My snot mod - cure for eye problem

[Gee Tee]

I've had an annoying problem on one of my Empire's for some time. The eyes often failed to read a ball in the breech, so I had to run with them switched off leading to chops. Well I discovered it's caused by the ball rolling back, so it sat just behind the eye - usually as I tilted the gun up slightly.

Normal cure for this would be to wind the back cap in. However if i wound it in enough to hold the ball in place, then balls would get held up and not drop into the breech :( It seemed like the bolt face was too deeply cupped, or overbored allowing ball to fall back into it. After a bit of head scratching I came up with this...

I'll call it my Snot mod

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w169/GeeTee_album/snot1.jpg

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w169/GeeTee_album/snot2.jpg

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w169/GeeTee_album/snot3.jpg

I cut a teardrop shaped chunk from a (green) disposable foam earplug, and superglued it inside the bottom of the bolt, carefully wrapping it over the front corner. It's soft (like an automag foamy) so won't damage paint, and the ball is held at least 2mm further up the breech. More importantly I can now set my bolt so the paint drops ok, but don't get any rollback even if I point the gun up in the air.

I'll game test it on Sunday

Cost zero :D

[crankwalk]

Very cool! Unusual problem it would seem, but great solution!

[Squirlly]

Am I the only one that thinks it now looks like his bolt has a green tounge?

-Tim

[Gee Tee]

Very cool! Unusual problem it would seem, but great solution!

I was wondering if anyone else had rollback issues, or problems getting the bolt/cap adjustment spot on...maybe it's just me? It has a Lucky spitfire LED board installed so perhaps this made the eyes more sensitive. The other Empire has a Frenzy 1.5 LCD board, and with a similar bolt setting & rollback has no eye problem? Timmy's eyes are right in the bottom of the breech, which doesn't help matters. The ball only needs to roll back a fraction to cause the eyes to miss seeing it.

Am I the only one that thinks it now looks like his bolt has a green tounge?

-Tim

No I thought that too.. kinda reminds me of the Rolling Stones logo

It may look odd - but if it works Sunday I'll be happy :D

Here's a before & after shot

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w169/GeeTee_album/snot4.jpg

The lift looks a bit exaggerated here, but the ball drops in front of foam ok in breech & rests up aganst the back of the detents trapped in place. Before it used to roll backwards and forwards at least 2-3 mm when gun was rocked.

[Megatron]

gee-teenius!!!!

[Gee Tee]

Well it worked fine for few games - then foam dissapeared when super glue failed :tdown: Anyone know if they do a pillow bolt for the Empire? http://www.boblongdirect.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40&Itemid=54
It could be an ideal long term fix, but if BLAST don't make these for the Empire I may have to improvise ;)

[Ollieleet]

If it's an empire 1 then no.

[toolittletoolate]

I suggest getting a piece of stiff, but no to stiff, rubber and notching the bottom of the bolt like this =O and cut the rubber accordingly to fit in the hole that way it should be held in better. Cut the rubber like /l so it acts like a pillow.

[toolittletoolate]

Here I photoshoped, with my limited ability, some pics explaining what I meant. They show how it would look from the front view, and how to notch the bolt.
http://www.intimidatorowners.com/forums/album.php?albumid=91

[Stewey956]

Loving the name!

[Tabris17]

I thought BLAST sold pillows bolts for gen 2 timmys but you had to call. I could be mistaken.
If you're having a roll back issue, do you have a board like Tadao that allows you to force shot if you pull and hold the trigger for 1-2 seconds so you can force the shot and keep the string going?

[Stewey956]

Did you lose FPS with this?

[Gee Tee]

I suggest getting a piece of stiff, but no to stiff, rubber and notching the bottom of the bolt like this =O and cut the rubber accordingly to fit in the hole that way it should be held in better. Cut the rubber like /l so it acts like a pillow.

Thanks for the suggestion. I have a few ideas for a mod if BLAST pillow bolt is a non-starter for my Empire. I think I could drill the bolt inside to insert a plastic rod in the center (like the pillow) and face that with a soft foam bumper.

I thought BLAST sold pillows bolts for gen 2 timmys but you had to call. I could be mistaken.
If you're having a roll back issue, do you have a board like Tadao that allows you to force shot if you pull and hold the trigger for 1-2 seconds so you can force the shot and keep the string going?

I'll send an email to BLAST and see what response I get

Forcing shot isn't ideal and risks chopping. The rollback is so unpredictable it's irritating and throws my game off. At the weekend I'd get a target pop out for a shot and get zero. By the time I force a shot the other guy's back in cover. I ran with eyes off for a while until it started chopping and gave up.

Did you lose FPS with this?

