Air filling possible?

[Rainmaker]

I'm not sure if it's possible to fill up my air tank without going to a site to play.
I'm getting back into the game and bought a new bottle but the marker hasn't been used for some time, although I did and just recently as well cleaned lubed it so it should, but obviously I want to be make sure it doesn't leak on me when I start to play.
I guess, scuba shops can do refill (tad bit harder with the lockdown in place)?
I'm in the West Midlands

 

[k4p84]

Scuba shop is very unlikely to have a fill station for anything paintball / PCP

Stirrup pumps can be picked up to at least get a little bit of air

 

[BOD]

Some scuba shops may fill a paintball bottle but i get the impression most of them won't, but they will fill dive bottles and you fill your bottle from a dive bottle but of course you need a dive bottle.

Stirrup pumps in theory will fill a paintball bottle but it's going to take weeks of pumping unless it's a small 13ci bottle.

 

[BOD]

In theory you could use a stirrup pump to pressurise the gun directly, enough for a single shot at a time and to check for leaks, but i'd say the chances of over pressurising it are great and could result in blowing all the seals and orings.

 

[BOD]

I just tried my stirrup pump direct to gun theory on an old A5 i bought for display purposes, 3 pumps of my cheap ebay stirrup pump puts around 800psi ( if the gauge is to believed ) into it, enough to detect any leaks and cycle the gun once, so there you go. What's surprising me is, the non working A5 i bought for a tenner about 5 year ago and i've never tried it with air before now, actually works and doesn't leak.

 

[jim1962]

Were in the Midlands are you ?.

 

[Rainmaker]

Thanks all for the reply.

Were in the Midlands are you ?.

Coventry, close to the M6 to be more precise.

In theory you could use a stirrup pump to pressurise the gun directly, enough for a single shot at a time and to check for leaks, but i'd say the chances of over pressurising it are great and could result in blowing all the seals and orings.

I wouldn't do the pump straight to the marker due to not having a gauge on the marker thus over pressurising like you mentioned.

 

[k4p84]

I wouldn't do the pump straight to the marker due to not having a gauge on the marker thus over pressurising like you mentioned.

The pump has a gauge on, no real issue pumping a marker directly, basic markers like this will have a designed input pressure of 800psi, higher end markers would be lower. I'd advise pumping the bottle up but to get a large volume up to pressure will just take a lot more pumping

 

[Tom]

As above, it’s possible with a stirrup pump and they are at reasonable prices now

Do make sure that it’s a high pressure stirrup pump and has a filter (some are with, most without but they can be added)

Into an air cylinder there is the larger capacity so you need to get a higher quantity of air at a reasonable pressure.

Directly into the gun only needs to fill a smaller area, so takes less pumps to get to pressure in a lower capacity

Obviously with the caution as the pressure could get high without you noticing, and the pumps gauge probably has a scale up to around 5000psi, whereas in gun you will want only a couple of hundred PSI to detect any leaks

An electronic one would typically operate around 200 something PSI but have an inline regulator and gauge, a mechanical ought to happily take over 500psi
(Original paintball cyclinder regulators would output at approx 800/850psi, but something like 600/650psi is more typical today)

 

[Stan]

Try a shooting shop. My local ones fill bottles for pre charged air rifles. Or just try your local paintball site!