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Paintball gun for bearing freezing

Bill D

Diamond
Joined
Apr 1, 2004
Location
Modesto, CA USA
I see used paintball guns for cheap at yard sales etc. Seems like a cheap way to have CO2 to help cool off bearing shafts to remove or install. probably have to cut down the barrel to get more cooling effects at the muzzle.
i have read of using CO2 extinguishers this seems like a more controllable small scale method.
I suppose the trigger may just release one short puff then have to be recocked or have a safety bypassed somehow.
Any thoughts?
bill D
 
Paintball gun puts out so little co2 I dont see it ever working, back when I used to do that we would dump the entire bottle to try to get it cold and quickly fill again from a siphon tank. Even then the little bottles never really got to much ice on or around them. Besides the little bottles are expensive to fill if you dont have your own siphon tank. If you do have a tank then no need for the little bottle, just use the big one and make some real ice.

The little welding machines with built in gas bottle use the same paintball cylinders, like a miller passport etc.
 
I find using heat/cold makes bearing removal much easier, its nice to be able to just pull a bearing off a shaft, or slide one on to a shaft, by hand, versus pullers and pressing or hammering them on. You ever microwave a bearing to heat it?
 
I would skip the step of the paintball gun and go straight to the tank of CO2. You will need it to fill the CO2 tanks for the paintball gun pretty regular anyway. In many cases paintballers are using Argon in lieu of CO2, as Argon comes in higher pressures to begin with and is cheaper (I believe)...



Jeremy
 
I am sure the serious paintballers using argon instead of co2 are doing it because if you shoot a lot of fast shots (over 100) the co2 cyl will get cold and loose pressure. There is also likleyhood of gun icing up if you really go through the paint. Argon will be a steady pressure at all temps (as will most any other compressed gas or air) Argon is more expensive than co2 here.
 
I find using heat/cold makes bearing removal much easier, its nice to be able to just pull a bearing off a shaft, or slide one on to a shaft, by hand, versus pullers and pressing or hammering them on. You ever microwave a bearing to heat it?

Metal and microwaves are not typically a good combination.


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Get a compressed CO2 cylinder *w/ a dip tube* so you extract the CO2 as liquid. It will flash to gas+solid upon expansion to atmospheric pressure, absorbing heat from its immediate surroundings.
 
Metal and microwaves are not typically a good combination.

I was skeptical first time I saw it, but it works! Wrap bearing in damp washcloth, place in micro, use 15 second bursts till you figure out correct time. It turns the water to steam to heat the bearing, flash dries in open air, gets VERY hot, do not try with sealed bearings as it will melt the seals.
 
I was skeptical first time I saw it, but it works! Wrap bearing in damp washcloth, place in micro, use 15 second bursts till you figure out correct time. It turns the water to steam to heat the bearing, flash dries in open air, gets VERY hot, do not try with sealed bearings as it will melt the seals.

I have seen some comments about melting metal in a microwave, but it pretty much falls in to the category, for me, of 'things to do with a Microwave before it gets turfed out'.
Well, doing that, and making AOL CD's safe for humanity! :) (High, about 6 seconds, or until you hear the Bzzzztttt!)

I suppose you are essentially creating a pocket of superheated steam around the bearing. I know that there has been a use of microwaves as well in Veterinary practice, to warm the core temps of animals that were hypothermic. Chalk it all up in the list of things that sound wrong but work.

One of my High School Science teachers, who spent a bunch of time in tanks in North Africa, said the the very BEST things they got when they over-ran a German position were the propane cylinders, as they could put the beer that they inevitably managed to hoard, in to a gunny sack with a bunch of stones, and vent the propane in to the sack to provide a cool beer in the Desert sun!

The paintball gun? Nope. If the continuous banging of the short bursts of CO2 doesn't cause anyone around you to start throwing wrenches, I dunno what will work better.
Buy a can of liquid Freeze, it gets used a lot for testing electronics. The Air cans for cleaning computers are not set up to draw off the liquid and spray it out, generally, and the can needs to be held upside down.
 
I am sure the serious paintballers using argon instead of co2 are doing it because if you shoot a lot of fast shots (over 100) the co2 cyl will get cold and loose pressure. There is also likleyhood of gun icing up if you really go through the paint. Argon will be a steady pressure at all temps (as will most any other compressed gas or air) Argon is more expensive than co2 here.

The industry, whats left of it, has shifted towards high pressure atmospheric air tanks, 3000 and 4500psi. CO2 is still more convenient and cheaper, the 9oz and 20oz tanks are pretty much given away and you don't need a high pressure air compressor. As you stated high pressure air mostly eliminates the cooling effect which hurts some manufacturers more than others, I have never seen anybody using Argon.
 
The industry, whats left of it, has shifted towards high pressure atmospheric air tanks, 3000 and 4500psi. CO2 is still more convenient and cheaper, the 9oz and 20oz tanks are pretty much given away and you don't need a high pressure air compressor. As you stated high pressure air mostly eliminates the cooling effect which hurts some manufacturers more than others, I have never seen anybody using Argon.

Yeah, same. Never heard of Argon, but I suppose never say never. All the paintball magazines are full of High Pressure Air and Nitrogen.

The the speed some of the players can go through a hopper of paintballs, it's not much of a surprise they manage to freeze up their guns.
 
Bearing dealers sell induction heaters to expand bearings for fitting on shafts. These make the bearing the secondary of a transformer that induces a current and the resistance of iron does the rest. These run on 60 cycles, not microwaves. Microwaves will not heat iron much. I have an induction heater that runs at 490 Khz, just lower than the AM broadcast band, that will heat iron. Microwave ovens run at about 2400 Khz and there is not enough penetration to matter.

Bill
 
To make life really easy I like to heat up the bearing(if it is no good anyways) then try to cool the shaft or vise versa. Talk to a scuba shop in your area, most guys back in the day would use them to fill up their paintball tanks.
 
Paint Ball gun in a shop is only good for discipline. Give an employee a serious warning? Paint ball shot. Later that day if they do it again you can easily see the paint splat that you warned them once.
CO2 has pressure limitations for paint ball. Vapor pressure maxes out at 1100 psi on a hot day? PCP not so much at all. I have some PCP pellet rifles that take a 4300 psi charge. Pfft. Yeah, 9mm pellet going through a 2x6. 30 cal at 960 fps.
Want to freeze it? CO2 fire extinguisher, or just buy some dry ice.
 








 
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