APH guide feedback

[SSCBen]

A few months ago I wanted to post a thread for feedback here but I never got around to it.

Check out my new APH guide: http://www.sscentral.org/homemade/aph/

In this guide I addressed a lot of problems people have brought up before. Now the guide is more detailed than ever. There are over 80 pictures in the guide and I only plan to add more. The guide is over 4000 words long, contains FAQs and a design tool.

A few problems I know about already and I'll post them here mainly to remind myself later when updating the guide. The customizations/variations page is incomplete. The copper water gun page is incomplete. There are no pictures of 3 inch PVC pipe or of how to put the pump into the water gun. Another potentially helpful page would describe how the APH itself works with some animations. Those are the improvements I can think of right off the top of my head.

How else can I improve this guide? Any thoughts are welcome.

[SSCBen]

No feedback at all? I hope there won't be any complaints about the inadequacy of this guide then...

If you have any thoughts about this guide at all, let me know in this thread.

[Silence]

Perhaps you should note the backpack reservoir connection in the construction part (I may have missed it). Although the backpack is present in pictures and in the homemades section, I know there was some confusion with the old article.

[emperor_james]

nice guide, but if you cant build one from the first pic, your a noob anyway.

[SSCBen]

The backpack link was in the construction page from the beginning. Perhaps I should put that on the front page though...

I'll agree partly that you really don't need any more information than the picture (the drawing on the construction page is truly all that is needed). At the same time, I understand that some people never have used PVC before and want as much information as possible. I'm hoping that at the very least this guide stops the "comprehensiveness" complaints I've received over the years. The one thing I will reiterate over anything else is that all difficulty when building is a perceived difficulty. Perhaps I should make that more clear in the guide.

Interestingly, I've already received several offers to build water guns despite me saying clearly on the page that we're not selling at the moment. So I do think a lot of people think this is out of their league, which is a problem in my opinion. I need to make it clearer that building water guns is easy and fun. Maybe some videos of the building process would help. I think I'll do that.

Another thing I want to do is make an APH with an included reservoir. Likely I'll do it THR style but with wood sheeting instead because it's cheaper and easier to machine. And I'll make another guide.

Then comes copper water guns. There's no guide for those either. Admittedly I know little to nothing about copper pipe, but I figure it can't be so hard so I'll give it a whirl this summer too.

I guess feedback gets me thinking. It's getting very late for me though so I'll be going to bed soon. Good night!

[SSCBen]

No other comments? I was really hoping to get a response from people who don't build and thus are new to the entire thing, which is partly why I asked here. Those people will have questions that might not seem obvious to people like me. Again, let me know here if you have any questions or comments at all.

[HBWW]

One thing that should probably be noted in the article is the 1/2" pipe manufacturer: J/M Manufacturing (I believe it is) and Charlotte Pipe use slightly different ID's, which will affect how the pump seals and/or whether or not it is too stiff to pump.

[SSCBen]

Okay, that should be easy to do. Thanks for the information CA-99!

Here's a list of what I plan/possibly will do:
- construction videos
- finish customizations/variations page
- make copper water gun
- make variation with included reservoir like THR
- add pictures of 3 inch PVC pipe
- add how to put the pump into the water gun with pictures
- write page about how the APH works with animations
- make a clearer distinction between backpack and onboard reservoir options
- make it more clear that building is not difficult
- note about differences in 1/2 inch PVC diameter

Anything else would be very appreciated.

[HBWW]

Yeah, I decided to mention that partly because I've had a ton of problems with pumps myself. What usually happens on my CPH is that the seal is so tight that no amount of lubrication loosens it. My idea behind this is that if a pump doesn't run smoothly without lubrication, it needs revision. (I don't see manufactured pumps, particuarly those on water blasters, needing a ton of lubricant, other than some tracked pumps)

I'll probably be able to input more once I write up my article on the WBL I'm still working on. An important thing we may want to look at is assessing the builder's knowledge of how the WBL's and homemades work and be able to, when presented with a design, follow the logic of how it works, as well as have an idea of what's most efficient. This helps assess the builder's ability to modify designs and change it to fit different needs. Then there's being able to design ergonomically, etc. I guess most builders figure out a lot of this after they build their first homemade(s). I'll try to cover some of this as well as familiarzation of store parts, etc. in the WBL article. (though I'm starting to get off topic now)

I'm not so fond of using 3/4 for the PC-nozzle assembly, mainly from the mistake I made of using that for my CPH, but it probably works well on APH's. Only thing is the difficulty of creating a trigger and making tap shots with the valve.