Agm Mg42 Possible Upgrades

[spoonkwurst]

So long story short, I bought an AGM MG42 from a shop about a year back, and on first use, after admittedly pushing the cheap components too far, the bezel gear just shredded itself, After taking it back to the shop I bought it from, AGM accused me of tampering with the gun from apparent scratch marks around the screws and after replacing the gear they voided the warranty.

 

I'm looking to upgrade pretty much everything internally, but I do have a couple of questions for anyone who knows the answers, and a few suggestions in regards to upgrades. My main goal is to achieve 20RPS at the very least and have reliable enough components that don't shit themselves after being fired for longer than 2 seconds

 

To start with, I already have a new shell for the upper gear box, the Bullgear CNC upper shell, which I'm hoping will be good enough.

 

I have a list made of stuff that I have seen on other posts about upgrading these, which ill list now:

 

SHS High Torque Motor 16TPA (Long or Short, I haven't opened the lower gearbox so I'm not sure)

SHS 13:1 Gears

ZCI AEG 363mm Inner Barrel

SHS 14 Tooth Piston

SHS Piston Head (Double O-Ring)

SHS M4 21.4mm Nozzle

SHS M4 Cylinder Head

SHS Tappet Plate (V2)

M105 Spring

 

Question 1: Am I missing anything of importance?

 

Question 2: I haven't actually opened either gear box, so this question is, does any one know if I need a long or short motor?

 

Question 3: From what I've seen, the MG42 seems like it comes with a spring guide doesn't fit anything else, should i just keep this stock? Or can it actually fit a regular spring guide?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

[Keithlag]

you will need to speak to Adolf Hamster  he had one

[Shamal]

31 minutes ago, spoonkwurst said:

So long story short, I bought an AGM MG42 from a shop about a year back, and on first use, after admittedly pushing the cheap components too far, the bezel gear just shredded itself, After taking it back to the shop I bought it from, AGM accused me of tampering with the gun from apparent scratch marks around the screws and after replacing the gear they voided the warranty.

 

I'm looking to upgrade pretty much everything internally, but I do have a couple of questions for anyone who knows the answers, and a few suggestions in regards to upgrades. My main goal is to achieve 20RPS at the very least and have reliable enough components that don't shit themselves after being fired for longer than 2 seconds

 

To start with, I already have a new shell for the upper gear box, the Bullgear CNC upper shell, which I'm hoping will be good enough.

 

I have a list made of stuff that I have seen on other posts about upgrading these, which ill list now:

 

SHS High Torque Motor 16TPA (Long or Short, I haven't opened the lower gearbox so I'm not sure)

SHS 13:1 Gears

ZCI AEG 363mm Inner Barrel

SHS 14 Tooth Piston

SHS Piston Head (Double O-Ring)

SHS M4 21.4mm Nozzle

SHS M4 Cylinder Head

SHS Tappet Plate (V2)

M105 Spring

 

Question 1: Am I missing anything of importance?

 

Question 2: I haven't actually opened either gear box, so this question is, does any one know if I need a long or short motor?

 

Question 3: From what I've seen, the MG42 seems like it comes with a spring guide doesn't fit anything else, should i just keep this stock? Or can it actually fit a regular spring guide?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

Hi ya. 🖐

My thoughts are;do you really feel confident opening it up to do work? It doesn't sound like you have done a lot of mech work.I could be totally wrong for which I apologise.

🤔👍

Regards 

[spoonkwurst]

6 minutes ago, Shamal said:

Hi ya. 🖐

My thoughts are;do you really feel confident opening it up to do work? It doesn't sound like you have done a lot of mech work.I could be totally wrong for which I apologise.

🤔👍

Regards 

nah you're completely right, but I want to start doing my own upgrades/repairs at some point and this is my only gun that i feel i need to upgrade atm haha

I do feel confident enough, i have already sunk a fair amount of hours into gearbox replacements/upgrade videos, i just need to apply it irl. I know its probably more difficult it being two separate gear boxes that connect together, but im aware of the possibilities of making mistakes as a newbie and I'm prepared to buy replacement components if i do mess up

14 minutes ago, Keithlag said:

you will need to speak to Adolf Hamster  he had one

Thank you!  I will try and get into contact with them

[Adolf Hamster]

40 minutes ago, Keithlag said:

you will need to speak to Adolf Hamster  he had one

 

nearly, you do @ then the name, eg @Adolf Hamster

 

so, the agm '42, ooh boy this is gonna be a can of worms and i'm really sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

 

there are a fair number of issues with this thing, and it took a LOT of work to get mine to the position where it would be fieldable (note in this case fieldable means you pull the trigger and bb's come out in the vague direction you're pointing it).

 

problem number 1: the magazine mech is awful, i doubt you're gonna get it to feed past stock speeds (ie by wiring it to the main battery) without blowing the motor, i sure didn't. it's a really underpowered mech compared to most other brands and the way it deals with blockages/a full bb tube is to just stall the motor. i ended up settling for a custom made mount to fit a classic army m249 box which has a sprung auto-wind and cutoff, this looked absolutely hideous but it did work. i can't say for sure if using a g&g mag is an option to preserve the gurttrommel look. i did try fitting mechs to a real '42 ammo can (the big 250 round belt jobby) but it's hard to get a mech to feed down a metre of tube reliably.

