Exploded diagram of Sidewinder (from AKA's Sidewinder page)
AKA designed their new Sidewinder regulator as the main reg for the Excalibur electro. I just picked up a used Sidewinder the other day - being a tinkerer, I gave it a look over and immediately began disassembling it (what - you thought I was actually going to use it first?) Quite thoughtfully, AKA includes an instruction sheet that actually tells you how to disassemble the unit - I wish other manufacturers did that... *cough* Palmer *cough* I've heard some say that the Sidewinder is actually a copy of Palmer's famous Stabilizer, but that's not true at all - the two are very different....
Aaron K. Alexander (yes, the 'AKA' in AKA...) says the following:
"The sidewinder functions the same as the WGP, Angel, PEC and some of the nitrogen systems. Where the difference is that we pushed the performance higher and got rid of many of the flaws that the other regs have.
The reg works by the incoming air compresses the piston against the springs. As the piston is compressed it seals against the reg seat sealling the air. Once the pressure on the piston decreases the piston snaps open allowing air to flow through until the piston closes off again.
The swivel was one of the biggest thing. We were so tired of leave reg loose, do special hose setups and more. So we wanted something better. The piston of the reg. is also the very important things about the reg., the other ones out there don't have the right size piston their to small. We also wanted to make the reg easily repairable, ie. the simple design and complete instructions on take down."
Exploded diagram of Sidewinder (from AKA's Sidewinder
page)
Anyhow, here we've unscrewed the reg body upper from the rest of the unit (supposedly different length uppers are available to shorten or lengthen the reg as needed).
Looking into the midsection of the reg, we can see the top of the reg piston. I was pleased to find that all of the internal parts had a nice, thin coating of oil to keep things running smoothly. Not only that, but the machining on all the parts is absolutely superb - thread edges are sharp and defined, and parts screw together smoothly with absolutely no wobble. The unit has the feel of a precision lab instrument more than a commodity paintball accessory.
The midsection unscrews from the base. You'll need to clamp the midsection in a vise and use an adjustable wrench to get the two pieces apart. Note the washer - it's to keep the o-ring that seals the piston tip in place.
To disassemble the midsection, first take out the o-ring (the little guy just to the left of the midsection) and use a long, thin plastic object to push the piston out through the top. Be careful when doing so - you don't want to damage the tip of the reg piston, as it's the most critical seal in a regulator. Note the pile of belleville washers that serve as a reg spring (make sure you put them back the right way when re-assembling!)
Aaron notes that they made a slight change to the piston early on:
"The .750 dia piston was from the first 50 production batch before
we changed to the bigger piston. The .750 dia piston is good down to about
100 psi consistently and the .805 is good down to 40-50 psi. All new regs
have the .805 piston. Also there was a change of one o-ring between the
two versions. If its the smaller piston we can up date the reg if
you send it in, but it will work fine on all markers."
The reg core (the adjustment screw) can be threaded out through the top of the reg lower. The bottom of the reg core has a pair of o-rings for sealing. Note the 3 slots cut through the reg core threads - this is what allows gas to pass from the lower body up to the rest of the unit (4 holes in the inside of the lower body allow the air to pass through from the swivel sleeve).
Note that the reg lower disassembles further (the swivel nut keeps the reg sleeve in place), but I didn't go that far (not for lack of trying, mind you - I held the top threads of the lower body between two blocks of wood in a bench vise and heaved on it with a wrench, but loctite is strong stuff, even the blue kind - I only managed to spin the lower around between the blocks of wood...). Still, this is taken apart far enough to satisfy my curiosity.
So there ya have it - the guts of a Sidewinder. I haven't tried
mine out yet, but I'll probably be throwing it on my Tribal, as the stock
reg decided to quit on me at the chrony station during the last game I
went to...