If you mean for the snot mod...? then no FPS was fine with foam bumper

[DFSniper]

i always heard to glue an o-ring to the face of the bolt to stop rollback.

[masterbob]

thats what i thought for roll back us like a 115 or a 114 that should do the trick

[Gee Tee]

The problem with glueing an o-ring to front face of bolt, is that it forces you to wind it even further back into gun to let a ball to drop into the breech. As I said earlier in thread - the only way I could cure rollback was to wind the back cap in, but then I got to the point where a ball wouldn't feed into breech properly :facepalm:

Rollback was being caused by balls falling back into central bore of the bolt, which is why the rod on the pillow is such a good idea. It looks like the pillow isn't available for early Empires, which use a 2K2 style bolt. I'll get creative and see what I can come up with to modify an existing bolt.

[Tabris17]

Well that sucks. I guess I can't get a pillow bolt for my dragon timmy then either.

[Gee Tee]

Hi all,

Further installment on the bolt saga

I hoped to drill my bolt to fit a plastic rod in the middle & create a DIY pillow. However the back face of the chamber is angled (by the inlet port) making it difficult to drill. I could remove the pin and drill from the back, but will need a longer drill to reach.

This is what I came up with as a second mod...

It's made of two thin bits of stiff plastic, slotted and assembled to form a cross shape about 3/4" long. I've cut it for a tight push fit on the bore, so should stay in place without glue. I then melted a pocket in the front with a heated drill shank, and glued in a 1/8" dia rubber post punched out of an eraser.

Tried it out tonight and it works well, allowing me to position the bolt exactly where I want it, but still get zero rollback even with the barrel pointed in the air. I'll get a game on it later this month and report back.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w169/GeeTee_album/P1080045.jpg

[crankwalk]

^^ wow.. pretty ingenious - was it a lot of work? You might need to make a separate thread with DIY howto instructions if it works out after your testing :tup:

[Gee Tee]

Forgot this thread needed an update

The DIY pillow mod worked a treat but still looked too DIY for my liking

I'll have another try at a proper pillow mod on my other Empire, although to be fair this seems to shoot better. Perhaps the Spitfire LED board I was running at the time was over sensitive, exaggerating the rollback problem. The rebuilt black/silver empire runs fine on the Virtue board currently installed - go figure :confused:

[wesamiss]

I thought that is what the adjustable ram cap was for?

[masterbob]

it is but if u have a small ball then this will work better

[wesamiss]

if you had a small ball wouldnt you just re-adjust the ram cap?

I do think its a great idea, dont get me wrong cause i ask all these questions.

[Gee Tee]

The problem with glueing an o-ring to front face of bolt, is that it forces you to wind it even further back into gun to let a ball to drop into the breech. As I said earlier in thread - the only way I could cure rollback was to wind the back cap in, but then I got to the point where a ball wouldn't feed into breech properly :facepalm:

Rollback was being caused by balls falling back into central bore of the bolt, which is why the rod on the pillow is such a good idea. It looks like the pillow isn't available for early Empires, which use a 2K2 style bolt. I'll get creative and see what I can come up with to modify an existing bolt.

^^^ as stated in post # 16

Just winding the bolt forward with ram cap didn't solve the problem, and actually stopped balls feeding reliably into the breech.

[christhered]

there is a gen4 pillow bolt on the market.

[Gee Tee]

there is a gen4 pillow bolt on the market.

Which would be just fantastic if I had a Gen 4 Timmy

:facepalm:

[lsongj721]

perhaps drill through the front, into the bolt, then epoxy a delrin rod into the hole. Perhaps even glue some rubber on the tip of the rod.

If you want to go cheaper, epoxy a wooden dowel.

[Gee Tee]

Yes it's something I'll try when I have a spare bolt

Altough drilling from the back after grub screw's removed may be easier. Yhe sloped face of exhaust port into the bolt makes drilling on center difficult. Oddly enough this problem seems to stopped since I switched from Lucky to Virtue board. Maybe the Spitfire software was more sensitive to eyes?

[outreach]

create a guide for the drill bit that will fit in the front of tthe bolt? drill whole insirt post? glue in lvl 10 foamy from automag :P i figure this should work and if you **** it up abit the foamy will make it look profesional anyways :)

[Gee Tee]

Food for thought - I have a few spare foamies in my kit too ;)

[outreach]

every bolt needs a foamy :) 0.o you could probably even make it adjustable if you can thread the pots and the who you drill :P possibly pinch a small hole in the middle of the foamy insest a small grub scres so a smal alen key would work and youd pretty much have the most amazing DIY bolt ever :P depending how good you are with tools lol or even >.> cut the rod in the middle or some where thread both ends so they screw into eachother and use shims too increase or decresse the length :) ive got about 100 of those shims lying around lol