Airsoft Cylinders
Posted: 2013-10-25 / 21:16 UTC GMT +00:00Airsoft Cylinders.
The Airsoft cylinder is another compression component in your AEG system. It is a cylindrical “tube†that the piston rides inside which creates your compression. Your piston and piston head gets pulled back by your gears with the power of your motor. On the piston head there is an O ring that creates a tight seal against the inside wall of the cylinder. When the spring compression is released the piston and piston head slams forward directing the compressed air towards your barrel.
Standard TM compatible cylinders are all the same in terms of physical dimensions. The only thing that will change from one cylinder to another is the porting position and the physical material used to make it.
There are different types of ported cylinders designed for different lengths of barrel. Ported cylinders do nothing more than delay the compression cycle when your piston/piston head slams forward. Pretend your 12 years old again and you have a straw with a spitball ready to go. You take a deep inhale before you use all the force you can to shoot that spitball out of the straw. After the spitball has exited the straw, you are not going to then expel the rest of the air in your lungs out of the straw, that would make no sense.
Same principle goes with Airsoft. You need to match your cylinder porting to barrel length. Super short barrels will have a cylinder where the port is closer to the middle of the cylinder. Long barrel setups will have ports that are closer to the spring guide end of the gearbox. There are even cylinders that have no porting for super long inner barrel setups.
A setup that has over ratio compression is not ideal because the bb will be long out of your barrel before your piston is at the end of its cycle. And the same can be said about a under ratio compression setups. In this case the bb has not even exited the barrel and the piston is already retracting getting primed for the next shot.
There are many different companies that offer Airsoft cylinders, each one promises less friction, better airseal, blah blah blah.
In my experience, if you have a good volume ratio between your barrel and cylinder, that’s all that matters(in my opinion). There are different materials used to make cylinders.
Brass: brass is a self lubricating metal, this doesn’t mean that it doesn’t require cylinder grease, it just means the material itself is slick.
Stainless steel: Stainless steel is a very hard metal, it obviously wont rust, and its durable as hell.
Stainless with Teflon coating: Teflon coated cylinders claim to product less friction between the piston head O ring and the cylinder itself. Companies claim that this will increase your BPS slightly but I have no personal experience with it.
Post away if you have questions
Cheers
G
The Airsoft cylinder is another compression component in your AEG system. It is a cylindrical “tube†that the piston rides inside which creates your compression. Your piston and piston head gets pulled back by your gears with the power of your motor. On the piston head there is an O ring that creates a tight seal against the inside wall of the cylinder. When the spring compression is released the piston and piston head slams forward directing the compressed air towards your barrel.
Standard TM compatible cylinders are all the same in terms of physical dimensions. The only thing that will change from one cylinder to another is the porting position and the physical material used to make it.
There are different types of ported cylinders designed for different lengths of barrel. Ported cylinders do nothing more than delay the compression cycle when your piston/piston head slams forward. Pretend your 12 years old again and you have a straw with a spitball ready to go. You take a deep inhale before you use all the force you can to shoot that spitball out of the straw. After the spitball has exited the straw, you are not going to then expel the rest of the air in your lungs out of the straw, that would make no sense.
Same principle goes with Airsoft. You need to match your cylinder porting to barrel length. Super short barrels will have a cylinder where the port is closer to the middle of the cylinder. Long barrel setups will have ports that are closer to the spring guide end of the gearbox. There are even cylinders that have no porting for super long inner barrel setups.
A setup that has over ratio compression is not ideal because the bb will be long out of your barrel before your piston is at the end of its cycle. And the same can be said about a under ratio compression setups. In this case the bb has not even exited the barrel and the piston is already retracting getting primed for the next shot.
There are many different companies that offer Airsoft cylinders, each one promises less friction, better airseal, blah blah blah.
In my experience, if you have a good volume ratio between your barrel and cylinder, that’s all that matters(in my opinion). There are different materials used to make cylinders.
Brass: brass is a self lubricating metal, this doesn’t mean that it doesn’t require cylinder grease, it just means the material itself is slick.
Stainless steel: Stainless steel is a very hard metal, it obviously wont rust, and its durable as hell.
Stainless with Teflon coating: Teflon coated cylinders claim to product less friction between the piston head O ring and the cylinder itself. Companies claim that this will increase your BPS slightly but I have no personal experience with it.
Post away if you have questions
Cheers
G