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Hand pump

Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 3:23 pm
by mike
This might seem like a stupid question.
Can you use high pressure 220 psi bicycle to pump a pcp air rifle cylinder.
Thanks
Mike

Re: Hand pump

Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 5:03 pm
by 220
You could try but I don't think it would be to succesful, my air pump gauge stops at 3500psi, normal fill is 200bar or just under 3000psi.

Re: Hand pump

Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 5:22 pm
by JD
Nope. As outlined above you need over 10 times that pressure.

Cheers.

Re: Hand pump

Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 5:46 pm
by dangaff
I was eyeing off my dad's and thinking the same thing.

After looking at the meter and comparing, i realised i couldn't, they only cost 300 bucks or so.

Re: Hand pump

Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 10:22 pm
by cj7hawk
Most PCP pumps are three stage or four stage. They compress air at each stage, funneling it into a smaller space which gets compressed even more. You will find that the inside of the pumps is very narrow so you can push the pump down at all.

A normal bike pump plunger is around 1" area - At 3000 psi, that would be 3000 pounds pushing back on the pump! over 1 TON of pressure required just to push the plunger down...

So assuming your bike pump was actually strong enough... Let's say you jack up your car and drop it on the plunger to compress the air, then theoretically it would work. However you would have to do it MANY times to fill your PCP.

You can also get electric pumps to fill PCPs and of course, scuba. :)

David