ak2m4

@cojkor get some pictures up of the AEG's and let us all have a look 🙂 You'd be surprised at what can be salvaged.

I've got a feeling that JG never did engraved trades, who really knows though! I was going to buy a used one of these back in 2005, but the CASV handguard was quite the chonk weight-wise. @screwfix is it full metal?

At this point I recommend taking the build back to stock gears and see what happens.

128, 200, 229, 260, 285, 300, 363, 380, 407, 430, 450, 470 and 500

@Lozart I'll be doing a special next couple of days for anyone who wants to try this 1st batch. Here's a video of the internal polishing: https://youtu.be/gn1D-U8tJzM The bore size is comparable to ZCI but with a much higher polishing finish on the inside.

Factory says finished on the 12th but (A) Never trust a factory on dates and (B) If ready will take UPS forever to courier to the UK... 🙂 The inner barrels have arrived, just some final testing etc

You've got a double o-ring piston head (don't use them if you can), and a X ring piston seal o ring - check that both can slide easily. Check piston head vents don't have too much grease on them. AB shouldn't affect it, don't run an AB, will only heat up your motor and reduce life. How long is your nozzle?

Easy to get them them rethreaded? Tools should cost about £20. Do you know the size?

No real need to spend £1K, just get yourself a reasonable mid-priced AEG (electric) M4 to start off (£200 - £300), pistol if you really want but it's not essential, it's more of a "fun" purchase. No need for all the gucci gear either. Far better to dip your toe and then slowly build up over time. Have fun.

@Pseudotectonic I like Audacity (very handy), one small caveat with rof though, if your bb's aren't feeding it will still measure them so can throw off results.

@Leo Greer have you noticed any PME with that build? I'm just about to test a very similar build with one of my new 34k brushless motors with a M110, fully stock no SS

Yes SHS get around the issue by using copper for a certain size. I've never had any issues with the copper shims in a gearbox so that's when I thought of using aluminium shims since they can be annodized pretty cheaply. I have come across alum shims before but never used them. Only real way to tell is get some made up and then run in a gearbox for a 500,000 pews

tried it, sadly can pick it off super easily but something like that is ideal, just dip each spring in a different colour and then hang up to dry, very quick process and cheap to do.

Yep batches of course but still expensive, even in China! I've noticed a real hike in laser etching cost recently. I asked one factory to do 500 nozzles and the cost was around 40p each, that's a huge addon to the end price and hard to justify.

Yep I can imagine the ball-ache that would cause, I imagine they have their own machine and some poor guy has to align them all, haha good fun I'll have some video on it very soon, it's quite impressive 🙂

I'm due to test the new brushless motor this weekend and that will push my XT M110 test spring to around 1.5 million cycles. It's not lost any power / size yet so interesting to see what the results are.

@Colin Allen from talking to the factory and my own test the zinc coating they put on those springs affected the performance of the spring in terms of power and reliability over time. Another reason why some brands use zinc plating is to help mask the poor quality of the steel underneath. Believe me when I say I would gladly have a zinc coating on these as packing them into bags you get covered in grease. I did try colour coding the piston end of my springs but could never find a paint which wouldn't flake off. I imagine some sort of powder coating would work fairly well but have to keep costs low otherwise before you know it paying £14 for a spring. If anyone has any ideas I'm open to suggestions ?

that's the SHS pack, material is stainless steel of the silver but the bronze is copper I believe. I'm curious to see how well aluminium holds up.

I was thinking the other day what an arse it is for shims sizing identification. Toying with the idea of getting some samples made up for testing as I'm not sure how the aluminium / anodized material would hold up to the grinding of gears. Nothing complicated 0.1mm, 0.2mm, 0.3mm and 0.5mm all different colours. Think it's worth a punt? Would you be excited to use colour-coded shims? Few other solutions like laser etching but so hard to see for those of us who need old man glasses 🙂 not to mention more expensive.

@Krisz for about 18 month EMS stopped shipping from HK, they're back now but it's around 40 bucks for 2kg

Maybe if products were coming from the EU but importation from China hasn't really changed. Royal Mail prices have increased however. They're seriously pushing all retailers to their Tracked solutions. On October 1st they raised their Large Letter prices by nearly 30% in one go, this has really hit eBay sellers. Back in 2015 1st class Large Letter was £0.80, today it's £1.95 😞

The reason I heard that it's so cheap to ship from China is they currently enjoy a massive discount on global shipping rates, mostly due to the fact they are crazily still classed as an "emerging economy" or something like that, their RMB is famously under valued as well apparently. For Chinese Airsoft products it's can be difficult to export from China due to the product restrictions. Few Chinese brands are allowed to ship directly from mainland China, generally have to ship from Hong Kong. All adds to the cost, so fewer wholesalers, some brands only allow you to purchase 20ft containers so a wholesaler will wait till all stock is gone before reordering. On the note about UK stores not using cheaper shipping. I sent Large Letter products 1st class for 8 years or so for only £1.50, eventually I gave up since I was getting a large amount of customers saying their item didn't arrive since there's no "official" tracking. What customers didn't know tracking did indeed exist but only if you speak to Royal Mail business support directly. I just got fed up with all the hassle from it, an being open to fraud so I moved over to Tracked 24 which is double the price - sucks but has to be the way forward.

Love me some boarding but not been for 5 years and would need a solid 6 months to get into shape, knees ache just thinking about bending down to do my bindings up. I heard a new company might be running ski trains at a decent price. You planning on flying or driving?

That is great news

Those motor towers were a sod to get made, should be some slightly thicker ones coming with the option of EZO bearings for those who want to rpm over 40,000, although the normal bearings will probably be fine. The reason I mentioned about AB is that every so often I hear a brushed motor failure story from a customer, not just the motors I sell but other brands also. 99% of the time it seems the culprit is Gate's Adaptive AB setting. I've not really looked into the issue though but good to keep in mind.