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Outlaw's Build Thread

6K views 128 replies 9 participants last post by  OutlawAirsoft 
#1 ·
Hey all,

I've been on here a while and have decided it is time for an official build thread, somewhere I can put all my current projects, future plans and any random stuff I decide to dump here. Feel free to post here of you have anything relevant.

Coming up: a TM AUG, TM MP5A4, G&G M14 rebuild, hopefully a DSG (someday) and much more.

Well, here goes.
 
#2 ·
First project, I'm checking out a Tokyo Marui AUG for a friend. He dropped off the box months ago and whatever is in the box is what I have.
Brown Font Wood Gadget Packaging and labeling


This is my first time working on an AUG (almost my first time on anything non M4 or AK) but I have a fair bit of gearbox experience and Google at my disposal.

It wasn't in terrible shape, but had a broken foregrip, missing butt plate, missing gearbox reinforcement plate and tiny retention plate for the takedown pin. Here is a diagram I found and I circled the missing parts:
Font Rectangle Line Parallel Pattern


I also tracked down sources for these parts, all except the retention plate.

The foregrip and butt plate:


And the gearbox reinforcement plate:

The gun is currently in functioning order, but you have to be carefull that the takedown pin doesn't pop out and let the barrel assembly slide out. A quick chrono and range/constancy test gives me 295 FPS and 15 RPS. This was with a crappy 8.4v NiMH battery, I could probably get it up to 18 or 20 with a 9.6 or 7.4.

I had to use tracers (it was like 8:30) and my Acetech unit which gave the AUG a bit of an interesting look.
Gas Tool Wood Air gun Machine gun


If I ever own an AUG I'd get a smaller tracer for sure.

I'm in contact with the owner about whether he wants the "aesthetic" parts I linked earlier, and will report back when I hear.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Update:

So I worked on my M14 this week, and I officially hate teching that platform. So many random bars and springs. The first time I messed with it I watched an instructional video, but this time I decided I didn't need it. I got it, but had to tear it down again several times because I forgot bolts and springs and things.

Issues: the aftermarket wiring harness and mosfet the previous owner had installed didn't fit very well causing it to pinch wires sometimes during reassembly. Not an issue when finished and tested, but scary and annoying (raise your hand if you plug a battery in while your freshly teched AEG is unloaded cause reasons).

I had previously swapped the motor and spring (the motor was broken), and the gun since then had developed a double firing problem. It may have had something to do with the fact that the Tienly 45k is a STRONG HS motor, apparently capable of overspinning an M140.

Solution: I tore it down, cleaned, reshimmed and relubed the gearbox, fixed the original motor (I swapped plates with a random stock motor), rewired the whole thing, and sewed it all back up.

I believe I installed the AR latch incorrectly because it still double fires, but the second shot is very weak and inconsistent, indicating that everything is overspinning slighty and sliding back to the "at rest" position.

I need to get a new slow motor and make sure the AR latch is working. What should I get? I'm leaning towards an Acturus 20k. Thoughts?
 
#5 ·
The Arcturus 21T is by far the best motor for the money that I’ve ever used, if you buy from Guges and pay less. One thing that I found interesting, is that it seems to run hot even in less stressful guns, despite having really good performance. It’s not a big issue with higher ratio gears, but when I paired one up to 13:1s it did cook my hand after a few “semi-only” games.
 
#6 ·
Really?....let me report to R&D...can you provide details on your setup?
 
#7 ·
Setup is;

Arcturus 19T 28K motor

Lonex Gearbox Shell

Stock Lonex bearings

SHS 12:1 gears (I was mistaken when I said 13:1)

Perun optical. No AB no precocking.

M120 equivalent—shoots 380 w/ .20

Turnigy Nanotech battery: 5000 Mah, 60-120C, wired to deans ultra

SHS piston w/ POM head. Weight is 20g.

Sta lube disk brake grease, applied conservatively to gears, piston rails, etc.


