SpudFiles

Well I finally got around to making my inline vortex but it just refuses to create a correct vortex for some reason I cant figure out??!!, not to happy at the moment guys!. I stupidly glued it all together and have epoxied on the blowgun etc and cant take the gun apart now without haking into it in some way!. I wish I had tested the firing status before glueing it all together I am running a 500mm stainless barrel,32mm ID clear Acrylic tube, half hole vortex using 15mm thick acrylic sheet, pistol grip blowgun, spring /piston.

When you fire the BBS dont actually seem to vortex about inside the block itself but spin around the tube around the block like a cloud!!!!!??? what the hell!?. now and then some spit out but with very little power I am sure there is no leaks, I wanted to make sure of that!
the air inlet is in the central/ rear of the block on the base as it should be.Its as if it needs shrouds!! but you guys dont seem to use them in the Inline design. It must not be creating a vortex within the block itself but I cant figure out just why?, I tried it without the piston too but it does the same thing . Dammit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! any ideas , anyone!??
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All i can think of is, did you put shrouds on it?(the vortex block) Not the smartest thing epoxying it togethor What PSI are you running it at?
Thats all i can think of, from my knowledge of inline vortex guns, sorry if this didnt help much, but hopefully it will .

it may have something to do with the flow rate/pressure of the blow gun but i cannot be sure. it could have also been caused by having to much power in the spring (try weakening it). you shouldn't need shrouds on a half block so i doubt thats the problem.

id bet noname knows what it is (hes the pretty much the bbmg expert)

I have absolutely no idea what is wrong with your gun!
I may be able to help figure it out if you took a few pictures of it though.

I took it apart again!,as much as possible anyway and it looks like the AIR INLET was indeed drilled over to one side more than the other thus not being able to create a vortex within the block itself.

I had to elongate the air inlet hole(on the bb chamber) and now have to try stick the brass air inlet in the centre where it should be but I suspect its going to hard to seal it correctly now and keep it level so it doesnt protrude into the bb chamber. I am hoping I can sort this out? I'll report back later................

Good luck mate. Your gonna need it.

Well, I messed about with it a bit more: I moved the AIR INLET over put a sort of flange around the brass air inlet and held it on by hand( leaking a lot as its not glued yet) to see what happened. It fed a bit better(with no piston + minimal bbs) I then put the piston back in and the same amount of bbs and it just wont feed!!? the spring/piston moves back quite a lot when firing? so surely the spring is not too strong to be jamming up the bbs.

Is there supose to be small a hole in the piston to stop it moving back so much? I just cant figure out the problem here guys!???? I havent tried with the air inlet glued/ sealed back in yet as I think the problem could be elsewhere?. I was running at 110 psi but the bbs only really seemed to fire out when there was like maybe 50-100? bb in there( WITH NO PISTON!) ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Well just glued the air inlet back on and let it dry, using "Steel Putty"and a super, super strong and$$$ "Loctite super glue 460" and did some more testing. Its not looking good! I am pretty sure my half hole vortex needs skirts for some reason!?, if you fill the vortex's hole up with bbs completely it just wont vortex/ feed!!!!??????. If you then put few bbs in the chamber and flatten them out so they are level(1 bb high level) it will fire/ feed quite fast! but soon as you fill up the bb level higher it just seems to fill the vortex hole with bbs and clog it right up!.

I cant fit skirts(shroud) on now as I cant get acess to the vortex block now as its all glued up, why mine wont feed right without a shroud I have no idea!?? something ive done wrong somewhere!???. I cant post pics yet as ive broken the wifes camera, she wasnt happy I thought maybe I wasnt getting a good enough seal in the bb chamber or something but I can find NO AIR LEAKS!??.

My block is 15mm thick, the Air Inlet is a small brass elbow(10mm ID, steel puttied up and re-drilled to just over 4mm) so the bbs dont roll down the brass elbow.The vortex blocks bb oulet hole is about 5mm for about 4mm in length then drilled 6mm to accept the stainless barrel( if that makes sense guys?). This is how my full vortex block guns are and feed fine! DAMN I cant figure this out...............

you shouldn't need shrouds on a half block ever, if anything it seems like its the block itself is bad (idk maybe the holes aren't properly aligned) . you might just have to start all over again and salvage any of the pieces you can. (don't feel bad my first inline ended in total failure because it was a full block and had no shrouds). it almost seems like the blow gun doesn't have enough flow rate to push the bbs when the chambers full though... can you give us a link to the model your using? or better yet do a simple test replace the blowgun with a ball valve (1/4") and see if that fixes it. (of course that would be assuming the compressor is suppling enough air)

You really shouldn't need shrouds on the block. Out of my dozens of vortex blocks, none of them have ever needed them. If you want to take it apart and start over now, go ahead. The only other option is taking pictures, which will probably take longer.

