Thanks for all the feedback gentlemen
I'm not too keen on adding lube, for starters it's all sealed up so it would have to be added through the schrader, but more importantly I would be afraid that the seal would absorb some of it, expand and just gum up.
I'm not too concerned about cooling, the air has quite a cooling effect in itself and the piston tube doesn't get hot at all, and besides I won't really be using this for long bursts anyway.
I'm not sure if it's friction keeping the ROF down. I mean, if I take a similar syringe, block off the nozzle with my thumb and pull the plunger back, in spite of the friction it will return to its origial position with alarming speed if I let go of the plunger, and that's with 14.7 psi behind it. In my design, the air spring is at around 15-20 psi.
For these pop-off designs, ROF is controlled simply by the rate of air entering the chamber - the faster the chamber reaches pressure, the faster it will pop the piston.
Do you think it could be stepped up to a paintball size? or would the air required just be too ridiculous?
Sure, it can be done, but you'd need a large port - say one inch - and a piston twice that size to give you decent power, so it would be quite a substantial device.
What happens behind your piston, as in, do you need to re-adjust the balast pressure every once in a while? I would think it would vary, seeing as almost nothing is 100% airtight
I haven't used it enough to know but I imagine that yes, it would need regular top-ups.
As to using a QEV with a reversed piston as Lentamentalisk suggested, it could very well work - however, it's important that the diameter of the piston is significantly bigger than the seat. I would also be inclined to use a coil spring, it takes the bother of pressurising the rear out of the equation.
and you could avoid using epoxy (correct me if I am wrong)
HERESY! - but yes, that would be cool, because it would make it within reach of most builders who seem reulctant to use epoxy.
I'll have a play with it after work to see what the power's like for single shots and if it's worthwhile, work on a reloading mehanism.
I do by the way apologise for the completely sloppy workmanship, I made this in a half hearted "let's see if this works but it probably won't" mood and in one epoxy "session", ah well.