Before you report to R&D, you should know that there may be tolerance issues causing inefficient shimming, which may have contributed to the extra heat. Even with no shims in the gearbox, the gears will not cycle more than twice on a shim test. They have the exact same results shimmed. I haven’t had a good chance to mess with figuring out the gears.

With the fully charged 11.1v I got 31-32 RPS at last chrono, but I‘m fairly certain that the motor actually got hot enough to demagnetize and lose torque, as the trigger response has inexplicably worsened dramatically since the day I cooked my hand. (I can post vids of before and after) The battery and wiring was also cool to the touch, even after fairly cooking my motor grip.

On another note, I spent the day today running a bone stock Arcturus Sword Mod with the 21T 24K motor, and it also got warm on persistent semi auto. Not warm enough to cause me to suspect any issue, I just didn’t expect a 24K motor + 18:1 gears to heat up any… battery and battery wires were both cool to the touch.
 
#9 ·
I’ll definitely be doing that before casting any final judgement. I feel like it’s either the gears or the shell, since the gears spin fine individually, even with the shell buttoned up tight.

First thing is to try a couple sets of gears and see if any spin freely, and second is to try out a couple different shells.
 
#11 ·
@Guges Mk3 and @mr. potatohead it turns out that the Arcturus 19T was getting warm not because of any bad shimming or tolerance issues, but because of the grease I was using. There is apparently such a thing as too sticky… the disc brake stuff is too thick.

On the other hand, the 21T is using much weaker magnets, and I find it very likely that it’s getting hot because of stress. Unlike any of my other neo motors, it has trouble supporting it‘s own weight when stuck to a metal strut.

Outlaw, I apologize for the thread jacking.
 
#13 ·
Good info...Thinking about N28's on the higher speed unit.
 
#15 ·
All right, I finally have some time to tech and I played for the first time this year on Saturday so I'm full of ideas and improvements.

First things first I'm going to tear down the M14 (again) and double check everything, especially the AR latch. Semi auto does not seem to work. I am also going to order an Acturus 25k to replace the damaged stock motor and get this gun up and running once and for all.

I also want to quiet my favorite primary, so I think I will correct AOE with sorbothane and double check gear meshing. I may end up swapping over to some SHS 18:1s and replacing the spring. I also want to explore the limits of foam filled suppressors, and may end up 3D printing a can for that. Any other ideas on how to reduce sound?

I also need to do some hopup work on my Acturus AK-105 (AK-12 basically), but I want to mess around with some 3D printed flat hop nubs.
 
#16 ·
I’m assuming your primary is an M4?

I’ve been looking at the “really quiet M4” problem as well, and here’s what I’ve come up with:

I’m working on making an extra quiet SR-25, so basically the same principles.

Lonex Spiral bevel and pinion.

Full cylinder, paired with 509mm barrel (right for SR-25, more like 380–400 for reg cylinder.

Silicone CH buffer mod. This is quite a bit quieter than sorbo in my experience. I’ll see if I have a vid with a gun using this mod.

Mix and match gears for best meshing. I think for this SR-25 I’ll be using the A&K sector, lonex bevel, and then an SRC 22:1 spur.

Noice motor: Tienly 35K for me, newly cleaned out, and greased the tower bearings with ceramic bearing grease. Some people say brushless, but I actually think brushless sound signature is louder in practice. They’re a heck of a lot quieter, but the one I’ve dealt with is higher pitched than the Tienly, so it comes through the grip more.

You can use precocking as well, but using precocking bothers me for some reason.

I was also going to try and fill the buffer tube with foam, as I notice that my replicas are louder with the stocks off, so some foam should help deaden it.



Foam suppressors can put in some work if you’re not perfectly volume matched. I’ll see if I can upload a video of my own primary with and without the foam suppressor I put together.
 
#17 ·
I already have the Tienly 40k (iirc) and I think I'm properly volumed. One of the sounds that is bothering me right now is the "sproing" of the spring. And since my build is currently sitting at ~320 FPS I figured it was time for a new spring. I'm thinking an M120, still unsure of the brand. It's a little intimidating when you hear of all the "hard", "soft" and "irregular" springs.
 
