Ultimate Supermaxx 1500 Mod!

Sup readers,

I know that you've all been waiting a long time for this one, but the time has finally come! After many setbacks, I have finally succeeded in turning my Supermaxx 1500 into a war-worthy primary up to T da B's standards. For this mod, I had a few requirements:

• Hopper clip for maximum rate of fire
• Removable stock
• Capable of reliably handling 100+ psi
• Safety valve and psi gauge

It wasn't easy, but I have satisfied all of the requirements! Wanna know how?
Required Materials:

• Topeak Mini Master Blaster or Mini Dual bike pump
• Schrader to 1/4'' push-to-connect adapter
• 1/4'' O.D. push-to-connect union check valve
• 1/4'' O.D. push-to-connect union cross
• 1/4'' O.D. push-to-connect to 1/8 NPT adapter
• 1/4'' O.D. push-to-connect to 1/4 NPT adapter
• Multipurpose Gauge, Steel Case,1-1/2"dial,1/8 Npt Center Back,0-160psi
• Multirange Brass Pop-safety Valve, 1/4 Npt Male, 25-200 Psi
• Choose-a-color Polyurethane Tubing, Clear, 1/8" Id, 1/4" Od, .062" Wall Thk, 25'l
• Uv-resistant Clear Pvc Tubing, 1/8" Id, 1/4" Od, 1/16" Wall Thickness
• PVC wye
• Aluminum lathed air tank made by Roboman! PM him on Nerfhaven for inquiries.

I'm super stoked to have found a new pneumatics supplier on ebay, and I got my parts for MUCH less than the ones I used in my AT3K write-up.

Write-up:
For this write-up, I will be going one component at a time and going through all necessary mods for that individual component. Let's start with the psi gauge--take the orange pieces of the shell and Dremel down the back until the psi gauge slides in:

Now you need to Dremel down the part the screw goes through in the back:

Now you should be able to put the two halves together with the psi gauge inside:

Now let's move on to the Topeak bike pump. Take your schrader to 1/4'' push-to-connect adapter and screw it down into the pump with the adapter's nut and the pump dust cover:

Time for some serious surgery with the Dremel--carve away the huge patches of shell like in the pictures to allow the pump to be seated at an angle. This is one of the most time-consuming parts of the mod, so be patient. Remember, if you don't Dremel enough you can always fix it later, but if you Dremel too much you're fucked.

You will also need to trim down the corner of one of the orange pieces to accommodate the pump cap:

Next up is the safety valve. Connect it to your 1/4 NPT to 1/4'' push-to-connect adapter and use thread sealant to prevent any leaks. I didn't have any so I used a ring of superglue around the connection.

Here is the spot I ended up choosing for the safety valve. I hot glued it into place after checking the fit against the air tank and pump.

At this point it's time to prepare the air tank. I first took a stub of PVC and solvent welded it into the end of a PVC wye like so:

This makes it easier to fit the wye onto the outlet of the air tank. I decided to skew my hopper for better visibility, so I glued the wye on at an angle. Now that the air tank/wye is ready to go, you can do the necessary Dremeling to get it to fit. Here is a before picture of one half of the shell:

And after:

Here are some pictures of the other half:

As you can see, I took off a whole lot of plastic to get things to fit. I also completely chopped off the top of the front of the shell!

At this point, you should be able to close both halves of the shell with the air tank/wye assembly inside:

At this point, a major problem arose--I had gone so hog-wild with the Dremel that I could actually pull the wye out the front of the blaster! There was plastic behind and to the sides of the wye, but in front there was nothing holding it in place. It was time to think of something clever--I noticed an exposed section of the wye showing through a hole I cut......

I made a mark on both sides to drill and tap for a 1/2'' set screw--simple and elegant!

Now that the air tank isn't falling out of the front of the blaster, we can wrap up the rest of the shit. Bust out the trigger and trim it down like so:

Take the old pump and cut off the end of it so the trigger still has a guide:

Finally, it's time to arrange the pieces into place! Remember, everything will be using the polyurethane tubing except for the air tank. This is due to the barbed connection on the air tank. To get your PVC tubing onto the barbed connector, boil some water and dip the tubing inside. Once it's warmed up, use some pliers to furiously twist it on. It's a bitch, and I await the day roboman starts using push-to-connect fittings.I also drilled a hole in each of the orange pieces to feed my tubing through.

At this point it would be prudent to hook everything up together and check for leaks. Once you are sure that everything is leak-free and all connections are rock solid, it's finally time put things back together! I put a ring of hot glue around the psi gauge to keep it in place, and I glued a 1/2'' PVC coupler onto the back as well for the removable stock.

Damn that's sexy. I decided to build myself an adapter to connect a Nerf stock to my blaster. You will need a piece of 1/2'' PVC, 3/4'' PVC, and the connection piece off a sacrificed blaster.

Solvent weld the PVC and hot glue it into the gray piece:

What do you know--it works!

Enjoy your new rape cannon! Tunable to whatever psi you'd like, without the fear of exploding plastic :)

Conclusion:
Jesus that was a lot of work--this is definitely one of the most finicky blasters I've ever had the displeasure of working with. Even after all this work, I was unable to achieve the velocities that I desired (400+fps). This is mostly due to the way the trigger is designed--it just wasn't made for high power setups. In the end, I decided that three pumps was optimal. Anything less lacked power, and anything more made the trigger hard to pull quickly. Here is what three pumps produced:

Not bad, but not nearly as high as other air blasters. I used an 8-shot hopper and a 8'' barrel for my setup--probably not optimal. On the plus side, this blaster would be great for a war, since it doesn't have enough power to be banned and also sports a hopper. In addition, you never have to worry about blowing up the air tank, which is also nice. All in all this blaster required more work than it was worth, but at least it was completed successfully. On to the next challenge!

Cheers,
~T da B