Can you improve the Tectonic Innovations Quake 8 Impact?

[Tiercel]

I love blowing stuff up, grenades are great. Everyone thinks theyre so smug hiding in a choke point.

 

Got a Quake 8 Impact grenade, and it makes me sad that it fails to detonate probably about 50% of the time, which is obviously sub optimal. And embarassing when you get all smug about grenading someone and its a dud.

 

A quick google shows theyre pretty notoriously crap for this, failing to detonate most of the time on soft/woodland terrain and not much better on solid concrete surfaces. However nobody seems to have a suggestion to fix it, beyond "buy a better grenade".

 

Has anybody else got one of these and suffered similar issues, and found a way to improve it? Im using the .209 shotgun primers in the multishot base.

 

Looking at it, it seems like a very simple mechanism. The weight on the end of the grenade head wobbles about and that movement forces the pin down, but clearly with not enough force to set off the primers every time, can see a light dent on the primer but not enough to fire. So this got me thinking, there must be a way to add more force or a better firing pin?

JB Weld some more material on the head to make it heavier, so it applies more force?

Insert a spacer between the head unit and firing pin so it pushes it furher?

A longer/pointier firing pin so it hits the primer better?

All of the above?

 

Any other suggestions? Or is it just a crap product thats half the price of a Dynatech for a reason?

[Sd96]

A retractable key chain off amazon, so as when you throw it you can draw it back in like a fishing real, then go again 

[Tackle]

1 hour ago, Sd96 said:

A retractable key chain off amazon, so as when you throw it you can draw it back in like a fishing real, then go again 

You've been watching too much Top Cat mate😜

(Showing my age now)

[Sd96]

😂

[Sewdhull]

Without knowing how it works it difficult.  Maybe a heavier striker, get some tig electrodes if you need tungsten, about 2-3 times as dense as steel, almost doubled the density of lead.

If it's sprung, a stronger spring from springs r us or similar online

Edited May 20 by Sewdhull

[Spartan09]

Have to say I have only ever had my one fail to go off twice, and both times I'm pretty certain it was a duff primer...

 

That said, this was after I swapped the base.  There was a recall on the original bases as they were solid blocks from the primer to the bottom of the base plate,  and it was discovered that the flash from one primer could be redirected on the silver base plate and spread into the other chambers and set off multiple primers at once, so when you throw it again and it fails to go off, you think it's a shit grenade, when actually you just blew your whole load in one throw...

 

If you have the solid base, get in contact with them directly and they should offer to swap your original base for a modified base that is machined out to prevent the flash from spreading as readily to other primers

Edited May 21 by Spartan09
Typo

[Krisz]

Impact grenades aren't for woodland or soft surfaces. I think all of them have the same issue regarding not going off more or less. 

My only solution is/was to buy softer primers. I had fiocchi before and struggled a lot even indoor. Bought cci/federal because someone recommended me in a shop and my bfg success rate is about 70-80% instead of 50 so this is what it is. 🤣

I'm certain you need a certain height/trajectory as well to make them more deadly. My bfg doesn't go off from ankle/kneecap height regardless what I do.

[Tiercel]

I use mine in woodland, but only for clearing buildings in the site I play which are all solid brick/concrete floored buildings, I don’t wanna throw it in the open onto soft ground because I’ll never find it again! 
 

 

 

I looked into softer primers previously, there was some confusion as to whether they were actually easier to set off or not whilst reading through actual gun forums talking about them. I’m using Fiocci 616s, the 615s are apparently softer but out of stock most places, I wonder if that’s why because they’re more consistent.  Will have a look at finding CCI/Federal ones to try.

 

As for the base, from the sounds of it I e got the hollowed out updated version so that’s nice \o/

regarding the mechanism annoyingly I can’t find a nice exploded diagram but here’s a pretty decent takedown

 

 

From my understanding the of how it works, the firing pin isn’t spring loaded. It’s just the weight on top wobbles around and that pushes a plate down which pushes on the firing pin. So the head has to be smacked about by the impact with enough force to drive the plate down and hit the firing pin into the blank. Which makes me think adding more weight to the head would possibly mean it’s pushing down with more force, or if I shim between the head and plate it’ll push it further with less effort so more reliable detonating? Maybe? Thinking about trying a socket that would fit over the top of it and see if the extra weight helps. Or if I could somehow open up the head, drill out the soft aluminium and fill it with some lead or something.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Krisz]

4 hours ago, Tiercel said:

I use mine in woodland, but only for clearing buildings in the site I play which are all solid brick/concrete floored buildings, I don’t wanna throw it in the open onto soft ground because I’ll never find it again! 
 

 

 

I looked into softer primers previously, there was some confusion as to whether they were actually easier to set off or not whilst reading through actual gun forums talking about them. I’m using Fiocci 616s, the 615s are apparently softer but out of stock most places, I wonder if that’s why because they’re more consistent.  Will have a look at finding CCI/Federal ones to try.

 

As for the base, from the sounds of it I e got the hollowed out updated version so that’s nice \o/

regarding the mechanism annoyingly I can’t find a nice exploded diagram but here’s a pretty decent takedown

 

 

From my understanding the of how it works, the firing pin isn’t spring loaded. It’s just the weight on top wobbles around and that pushes a plate down which pushes on the firing pin. So the head has to be smacked about by the impact with enough force to drive the plate down and hit the firing pin into the blank. Which makes me think adding more weight to the head would possibly mean it’s pushing down with more force, or if I shim between the head and plate it’ll push it further with less effort so more reliable detonating? Maybe? Thinking about trying a socket that would fit over the top of it and see if the extra weight helps. Or if I could somehow open up the head, drill out the soft aluminium and fill it with some lead or something.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Someone told me that I could chip off some from the spring itself and I'm like nah I'm not gonna fuck up a 100 quid grenade for a maybe. 🧐

Edited May 21 by Krisz

[Tiercel]

2 hours ago, Krisz said:

Someone told me that I could chip off some from the spring itself and I'm like nah I'm not gonna fuck up a 100 quid grenade for a maybe. 🧐

 

A replacement spring is only like £3 on their website, thats not a bad idea actually, would mean less resistance pushing down if the spring works the way I think it works.

[Sewdhull]

I've looked at the video and spring tension reduction is probably not going to help, the is only a little resistance it looks like.

What would help is increasing the circumference of the round lever, with a rubber ring of suitable diameter. Making the lever heavier will help too.