As stated in the Concept Thread, I recently came across a
$6 pump on ebay that seemed like a good deal for an obvious knock-off of higher quality bike pumps. After ordering one Tuesday and receiving it on Saturday, fairly quick shipping on the seller's part, I've now had a chance to look at it and somewhat evaluate it's place in Nerf modding and homemades.
As it looked fresh out of packaging.
Not too shabby looking, obviously a visual knock-off of higher quality bike pumps. In it's closed state it's 12.5" long, and 20.5" fully open, giving us 8" of stroke with a 1" diameter tube, netting us approximately .785ft
2 of pump volume.
The handle, while feeling pretty comfy for my large hands, is actually flimsy and comes apart by simply removing the red pin. The entire handle can also be unscrewed from the pump shaft, which I'm happy to report is metal. This means that any number of different handles are possible to use, provided it uses a standard thread. If not, then it shouldn't be too much of a hassle to simply cut new threads that are standard.
Here I have the top cap removed to take off the piece used to keep the hose in place. A word of advice, avoid removing the pump head from the tube. The o-ring is a snug fit to the tube, so it's quite the challenge getting it back in.
At the bottom end, you have the hose connector that can be unscrewed easily. The bottom end of the hose is firmly attached to a piece of plastic within the cap there, so I don't see it being feasible to use that cap and adapter. You could cut that hose, shove another piece of hose in the elbow there and epoxy it in, then put the cap over it to ensure an even tighter fit, but that seems like a least-effort choice.
This is it in it's currently stripped-down state. I haven't gotten the end off yet, but I'll wait and get a friend to hold one end of it. Seeing as the tube is just over an inch in diameter, it should be easy to shove it into a 3/4" fitting or piece of 1" PVC, then have plenty of connectivity options. Also, the holder that comes with the pump appears to be a snug enough fit to hold the pump to something, but I'll have to test it while pumping up something to be certain. Overall, I can see this as being a versatile and useful pump for the $6 price tag. I'd definitely prefer this over my McGregor pump I used for my EPVAT; the tube is smaller, making higher pressures easier to pump, and it feels overall more stable to use, probably due to a 1/4" thick pump shaft.
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