WaterWar.net

A while ago, the bladder in my Vanquisher ruptured, so I'm going to work on repairing it now. I'm pretty sure the only way to fix it is to replace the bladder. However, nobody sells spherical bladders as far as I know. Does anyone know of anything that could take its place?

My plan, if I can't find a better one, is to replace the bladder with a short length of LRT. Does this sound like a bad idea to anyone?

If I go with this plan, it appears McMaster only sells two LRT sizes that have an ID of 1" (there are none greater than that; Vanquisher's bladder is slightly bigger than 1"). One has 1/8"wall thickness and the other 1/4", and both are amber colored, not black. Does color make any difference?

And I might as well ask, although I doubt anyone will say yes: Anyone got a spherical rubber bladder lying around?

There's one thing to be wary of: pressure relief. The original bladder had a net that stopped it from expanding further, and released the PRV when it hits the net. The net won't fit an LRT bladder (that itself is likely to break too), and as far as I know, the technique for making balloon bladders was never documented. (Just stacking balloons won't work very well.) Not sure if a balloon bladder will be shaped correctly to reach the bladder constraint net either.)

If you have any permanently damaged or decommissioned CPS, it may be worth borrowing a bladder from one.

I removed the net a while ago when I was K-modding it, so I don't think any of that a problem. Even if I hadn't, removing the net would be easy enough.

If you were the person who K modded his vindicator (42 balloons if I recall) on SSC all I can say is that I saw this coming

Get one of Duxburian's 100-balloon 2100 bladders. Though seriously, I think he does have some spares (that aren't covered in an insane amount of rubber) laying around. Also, at Frozen Fury 2012 we destroyed scottthewaterwarrior's 2100 (which was already busted up) to salvage some parts for another one, and Scott might still have the bladder. (I don't think we have it, but I could check.) I'm pretty sure you could integrate it fairly easily.

As for LRT, I don't really have experience with it so I'm afraid I can't give you any advice there.

I don't see a problem using LRT as a bladder inside the Vanquisher, it tends to balloon outwards first and then slowly fill towards the ends like in my Speedloader 1000. I have a picture of the partially filled LRT on it.
Make sure to remove the rubber from the vanquisher BEFORE taking measurements for the new piece (if you hadn't already).
And color makes no difference. When I was *trying* to order LRT on McMaster-Carr it looked like the default was translucent amber, but on the order form I could select black instead.

^^ I may have bought off all of them.

^ Like I said, PRV won't work because it's supposed to hit the walls of the bladder-containing net, but it won't fit anything not shaped correctly. I doubt it'd even work with some of the crazy 21k bladders due to the thickness of the balloons added on. The Vindicator bladder is shaped differently anyways, and hitting the PRV will cause more stress on any replacement bladder than it did on the original. (Which is the only way the Vindicator bladder would've broke in the first place: excessive pumping after full pressure.)

Without a working PRV, you'll have to come up with another pressure containment method, or leave it un-idiot-proofed.

I ended up with the 2100 bladder, it is sitting on my gun shelf
Don't know what the bladder looks like on the Vanquisher, but I have a few broken WW lightnings if you want one of those bladders instead. Unfortunately I can't offer you anything else because those are the only broken CPS type guns I have.

WW Lightning isn't exactly CPS. I don't think that would work. I may be interested in the 2100 bladder though. Do you think you could measure the ID of it for me?

Out of curiosity, what's wrong with the Lightnings?

@CA99: Isn't that a risk that's taken whenever someone does a PR removal on a CPS? Leaving it un-idiot proofed was the idea.

If that risk isn't a problem for you, any bladder will work. Beware that for more powerful bladders, performance will be bottlenecked by the low-flow internals of any BBT.

Although I also haven't seen the Vanquisher's internals, so I don't know how close it is to the Vindicator's.

Don't know if you still need help with this, but I've been on hiatus for a while. been trying to catch up with stuff in the LEGO community and therefor fell behind on WW.net (I have yet to find time to keep up with both at once). What is the "ID" I can measure it for you no problem I just have no idea what that is. As far as the Lightnings go, they are the Hydro Power versions so I just figured that the bladders might be easier to fit into a Vanquisher since they are also WaterWarriors guns. As for what is wrong with them, I have a total of 3. One works (I think, need to test it again), and the ball valve on the other isn't sealing for some reason (took it apart but can't find any reason why it should work). I don't remember what is wrong with the 3rd one, I have a lot of broken guns and I keep putting off trying to fix them.

ID means inner diameter. I wanted to know the inner diameter of the bladder's opening. Thanks.

The inner diameter of the 2100 bladder is 19 millimeters, or at least that is the diameter of neck coming out of the casing. I never took it out of the black casing, any one know if the slightly transparent grey thing coming out on one end is the opening of the bladder or just part of the case?

Do you think you could take a picture? Also, how much would you want for it?

martianshark wrote:Do you think you could take a picture? Also, how much would you want for it?

Maybe $5? How much is a bladder actually worth anyway? It might cost $5 just to ship it though (don't know much about shipping). I really have no use for it so what ever you think is a fair price is fine by me. I've only ever bought guns, never parts. I will see if I can get some pictures up tomorrow, maybe stick the ruler next to the opening so you can get a good idea of how big it is.

Scott, I sent you a PM a few days ago, but for some reason it won't leave out Outbox, so I don't think you got it. I said:

Go ahead and unscrew it, but don't worry about putting the casing back on. I only need the bladder, and shipping just the bladder would be cheaper anyway. Could you include the screws though? My 2700 is in very bad need of some new PC casing screws.

See if you can PM me.

Scott doesn't answer his PM's very often... =p

PM's leave outbox when they're opened by the recipient. Before then, you're freely able to edit/delete them.

one hing people surprisingly haven't noted is the Vanquisher PC is literally a Hydra Pak PC with a net around it. I'm not too sure that helps much, but it's there if you need it.