Lozart

IPA is too hoppy. Try something with a good chocolate malt like a stout or a porter.

Was anyone NOT expecting this?

ANy spray paint needs to be used in a well ventilated area and preferably with a suitable mask. Standard Halfords rattle cans are water based with low VOC, 1K lacquer is slightly worse but you should be fine with a half decent mask from Screwfix but 2K has isocyanates in them and that shit NASTY!

I wouldn't be recommending 2K to anyone without access to proper PPE! The U-Pol 1K clear will be more than tough enough for an airsoft gun and is way less harmful to health. Source: custom painter.

Every so often I get tempted by one of @TheFull9's ads. Then I see the sizes and cry.

Don't buy from there. Ever.

The back panel does limit the adjustment a bit. When I was down at 15 stone I had the straps adjusted all the way down and it fit fairly well. Of course, now I'm up to 17 stone it still has plenty of adjustment left in it!

It's one of those "shit sticks" scenarios. The early Bolts did have issues, there's no question about that, but they've been addressed in the more recent iterations. The SR47 was one of their initial launch range so I'm not surprised to hear someone's fell apart.

I had a great one recently, due to the extra cost of EMS the seller on AliExpress decided to ship it by ground. "at destination airport" came up about half a dozen times as my miniscule order wound its way through Russia and Ukraine!

PM me.

Gotcha. In all honesty I think you've just got something that people don't want. It's a good price for what it is but it's not a really popular colour and it's not a great time of year to be selling (especially given the current uncertainty of whether or not people will get a game). If you leave the ad up it'll still come up in searches even if it goes "uncompleted" so it's worth relisting it and just forget about it until someone decides it's what they want. Maybe bump it in the New Year? As @L3wisD said a lot of people are put off by the stigma of the brand (I used to have a Viper shirt and honestly it was one of their better ranges, lasted me a decent while). If it was the size up I'd have been arguing with him about who wanted it most! 🤣

Your advert says it's completed so I take it you've managed to shift it now?

Hi there, welcome aboard! First off there may be an issue for some sites regarding the age of the boys, plenty of them have minimum age limits for insurance purposes and 11 might be OK but I don't know of any that would take an 8 yr old. As far as does it hurt goes, it certainly can but it really depends on what sort of site it is and how close you are. A CQB site tends to be much closer but FPS limits are generally a bit lower (sometimes) but this statement from your linked article would be about right: Now obviously the level of enjoyment your boys get will depend on how much tolerance they have to that. As far as gear goes, pretty much anything you'd be happy with them knocking about playing in will be fine you don't need to go buy a bunch of kit straight away although a pair of boots with ankle support wouldn't go amiss. The one thing you absolutely WILL need is eye/face protection. Most if not all sites stipulate that under 16s have to wear full face protection so something like this https://www.defconairsoft.co.uk/product/hood-mesh-protection-mask-tan/ at a bare minimum. You'd be best off having them rent kit to start with, so in a similar fashion to paintball, you pay your money and rock up to be provided with the gun, some ammo and in non-'rona times facemasks etc. That way you can see if they're going to actually enjoy it before you splash out on guns and kit!

All valid points. Personally I've never needed to fix bushings in, maybe I've just been lucky? Granted none of my guns ever gets used so much as to cause catastrophic wear and if we were talking about someone with only one gun that they're trying to make the absolute best they can for longest life and reliability then I get it. Thing is though, where does it stop? At what point do you acquiesce to the law of diminishing returns? Most gearboxes do have locating lugs, granted but in the main they're cast from a shitty alloy to a budget and aren't great in terms of tolerances. Close enough really is good enough for the vast majority of cases in airsoft. As for pressing in bearings, yes excessive force or too tight a fit will cause stress on the gearbox shell. A cheap/badly made gearbox might crack...eventually. Really shouldn't be an issue with a decent CNC aluminium gearbox though, plus you should be able to ensure you get high quality bearings/bushings designed to fit a precision machined hole. Granted there is a potential for the bearing to go in skewed as the shell thickness isn't huge compared to the diameter of the bearings but there's just as much risk that a loose fitting bearing/bushing will be off centre if you glue it in. Anyway, as with all things - your mileage may vary. I don't think you should need to glue in bearings/bushings but that's my opinion/experience.

