My own parts

[Marpat]

Hi, i have all the machines i need to make my own air soft gun parts but i don't know how to get the detentions of any of these parts except taking my gun completely apart and measuring them. I was wondering if there was a place where i could get this information. Thanks

[JamesW]

Can i live in your garage/work place?

[Regular Guy]

Google will be your tool.

So you have a CNC machine is that what you mean by saying you have all the machines?

[Marpat]

well my dad works as a machinist. and he is the boss and he said he will make me the parts if we can find the information on them. so like every machine for metal, plastic etc.

[Steve]

I've heard good things about Google's SketchUp for doing .stl drawings. SolidWorks works really well too, but the student version is $150, and you have to jump through a couple of hoops to get it to do a .stl file for your CNC machine.

I guess the first big question is what parts are you trying to build? If you are looking to build a RIS / RAS / Whatever You Kids Call It These Days, your best bet is to probably start disassembling things, grabbing a micrometer, and start measuring dimensions. Then, since google is your friend, start looking up the specs for M1913 MIL-STD Picatinny Rails so you know what sort of dimensions your rails need to be cut at. Although, for the sake of easy, you might be better off buying the rails themselves and designing your own "tube" to screw / rivet / weld them to.

If you are looking to do your own gearboxes, it's again, disassemble and mike them. Same with gears, piston, etc. Your best bet is to pull out the parts, measure them, and then do the drawings based on the parts you already have.

Although, if you have access to the mills and somebody who knows what they are doing, KillBucket posted drawings for doing M-2's I'd probably start off by seeing if you could get your dad to cut you the parts for a Ma Deuce and build one of those out rather than trying to redesign the AEG you already have.

Or, if you really want to get crazy, you could always try designing your own system. CO2 or propane into the front of the gun, use it to push the piston back against the resistance of the spring sort of like how a DI system works on a carbine. Once it is locked back, a trigger pull releases the piston and fires the pellet. You could even vent the pressurized gas that you used to charge it to generate felt recoil as part of the firing process. And since the velocity of the pellet is based on the spring, not the gas, you wouldn't have to worry about cold / hot pressure changes for chrono (although they would change the rate of fire).

[Payback]

Or, if you really want to get crazy, you could always try designing your own system. CO2 or propane into the front of the gun, use it to push the piston back against the resistance of the spring sort of like how a DI system works on a carbine. Once it is locked back, a trigger pull releases the piston and fires the pellet. You could even vent the pressurized gas that you used to charge it to generate felt recoil as part of the firing process. And since the velocity of the pellet is based on the spring, not the gas, you wouldn't have to worry about cold / hot pressure changes for chrono (although they would change the rate of fire).

I wish my wife talked to me like that, i got all excited.


DO THIS!!!!

[Osprey]

Steve.... That Idea is cool.
Why couldn't manufacturer make airsoft guns that way in the first place.

[Steve]

It's more complex than existing gearbox systems. Existing systems have 3 gears in the gear box, a gear on the motor, and a rack on the bottom of the piston. A gas system would need valves, some method of feeding gas into the system, a push rod inside an enclosed gas tube, a valve to let the gas out, a piston, some sort of mechanical latch / release for the piston, and a sear system to select between semi and full auto.

It's totally doable. But with more parts comes more design time, and the design time costs. Plus, more parts equals more cost to the consumer, generally a factor of well above 4x between the manufacturer profit, importers, distributers, wholesalers, shipping costs, etc.

On top of that, as soon as somebody comes out with an innovative system, other companies basically steal the design and start putting out their copies. The original manufacturer gets undercut to the point where they may never make their R&D or advertising costs back. It's "safer" to stick with State of the Industry rather than push for State of the Art.

And we as a community have encouraged this turn of events, and keep doing so every time we buy unlicensed accessories or "clone" guns. Think about it: If every company that was making knockoff stuff had to start producing their own designs, imagine the innovations! We'd probably start to see tac gear that was designed for the airsoft market, with the features we need instead of the features that are driven by military necessity. Optics that instead of aping the shape of Eotechs actually had standoffs and eye relief set up for folks who are shooting through masks. Products that had to compete based on how well they were designed rather than how well they mimic RS gear.

It'd be freaking awesome.

[NFS_Shadow]

search for autodesk inventor on google. (best cad program ever) go to their website and download the student edition free. last time i checked it was free but it;ll have a watemark on all your drawings so if u try to sell anything they'll get u for it big time

[NFS_Shadow]

also just my personal suggestion, dont try building your own gears it's very irritating. even an experrianced machinist will end up breaking at least 3 endmills per set (22 dollars each.) because they are so small. airsoft companies don't machine gears they press them/cut them from a die. also if you machine gears it leaves craters in between each gear that wear out the teeth quickly. so just fork up the 30 bucks and buy gears

[Shiloh]

On a related question, we've got a few CNC machines on our campus. I was wondering, though, what would be some basic airsoft parts I might be able to mill out? I was thinking a flash hider, but any contributions would be nice.

[Jewish Ninja]

Machine/mold a G&P Mk46 box mag body out of a plastic that isn't shit. I can guarantee you 2 sales at least (me and Android are in the same boat

Seriously though, I can see other G&P M249/Mk46 owners wanting one of these as the stock plastic isn't very strong which of course leads to it breaking at it's weak point.

[Steve]

Machine/mold a G&P Mk46 box mag body out of a plastic that isn't shit. I can guarantee you 2 sales at least (me and Android are in the same boat

Seriously though, I can see other G&P M249/Mk46 owners wanting one of these as the stock plastic isn't very strong which of course leads to it breaking at it's weak point.

Two questions:
1: Do you just need the plastic body, or do you need the internals too?
2: What is a reasonable cost for one?

The reason I ask is, if you just need the bodies, and have one I can get the measurements from (or if you want to get me the measurements), I can set one up in SolidWorks and send it out for fabrication. It'd probably take at least a couple of weeks for fab, and it's like $3 a cubic centimeter for dark grey PA 2200. Figure a (very rough) off-the-cuff estimate is the bodies and lids are likely to run about $100 a set, but I can add reinforcing pretty much anywhere you want it. Or, if you really want the bling, I can probably do stainless steel for about $10 a cc, or $15 if you want it in a dead-sexy gold-plated glossy. Shipping depends on weight. I'd get a quote when I uploaded the .stl file.

Doing it out of stainless steel might be less than that, since I could probably get it done through a local machine shop, although it would end up being folded rather than milled if I went that route, so it might not be as strong as billet.

Heck, I could probably emboss "FRONT: Toward Enemy" or your callsign to the front.

[Jewish Ninja]

1. Just the body.
2. A new box mag with guts is about $90+shipping from overseas.

A custom engraved one would be cool, but totally unneeded

If something like this can be made for $40~$50, I'd be interested. $100 is a bit steep as my hack job does the trick, it's just a pain to setup/take down (its a RS mag held in place with a long bolt).

[Steve]

When I get time, I'll rough something up based on the Echo1 saw mag body to get a better estimate. May be a week or 3.