Glen B

I have been asked about the Airsoft upgrade, so I am posting this.

I am not an expert on this, I learned it, I did not develop it.

There will be some things I will have left out.

There will be some things that can be done better, I am hoping this will be a starting place for an exchange of ideas.

Please wear some protective eyewear when working on this stuff. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.

I suggest having some spare guns to work on, sometimes these jobs don't turn out well and you don't want to ruin your only gun.

Due to picture limitations, I plan to do this in 9 posts, this is the first.

1.) Replace the mainspring with a Handipack Part #88023, 1/2"x 1 3/4", .054"wire compression spring. (I am having some difficulty sourcing this spring)

Glen B

2.) Place a 1/4" Plastic Acorn

Nut as a spacer between the above listed spring (round crown of the nut points toward the plunger), space it with a couple washers, if you want, it will give added power but place more stress on the gears/motor.

Glen B

3.) Cut about 4 coils from the tension spring, if this is not done, the gun mechanism will not set or cock.

Glen B

4.) Place some #1 and #2 washers, as sold by hobby shops, two on each shaft to keep the gears centered and

bearing on each other.

Glen B

5.) Optional; replace the metal barrel, as, I can't offer more detaI on that because I used the original Panther and TigerIbarrels which seemed OK

Glen B

6.) Ensure that your little o-ring (not really an o-ring but similar) has good attachment and integrity

Glen B

No. 6, second picture

Glen B

7.) Reinforce the gun with a strip of styrene, superglued in position, as shown.

Glen B

8.) Place a piece of styrene over the axle, as shown, to ensure it stays in place.

Glen B

9.) Assemble the gun, out of the tank and test fire it wearing some sort of eyewear.

I use the set up in the picture in the picture to power it.

Polarity is CRITICAL, the bottom lead is the power lead, if this is mixed up the gun will be ruined, RIGHT NOW.

I just tape the gun to some place where I can get behind it and watch the BB flight, then touch the power lead to the bottom lead off the motor.

If the BB curves left or right, you may have to rotate the o-ring, mentioned in No. 6

Imnotanace

What kind of range are you getting with this???

Ron

Glen B

Certainly not scale performance, if it did, my Panther should shoot through 1/4 inch of steel at 135 yards

Actually, I have not chronographed it or tested it for full range and I got it done about the time the weather here shut down outdoor operations

My Panther's gun was very weak, now it will shoot 45 feet in my basement and ricochet hard off the concrete wall.

By emperical observation, it is shooting well enough that it should give a good account of itself on targets at our next tank meet, it could not do that before.

Imnotanace

Glad to hear it, sounds like it will have a little power. Still waiting to get mine and this is one thing I would like to do to it .

I'm glad you posted this for us all to enjoy.

Ron

Eli12

YAAY, pictures! nice info here and i guess now i can upgrade my airsoft. Thanks!

DukeSedan

This modification works awesome.  I have done it to my Tiger 1 (thanks to the CAN-AM meet where they held a seminar on this hop-up).  Before the mod, I could rarely get it to shoot and when it did it barely make it out the barrel.  Now like Glen says it shoots across my garage and ricochets off the wall.  It will be harder on the gun and it seems to over heat my RX-18 board.  But when it works...  WOW!

Perry S.

Nice write up. I think it is brave to glue that thing together. I have found that the o-ring grommet is something that needs to be tended to every so often.
You may want to try sprayi g some light silicone lube down the barrel. Some here have had some success with it.
You should give the glow in the dark bb's a try. I have a lot of fun with them. It's the only way you can see what is going on with your bb's and how far they go. You will also be amazed at how much they curve as they fly.

Perry

Fireman Tim

My Feedback: (3)

Nice work Glen.

There are also two washers behind the acorn nut (same diameter as the nut) And I there was one #1 washer and two #2 washers.


Yes Sir, great bunch of guys at the CAN-AM. I can't wait to see how the next airsoft shoot-out goes. It should be awesome!


How powerful is the gun? This light bulb took this damage at around 30ft. Squirrels beware!

shenlonco

My Feedback: (2)

Great write up Glen.... I linked it to the fequantly asked ?'s section so it will be always pinned right at the top of the board.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_57...m.htm#10166422

Glen B

You have to be careful with the glue placement, I do it in a way that it can be peeled off by a chisle blade exacto knife.

I didn't come up with it, it was a suggestion made to me, that was experience based. This was based on guns coming apart in use, spring strength and spacer use may come into play there.

There's no doubt it ups the complication on any maintenance or adjustments.

SDCPs

Could you please re-upload the pictures? They seem to be missing.

Glen B

Here they are;

SDCPs

Thank you very much. Do you think greasing the gun would add power?I only have a RX13 board so I probably won't be able to make a killer gun without frying it.

Glen B

I don't know if greasing it will noticeably increase the power but it should increase the operational life.

SDCPs

I'm in business!!!

I bought a spring at the local hardware store today...kindof like the one in the pics. I bought two, in case you guys were interested. I could go back for more too, if you guys wanted springs.

Anyway, I installed the springs and the washers...and my scratch-built breach...no upgraded barrel...and it actually hurts now. It fires much MUCH farther. MUCH faster. If I had the upgraded barrel it would probably punch through cardboard.

So I must have gotten the right springs! BTW: I custom made a wooden (lighter than nylon) spacer for the spring out of bird cage dowel.

YAY!

SDCPs

Actually, maybe not. I used a 7.2v pack to test the gun out of the tank. With the power the tank supplies, (I have the RX 13), the gun siezes.

So I'm really stuck.

I have two options: downgrade the gun or give it more power. To give it more power I'd have to use some sort of transistor. Doable but it's not going to be fun...I'd have to rewire things and play with it for a bit.

Any ideas? I'd really hate to downgrade the gun. So much better

Also, if Idid use a transistor to apply a full 7.2 to the motor, do you think it'd be able to work for a while before it burned out? I've had motors run much higher than their rated voltage, so I guess it's the quality of the part.

Do you think the plastic gun can withstand the shock when there is no BB and it dry fires?