Originally posted by ShadowRam on X7OG.

Cyclone Chopping Balls fix
So I've had a few chops and a lot of barrel breaks, and I believe I've finally found what is causing it.

In fact, I studied this mechanical design quite closely, and I think I've found the number 1 cause of ball chop/breaks....

Observe this picture.
When you fire the Cyclone cycles in the direction of the Red Arrow. (Sry to any who are color blind)

The ball is subjected to 2 contact points when this happens.
The contact points are indicated in blue.

1 being the Cyclone Blade that turns and the other is the non-moving part that sticks out into the cyclone. It is this piece that guides the ball into the chamber (Purple arrow) and prevents the balls from just rotating around all day.




Now that I found the 2 hard places that the ball comes in contact with, I then took a closer look at them...

#1 The cyclone blade comes to a sharp point as indicated on the top picture by the top blue arrow. It might not look like much of a point now, and that is because I filed it down nice and round. It came to quite a sharp point that I'm sure dug into the ball sometimes....


Now for #2... The biggy....

This guy right here.. the big thing sticking out of the reciever of the X-7...
This I believe is the woe of us all with chopping issues...

I ran my finger against the inside edge that is suppose to contact the ball..
AND BOY WAS IT SHARP!!!!

Why was it so sharp?? Black paint... whatever black paint/coating that Tippmann has used here dried to a nice hard sharp edge... in fact on the top edge I felt a sharp imperfection hard enough, that if I pressed my finger along the inside edge of this thing hard enough, I would of easily cut skin...

(Sharp edges are shown by Red Arrows)

Imagine the speed in which that cyclone cycles back from the spring power.. now imagine the sharp point of the Cyclone blade slaming the ball into this 2 sharp edged guide?

Needless to say, quite a few balls would break, or at the very least, causing them to be gouged, thus when fired, causing what appears to be a barrel break...



So I took some very fine sand paper.. (in fact it was my girlfriends nail file) and I took that sharp edge off... nice round non-sharp edges... makes for happy no breaking balls...

In fact, I might even put a thin piece of felt on the inside face of that guide, to cushion the blow of the cyclone slamming the ball into it.

No more breaks or blenders for me!!!

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lol, i just finished reading and replying to this same thread over on the x7og...

LOL. If you notice the opening line.

Originally posted by ShadowRam on X7OG.

I'm just sharing the knowledge here too. LOL

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that is some, pretty good info, i ran my new cyclone on my 98 and had a break like that from the sound of it, plus probaaly a paint issue as well, but its to cold to test so i hope i will remember this post when it warms up!
cheers

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another thing you have to watch out for is PUTTING THE PADDLES IN THE RIGHT WAY, whether your putting in soft ones or just cleaning it out, i made the silly mistake of putting them in the wrong way....hopper soup hahaha fixed now no breaks, no soup, no problem

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Good post glad it was bumped I'm gonna check my A-5's for the same problem.

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"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
George Orwell

Everything you need to know about the cyclone-
Cyclone Maintenance Summary Thread
There's alot of good mods for stock cyclones in here.

GREAT LINK!!!!!!!!

this is going to save my ass in the long run. lol thank man.

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better than the Navy deck swabbin Navy
better than the Marine Corp jar head Marine Corp
better than the Coast Guard lazy lazy Coast Guard
USAF is the place for me

No Problem! Just sharing the info.

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