"mister12ax7"I bet the companies that manufacture HPA tanks for commercial and public use must have some serious liability insurance
to cover their asses. That must be part of the "overhead" cost that gets passed on to the consumer.
It is more likely that they cover their asses by getting someone else to do their hydro test. If a tank explodes and takes off someone's head, they didn't do the hydro test properly your honor.
The place I bought my used tanks from is a firefighter supply store. They sell large volumes of new and used tanks to fire departments across the country. They do hydro testing onsite and even they have semi-outsourced it to a one-man business. He sits upstairs on his own doing hydro testing all day and is blissfully unaware of the liability timebomb he sits on.
Sh*t rolls down hill and if I was him, in the event of a problem, I would be saying they should take action against whoever came up with that inadequate hydro procedure....
For the air reservoirs on our pcp guns, I doubt they have to worry. We generally fill them ourselves using adapters that weren't fitted by anyone qualified. It would fairly short work to successfully blame us in court for their product malfunction. That's if you could afford to even take it to court. The one and only time I tried to use the legal system, it cost me over $50,000 excluding all lawyers fees. Never again....
On the diy valve thing, you are correct that it is not something to try if you don't know what you are doing but..... They can be bought ready made for very little money. If I was going to make my own cylinder (which I'm not) Pyramyd Air sells replacement valve piston and seals for the Sumatra for $5. $5 for the end cap springs too. The whole valve assembly is less than $20.
The easiest way of doing it would be to buy a replacement valve for the air rifle you intend to use it with. Then buy an aluminum tube rated to at least 1500psi more than you intend to use it for. Then buy a tap or die for the correct thread size for the valve and an end cap for the other end and that's all.
99.9% of use will never get past pricing up the parts on the McMaster site because it eventually dawns on you that it's a terrible idea.