Paintball: Polishing Your Internals

Here's something for everyone. A very simple mod that works for any gun and helps increase overall performance from air efficiency to even helping out accuracy. Polishing the internals reduces friction allowing for more potential energy to be used to fire the paintball instead of pushing against the friction of the internals rubbing against the rough frame.

This mod is definitely the cheapest way to improve performance. All you'll need is a few things from the hardware store:

1. 1000 grit sandpaper
2. Clean, soft rags
3. Soap and hot water
4. Aluminum polish

You'll have plenty of leftover materials after you finish, so for about $10 you can polish the internals of multiple guns. You may already have most of this except the rags and polish. A roll of blue shop rags or a bag of white shop rags both work well for this purpose. The polish can be found in the automotive section of your local hardware store.

Note: Polishing your internals can severely cripple your paintball marker and render it useless if done incorrectly. Further more, attempting this mod voids all warranties attached to the marker. You have been warned.

Note: If you're using an after market or stock Delrin bolt - Do NOT attempt to polish it! Be aware of any "special" internals that are similar. If you do not oil it it's safe to say it probably should not be polished.

The parts that you will be working on are the bolt and striker. Possibly the guide pin and sear as well, but you don't have to/it may not apply to your marker.

At this point I'll turn it over to the pros who have posted well written and detailed guides:

Read through both of these guides to get a feel for the mod before you continue.

This one uses examples from the Ariakon Sim-4 and ACP 2.0 pistol written by Sgt. Slaughter of the Ariakon forums: http://forum.ariakon.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=6839&PN=1

Here's another for the Tippmann 98 Custom specifically from Breene at Model98.org: http://model98.org/mods/polishingint.php?

You'll have to register and sign in to view Model98.org's guides, but it's well worth it for anyone looking for creative mods for an M98. I'll cover more of their mods later as I attempt them myself so I can give a proper review.

Note: The Model98.org guide recommends a dremel tool for the sanding. If you feel you can control a dremel and not create any flat spots, go for it. Personally, I would only suggest using a dremel for the polishing, but I do that by hand as well. But that's only because I don't always have a dremel available.

After you have your internals sanded, polished, and re-oiled, enjoy the smoother operation of your marker. Every 4 uses or once a month you'll want to re-polish, but NOT re-sand.

Paintball: Delrin Bolts

Delrin is a metal substitute. It's an acetal resin engineering plastic that is light weight and low friction. That is just a complicated way of saying it's a great material to make internals out of because they don't require oiling and the lighter weight promotes greater efficiency throughout the marker.

These after market bolts are fairly inexpensive, about $20. Tactical Mods sells Delrin bolts for various Ariakon and Armotech markers (Sims, ACP, Zeus, etc.) as well as some others. Alamo Paintball also carries Delrin bolts.

The lightweight bolts and strikers are great especially for markers that use 12gram cartridges. The stock aluminum bolts are heavy, so they cause "bounce-back". When the trigger is pulled the striker hits the valve and opens it releasing the gas. When the striker hits the bumper it bounces back and hits the valve again releasing more gas, but the paintball has already left the barrel. That means almost an entire shot was wasted every time you fire a round.

In some conditions this can also have a slight "blow-by" effect causing the shot to spin and become inaccurate. The lighter weight also means it takes less air to move the bolt so more of the potential energy can go towards propelling the paintball at your target. A Delrin bolt improves air efficiency above all, but also improves accuracy and distance for these reasons. Deifnitely a great buy for any marker and it's only around $20.

Edit: Here's a post by Sgt. Slaughter from the Ariakon forums further explaining Delrin bolts and the material.

Paintball: Quick Field Strip Mod

This mod is very easy to do and really helpful. You'll need a hacksaw with a 1/5" wide blade and a good idea of what you want to be able to do. You'll be cutting one half of your marker to allow you access to internals quickly without having to completely disassemble the marker. Naturally that means this mod only applies to markers resembling the Tippmann 98 (the marker strips down to 2 receiver halves).

You have the gun(s) you want to mod, but you need to know where to make the cut. For starters the cut will be made on the half of the receiver that will come free easily. For example, on a Tippmann 98 you will make the cut on the "left" half, the side that the valve is not attached to.

When you have the appropriate side you want to decide what you want to accomplish. Here are some thing to consider:

1. Do you want access to your E-Trigger internals?
2. Do you want access to your E-Trigger and trigger assembly?
3. Do you want access to your internals for oiling?

For 1 and 2 you'll make the cut along the pistol grip or extend the cut from the top of the grip along the top of the trigger guard. If you want access to the rear bolt without having to remove the front halves and barrel (3) you will want to cut the side in half preferably through a bolt for stability.

When you complete this mod you'll be able to remove less screws to access your internals to oil, clean and repair. For more information and pictures you can go to creators of this mod at Model98.org.

Paintball: Paintball: Quick Field Strip Pins

Paintball markers like the Ariakon ACP sport a nifty feature called a field strip pin. It's basically a pin that holds the bolt, striker and velocity adjuster in place. Usually the pin itself is held by a kotter pin. A kotter pin can easily get caught on clothing, holsters and anything else which can be a real problem if the pin decides to fall out on the field because of it.

There are a few things you can use to replace the kotter pin for something better:

1. Key ring
2. Twist Tie
3. Paper clip
4. Any other form of wire

Personally, I recommend a twist tie (like the ones used to tie down toys in the packaging) or the key ring. The twist tie is easier to remove, the the key ring is solid and a for sure method. There's no way a key ring is just going to slide off.

You'll find no cheaper way of modding a marker than this. Go get it done.