 

problem number 2: the gearbox shell setup is aoe killer central, maybe the bullgear shell might fix this but tbh the split design with the gears in the handle and the piston in the reciever means any looseness in the grip mounting is gonna be a stripped piston, hell you look at it from the wrong angle its a stripped piston.

 

problem number 3: the reciever is made of cheese- don't drop it because it will bend, the guy i sold mine to described it as "pasta" which sounds about right. it is possible to reinforce it with big steel bars inside the reciever but that's above and beyond your normal teching and into fabrication territory. also the bipod is made of cheese too, it'll break, but i think it's feasable to fit an RS one when it does.

 

 

my honest opinion is your best course of action is to skip trying to get it working as an aeg and go straight into the hpa route, leave the magazine stock and set the engine to fire whatever speed the mag will feed to. of course that's not easy either as it's a weird nozzle length, i ended up taking a nozzle for a g&g sr25 and turning it down on a lathe to the right length, then it'll run fine as long as you don't drop/knock it and bend something.

 

 

of course the results of all this work is gonna yeild a very heavy and awkward gun that's a pain to aim and doesn't do anything an arp9 with a drum mag can do at a quarter of the weight.

[spoonkwurst]

1 hour ago, Adolf Hamster said:

 

nearly, you do @ then the name, eg @Adolf Hamster

 

so, the agm '42, ooh boy this is gonna be a can of worms and i'm really sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

 

there are a fair number of issues with this thing, and it took a LOT of work to get mine to the position where it would be fieldable (note in this case fieldable means you pull the trigger and bb's come out in the vague direction you're pointing it).

 

problem number 1: the magazine mech is awful, i doubt you're gonna get it to feed past stock speeds (ie by wiring it to the main battery) without blowing the motor, i sure didn't. it's a really underpowered mech compared to most other brands and the way it deals with blockages/a full bb tube is to just stall the motor. i ended up settling for a custom made mount to fit a classic army m249 box which has a sprung auto-wind and cutoff, this looked absolutely hideous but it did work. i can't say for sure if using a g&g mag is an option to preserve the gurttrommel look. i did try fitting mechs to a real '42 ammo can (the big 250 round belt jobby) but it's hard to get a mech to feed down a metre of tube reliably.

 

problem number 2: the gearbox shell setup is aoe killer central, maybe the bullgear shell might fix this but tbh the split design with the gears in the handle and the piston in the reciever means any looseness in the grip mounting is gonna be a stripped piston, hell you look at it from the wrong angle its a stripped piston.

 

problem number 3: the reciever is made of cheese- don't drop it because it will bend, the guy i sold mine to described it as "pasta" which sounds about right. it is possible to reinforce it with big steel bars inside the reciever but that's above and beyond your normal teching and into fabrication territory. also the bipod is made of cheese too, it'll break, but i think it's feasable to fit an RS one when it does.

 

 

my honest opinion is your best course of action is to skip trying to get it working as an aeg and go straight into the hpa route, leave the magazine stock and set the engine to fire whatever speed the mag will feed to. of course that's not easy either as it's a weird nozzle length, i ended up taking a nozzle for a g&g sr25 and turning it down on a lathe to the right length, then it'll run fine as long as you don't drop/knock it and bend something.

 

 

of course the results of all this work is gonna yeild a very heavy and awkward gun that's a pain to aim and doesn't do anything an arp9 with a drum mag can do ad a quarter of the weight.

 

Huh okay, didnt even consider the HPA route, guess ill have to go out and do more research!

 

I did think of the mag being a problem, i saw some forum post where someone wired the motor straight into the lipo and adjusted the power to get the right feed speed, but I know for a fact that that is outta my capabilities. I just thought a better motor on there would solve all the problems!

 

tbh i got the MG42 knowing it would forever be heavy and awkward, its just, how could you not want an MG42?

 

I will probably try do something about its rigidity, just the thought of it bending cringes me out

 

Fingers crossed you'll be seeing a post in the future of an MG42 that im not constantly concerned of its well being when on the field!

[Adolf Hamster]

13 minutes ago, spoonkwurst said:

i saw some forum post where someone wired the motor straight into the lipo and adjusted the power to get the right feed speed

 

tried that, didn't work, followed up with just straight wiring, that killed the mag.

 

it *might* survive on 7.4v pass-through on an hpa but i'm not sure it'd stand up to a proper sized 7.4 and i know it can't handle 11.1

[Asomodai]

7 hours ago, spoonkwurst said:

 

 

SHS High Torque Motor ox so I'm not sure)

SHS 13:1 Gears

 

 

 

A balanced 16 TPA with high speed gears wont give you the ROF you want and will be somewhat inefficient. I suggest a 22TPA high torque if you want 13:1s. 

[glockkidd]

@spoonkwurstkeep us updated. It would be great to know how you’re getting on with it and to see it in action one day. 

[kiblets]

How did you get on? I just bought one of these from the forums which came without the bloody breech block, so makes a very nice (and big) paperweight.