Need an Edgun regulator tester…
Who are the sources for the Edgun regulator testers again?
My fill valve o-ring decided to start leaking yesterday so I degassed the gun and replaced that o-ring. After the reassembly the regulator is no longer working properly, the gun starts at about 450fps @ 210 bar and by about 150 bar it’s back to the previously regulated setting of 940fps which it holds down to 100 bar. Almost acts like a really soft hammer spring tension but that wasn’t touched during the fill o-ring replacement and before the degas and reassembly the gun was shooting 940 +/- 5 fps from 210 bar down to 100 bar.
Not the first time the regulator has gone goofy on me after a full degas and refill, probably needs fresh o-rings and fresh silicone. Rather than play around with several iterations of adjusting the regulator, refilling, tweaking HST, then degassing and repeating to get the regulator setting and velocity right I’d like to get a tester for this time around so I can develop a regulator pressure vs velocity curve.
Thanks!
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Good info, especially on the dwell time. Makes sense, but that is certainly something only learned from experience and logging many shot strings at various regulator and HST settings. I agree Ed’s rifles have fantastic ES and air usage numbers, every time I tweak on one friend’s Daystate or another friend’s Kricket I’m reminded of that.
IIRC, when I received the gun with the factory 130bar regulator setting and tweaked the HST for max velocity at a full fill it was shooting hot, about 970-980 fps (it’s a .25 Long.) When I tried to dial down to about 900-910fps using only the HST the ES suffered, so I adjusted the regulator down and ended up with 940 fps at full fill with the HST set properly and was rewarded with a tight ES (about 5-6 fps) over the whole fill. I wanted to adjust the regulator a little lower but was tired of the teardown/adjust/reassemble cycle at that point and just left it at 940fps.
940fps worked quite well but there would always be a few unexplained flyers, and air usage wasn’t the greatest… that’s why I want to try dropping to about 900-910fps this time around. Unfortunately after replacing the regulator o-rings last night and going through 4 teardown / adjust / reassemble cycles it ended up at 875 fps for the max regulated velocity on the last run when daylight ran out. ES is still quite good, about 6 fps from 205-95 bar, the number of shots per fill increased, and I didn’t see nearly as many flyers as I did at 940 fps. At this point rather than tearing the gun down several more times trying to get to 900-910 fps I think I’ll wait for my tester to arrive and see what the current 875fps regulated pressure is compared to the initially received 130 bar.
After TIG welding up the magazine index lever and polishing a few things in the cocking mechanism to smooth things out (my rifle is an early .25 R3M) the only remaining bitch I still have with the rifle is the improperly spaced grooves under the scope rail for the .25 magazines– you can only properly stuff 2 .25 mags under the scope with the grooves cut for the smaller .22 magazines. I know Ed fixed that on the latest production rifles but I don’t feel like buying new and selling mine just for the magazine retaining grooves… or maybe I will. I don’t know. 😛
Lowering the regulator will give less speed to a point. 120 Bar on the .22 will actually increase the speed because it creates more dwell time from the valve. So why does Ed set the regulator so high? The higher regulator setting in my experience makes for a tighter shot string. Ed’s guns are some of the most energy and consistent ES guns you can buy. With proper tuning of the HST you can achieve a 5-7 FPS ES for a shot string. I have noticed with all the fuxing I have done to the Matador over the years Ed has the right numbers set from the factory. I was a customer long before I sold them, to me the Matador is simply the best. There is room for improvement of course but remember that Ed uses his guns to eat, he knows what regulator setting is best for his guns. Experience is always one’s most valued teacher.
The only time I would lower the regulator setting is if I wanted to shoot field trial with the EDgun and I needed to keep the energy below 20 foot pounds.
There is some magic to be found with tuning some parts of the gun besides the regulator.
Confirmed after a teardown last night, it was the 2 o-rings on the regulator spindle that were causing the problem. They were pretty well smashed into a square cross section and starting to shed little pieces. Amazed they were still working so well before the degassing to change the fill port o-ring. Degassing the gun and refilling it must have let those two o-rings move or bind up and when I refilled the gun they didn’t properly seat or seal.
Have the gun shooting 875fps right now; wanted about 900 fps but after 4 disassembly/reassembly cycles to adjust the regulator I ran out of daylight. Looks like the gun picked up about 17 shots per fill dropping the regulator from 940fps to 875fps and the gun seems to throw less “flyers” too.
Once I get the tester, is there a baseline correlation between regulator setting and pellet velocity? For example, would going 1 bar higher on the regulator result in 10 fps additional velocity? Knowing an approximate correlation would help save more disassembly and reassembly cycles. I know the regulator in my rifle was set to 130 bar as-received from Tony, and I’ve seen people posting numbers anywhere from 120-130 bar after they adjust them.
I agree, degassing and refilling the gun shouldn’t disturb the regulator. Unfortunately for me the gun was shooting a consistent 940 fps before the degassing and refilling to replace the fill port o-ring and now it now starts off about 420-450 fps at 205-210 bar, climbs back to 940 fps by around 150 bar, and holds 940 fps until it falls off the regulator at about 100-105 bar. If I was only going by the chronograph data my diagnosis would be that the HST is set too soft and the gun is suffering from “valve lock” from 205-150 bar… however, the HST wasn’t touched during the fill plug o-ring replacement.
Last time the regulator acted up fresh o-rings and silicone on the regulator internals took care of the issue. Maybe the plastic portion of the valve stem has partially failed and the problem is only showing up at 150-210 bar?
I’m also thinking of adjusting the regulator down a bit for about 900-910 fps to squeak out a few more shots per fill; I also think I may be giving up a little accuracy at 940fps (gun is a .25 R3M shooting JSB 25.4’s.) The regulator tester will be nice to have so I can have a gauge reading to shoot for after any future regulator rebuilds.
Regardless, I’ll tear the gun back apart tomorrow and have a good look at the regulator internals. I have plenty of o-rings and I think I have two spare valve stems stashed away so I should be set.
Dman is a good source I have one. Honestly I doubt the regulator needs to be adjusted. Degassing shouldn’t change anything on the regulator setting .
Contact dman1114. Pm him or His email is Lavalleeja@gmail.com
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Just wanted to say thanks to Jaime (dman1114)
He machined and shipped the regulator tester 4 days after I ordered it. USPS dropped it off Saturday morning. Very nice job on it too.
Going to pull the gun down tonight and fiddle some more, I’ll see what the current regulator pressure is that’s good for 875fps and then go up from there to get around 910-920fps. Now future regulator rebuilds will be easy, simply set back to the previous regulated pressure!