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DIY. Engineering is great..

Egon_247

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I've been an engineer for a long time. Electrical mostly but mechanical along the way with a bit of instrumentation to mix it up.

I like doing things and generally playing, do 98% of the stuff on my cars and pretty good with the tools.

So this Airsoft malarkey seems pretty straightforward so far. Shimming boxes and whatnot, growing extra fingers to put v2 boxes back together.

So I was looking at how to cut a hop window into a barrel. Long story short I've got some busted stuff and I'm playing with it, to recycle. Greta would be orgasmic. ?

So I've been looking at these R and S hop things. Engineering brain switches on and after inserting a bit of 6mm nylon airline, I coated the hop window with tigerseal. (If you've never used it, it's a polyurethane sealant and sticks to EVERYTHING and EVERYONE ?)

Tidied it up and let it cure for a few days. Pulled out the airline and it looks like a S hop. Haven't fired it yet but it's strong as hell!! 

Anyone tried this? I searched but nothing popped up....

 
Nylon airline? I'd have thought that was too hard to work as a hop?

 
Nice job. The airline is a good shout, I reckon you want something that applies some positive outwards pressure while the window material is curing.  Did you lube it with silicone spray or similar as a release agent?

I tried this with sugru and a PTFE-tape-wrapped 6mm drill bit shank, but despite leaving it 24 hours before withdrawing the bit, the sugru then slumped into the barrel to the extent that I was hopped to the moon with no pressure applied.

Some folk report success with bog standard silicone sealant, I may give that a try as well.

[EDIT] I should stress that this is just for fun, really, since Maple Leaf rubbers and nubs already do a pretty good job.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
[EDIT] I should stress that this is just for fun, really, since Maple Leaf rubbers and nubs already do a pretty good job.


Oh yes indeedy. Bored engineers are dangerous. :)  

Yeah, i gave the air line a quick squirt of silicone then rubbed it off, so it didnt migrate and sod it all up. Not sure standard silicone is man enough but hey, it aint a daft idea if it works, right? :D  

If you were going to get proper anal about it, i suppose you could block the airline then pressurize it, causing it to swell and apply outward force, sealing it properly.

 
Looks a little rough on the inside, but other than that... shoot it and let us know how it works!!

 
For the hop rubber you want to control two things, the area coverage or geometry, and the shore hardness of the material, and more is not better because there is a thing as too much hop, especially for middle weight BBs, because for example if you put in an R-hop it is usually too much for say sub-0.3s.

The silicone moulding method will definitely give you similar coverage and geometry with any other R-hop, and maybe if you know the specs of your silicone you can control the shore hardness. If done right I can see this performing on par with R-hop, but probably not better, and it is only really useful for heavier BBs, just like R-hop.

The only advantage is perhaps better air seal, but silicone applied on regular rubbers (outside) will achieve the air seal also so this is not a big deal.

So my opinion is, this seems too much work for little to no real performance gain, but maybe your testing will prove otherwise.

 
I'll see if the manufacturer states a shore number. Hadn't thought about that to be honest. 

It's currently in my mk23/vsr Frankengun so it'll be a while before I get it up and running properly. Proof as you say, will be in the shooting.?

 
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