Try heating the handguard around the barrel nut. You should only need a hairdryer or something similar as it looks like it's a plastic handguard.

For clarity - I have an engineering background and used to own motorcycles so the concepts of bearing fit and the difference between epoxy and Loctite are very familiar. For example - my old Suzuki had the left front wheel bearing held in place with Loctite because the previous owner had chosen to remove the coating from inside the bearing housing (I did eventually replace the wheel but hey, I was young and stupid). Ultimately if the bushing/bearing fits like a dick in a shirtsleeve then gluing it in is a band aid over an axe wound. The right answer is to get bearings/bushings that fit properly or replace the gearbox shell if the holes are off because they have worn. It's less of an issue with any sort of half decent bearing as the friction of the bearing to gearbox housing should easily overcome the friction in the bearing race (if it doesn't then you've either bought VERY cheap bearings, they just don't fit or the gearbox is screwed). When you look at the cost of most mainstream airsoft hardware it's a constant source of frustration/amusement that any of it fits together at all let alone with any degree of precision. If you're bonding in the bushings perfectly square and honing the ID to be perfectly round, how are you making sure that the gearbox halves are perfectly in line? If they're not then you're just making work for yourself, surely? It comes as no surprise whatsoever that the gear axles aren't round. I'm impressed if they're just the right length! Don't misunderstand me here - I'm not saying that what you're doing is in any way wrong or that the engineering makes no sense, it's just that I don't see why you would want to in the first place. Yes, belt and braces engineering so that the 50p bushings last a bit longer in the £10 gearbox but none of what we're discussing here is to do with any sort of precision machine is it? Of course, I'm making the assumption that we're not trying to fit SiegeTek gears into a CNC billet gearbox here but we are talking about a system that relies on a floppy rubber O-ring on it's primary source of motive air to provide a dynamic seal... None of which should stop anyone doing anything if the main justification is "because I can/want to". Fill your boots (just not with epoxy though, eh? That would be stupid).

@Davegolf I'm aware of the principle, I've just never seen any need to do it on an airsoft gun. Unless the gearbox shell or the bushings are a particularly bad fit then the friction fit itself should be enough to hold the bushings in place. Of course if the gear axles are binding in the bushing, causing it to rotate that's a whole different issue.

With the bolt removed from the bottom of the handguard it should just slide off forwards. It may need some percussive maintenance* if it's a bit stuck. *hit it with a hammer

I can honestly say I've never yet seen a gearbox with bushings epoxied in place. Should the gun last long enough to need them replacing you're stuffed!

Cool, thanks for that. I have looked at a gas gun but as I already have the AEG MK12 and I'm happy with the externals, hop barrel etc it's not a route for me right now. The Mancraft expansion chamber was something I looked at but they say it does 40-70 shots per cartridge. Must be running it pretty high FPS! Is yours with one of their SDiK units or something else?

I've been looking at the Wraith stocks for the EBR as it has the Crane stock on it but my MK12 is the full stock style so maybe the Wraith adaptor on a standard reg hidden in the stock? How does the blowback mag power the HPA engine then?

I've been looking into an HPA conversion on one (or more) of my DMR setups for the consistency of FPS etc. The part that has always put me off is the whole tank and line malarkey and while I'm sure that's fine for 40RPS BB hoses I'm looking at semi only, targeted shots so the limits imposed by CO2 bulbs aren't going to be such a problem! I'm a complete noob at this sort of stuff other than having a bog standard Tippmann paintball marker donkey's years ago so here's the question. If I go CO2 as the power source is there any major issues with mixing manufacturers, which engines work well for what I'm trying to do and is there anything I need to consider before jumping in? I'm looking at doing my MK12 first as it's the easiest to get parts for but my M14 EBR is also an option assuming I can get something with a suitable offset nozzle. I like the look of the purely mechanical systems (Kythera, PDiK etc) but the only offsets I can see are the Wolverine Hydra and the P* F2 so any suggestions there would be helpful too. Additionally is it something I should look at second hand parts for or am I best off going new?

Nice, I see what you did there!

As someone that deals with Mitsubishi Electric on a regular basis, no...no they don't.

Pic am broke. But I'm guessing this is the pic of the three that's on your blog/socials?