RESPECT Your tanks!

[manike]

There seems to be a large amount of complacency among paintballers towards their equipment.

The amount of energy in a tank is very serious and potentially quite scary.

It makes my blood boil when I see people throw guns or just check them about when they lose. Especially if they do it anywhere near me. There is a reason this is now a suspension offence in the NPPL/PSP.

Just a reminder of what can happen...

This was a brand new tank that went bang at 2800psi...

And this is what a fibre wrapped tank looks like when it goes. Although in this case it was purposely tested to destruction and took over 28,000psi before it failed.

Just be wary that with damage to the tank or with it being thrown around it is possible for this to happen at lower pressures, or for the reg to get knocked off etc.

 

[joe bob]

Did any of those go off on accident or were they all tests?

 

[manike]

The top one (the metal tank) went off by accident the first time it was being filled. It sliced up someones hand and wrist very bady.

The guy got away lightly though as compared to what could have happened.

 

[Gyroscope]

We had a guy at the home field whose CO2 tank had stripped threads. It went through a tree trunk and out the other side. Scary doen't even begin to say it.

 

[Jaime Menino]

Manike

I fully agree with your point of view, and it should be our (all paintbballers) point of view.

But...

What about all the fancy "supermans".
Those are playing the game, and sometimes the tank hits the groung as hard as or more than when you trow it...

my 2 cents

Cheers
Jaime

 

[KEN@AFGM]

If that happens......

If soemone does a superman and his tank lets go then the organisers will be scraping him off the scenery!

I kid you not i used to fill air cylinders for a living and its bad enough when an o ring goes let alone when a tank expoldes (never happened to me by the way)

 

[Red_Merkin]

I sold my angel to some goober who hand an incident. basically to fill the bottle, you had to turn the valve off, and take the bottle off. He tried to take it off without turning the valve off, and it SHOT across the parking lot propelled by about 3000psi!

I wish i had been there to see it, because it would have been funny, but at the same time if it had hit someone they could have been hurt quite badly, so maybe that wouldn't be so funny.

I'm suprised by how few people know how to use high pressure air systems, in terms of safety and care. Maybe PGI should do an article about air system safety, and basic maintainance/care.

 

[Mark Toye-Nexus]

'Superman'

Or 'bellying in' is safe if its done right.

The gun, or tank, shouldnt be dived on or used as a brake etc during the dive. If you're landing on it you are doing it wrong.

You'll know if you are doing it wrong cos the shock will smash your paint up every time

 

[TOOLE]

we are well overdue for a serious incident in paintball. all it takes is for someone to jump/fall and hit his tank on a rock next to his head, and BOOM, one dead paintballer.

i persomally think it's scary enough venting tanks, or when an o-ring goes on a CO2 tank. if you look at an on/off valve, the hole is less than 1/2 mm across, ands think how much gas that can let go of.

 

[L J]

Lessons in air

if someone starts talking to me about output pressure, secondary regs and input pressures i wont have the foggiest what they're talking about, but when it comes to air i use common sense to deal with it, so i turn valves off if im unscrewing it, after what ive seen with cO2 which is only 800 PSI!!

last time our captain did i dive and his gun hit the ground his hopper was a nice paint soup inside