WaterWar.net

What type of valve do people think is most suitable for a WBL?

The types of valve I can see of use are:

1. Ball valve
2. Sprinkler valve
3. Quick exhaust valve
4. Slide valve
5. Piston valve

Ball valve is common but slow. The sprinkler valve is the most common. The QEV and slide valves I've never seen used in a WBL. The piston valve opens quickly and has really high flow but is a pig to make.

Spud-gunners tend to use a QEV as they open really quickly, but I don't know what too quick is for a WB. If the valve opens too quick won't the WB burst in the barrel, or does that depend on the quality of the sabot?

The slide valve is a kind of wild-card. I haven't seen anyone use a slide valve for any launcher.

The QEV is the cheapest valve (other than a ball valve) for me, but only goes up to 3/4" bsp (but that has greater flow than a 1" bsp sprinkler valve, apparently).

EDIT:
I've found a 1" bsp QEV aswell.

According to an article on SSC, a quick-opening valve probably won't work. http://www.sscentral.org/homemade/efficient_wbls.html

Thanks martianshark, I missed that article (saw the firing valve one though). The QEV is kind of like a ready-made modded sprinkler valve, which you pressurise from the pilot side. It will open slightly more quickly than a modded sprinkler valve, but the main benefit is increased flow (obviously, not the main problem as a large ball valve works). I think the main thing I don't like about ball valve launchers is the huge movement needed to fire the thing. Makes aiming pretty tricky.

Here's an idea, I could use the 1" bsp QEV, and use a blowgun pilot valve with it's interchangeable nozzles. A smaller nozzle on the pilot valve will increase the opening time if the QEV. I could test the different nozzles and find the largest pilot exhaust (and fastest opening time) that doesn't burst balloons.

I then also end up with a high-efficiency spudgun (using no nozzle on the blowgun pilot), and an (admittedly low-efficiency) AP water cannon (assuming I build an over-under design).

All I need is cash.

I've got an idea. Put a ball valve in front of the QEV. This would serve as an air restrictor when partially closed, so that the balloons don't burst when fired. It would also allow you to experiment with how much restriction is needed for the balloon to not pop.

I was thinking of putting a ball valve between the QEV exhaust and barrel, and another between the QEV pilot and blowgun valve as safety devices (The one in the pilot system is incase the trigger is accidentally pulled, the other incase of air leak in the pilot system whilst transporting around the battlefield, or failure of the pilot valve safety).

You're right though, I could use one or both of them to play with flow and/or opening time. I can always remove the larger ball valve from between the barrel and QEV later, and probably will if I can find a small spring return, or locking (or both in one) ball valve to use as pilot safety. It would be better if the ball valve had it's own locking mechanism rather than a padlock. That's just overkill (and one more thing to lose in battle)!