College Paintball Club

I'd suggest asking for any kind of help what-so-ever. Advice is one thing that you can never get enough of when it comes to getting a club up and running after some time just sitting dormant.

As for a compressor. See if you can't work out a deal with Nichols or Roberts or AirGas. Most of them would probably be willing to supply either nitrogen (6kpsi tanks) or HPA at a reduced cost for the school/club. Also, see if the school doesn't already have a deal with a bulk-gas company. I'm sure any Science depts you have will have some sort of contract that you could work into.

Now, not using a compressor, it's important to run a "cascade" using large HPA cylinders to do your fills. You need to get your supplier to set up a hard-line system that connect to your HPA fill-station adapter. What this does is allow you to fill your tank in stages. You use tank number one (the one that has the lowest pressure) to fill up to however much psi it has in it. Then tank 2, tank 3, and finally tank 4 (if you go that many) to just top it off if it isn't full already. This gives you far more fills per-tank. When tank 1 gets down to under 800psi, take it out of rotation. Tank 2 becomes tank 1, Tank 3 becomes tank 2, and so on with the newest tank being the highest number so you get the most out of it.

If the school already has a contract with an hp/lp gas provider, chances are they are on a flat-rate plan so you can just scoot right in and que-up your order with theirs and they won't pay out any more money than normal.

Now, the 98's. Are you looking at keeping them to introduce people to the sport or are you looking for people to have their own markers? I know some people you could talk to about getting rid of your '98 fleet if you needed to. They'd probably be willing to cut you a good deal in trade for some team markers, or other equipment. PM me if this is the case. Otherwise, see if you can't get Tippmann to certify you so that they can just ship you replacement parts rather than you having to send markers out to be repaired.

For any other equipment, keep your eyes peeled on the MCB forums and don't be afraid to post a WTB and explain your situation. There are a ton of guys who broker field closings that can net you masks, equipment (fill stations, compressors, etc) even netting and bunkers. I've seen two full rental fleets sold off on there and the Tinker's guild in the past 4 months.

Good luck!

Edited by tallen702 - 11 April 2007 at 9:57pm

When I get a break from work, I'll draw up the cascade system in ms-paint for you so it's easier to understand. Not many people know how to use it anymore since most people run off of compressors. We had a good contract with Nichol's Oxygen in NY at my shop, and it wound up being cheaper for us to fill with pure N2 rather than buy a compressor (we're talking cheaper over 5 years!) So we went with 4 6kpsi N2 tanks (silver paint baby!) and a cascade system. Cleanest stuff in the world.