Typical results?

[Erlkonig]

So, I am planning to put up a picture once I get one taken, but for now I wanted to ask a question.

I installed my Palmers today and decided to try everything out and see how things went.

For reference, my marker setup is as follows:

Spyder MR-1
Partially Polished Stock Bolt (venturi removed) and Striker
RAPS Clamping Feedneck
"ANS Delux On/Off Drop Forward"
14" J&J Ceramic
Standard ~180 Round Gravity Hopper
Palmers Direct Stabilizer with 32 Degrees 0-120psi pressure gauge
20oz Pure Energy CO2 tank
All other parts (air line, valve, valve spring, main spring, etc.) are stock and otherwise unmodified with the exception of some air fittings to adapt the hose to the new ASA.

Outside temp was ~65 Degrees F.
Velocity adjuster was turned in ~halfway to allow for fine tuning in either direction as required.
My re-cock tests consisted of first a couple single shots (dry firing) with ~5-10 seconds in between them, this was followed by a burst of 5-10 shots (again dry firing) to check on shootdown through the Stab. The Palmers started at 500psi and I was down to ~225-250psi (moving and repeating the test after a half turn on the Stab adjustment screw each time) before I had my first case of chattering. At this pressure it would still re-cock 5-8 times out of ten. After hitting this point I gave the Stab a half turn up (so ~50PSI) and everything went quite smoothly without any hiccups. I burned through ~140 rounds as quickly as I could and I had no issues with re-cocking. After going through the paint I repeated the test without any paint and over the course of ~20-25 seconds though the tank frosted and the Stab iced over I had only a single instance where it did not fully re-cock, though it did not chatter, it just got hung up 1/4" shy of the mark.

I do not have access to a Chrono other then the one at the local field so I can't do fine tuning until next weekend and I am thinking it is firing a bit slow, though I would still guess in the lower to mid 200's visually but I will tweak it then. I getting this by comparing it to my WGP Woor Machine that I use as a backup which I know is firing a little hot at the moment since I was playing with it, but it isn't too far off...

I know the stock spring tends to be a bit stiff so you wind up firing hot at first, but I have a six other springs on hand to choose from to help me out. I figure I will try to keep track of how much paint I go through to try and pick the best of both worlds...

So my question to you is this: Does this sound about right from your experiences that with just a half-assed polishing job and removing the venturi that I would be down in the 250-300PSI operating range? Or did I perhaps get the marker built when the Quality Control guys were out to kick ass and take names by putting out an awesome marker?

[druid]

I think it's more that you haven't broken in the Stab yet.

Palmer Stabs take anywhere up to 2000 shots to break in. I have had several Stabs of different designs and they all required more than 1000 shots, but some less than 2000 to wear in.

What you want to do is this (and it will take two 20oz bottles to do)......

Remove your barrel for break-in. Have an old towel or rag handy to ball up and cover the breech.

Add 5 drops of oil to your asa. Gas it up.

Fire 500 dry-fires and stop. Degas the marker. Add 5 drops of oil to the asa and do it again but from now on, only add 3 drops of oil.

After 1500 shots have passed, completely tear down the marker for cleaning. The Stab only requires a wipe-down and re-oil of it's internals...but is hard to get in it because it's not meant to be taken down by the user. I'd suggest NOT opening the Stab for cleaning.

Reassemble the marker and add 3 more drops of oil into the asa and fire 5 more shots and STOP for a few minutes. Let the oil coat the internals again.
Your reg should now be pretty much broken in and now you can look at the gauge and see some kind of difference. Analog gauges are only accurate to about 5%...so don't use it as the "end all" of what you are seeing. You can fire it now and see how the gauge reacts. It may still jump anywhere up to 150psi at a time but the needle reaction time should be a LOT faster (recharge).

Get your tanks refilled and head out to the field.

Once at the field. turn your velocity adjuster 2/3rds the way in. lock it.

Get to chrono and fire 2 shots. Go by the faster speed. Increase or decrease your psi input accordingly to raise or lower your fps. Get your speed to withing 5-10 fps your target speed and then use the velocity adjuster from that point on.

From this point on, add 3 drops of oil into the asa about every case, clean the marker every case and a half...to two cases and you should be set.

[Erlkonig]

I know that analog gauges have some inaccuracies with the reading, but this isn't a pressure critical application so it is good enough for me.

As far as the reaction of the gauge and the output, there was a little bit of creep initially, but for the last few hundred shots the Stab actually seemed to be regulating nearly spot on. There was a little up and down, but less then 50psi according to the gauge.

I just found it amazing that I was in the 250-300psi range after just a couple quick mods and relatively minimal work...So I was wondering if it was typical for the rest of you guys that had done similar things...

Thanks for the tips on setup though =)

One other question I have now is this...In the directions that came with the Stab it says to use pneumatic air tool oil to lubricate it, I just have some regular marker oil that I used yesterday at the start of things. Is this acceptable for everything, or should I be adding a couple drops of air tool oil to the input on the Stab and dryfiring a bit?

[druid]

Any time you make mods to internals [like polishing them], it's normally a betterment to the marker performance. The stock coatings/finishes on the internals are meant to keep them from rusting....and they are made overseas, so performance isn't one of their priorities...lol. Remove icky finishes from parts and they tend to move better. If they move better, that means less force [air] is needed to accomplish the same goal...so yeah, I find that on all the markers I enhance with polishing mods [especially on my Tippmanns], there's a dramatic increase in performance [overall].

Yeah, standard marker oil is fine. It's basically the same thing as pneumatic/tool oil but if you are worried about it, get this stuff - it's flipping awesome

http://www.pureexcessindustries.com/

It's a little thicker than oil but thinner than my Hatersauce.

I just pre-ordered their new oil to try it out....comes in 50ml and 100ml bottles. I ordered the 100ml because...well...I have quite a few markers it can be used in, including my Male Stab on my A5...lol.

http://www.pureexcessindustries.com/pure_marker_oil__preorder_disco.htm