Speedbird_666

This is the only way my local post-mistress will accept a RIF to send - no additional compensation can be be applied and she reads the rules as £100 cover only, so that's the way I've been sending them. I tell her 'low powered air weapon for sporting use'. I would wager that they would just retort with this part of their policy and politely tell you to jog on. That pretty much sums up every RIF.

£24 postage! - last RIF I sent an month or so ago (a heavy E&L AK with a bunch of mags) cost me £13 via PF48. Nice enough gun otherwise.

Even cheapo £100 JG G36s come with side rails, so it's shocking that gun costing 400 notes doesn't come with them. The gun looks good though.

At least spares support is excellent through Fire-Support. I love working on ICS guns because they are so easy to pull apart. I have three ICS guns and they are great performers out of the box. I've had 4-5 G&G guns over the years also, and they are OK too. My son rolls with my G&G SRS and he loves it.

Still £32 and in stock on HobbyRC: https://www.hobbyrc.co.uk/skyrc-s65-65w-6a-ac-balance-charger

Mk III fan mount fully finished, working and mounted, Mk I Goggle strap Battery box done (looks bigger in the picture than it actually is). Battery box needs refinement - I forgot to radius the edges. Mk II will be on the printer later today.

Sounds on face value like normal semi-lockup - although I would expect it to be a likely encountered issue if you are running an 11.1v LiPo That, and you mention that it's firing fully auto even on semi. It implies a cutoff lever/switch issue. If you fire semi at a steady pace, say 2-3 times a second, does it lock up then? I had one of these guns waaaay back, and it shot OK in semi even with a 7.4v LiPo.

I always recommend 2 LiPos, so you can switch at lunchtime. Over-discharging can fatally damage them. If you are running the Core on the stock motor, you might not get the best performance with a 7.4v LiPo. I would add an SHS Hi-Torque Motor (or equivalent) to the 'must upgrade' list to give you a nicer trigger response and more reasonable ROF (14-15 RPS) on a 7.4v LiPo - that's the setup I typically use on my guns with 'stock' internals.

Don't forget to pick up some Yellow bed springs (amazon etc.). They make bed-levelling much easier and consistent. I got lucky, my youngest son has been hounding my missus for a 3D printer for the last 6 months (he's obsessed with the idea of making his own table-top games and scenery - he's only 8 bless him), so when they were on offer via the Creality website to coincide with Amazon's prime day, she couldn't really say no.

I think it's a slightly scaled-up Ender 3 Pro, with a couple of upgrades (metal extruder) - I'm new to 3D printing myself, so I can only go on what I researched on YouTube etc. Here's quite a good review: Whilst having the extra build area is probably nice to have, bear in mind 3D printing takes ages. So if you have a print that fully fills the Max, expect 24hr+ prints, especially if it's something intricate. I'm lucky in that my work is shifting to a permanent work from home model, where at most I'll only ever be in the office two days a week, it means that I can set prints off in the morning and keep an eye on them throughout the day. I would be gutted if a 10-15hr print failed halfway through whilst I'm out and I came home to a colossal mess of plastic.

Yep - If you like making stuff then it's a great tool to have. I'm toying with making an OpenRC F1 Car over the next few weeks because whilst it'll take hours/days to print, it'll cost very little in material cost. I want to model some scale RC boats too, so that's on my 'to-do' list also. I have various Airsoft ideas I want to try, but I need to improve on my modelling skills in Fusion360 first. I would splurge the extra on the Pro model over the stock Ender 3 I think, and it can be had for £136 (£142 with glass bed) from the new dedicated Creality UK warehouse website that launched last week. 1st time customers get £8 off on orders over £150 so I would add a roll of filament to get started with. I have the V2 (approx £170), which is pretty much a Pro with a different screen, 32 bit board and a power supply stupidly tucked away and shrouded underneath which makes it sound like a Jet engine due to the lack of airflow. The (older) Pro has the power supply in a more sensible location, a more practical screen, yet has a few nice upgrades over the stock Ender 3 model, but I'm not sure what board it comes with though. As it's open source, there a stupid amount of upgrades and spares available for it, along with the community support and YouTube videos to help guide you.

