SpudFiles

So I'm still working on my vortex block airsoft flamethrower. My question now is why kind of pressure source should I use for it? It has to be portable and fit on a backpack. I was thinking either a compressed air tank made out of 4" sch 40 PVC pipe or a 20oz CO2 bottle (maybe 2 hooked together). With the PVC tank, its very cheap and costs nothing to refill, but I'm not sure if it can hold enough pressure to last a round of airsoft. With the CO2 tank, they're much smaller and will probably last longer, but once they're empty, they're empty for the rest of the day (I play at my friend's house), and cost money to be refilled. I don't want to do anything to crazy or expensive, so no 10lb CO2 tanks or scuba tanks.

Pick your weapon. More air at a higher cost, or conservative shooting for free.

So I decided on a tank design: a metal tank from a small air compressor with two smaller PVC tanks on each side of it. All three tanks are piped together and on the same regulator and outlet. I'm not sure about volume, but it should probably be around 1500 cubic inches (probably more) and hold up to 125 psi. Hopefully that's enough to last a round of airsoft.

Figure the total volume you can possibly get from adding the PVC pipe tanks, then seriously consider ditching them if it isn't much. Doing much running and gunning with a couple brittle pressure vessels strapped to your back is kind of a safety concern. A 3-5 gallon compressor tank should be more than enough if you aren't too trigger happy.

CO2 tank >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> compressed air at 150psi (CO2 is far greater)

Carrying around a metal tank from a compressor on your back will get old very very very quick!

You'll get better performance from a regulated CO2 source (get a palmers reg, essentially the only great one for CO2 regulation - or you can get one of those Kobalt air kits from lowes!)

The air tank will seem very heavy and bulky after a short period of time, and adding PVC tanks to get more volume?? 1500 cubic inches is a lot - that's nearly 7 gallons of storage space! That's going to be a huge backpack, and not one what I would ever recommend carrying around unless you have no choice and are being forced to wear it!

Just my $.02, but I would strongly suggest a 20oz CO2 setup!

I currently (but rarely) use 2 FE's together for my homemades. I've never played with a hole bunch of people (2 others at most) and it suffices for that, but once the game gets longer, and there are more people, you're probably gonna have to go CO₂.

I get about 60-70% more volume with the PVC tanks than with just the metal one, which I figured out is a little more than 3 gallons. But I warn you now, all these measurements are not very accurate. The main issue I saw myself having with CO2 is that once I run out, the gun is useless for the rest of the day. Even though the air tanks are much bigger and heavier, they can be refilled quickly, easily, and for free. The whole thing will have a padded cardboard shell for protecting it from bbs too (some of the guys I know own some pretty mean sniper rifles).

Do you guys think something like this would work?
Its a portable car tyre compressor.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/12V-Car-Auto ... 19c0c26cd5

I tried those things before, but they've got a pretty low CFM and make a heck of a racket

Short answer: No.

That one in particular doesn't work to well. Most 12V compressors just don't have what it takes for higher volume use - a car tire is even pushing it but if it's an emergency and it's all you have it works.

A year or two ago I bought one of these in hopes I could bring my smaller air gun to a relatively remote location but with my car. It worked very well at getting a volume of over 250 cu in (a little over 1 gallon) to about 100psi in under a minute - around 30-45 seconds if I remember right.

I would recommend that compressor I listed over any of the small emergency tire ones.

So I'm still working on my vortex block airsoft flamethrower

Not suggesting anything illegal but you could use propane... it's cheaper than CO2 and reaches lower pressures than CO2

Though from what I heard they add some stuff to it in the US so it smells awful and you couldn't use it indoors

Whoa I'm only trying to make the thing shoot bbs in a flame-like pattern

I think he's suggesting using propane as a pressure source not as fuel.

Yeah all it takes is one spark though