Open Source QEV Paintball Marker

[theosaurus]

Over the past 6 months I've been developing a paintball marker designed to be made in maker spaces as part of my university dissertation. The firing mechanism is the, common to this forum, quick exhaust valve & 3 way valve type. The project is open source, so all documentation will be available once I've handed in my thesis.


Before making a prototype I did some lab tests using this rig. Working pressure was varied from 4.5bar to 7bar and barrel lengths from 100mm to 1000mm. The barrel was 1/2 inch class E PVC pipe used with 0.68 calibre paintballs. The results are shown bellow.


The first prototype used the same hand slide valve as the test rig and was able to shoot about 20 balls per 16gram CO2 canister. It was however difficult to handle and the loading mechanism somewhat shoddy.


The next prototype used a smaller 3 way valve, housed in a FDM printed grip, with 4mm pneumatic tubing and the breech was replaced with a POM/Acetal part. I'll post pictures on completion.

[mark.f]

Nice design, more to come I'm guessing?

Also, nice Thinkpad. Is that the the space's or yours?

[Lockednloaded]

Very cool,

Do you have a link for where you got that co2 regulator?

[theosaurus]

The project is now done, you can find the documentation herehttp://www.openforge.cc/finish/

The regulator came from herehttps://www.amazon.co.uk/Regulator-Char ... ulator+co2

This is just the first iteration of the design, my hope is that other people will build one, and then suggest design improvements for the next iteration.