Bullpups and no brains :D

[Samurai]

Don't reinvent the wheel. Even airsoft mechanics with tremendous experience don't make inner barrels. Those should be very straight lengthwise. If you turn it and work on it that way, it can be precise in diameter but it still can be wavy.

There is a lapping tool someone makes that polishes the barrel lengthwise, but it doesn't make much difference.

The high end inner barrels are very good and I don't think they can be improved in a workshop.

Also bear in mind that inner barrels don't contribute much to the accuracy. Even if you have a normal chinese gun, and change only the inner barrel, there won't be much improvement. If the original wasn't faulty (scratches or bent) then the difference is not noticeable. Precision barrels are one of the worst price/value upgrades.

When you get the gun, check the inner barrel if it's straight, and polish it maybe.

 

[Iceni]

Don't worry about me making it wavy, I've seen the regular cleaning guide with T-cut. It's one of those fluids that I see as been agressive and not much use other than for paint. The grits I have acess to are graded and much finer, And the method would be much the same as the T-cut method. The only difference is you don't pour onto your wadding. You wet the stones, then build a paste on them with a diamond lapping plate, then take that paste to the wadding. The actual material this method will remove is less than the T-cut method, and will take longer. I have the stones and I have the correct rotation of stones to get to a mirror finish, I'd be an idiot not to use them. Provided I start at about 5-8K rather than 1K then it's a pure polish rather than a cut and polish. Same as refreshing a straight razor edge, Your not cutting a bevel just polishing what is already there. I'm also the sort of person who will happily sit for a day doing this. I never rush.

this is the sort of polish 12K would get you.

 

[ImTriggerHappy]

Lapping a cheap barrel will not get the same results as buying a decent barrel. Its not about the polish more about the straightness and consistency of bore. Companies like Pdi, prommy and orga have specialist tooling and machinery to get their barrels as perfect as possible the cheap manufacturers dont even come close to the same level of accuracy. I will have a go at making anything but would leave a barrel well alone.

 

[Iceni]

O.k I've had time to browse the gun selections.

I've looked into most of the models and it's come to a choice between the ICS L85. I would have to go second hand. Or I can get a new JG AUG. I just can't seem to find as many parts for the guns that don't use standard gearboxes. And that for me is a big problem as I play with things, And like tweaking.


The AUG I'm looking at would be this setup.

http://en.safarasoftair.com/golden-bow-aug-military-tan
http://en.safarasoftair.com/element-silent-head-set-ver-3
http://en.safarasoftair.com/golden-bow-magazine-for-aug-330
http://en.safarasoftair.com/weapons/battery-charger/lipo-battery/ep-2800-7-4-30c-lipo-battery
http://en.safarasoftair.com/weapons/battery-charger/battery-charger/we-nuprol-lipo-battery-charger-with-balancer
http://en.safarasoftair.com/weapons/sling-and-adapter/sling/multipurpose/pantac-tactical-sling-ver-ii-tan

With postage that comes in at about £180

 

[Samurai]

The silent piston head set does nothing.

That charger is overpriced. You can get an imax b3 (same inside) from ebay cheap.

 

[Iceni]

I was told the piston head would reduce gearbox shock on the castings. Nothing to do with the sound and loudness of the gun just a simple upgrade to help keep it working for longer.

I'll look into chargers some more as well I picked that one beacuse of the fast charge option with the 5A current. Most of the cheaper ones were 850-1000mA. I'll do some more digging as your B3 in ebay option pulled up a B6 that looks promising for £12.

 

[Samurai]

B6 needs a power source too. Try B6AC. B6 or B6AC is a great choice.

There is no need to reduce impact shock on a normal AEG. Normally they come 400-430 fps, it's just in the UK where we are limited to 350. And v3 gearbox that's in the AUG is much stronger than a standard v2 (the one in an M4).

 

[Iceni]

I should be sorted for power options.

I have several masterplug laptop chargers, 9-18v with the different connectors and they all have decent ampage outputs. (some are pretty old and have silly output ampages).

And I can always butcher a spare ATX power supply if need be, I have several of the EVGA style PSU bridges. So I should be able to set up a charging station. I already have something very similar working in the house for my main PC's watercooling. It's a seperate case with all the pumps, resovoirs, rads and it's own PSU, Then quick release piping to the back of my main PC. It was done to aid moving the PC while I was moving about a bit. It's works well and if you forget to turn on the pumps it just thermal throttles till you flip the switch. It also means there is about 75ml of water in the main computer when static rather than a few hundred ml.

If I was doing it for a long term solution I may go as far as to desolder all the non essential cables and just have a direct connection to the charger and velcro it to the PSU. At worst it's an afternoon with a soldering Iron and some desoldering ribon. It's not a hard job just a little tedious.

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

You are probably one of the most hands-on people to ever join the forums lol.

lt's great not having to spoon feed people.

l welcome you with open arms haha.

 

[ImTriggerHappy]

You are probably one of the most hands-on people to ever join the forums lol.

lt's great not having to spoon feed people.

l welcome you with open arms haha.

Second that you have got to give it to people willing to get in and have a go.

 

[Iceni]

My job requires me to have a fix it and make sure it lasts mindset. Most of the time that means I have to work stuff out very quickly.

