<<— What Happened???? An Airgun Valve Mystery —&a
Went to the range today to shoot my 9 mm / .357 bigbore homebuilt airgun.
I have shot This .357 airgun over 1000 times.
At the range, I would shoot a 5 shot group, refill (from a 4500 psi carbon fiber tank) and shoot another 5 shot group. I repeated this at least 10 times.
Was filling the tank for the eleventh time, shut off the fill tank valve at 3100 PSI, and noticed an air leak from the filler blead valve. Tried to close the blead valve tighter and it would not seal. Decided to open the valve and it would not stop venting (I was bleading down the whole tank, like the tank valve did not seal.)
After it blead down, I unscrewed the tank from the filler.
THE TANK WAS HOT ! – much hotter than from a normal fill.
THE VALVE STEM FELL OUT IN MY HAND!
Also, I noticed THE DELREN VALVE SEAT WAS GONE!
It was not in the tank.
It was not in the filler.
It could not have gone down the barrel, because it was connected to the filler. IT WAS JUST GONE!
On close examination, the 6-32 screw, that the plastic valve seat was mounted on, shows some discoloration (blue color) .
CAN YOU FIGURE IT OUT? WHAT HAPPENED?
WHERE DID THE WHITE PLASTIC SEAT GO??
I know what happened (I think).
MARK
THE FILLER
THE VALVE ON THE LEFT SHOWS THE WHITE DURLEN SEAT
THE VALVE ON THE RIGHT SHOWS THE VALVE STEM WITH MISSING DURLEN SEAT. IT SHOULD BE ON THE 6-32 SCREW IN THE TOP OF THE VALVE STEM
CLOSE UP OF VALVE STEM WITH MISSING WHITE PLASTIC SEAT – SEE THE DISCOLORATION ON THE 6-32 SCREW
All Replies
If your compressor is passing oil particulates that would easily catch that bad boy on fire.
Probably the cause.
Actually, I believe the plastic seat caught fire and burned up.
The tank was very hot, much hotter than just a fast fill.
There is discoloration on the 6-32 screw that the seat was mounted on — evidence of high heat (it takes 600 degrees to turn steel blue).
Also the tank was holding air as the fill started and before the tank was mounted to the filler.
Also there is ash and fine debris inside the tank.
I’LL BET THE TANK WENT WAY OVER PRESSURE DURING THE “INCIDENT” , BECAUSE THE BLEAD VALVE ON THE FILLER STARTED LEAKING.
Now, WHY THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN??????
I think this is a huge safety problem.
I used NO OIL!!
The valve stem was lubercated with silicone grease.
I gotta test the combustability of the silicone grease.
Maybe my air compressor is passing oil???
I know that you cant use oil with oxygen, but is it the same for air????
My pellets were lubercated with the same silicon grease (for sizing), then washed it off with alcohol. All the alcohol would have been dried off, long before the bullets were fired. Also, how could anything on the pellet go “backwards” into the valve??
WHO HAS HEARD OF SUCH A THING?????
Mark
Well,, somthing cooked it! 😯
My vote is down range for the seat too!
Mike
I have no idea, but I will give it a guess.
On your last shot before the refill, the valve seat came apart and shot out the end of the barrel. when you refilled your tank there was less resistance to fill the tank, this caused the tank to fill quicker than normal and heat up your tank.
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WAK:
How can I test my compressor?
All my tanks may be contaminated??
I gotta figure this out before I have a huge accident.
This is not good!!!!
Mark