Air tank fills - what I found out!

[Missed-Em]

OK, I've seen a number of posts on how to get a tank filled.  After a lot of head scratching, I got a 80 cuft 3000 psi scuba tank and Air Venturi tank adapter and hose from PA.  Ask for the connector to fit the FD PCP.  I had already located 2 paintball parks within 20 miles so good to go!  Tank and fill station arrive and am I excited.  Couple of problems with this 1) Painball Parks around this area are only open weekends, and some only one day on the weekends, and 2)  I had the female foster fitting on my tank but the PB parks need the male fitting in order to fill the tank.  Not upset with the park, they went out of their way to try and help but due to thread sizing their male nipples wouldn't match my Air Venturi fill station!  So, I'm waiting for my male foster fitting, then the weekend, and mean time I'm wishing that pumping wasn't so hard!

Haven't tried the fire department yet, however it's a very small volunteer dept. so I don't expect help there.

[45Bravo]

The fire dept is a possibility.
Especially if you have any search & rescue divers in the area.

Ours locally (a larger dept) has a search & rescue team, so the station has the fill adapter for a scuba k valve.

If your station has a fill setup, (some of the smaller ones don't, they get them filled at the larger station near by) and they don't have the adapter for a scuba tank, you may buy one for them, and give it to them in exchange for filling your tank.

Or buying a male foster to male foster adapter, would allow the paintball places to fill for you.

[marty2]

Kind of in the same boat here. Paintball park is about 15 miles away and would fit a tank as a courtesy. Only open on weekends, compressor will only do 4000psi on a good day and only if I came around 4:00 PM. Checked with numerous FDs and none will fill an outside tank. One FD official told me the reason they won't fill is because the last person to fill a tank assumes responsibility for the safety of that tank. Any other place to fill is a least an hour away.

I'll keep pumping( not to bad really) until I can afford my own compressor.

[mobilemail]

Steve - there is a paintball store in Edwardsville that fills tanks called the Bing Store, you might call them. I fill my tanks at a St Charles dive shop when I have to go to STL airport. I'm currently using a big 3K tank myself. Where are the paintball places you found?

[42pilot]

I got very lucky and found a dive shop within 20 min of my house - 1 hour south of Atlanta. And they fill to 4500 psi, so the carbon tank is great.

[Geoff]

you can get a male to male foster fitting.  maybe that would make things happen.

no dive shops near you ?  that is where I used to get mine filled and I live in Indiana.

[Missed-Em]

OK, update 2 -The two paintball shops: 1 in Livingston, IL and 1 is the Bing paintball field west of Edwardsville (The Bing store in Edwardsville doesn't have a compressor, but does carry an impressive amount of paintball stuff).  I have been dealing with the Bing field, very nice guys and go out of their way to help this old guy out.  I ordered the male Foster fitting from PA, wasn't supposed to come in till Saturday, showed up Thursday, good deal.  Went the paintball field this morning, intentionally got there about 10 (figured the crowd would be in the fields by then) and I walked in they said "want her filled?" and bing/bang it was. I asked how much and the response was "nothing compressor runs all the time".  I've found a business that I will use again and recommend to all!  Now the fun times, do some shooting and in the process find out how many fills I'll get with free air!

[Phire Phite]

No one here will argue about free air.  That's a busy compressor.