Mark II Goggle fan mount with integrated on/off switch. Tested fitted - just need to solder up a switch - and find some black screws. Next step - goggle strap mounted battery enclosure.

Knocked up a simple fan mount for my goggles: A quick and dirty print (0.3mm layer height so the curves aren't all that smooth) to test the concept - and it works great. The PLA works surprisingly well to dampen nearly all the fan vibration. MK2 will have a rubber gasket between the fan and mount and integrated on/off switch with concealed wiring for the switch and fan.

Do you have any pictures of the damage to the upper? is it definitely not fixable?

What material did you print those in out of interest?

https://www.creality3dofficial.com/products/official-creality-ender-3-3d-printer?variant=31958151331913

I'm actually using PLA+ which is a bit tougher than normal PLA apparently. I have no clue TBH - it was cheap on Amazon for Prime Day (£12 for a 1KG roll) to get started with. Every print so far has been really good. Yeh - In future I will be using ABS, but I need a new hot end first. The rear rail is about as big as I would want to go with the material - but with 100% infill it feels tough enough to throw a cheap optic on and if it breaks it wouldn't ruin my day as it's non-structural to the gun itself. The 'standard' Ender 3 is £120 with free postage from Creality's UK Warehouse (2-3 day shipping), which is a stonking deal. If you are just looking to print (i.e. thingiverse models) then all you need is Cura to slice the models and a couple of YouTube vids to point you in the right direction.

Almost completely stock. Only mod is the yellow bed springs. I'll be upgrading the hot end to an all-metal jobbie at some point for ABS. Using PLA (for now). 0.16mm Layer Height. 100% Infill for the rails. Took ages but worth it.

Meanwhile..... Overnight print done (100% infill). really pleased with the result. 10 Minutes of support removal, and another 10 to file/sand the angled front gives me this (The BUIS/Red Dot are placeholders):

To quote Jeremy Clarkson - 'I made a thing!' - well, printed something from thingiverse. Got my first 3D printer (Ender 3 V2) yesterday, printed my first Airsoft-related 'thing' today - a front sight rail for a G36 - removing the standard carry handle rail and putting a KAC/Tommy Built Style low profile rail on top instead. The rear Rail is gonna take another 8 hours. Slow Business this 3D printing malarkey.

All AKs. I've had three (including one with a buffer tube). I want to love them. I love looking at them (particularly LCT, E&L etc) but I finally accepted that I just don't like them when it comes to actual gameplay.

Different types of printers. The smoother stuff you mention is likely SLS printed, which uses (frickin) lasers to fuse plastic powder together into a solid product. Not something many people can do at home, but there are plenty of SLS printing services available to small companies which allow them to outsource manufacturing for niche/short run products where injection moulding is not feasible. Here's an example, Badas designs makes drop stock adapter for various AEGs, they offer the same product in two guises, SLS print (outsourced I believe), and a 'normal' 3d print. The SLS has a fine grain texture to it, but generally looks more like a 'moulded ' product, whereas the normal 3D print has the layers (ridges) you refer to. There's also SLA printing for resin which produces fine detail prints (think Warhammer figures etc) but i don't think the outputs are particularly strong compared to the other methods (but could be wrong on that) .

Technically - DD Rails (and airsoft clones) require a proprietary wrench for installation and removal. If the barrel nut is steel - you might be able to use a drift punch to to tap it loose - but you will likely end up scratching the shit out of it. Otherwise, a basic AR tool might work. Available here: https://www.ant-supplies.uk/assorted-tools/airsoft-m4-stock-wrenches.html

Indeed. I have great plans for a spare G36 I've got knocking around, but I need to tackle the fundamentals first (machine setup and tuning, designing parts etc.) so it's more of a long-term aspiration. I've been working through quite a few Fusion360 tutorials - I'm good with 2D drafting in CAD (Autocad & Draftsight) but wrapping my head around the 3D stuff has been a bit trickier.

£168 shipped from Creality's UK Warehouse, not much more than an entry-level Airsoft Blaster. Funnily enough I saw this video the other day and thought of you: