Home Made Parts

[Hotspur93]

Alright so this my sound crazy, but has anyone made there own parts along the lines of barrels, cylinders. and the like? I was thinking about it and it wouldn't be very difficult to make your own barrel. Simply get 6mm or similar tubing from the hardware store, cut it to the desired length and dremmel out the space for the hop up and off you go. Has anyone attempted this or am I just crazy?

[Felix]

I believe it would be cheaper to just buy the barrel instead of doing what you have proposed.

[Star_folder]

When it comes to barrels in airsoft, quality is what is most important. Simply buying 6mm tubing or pipe would not be advisable for several reasons.

1. The inside of the tubing/pipe would be inconsistent, and would Greatly affect your accuracy, and not in the way you want it.

2. The outer diameter of the barrel is also important, if it's too small, buckings won't seal against it, even with bucking sealing mods, the bucking will bunch up inside the hop up chamber, leading to a bunch of other difficulties. If the barrel isn't snug in the hop up chamber, it will bounce around, or the chamber itself can bounce around, greatly degrading your accuracy. Likewise, if it's too big, it won't fit into a bucking, much less a hop up chamber.

3. Cutting a barrel isn't as easy as it looks, don't forget that you don't only have to cut the hop up window, but also the locking ridge for the bucking, and the notches for the c-clip. If those are off center or different in some way, your bucking/hop up chamber won't sit right around your barrel, and take a wild guess what that will do to your accuracy.

4. Then you miss out on features of nicer barrels, such as being made of steel, or having a good crowning on the end of the barrel.

When you say tubing, I hope you mean something non flexible, as a flexible barrel is not the way to go, not this way at least. Something flexible will bend and the inner diameter will change and cause jams and hop in all sorts of crazy directions.

tl:dr, just buy a barrel. Good barrels can be had for $30-$40.

[Doublewolf]

The barrel is larger on one end and gradually gets smaller. It would not be worth trying to replicate.

[Hotspur93]

I did mean metal tubing sorry. And thank you for presenting those points it was just a random idea considering i have recently obtained a lot of metal working experience

[Rev]

I thought the topic was homemade pants. I was excited about that.

[Hotspur93]

Well it still is. Anyway who has made, has ideas for, and etc for homemade parts is more then welcome to post here. I really would like to see some of the creative fixes and unique tweaks people have done at home for their guns out side of the standard gear changes and the like.

[SteevoLS]

I've...

- used a couple pieces of tape wrapped around a barrel in place of the C-clamp on the hopup chamber.
- made improvised hopup nubs at games out of everything from twigs to pen cartridges to wire insulation.
- replaced trigger pins with nails cut to the appropriate length
- many more DIY fixes that slip my mind at the moment

[Hotspur93]

I've...

- used a couple pieces of tape wrapped around a barrel in place of the C-clamp on the hopup chamber.
- made improvised hopup nubs at games out of everything from twigs to pen cartridges to wire insulation.
- replaced trigger pins with nails cut to the appropriate length
- many more DIY fixes that slip my mind at the moment

That's a good start. It's almost exactly what I had in mind! MacGyver it up! However the nails thing is a lil odd

[SteevoLS]

If you have a cheaper solution to those missing pins, I'd love to hear it.

[Villid]

super glue. lots of super glue

[Dominum]

Well... if you are asking for DIY mods then that opens up a whole new can of worms! I thought you meant making parts, as in CNC etc. That is a major PITA and it makes much more sense to just buy them. As far as modding or DIY, that is done ALL the time, which is why dremels are a must have for techs. I constantly have to mod parts for various reasons, mostly due to minute manufacturing inconsistencies or incompatibilities. I will see if I can think of a few of them:

Trimmed the "fins" of a V3 spring guide to fit in a FAL because the proprietary spring guide is just a V3 with shorter fins, and it needed a metal ball bearing one.

Trimmed/removed countless teeth on pistons to correct AOE, remove second to last tooth not already removed, short stroke (12 teeth) and half stroke for DSG (8 teeth).

Removed teeth on sector gears for Angel short stroke pistons.

Removed material from safety catch due to inconsistent specs.

Swiss cheesed pistons

Unwound a coil of an AR latch spring to reuse a broken one.

Bent AR latch springs so they would work in other version gearboxes.

Taken motors apart and swapped axles to turn a long into a short and v.v.

Put longer screws in the handgrip where it meets the GB shell because only the lowest threads were stripped, thereby not having to buy a whole new shell.

Done the same as above with handgrips.

Bypassed the selector plate electrical connection used in most gearboxes so that I could use a normal wiring kit in VFC and G&Gs, etc. by bending the two leads to touch and soldering them together.

Made all kinds of funky "adapters" for electrical testing and battery usage purposes.

stretched cutoff lever spring for a crispier and more reliable semi auto

Dremeled out a screw in the top of a V2 because it had been totally stripped and therefore could not be unscrewed (the threads where not stripped, the top was). Three can hold it together just fine

Shimmed springs for a little FPS boost

Trimmed tappet plates for DSGs

Added Xrings and synthetic orings to piston heads, and teflon to cylinder heads and hopup chambers

Added a TM nub to the roller in a PTW hopup

Trimmed buckings to fit various other manufacturers

Stabilized barrels with homemade spacers

Custom cut barrels to fit, both outer and inner (See why I say a Dremel is so useful? LOL)

Transplanted trigger contacts (An M14 had burnt out contacts, like completely burnt out. He wanted the gun the next day and I didn't want him to have to buy a whole new wiring harness. So, I took a V2 one, cut the contacts out, laid it on top of the burnt one and soldered it on. Hence, a "transplant". Works fine to this day)

Trimmed spare screws to fit places they aren't supposed to go because the originals were missing.

Added spacers on hopup chambers to keep their setting better.

Widened the back of a Tavor shell because it was too tight for a piston.

Replacement hopup clamp mod as Stephen said, nub thing of course, etc.

Custom foamed suppressors

Custom foamed around GBs and in various other empty places where things reverberate.

Added more sorbothane to cylinder heads.

Rewired things in all sorts of funky configurations.

Someone had soldered a wire to a motor unnecessarily, so to save the next guy who had to work on it (likely me) from having to solder and unsolder every time it had to be opened, but knowing I couldn't clamp directly to the motor, I added a male and female clamp about an inch from the motor itself, so it could still be unplugged for disassembly.

Added shims between chambers and GBs to fix feeding issues.

Same for mags.

Trimmed a little off the part of the shell that keeps the contact slide from going too far back in order to install the highest toque gearset possible.

Widened the bearing holes in shells so they would fit.

Ummm... that's all I can think of at the moment I guess.

[Hotspur93]

That is quite a list lol

[Dominum]

Just added to it . If I think of anything else I will throw it in there.

[Hotspur93]

Definately a lot of DIY stuff what about home made gears? ever tried anything like that? xD