DIY

[Guest PT247]

Possibly, but not sure as just woke up so can't think electronics atm, but why not just buy a third LiPo? Do you actually use all the juice in both batteries you have? I run a 1450 LiPo and that will last me all day (although will change it at lunch time for a fresh one if I remember).
Something I find that annoys me when turning up on site in the morning is the amount of gear I bring and then never use so have to lug it back to the car at the end of the day without having even touched it.

[Lozart]

My Lipo's and charger arrived. The charger came with leads to charge from a car battery. This gave me an idea. If I added a 12V battery to my box, I would have an emergency charging station. Would something like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sourcingbay-6800mAh-Rechargeable-Emergency-Lith-ion/dp/B00PAM1YOY/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1421830973&sr=1-6&keywords=12v+battery+pack work to charge a couple of batteries?

 

For that money I'd just buy extra batteries and charge them up beforehand.

[Russe11]

I have 3 batteries. I am just thinking that if there's a 2 day game and I have used all 3 on day 1. Or someone gets to a game and realises they forgot to charge their battery. I presume with the right adapters etc it could also charge NiMh's phones etc. It just seems like something that may be kinda handy in an emergency. Especially as I usually have to camp at WW2 games.

[Mack]

2 rows of webbing done, looking better already

 

[Chock]

Sanded the crappy two tone blue off my new A47's furniture, to reveal a pale tan coloured ABS, which was sort of okay, but I didn't like it much, so decided to give it a coat of X-26 acrylic to give it that slightly dodgy Eastern European lacquered look. That's the nice thing about painting and varnishing the furniture on AKs, RPKs etc, the sloppier the job you make of it, the more authentic is looks. I actually really like the look of this thing now, might take it to CQB next week for a piss take

 

[sp00n]

just a quick preview

[Sitting Duck]

dabbled with picaxe but not got into arduino or others though they do $hitloads of stuff

(only real limit is ya imagination I guess) - nice one

 

Chock & A47 - looks so much more like it now - better than the baby blue

& yeah just tell 'em "this is my secondary" - my primary is still in that transit van

[AirsoftTed]

I may be able to help. I used to make kites way back in the day and although I had a couple of very modern sewing machines, I also had a couple of old skool Singers which I began the business with. These days there are basically 2 main types of needle in production: sort of like the difference between motor spindles - there is the simple round type and a type which takes a D shaped pinion gear, yeah? Most needles are like the latter and have a flat edge which the fixing bolt tightens against. Industrial machines can also use needles longer than the standard 39mm, but you will be able to tell because the foot will be longer than the standard 2.25" (57mm). What you will probably need is a pack of 110/18 'Jeans Needles'.

 

Sorry Ian, I've been away and have only just seen this ( came back to an absurd amount of notifications so didn't go through everything).

 

The machine is being stored at my sisters at the moment, if I get some pics during the week of it do you think you'd be able to tell visually?

[Samurai]

Maybe it's a good topic for this. Hazards of lasers:

http://www.lasersafetyfacts.com/resources/Laser-hazard-distance-chart.pdf

[Ian_Gere]

I have 3 batteries. I am just thinking that if there's a 2 day game and I have used all 3 on day 1. Or someone gets to a game and realises they forgot to charge their battery. I presume with the right adapters etc it could also charge NiMh's phones etc. It just seems like something that may be kinda handy in an emergency. Especially as I usually have to camp at WW2 games.

Yeah but you go light to 2 dayers, because you don't have a car, right? So you're not likely to be taking a heavy wooden box with you, eh? So extra charging facilities in it are neither here nor there. As others have said, just get another spare battery. 3 x 1300-1450mAh LiPo's between them will last for a 2 day event unless you're a support gunner. If you are concerned that you may be running low by Sunday afternoon, or want to be able to help other people out, you could take the charger and the crocodile clip leads so that you could attach it to someone else's car if the need arises - I did that at NAE13, although it turned out that I didn't have a combination of adapters that could charge a battery with a Large Tamiya connector and that was the only request for help for which it would have come in handy - gear lugged and never used V^^VGrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

[Ian_Gere]

 

Sorry Ian, I've been away and have only just seen this ( came back to an absurd amount of notifications so didn't go through everything).

 

The machine is being stored at my sisters at the moment, if I get some pics during the week of it do you think you'd be able to tell visually?

Between pics and asking you to measure bits once i've seen it, yeah I may well be able to help.

