How many drops of oil did you put on the ratchet?? you only need about 1-2 drops of oil..That could of been the problem that you over oiled it and it got inside the cyclone. Another thing, could have been the paint you were using. How old were they? Cheap paint also chops. dimpled and deformed balls will chop on you for sure.. Just make sure you clean the cyclone and barrel really well and make sure it's dry. and See if you still have the problem..

Argelmcgee wrote: I spotted a dimple on one of them but how would I know if it is thin shelled?

Dimple = Bad.  This isnt saying that one dimpled ball could cause all these issue, but the ball dows show that the paint could have (most likely was...) been of bad quality.  Tippys arent known to go easy on bad paint, and this was most likely your issue.  Mechanical parts in general don't work as well/efficently in cold weather, either.  EDIT:  I just took a look back at your specs, and a .687 bore is medium sized.  This could mean that any mis-shaped or mis-sized balls in a bad case of paint could be breaking near the front of the barrel, say when the ball makes the transition from the actual gun to the beggining of your barrel.

chopping is a result of the cyclone not being able to feed fast enough(if at all). are you sure its still feeding, even after you replaced the ratchet? if so, too much oil in the cyclone could be your problem.

barrel breaks are also a very common problem, most linked to bad paint-to-bore match. if you put a ball into the barrel, and blow into the barrel, does the ball come out? if it gets stuck, the paint is probably too big for the barrel.

I dont know much about how cyclones work on the overall, but im willing to say that it wasnt the cyclone feeding to slow.  This leaves the front bolt's impact upon the ball, and the barrel to be where your ball broke.  If the ball is thin shelled, this could mean that it is being broken when it is struck by the front bolt.  Upon you saying that you had some paint in the barrel, on the bolt, and on the powertube, it really dosent narrow anything down as to a chop or barrel break.  A ball could break, as i said before, right where the gun "ends" and the barrel starts.  And you said many people around you chopped; this makes it more probable that it was in fact paint that was mis-shaped and mis-sized bacause i would highly doubt that everyone else would be "chopping", which is a very specific event where the ball dosent make it completely seated behind the ball detent and the bolt strikes it, causeing it to break from the force of the bolt pushing it against where it is coming into the gun from.  This is why i dont think you were chopping, it is highly unlikely that everyone would be having this problem.  So, i still think it was just really bad paint that was wayyy bigger than its supposed to be.

Makes the balls more brittle. Makes them easier to break.