I can be on any random day doing anything from plumbing, plastering, electrics, electronics, machine repair, housing repairs on equipment. If it can be damaged it can be fixed. I save our company a lot of money and am pretty much free to choose my working hours and equipment list. They still don't want to get me a tig welder tho.... I'm working on that as there are a lot of places in the company I could find a use for it.

I don't throw things away unless I have to. Testament to this are my PC speakers. I have a creative DTT2200 5.1system from 1999. I've rebuilt the unit several times, Replaced the pots, Remade the controller using maplin boxes. It works as well as the day I got it 16 years ago. This is the reason I've written off models like the Fn2000, and the Tar-21. Whilst they may work well for a product lifetime I want a product that I can keep working until I say it's dead.

 

[BBrotherwood]

Fire support have the KA, 110 rounds pack of 5 midcaps back in stock for the AUG for £29. Having used them for a few months I would say there are some flaws but they are the cheapest option.

 

[Iceni]

That's great to know, I know I added a 330 rnd mag but that is a stop gap. The set-up I want will be 5x 110/170 and 5x 45. I can add those in later. I figured for this season 2x 330 would be enough to game with and would give me some backup mags in the future.

It's the same reason I took off the extra upgrades I was planning on the initial purchase. I figured I have time to add them at a later date. The gun model and basic mechanics are not going to significantly alter in that time.

Out of all the problems I'm seeing with the AUG, by far the most common are poor mags, switch gear, and poor plastics. Short of a little tweaking to stop airleaks most people who have one seem to like it.



Edit:

Back on the polishing thing.

My friend has a broken AK with a couple of barrels, I think the main body has a crack in the plastics. We're going to see if we can get it to function. If it works then we will get one of the spare barrels and I'll polish it. Should give us a good idea about how a mirror polish will affect performance. He has bets on a performance reduction, Claiming that some barrel friction acting on the air cushion is needed to get the absolute best BB exit. If that is the case I have the stones to work back from mirror to a grit facing, and check the accuracy as we work.

I won't be getting the gun and barrels till after the weekend but it should be interesting.

 

[Iceni]

Right, I've been gifted an AK 74. (my friend was very grateful for me rebuilding his motorbike engine with new pistons and rings).

This model. http://www.airarmsports.com/CYMA-AKM-AK-74-V3-Airsoft-AEG-Rifle-CM036/

It's one of the metal and wood CYMA ones, not plastic like I thought it was going to be.

The body has a crack in the pot metal where the barrel screws to the receiver due to a badly implemented fix. Looking at the damage I think it's fixable.

I'm going to order up some materials in a few days to work the fix. It'll be a low temp (300 degree) aluminium braze, with a propane torch for heat.

Once I get things in order and get the parts together, I'll put up some before and after pictures.

 

[Sacarathe]

Be sure you take out the internals before applying that heat. I'm guessing from the bike, that won't be a problem, but it'd be wrong to assume everyone knows there's an inner and outer barrel.

 

[Iceni]

It'll be fully stripped I'll need the work space to get clamps on the parts and the torch in. While I'm in there I need to strip and rebuild the gearbox anyway as this was a first gun to another player and I think it has seen a fair bit of abuse, So I'll have to check all the connectors and potentially replace parts of the loom as well. I have access to a spares box that will make the gun work if the braze works.

Should be a good intro project.

 

[Sacarathe]

http://www.airsoftsociety.com/forums/f10/

Check out the stickies there.

 

[Iceni]

So the work has started.

I might win this one

 

[Sitting Duck]

nice work

as the crack is underneath at front of receiver - you can still make up

& fit a small external U or n shaped support as well that shouldn't foul any of the front end fitting into receiver

painted black - nobody will ever know at first glance - bit like some scope mounts

little block made up fixed with some slightly longer M3 bolts will keep her together with a U or n clip/support

and will only help in to make the repair last perhaps

oohh be really clever - make up the support as a underside AK scope mount

SORT OF LIKE THIS

NB - note sure 101% if all AK mounts will fit your exact model as there is some slight variations between make/models

but you kinda get the idea of what I was saying to add extra support if it has a full U clip than the L shape clip in pic

welcome to forum - your skills & equipment and approach in general are very impressive btw

slicone oil is also good for polishing barrel & cylinder - not quite machine polished I know

but that stuff is mega slippery - keep it well away from hop bucking - but 80 to 90% of barrel polished works very well

as long as barrel/cylinder isn't scratched up the silicone works very well

hopefully in use they get polished up a bit but like most stuff - tiny bit of crap and it gets scratched very easily

 

[Iceni]

Awesome thanks for the info on those products.

It's not just that single crack, Both lugs that go into the barrel section are off as well.

One side has had a new section JB welded and screwed in place. I've removed it ground it back and soldered it, then reground the solder.

The other side the lug is on a thinned section of zinc casting. I've sorted the inside of this, Filled out a corner that was missing, And reground the solder. I need to pack it out with a heat-sink and run a fillet weld on the outside to make this part stronger.

I did test all the fitting last night once the welds were ground. Everything fits back as it should, No wobble without screws, and with screws it's 100% solid already.

Once the metal work is sorted I think I'm going to move over to the loom. It looks to have been made from 10a wire and has suffered from serious heat damage. I have some 16a copper core kicking about that will make a short term replacement. And I'll get some 30a on order if we can get the gearbox to work correctly.