#19 ·
You hear of irregular on the packaging and only about hard and soft from me. Most don't know the difference between a hard or soft spring.

I will be getting some really high quality Japanese Spec M120 springs, rated for 250K cycles with no variation...want to try one? Other wise PDI are nice...
 
#21 ·
You hear of irregular on the packaging and only about hard and soft from me. Most don't know the difference between a hard or soft spring.

I will be getting some really high quality Japanese Spec M120 springs, rated for 250K cycles with no variation...want to try one? Other wise PDI are nice...
I’d be interested in one of those springs…
 
#20 ·
Ok. Perfect.

As for the silicone mod, do you mean something like this?
 
#23 ·
Ill let you know when they get in.
 
#25 ·
If I were you, I’d do just silicone. Just rough up and clean the CH, squirt your silicone all over, let it cure, cut it down to perfect AOE, and then cut out the nozzle hole and you’re good.
Hand Automotive tire Finger Gas Engineering


I have a video with the silicone buffer, but I’m dry firing, so the barrel noise masks the missing cylinder slap. I’ll take a vid later today if I have the chance.
 
#26 ·
Nice. Definitely gonna try that. And for the M14 I may steal a Lonex A2 off another build temporarily. I really want to get it running asap. That thing is a beast on the field.

Edit: Now that I'm thinking about it, I may have sold the gun with the Lonex. Darn.
 
#29 · (Edited)
I decided to get started on the Specna this evening while waiting for the motor I ordered for the M14. The Specna has been my primary for about a year now, ever since I installed a Gate Aster and Nova trigger. I know it's been a while since I last busted it open. The Aster said 10k rounds, so I need to do some general maintenance.
Brown Wood Door Hardwood Door handle


The gun is completely stock except for the Aster, Quantum, SHS piston, G&G piston head and Maxx Sport hopup unit. It currently gets ~30 RPS, 320 FPS and pretty good trigger response. The plan is to install a Tienly 40k, correct AOE, relube and reshim and maybe replace the gears with an SHS set. The main goal is longevity and quieting everything down. Here it is opened up:
Trigger Air gun Office supplies Gas Gun accessory


Rather then correct AOE the way I normally do using sorbothane, I decided to try using silicone sealant and cutting it to size. I didn't have any aquarium sealant or similar, but I did have a cualk tube of 100% silicone. It came out white but silicone is silicone.
Gas Drink Office supplies Font Cosmetics


This is the first time I've ever done this and the first time I've seen it done (maybe for good reason, we shall see), so I figured I'd document it here.

I cleaned and "roughed" up the cylinder head (using a 60 grit Dremmel wheel) and stuck it in an old cylinder. Then I added about 1/4 inch of silicone and packed it down with my finger. That stuff is messy! And does not wash off with water. Now to let it dry and then (hopefully) pop it out of the cylinder and shave off enough for good AOE.
Wood Jewellery Circle Thumb Button


The tube doesn't tell me how long it takes to cure, but I'm going to wait until I get a new spring to land me as close to 400 FPS as possible. Any ideas? I'm thinking a PDI 170%.

While I'm here, here are a couple details about Specna Arms' Orion gearbox. Quality wise I believe it lands pretty close to the Cyma Platinum line, with features such as a full steel rack piston, quick change spring system (very well implemented too), pre-radiused and overall very clean. The sector gear has a delayer on it, and the Gate X-ASR (basically a 3034 mosfet) comes in the stock Edge gearbox. The Gate Aster comes in the Edge 2.0.

All these coupled with the excellent quality externals of the Edge series makes Specna Arms a good choice for beginner to mid level players. I'm really excited for their Edge AK line, but it is only available in Europe.

Anyway the gearbox is sitting on my desk with the new SHS gears (turns out the ones I had were actually 16:1s) shimmed and ready for the new spring and improved cylinder head.
 
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