Could the prob be from running an 8cm peice of airhose from the air inlet to the pistol grip blowgun?? I did this so the blowgun is located at the rear of the chamber not in the centre.Perhaps the blowgun I am using does not have enough flow?,I have put an old blowgun( Paddle Type) onto the airline to see if its that!? but waiting for glue to dry(Glued in air inlet came off when taking off the airhose).

What do you guys use for the air inlet???,Could the prob be from me putting steel putty into the air inlet and re-drilling it to 4mm?? I see no other way though as the bbs will fall into the blowgun if I dont!.I REALLY dont want to start all over again as ive spent so much time/ matterials(steel putty, loctite glue, pvc,acrylic sheet) on this one!!!. If I could post pics you would see what I mean : I took some pics on my mobile phone but cant put them to the computer as the USB cable we have for the Digital camera wont fit the USB port on my phone!!????!.

I dont think my drilling is off by much , if any at all either but yeh as Singularity suggest's it does indeed sound like a flow issue??? these blowguns I allways use have worked well on my other strafers with no probs at all!!.

well my newest one uses a 8 GPM power washer handle connected to the gun with about 3in 1/4 brass tubing (total length if i stretched it out its got a 90 degree turn in it) so its pretty high flow. but my old one had about 5 inches of 1/8 id flex tubing connected to a standard blowgun... of course that was a tee version full block with shrouds. i say grab a ball valve and just try it

Well I just tried it out with the paddle blowgun, it had a big improvement in power! when in did feed so it had definately much more flow than the pistol grip version I allways use!??. It still wont feed right though so it must be the way ive made the block!!, man am I pissed off as it looks like I will have to start all over again.

To be honest I dont know if i'll bother?? as I could make another all over again and it could have the same probs?!, surely if the bb exit hole is VERY slightly off it wouldnt make such a drastic difference as I am experiencing!?? wouldnt it just feed a little slower?. Unless I can figure out why this one wont feed then I dont want to try again,the acrylic sheet+tube is hard to find here are quite expensive too.

The other option is to cut the top of the tube open try push in a shroud+seal the top again and fit a paddle blowgun but last time I made a skirt vortex I had to alter the shroud height so many times it was beyond belief!!!!!!!!!!!!.

It just wasn't going to work, so I cut it all up and salvaged the parts I could = Do you guys have problems making the half hole vortex blocks???. I feel so depressed today, I tried to make another block and stuffed up 2 in a row= everytime I drill the bb outlet it is too high, too low or chips the acrylic when it pushes through or the drill goes too far and hits the vortex wall ruining the smooth surface .

I had the drill on the slowest speed too, when you mark that tangent line on the top of the vortex hole( for the bb outlet) I take it that you dont put the centre of the drill bit on that line but thats where the edge of the hole will be(if that makes sense) or am I wrong????.

Start out with your rectangle of acrylic. Get a 3/4" drill bit and move to about 3/8" away from the back of the block. Drill a hole, with the edge of the hole about 3/8" from the back of the block, and with the center of the hole about 3/8" from the bottom of the block. Drill pretty slowly, and make sure you dn't break anything. If the hole comes out ugly, it's no big deal, you can smooth it out later with a couple of files. Wrap the back of the block in paper towels or something to keep it from getting scratched by the little bumps on the vice clamps, then put it in, so that you can see the hole you drilled if you look at it sideways. This will help you align the barrel hole. Get a drill bit the exact size of the OD of your barrel, and start drillling the hole. Check if it's aligned every 10 or 15 seconds. Drill slowly, and when you're about 1/4" from the vortex hole, stop. This is the very tricky part, where the acrylic can get chipped very easily. Open the vice a tiny bit and move the block back, so that you can't see the vortex hole. The vice will help hold the acrylic together as you finish the barrel hole. Go extremely slowly, and drill the barrel hole. Once the bit breaks through to the vortex hole, stop. Even if a BB won't fit through the hole, it doesn't matter, just stop as soon as there's a hole all the way through. Now just use some small files to shape everything up correctly. Then you're done, unless you want to modify the block further.