Cleaning an 07 Ego

The Planet Eclipse 07 Ego was and still is a top of the line paintball marker. One of the things that separated it from its competitors is its simplicity to clean. A lot of markers need to have their body and frame separated to be able to get the main components fully cleaned where as with the 07 Ego, you don't. In this photo essay I'll be showing you how to properly clean an 07 Ego.

The barrel of the marker is what helps to greatly elevate the accuracy of your paintballs. If your barrel were to get dirty, it would cause the paintballs to go flying in every direction. To take off the barrel, you must twist it off. Do not twist counter clockwise though. Planet Eclipse markers are the only markers who's barrels are reverse threaded, meaning you turn it clockwise to loosen it. Once it's off, you're ready to start cleaning it. There are various ways to clean the barrel. A barrel gets dirty when a barrel break or a "chop" occurs( a paintball breaks in the chamber of the gun spraying paint all over the internals of the marker). Using a barrel swab ( a stick with fibres on it) is the best way to clean a barrel, but is also the most expensive. I personnaly use a barrel squeegee ( a stick with a round piece of rubber the same circumference as the inside of the barrel). All you need to do is push or pull the squeegee through the barrel and you're done.
The pin is the part of the marker that propels the paintballs forward through the chamber and out of the barrel. Half of the pin is situated in the chamber itself and the other half is visible outside the marker. To remove the pin, simply pull up on the silver locking mechanisme attached to the pin and pull the pin out. Now you're ready to clean both the pin and the chamber. Once again, if these two parts aren't clean, the accuracy of the paintballs would greatly suffer.
The pin itself is very easy to clean. You can use a cloth, a paper towel or even your own shirt to dab up any paint residue that is on the pin. There are two ways to clean the chamber, using a cloth, or using a barrel squeegee. Using a cloth is a lot harder because you have to squeeze the cloth in if it can even fit at all. I prefer to use the barrel squeegee. Simply push or pull the squeegee through, just like with the barrel, and you're done.

The eyes of the gun are very important. They detect weither or not there is a ball in the breach of the chamber or not. If there is a ball, the eyes let the rammer know it's ok to fire the pin and shoot the paintball. They're used to cut down on the amount of chops that occur. The eyes are protected by eye covers that you have to take off by unscrewing a screw using a 5/64" allen key. When both eye covers are out, you can start to clean the eyes.

To clean the eyes, one must be very gentle and delicate. Pushing too hard on the eye itself could shatter the eye, or you could pinch the wires connecting the eye to the circuit board, resulting in malfunctionning eyes. Cleaning off the eye sensors with a rag or cloth will do just fine. The eyes get dirty, yes you guessed it, because of chops in the chamber.

The circuit board is the "brain" of the gun and is located under the grips of the gun. The board controls how fast the gun shoots, weither to turn the eyes on or off, and many more things. To access these crucial components to the marker, you must take off the grips of the gun. Using a 5/64" allen key, unscrew the six screws holding the grips to the frame, and you can begin your cleaning. The circuit board can get dirty from seepage through the grips, or if the barrel breaks were bad enough, seepage from the chamber could make its way all the way down to the board. A little bit of paint on the board for a short period of time won't have much of an effect, but a lot of paint resting on the board for an extended period of time can fry your board ( the board won't work anymore and you need to spend atleast 200$ on a new one). Cleaning the board is a very delicate operation. if you use a rag or cloth, loose ends may get caught on one of the many wires, or chips on the board which could cause damage if pulled on hard enough. Simply wipe up any paint you see and your board will be working fine for a long time to come.

Upon completing that final step, the 07 Ego is now clean and ready to be reassembled. Assembly is just as easy as taking it apart, just screw everything in. With your newly acquired knowledge, you're well on your way to being a professional marker mechanic. Maybe one day they will invent a self cleaning marker, but until that day comes, this marker will have to do.