Couplers... I need opinions please. What's your preference?

[AgiTator]

All right...

I've built several combustion gats and a few pneumatics. I love having interchangeable barrels and have usually (on the inline ones) attached the barrels to the firing chambers with threaded couplings. That way, you can thread-on different size barrels, blah blah.

I'm about to build another inline and want your opinions. I tend to use female on chamber and male on barrel.

After the reducer from chamber (ex. 4"-2")...

Would you use a female on the chamber and male on the barrel or do it the other way around, male on the chamber and female on the barrel?

Thanks

Tator

[Velocity]

Most people use female on the chamber and male on the barrel. however, an advantage of female on the barrel and male on the chamber is that ammo will not get stuck in the thicker part of the male fitting.

[brogdenlaxmiddie]

I'd use male on the barrel because that way if it breaks, you replace the barrel piece, as opposed to your chamber.

[frankrede]

Cam-locks FTW

[explsvcookie257]

Am I the only one, that has on all there cannons, the female adapter on the barrel? I feel alone now HaHA

[Lentamentalisk]

well generally the female piece is more expensive, esp when it comes to things like cam locks and quick connects, so you put the expensive piece on the side that there is only one of, and have all of the cheap parts go on the barrels.

[explsvcookie257]

Well I wanted to make all my barrels interchangeable so I have them all reduced down to 1.5" it might be cheaper that way im not sure but thats what I did.

[starman]

I've only used and seen used, the camlock female part on the chamber side and the male part on the barrel. Like this....



I can't imagine much of an advantage to installing it the other way.

These are far superior to threaded PVC couplers, albeit somewhat more expense.

[marpat]

i have always been a fan of unions because there easy to obtain cheaper [at least for me]
and there nice and sturgy since ive always found the nylon camlocks somewhat flimsy
altough i must admit the aluminum ones are excellent even though there pricey for me

[Velocity]

I'm surprised no one sees an advantage to using a female adapter on the barrel...it would allow projectiles to pass right through, for the female adapters have greater ID's than the male adapters. For example, on a tennis ball barrel, it is very difficult to load tennis balls through a male adapter, especially if they are filled with water.

[mark.f]

I usually put the female adapter on the chamber for aesthetic reasons (I usually just use a threaded bushing, or on cheap combustions a cleanout adapter).

But Velocity is right. Female adapter on the barrel will allow you to breech load launchers easier. That is, if you don't have a breech-loading slug-cutter made up.

[AgiTator]

Thanks for all the speedy replies! This my first thread (on this forum) to get so much attention so fast

I like the cam locks, but I don't care about my current gun enough to invest the extra money. Having worked with the fire chief in training and whatnot, I've run into these fittings and liked them quite a bit I can see why others feel the same way.

Female threads on the chamber work for me- I don't breech load, so the small id of the male piece doesn't interfere with my style. I usually muzzle load everything anyway.


Thanks again for the great opinions, pictures and info! I'd love to hear more thoughts if they're out there.

~Tator

[MrCrowley]

Or you could go with something like my cannon, which you can put the adapters on either way without pro or con:
http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/v-a-l-p ... 14702.html

[AgiTator]

that's a pretty sexy gat! I like the loading setup a lot.