[straffham]

I've had a cheapo £15 chest rig for a while now and worn it at a few skirmishes instead of my usual Webtex tac vest or M56 webbing, and actually quite like it, with 4 double mag pouches and 2 utility pouches plus large internal map pocket it holds a fair bit. However 2 issues were nagging at me:

 

1. No pistol holster. I tried wearing one on a belt but couldn't get on with it. The rig has belt loops but the holster would end up round my back as both the belt and holster would move.

2. It was a crappy digital ACU ish colour scheme which didn't fit the intended loadout (PMC/opfor as appropriate).

 

After musing I decided that rather than sell it and buy one in olive or tan (which would still have the same pistol holster issues), I would modify and recolour it. Stage one was to remove one of the utility pouches (right hand side when worn, as I prefer this to having to reach across to the left side) by carefully unpicking/cutting the stitching away:

followed by checking positioning of the holster (an old Viper one from my box of bits):

An old sling was cut into lengths, these were then fixed with 2 part epoxy resin into a "molle-esque" grid pattern where the holster straps will sit (this being a far stronger method than my stitching, short of ripping the material off the chest rig the holster will NOT fall off! ):

And lastly the whole vest was recoloured with olive brush on Fabric paint, which when ironed becomes wash resistant (its a chest rig - like its gonna get washed! ) and gives a nice "old used look":

It will probably get a quick pass of Krylon at some stage; I went for olive as I mainly play woodland though I'm thinking of tan Krylon for weathering it lightly. We'll see.

Anyway I'm quite pleased with how its come out for a low budget project!

 

[Guest PT247]

Some folk were asking me about how I built my HPA hi-cap mag for my G5. Below is a guide to how I built the double stack version, it isn't perfect but it works pretty good. Will do a similar post for my single stack hi-cap once it is finished :

 

This is what you need

 

Cut the mag casings like this

 

 

Tap the end cap for the qr connector (I used 1/8th npt thread). Ignor the damage, did this trying to remove the cap the other day.... Best cut in a flat head screwdriver slot so you can remove it without butchering it like I forgot to do lol

 

Bend some plumbers pipe to fit between the mags

 

Then fit together

 

Square off a 90' edge

 

And slide into the hi-cap

 

Join the mags together with mag clamps

 

Wind the mag and go play!

 

The QR coupling is away on business.... have given it to an engineering company to put some threads in the single stack mag which is why it isn't fitted in this guide.

[Guest PT247]

Just pieced together my single stack HPA Hi-Cap for the G5 after getting some of the bits back today. This is how I made it:

 

What you need (+ PTFE tape and various tools)

 

Remove the innards of the hi-cap and cut them as below

 

Remove the innards of the gas mag and cut them as below

 

tap threads into the top half of the gas mag to match the caps from it's base

 

tap a 1/8th NPT thread into one of the caps and then fit them

 

attach the pipe to the tapped cap

 

mate the gas upper and hi-cap lower then feed the pipe into the case and slide together

 

trim the pipe to length then attach connectors

 

fill the mag through a pre drilled hole that the magwell will hide. It'll take around 250BBs I think

 

wind the mag

 

and you are good to go

[Guest PT247]

I am currently struggling with feed issues and also alignment. I know with a little patience I'll be able to iron out the bugs, it is almost there, have fired off around 30 shots continuously and then it stops feeding repeatedly and also if I put the mag in with the bolt back it wont shoot, but does flawlessly if I put it in with the bolt forward (until it stops feeding). Frustrating but will get it running reliably! :-)

[Guest PT247]

After struggling to make the p-mag case from the hi-cap mag I have used a GHK M4 Stanag case. Didn't take much work to make everything fit and as a bonus I've been able to screw the hi-cap innards to the case so they wont move around. Have also fitted a chock that stops the gas part from getting left in the gun when removing the magazine. It seems to feed perfectly now and still holds around 250 BBs so the equivalent of 7 standard mags. Am really pleased to have finally finished building it, just need to skirmish it now!

 

[kerby91]

Ok so I picked up a Tokyo Marui mk23 Socom for £20 last week, and whilst I am yet to skirmish it, the all black look was bugging me. So I popped to Halfords and picked up a tin of their Olive green camo spray for £8. Removed and stripped the mk23s slide, scotch brited it and voila, results below

 

 

I got a bit carried away after this though, and ended up spraying the new 9 Led torch I grabbed whilst in B&M, as well as my spare goggles haha.

