Yes, I know it would reduce shot time to almost nothing. That doesn't bother me)

[Silence]

A wider nozzle probably would help. A drilled nozzle, however, is unlikely to help. I've always been unable to drill a clean hole, and even the cleanest of holes probably wouldn't be as clean as the original nozzle's orifice. But you could definitely glue on a tube over a wide, drilled hole to get a good stream. As I've said in other threads, 1/4" metal pipe nipples or hose barbs with similar inner diameters (which aren't displayed on the box - only the outer diameter, which is the ID of the hose) ought to work well. A hose barb for 3/8" or 1/2" hoses would probably have a suitable ID.

[Ben]

I haven't seen any internal images but I'd imagine that you wouldn't be able to drill the nozzle much larger than 5 mm if that. Take it apart, make an estimate of what size you can drill, and give it a try. There's no real way to know whether or not a modification will increase range, but I'd guess that if you drill the nozzle larger to maybe 3 or 4 mm it would get better range. You can fill it in again with something like epoxy if you want and then drill again.

With that being said drilling often can be problematic as SilentGuy said. You'll have to be careful to drill correctly.

[Drenchenator]

Super Soaker Workshop has internals images of the Argon for reference. I just forgot to add the link to our review.

It looks like it has a nice conical nozzle, so drilling isn't needed; you cut just cut it instead! It's just a conical section, so it should be pretty easy to figure out where to cut for what size.

[Silence]

Wow...a conical nozzle? That's a neat discovery and it really does make for an easy mod. I'm impressed. But if you use a saw (I don't think anything else, besides a cutting wheel on a dremel tool, would work), be sure to remove any debris and flatten out the burr. A ridge there defeats the point of a good nozzle.

EDIT: The image at the Super Soaker Workshop just came up. I've definitely seen the nozzle before, but I hadn't thought of cutting the nozzle like that. I don't mind the small stream too much, though, as there's not too much potential for output anyway.

[Drenchenator]

As long as you can open the gun, it will be a very easy modification. The only tricky part would be cutting it in a straight plane, which can be done if you guide the saw blade down. No too difficult.

[cantab]

Well I've tried sawing some of the nozzle off, and results were mixed. I cut a bit off, which widened the nozzle a little, increased range by maybe a foot or two, but made stream lamination worse. I then cut off some more, so now the nozzle's nearly 3mm or 1/8" wide. Range has gone back to where it started, with an atrocious stream, more of a spray. And I'm feeling some recoil.

I don't reckon cutting the nozzle was ever the way to go. Conical nozzles need to have a straight section at the very tip to get a good stream, and I cut that away.

I'm still convinced the gun IS capable of good output and range (heck, if it's recoiling), albeit with a poor shot time. The interior tubes from the PC to the nozzle seem quite wide, and after two kinks there's a good straightish section. So now I just need to figure out how to get and put on a good nozzle.

[Ben]

Sorry to hear that it didn't turn out too good. The good thing is that now people will probably not make the same mistake if they do some research.

You might have luck using a small plastic male adapter put over the nozzle like the multi-nozzle modification on our website. That would readd the straight segment and let you experiment with different nozzles. Small brass fittings should work.

[Silence]

Here's the link to the multiple nozzle article that Ben mentioned. It's the most flexible modification and it should work well here, although you may want to remove the cone or cut it further to improve flow through the nozzle selector.