 

 

Not up to the standard of Sams work but I'm happy enough for now, put my own stamp on the Usp

[GingerBreadMan]

Ok so I picked up a Tokyo Marui mk23 Socom for £20 last week, and whilst I am yet to skirmish it, the all black look was bugging me. So I popped to Halfords and picked up a tin of their Olive green camo spray for £8. Removed and stripped the mk23s slide, scotch brited it and voila, results below

 

 

That looks great! certainly different, good deal for £20 too

[Unrustle_Thine_Jimmies]

A bit of in field "upgrading". Started bucketing rain in Bellurgan so I had to throw on some extremely impractical work gloves on instead of fingerless ones. VSR mag catch is already a bollocks to operate and impossible with gloves on,so I dug into my pack,pulled out a pen,knife and some glue. Cut the bellend of the pen off and glued it on the catch. Viola,no need to stretch my rectum and my wallet for PDi

[Guest PT247]

gotta love simple fixes that work as good as if not better than expensive alternatives! :-)

[Unrustle_Thine_Jimmies]

But wait,there's more!

 

The VSR I have has always had on and off minor feeding issues. I traced it to the nub which presses on a BB release button on the mag,pretty obvious. I always thought it was to do with adjusting the front stock screw and the mag catch spring. One day,all the issues went away after re assembling but cropped up again during sunday's game. It became clear that the nub was not applying enough pressure to release BBs. So I cut a small shim out of tin and glued it on the nub. All issues gone,mag no longer gets stuck,now falls free.

 

If anyone else is having issues with their vsr about feeding or mags getting hard to take out give this fix a whirl. Very simple,steady hand and tweezers do the trick.

 

 

[Ian_Gere]

The Silverback PP-19 Bizon 2 I have is a great gun - compact, but not in a way that obliges those with long arms to scrunch them up to shoulder it. The only problem with it is getting used to the mag change - it requires you to fit the hooks on the end of the mag onto twin bars under the front sight pillar, which is fiddly so not easy to do quickly and, so far, impossible without looking at it. The mags make the release catch pretty stiff too, so I have to press the catch to make sure it locks in place, which also makes it a little more difficult than most mags to remove, but i'm disinclined to shave any more off their pegs in case being looser stops them feeding properly. I would have liked to fit a steel extended magazine catch, like this LCT one:

...but the stock trigger guard is riveted in place.

Which left the only option being one of those bolt on types, so I bought a polymer one from khmountain_uk on fleabay which was only £5.99 posted...

...so no great loss if it turned out to be useless.

As it turned out it seems to have been made for catches longer than the average you find on AK's, but certainly longer than on my Bizon. There is a 3rd grubscrew which you can't see in that pic, which tightens against the opposite side of the catch, if the catch reaches it, which mine doesn't. It is the way that they tighten against each side which keeps the thing from falling off, so I was worried that that indeed is what would happen to it. To cut a long story short then, I am hoping that this piece of metal which I Dremmeled up from an old PC blanking plate will do the trick:

...ignore the label, it's just to get my phone camera to focus.

And a gratuitous whole gun on camo pic:

...just because

[Cheeky vimto]

I had a go at putting fans on my goggles today. My idea was 2x 5v fans running on a 9v battery. On a test run the battery doesn't have enough power to get the fans working so at the moment I've only put one on.

 

 

 

I'm now concerned that the 5v fan might burn out on a 9v battery. I've read mixed things about it on the Internet, anyone else had experience with this?

[Preston]

I had a go at putting fans on my goggles today. My idea was 2x 5v fans running on a 9v battery. On a test run the battery doesn't have enough power to get the fans working so at the moment I've only put one on.

I'm now concerned that the 5v fan might burn out on a 9v battery. I've read mixed things about it on the Internet, anyone else had experience with this?

I'm working on something similar. What I have chosen for the power supply is one of those portable usb battery packs. They output at 5V 1a. I have then wired the fans to a usb cable. If the pack is small enough, you can then stuff it into a counterweight case and stick it to the back off your helmet.

[Russe11]

Made some new goggles. As a glasses wearer I need to wear mesh to reduce fogging but as a WW2 airsofter the mesh goggles that will fit over my glasses look a bit out of place. I had tried some biggles style motorbike goggles but they fogged up like a bitch so I got some mesh and took the lenses out. I cut the mesh larger than the lenses and bent the excess back until they fitted. Lots of epoxy glue to fix the mesh in place and a dusting of matt brown plasticote to hide the visible glue and give them a dirty look and job's a good'un. Very pleased with the result and the seem a lot more sturdy than the mesh goggles I have been using.