Gun Maintenance and Upgrading

Well i've had my gun for almost a month now and i feel like im gonna want to keep it for a long time. I kno mamy people go out and buy a new gun every week and thats their way of doing it. But im more of a sentimental guy which meams i dont like to make big changes unless i have to and would prefer to just upgrade what i already have. So my two questions are, 1: how do i care for and maintain my gun so that it lasts for a while? Some people i've asked say just to "shoot it til something dies and then upgrade the part that dies" but that doesnt seem right, u dont drive a car til it dies and then buy new doors because theyre dirty. This counts for internals and externals, ive heard some people talk about spring tension so any suggestions on that.
2: Upgrading, of course everybody likes to set their gun different from everyone else, so that it shoots harder, faster, has a better trigger response, etc etc. My problem is, how exactly do i do that? What parts do what? What should i go to first? Externally i can kinda figure it out, internally is where im stumped. Should i pay for someone to do it for me and ask to watch before i do it myself? And is there any place besides milsig and this sites own techs that can do it? Any suggestions there?

Sorry for the long post, i kinda had a lot to say...

viewtopic.php?f=33&t=670

Take a look at that topic.
Play with it.
You wouldn't buy a new car and change the motor.
Both my guns are stock, I run my KWA M-4 on a 7.4 20C Lipo battery, it was built to take an 11.1 20C.
Don't go crazy with your battery, put a tight bore in it.

First of all what the person said about run it until you break it is pretty correct, that's what I've been told by many people, and the reasoning behind it is you don't want to keep opening your gun especially if you have it set up really nice. -Don't mess with a good thing.

-Also from my experience i wouldn't say that you really notice that a part is degrading so that you need to change it, its more that your gun stops pewing.

For what upgrades you want: What are you expecting to get from your upgrades? that will solely determine what you need to upgrade.

For common maintenance you can clean your inner barrel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrerhNsqoNM

Rampage made a good analogy about not changing the engine on a new car.

I will be doing Airsoft Workshop in the near future.

I've only been into airsoft for a couple months and was wondering the same thing. My brothers gun started smoking at a game after being 3 weeks old and ground all the gears and melted all the wires. I was hesitant at first to open a gearbox but i figured the gun was toast anyways so might as well. I ended up replacing the gears, bushings and rewired the whole thing. Most advice i got from people was to not touch the gearbox unless you know what your doing. If you dont try and learn then you will never know what your doing. First time taking one apart takes a while as does setting up your shims but with practice it gets really easy. Tons of good videos on youtube to help you out. Since doing it the first time i have taken apart all of my guns and shimmed an relubed the internals. I have also taken them apart again after a few games and was really happy to see zero gear wear on them. Most guns have very little and low quality lube and dont have the best lube in them. So in short just go for it worst case scenario is you brake a part, learn what you did wrong and wont make that mistake again.

I will be doing Airsoft Workshop in the near future.

Does this mean we will learn how to open and work on our guns! Thats excellent i really want to learn but want someone experienced there in case something goes wrong.

First of all what the person said about run it until you break it is pretty correct, that's what I've been told by many people, and the reasoning behind it is you don't want to keep opening your gun especially if you have it set up really nice. -Don't mess with a good thing.

-Also from my experience i wouldn't say that you really notice that a part is degrading so that you need to change it, its more that your gun stops pewing.

For what upgrades you want: What are you expecting to get from your upgrades? that will solely determine what you need to upgrade.

For common maintenance you can clean your inner barrel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrerhNsqoNM

Rampage made a good analogy about not changing the engine on a new car.

Alright, so should i kind of just do basic inner barrel maintenance like you mentioned and kind of just shoot it until it stops? And then once it does find out why it did, and then change the part with a better one until i get a fully upgraded gun? As for what i want to upgrade, it would mainly be accuracy and power, i want the bb to further but at the same time not go wacky once it gets there. I kno fps isnt everything but i would like to get a slight increase because my gun can also be used in cqb, meaning im at a disadvantage in field. And because i only really play field that kinda means i shud prob upgrade that as well, my gun shoots 330 with .25. Lastly, the other thing i want is for the gun to hav killer trigger response i dont like jamming my finger on the trigger i like just simple taps.

I've only been into airsoft for a couple months and was wondering the same thing. My brothers gun started smoking at a game after being 3 weeks old and ground all the gears and melted all the wires. I was hesitant at first to open a gearbox but i figured the gun was toast anyways so might as well. I ended up replacing the gears, bushings and rewired the whole thing. Most advice i got from people was to not touch the gearbox unless you know what your doing. If you dont try and learn then you will never know what your doing. First time taking one apart takes a while as does setting up your shims but with practice it gets really easy. Tons of good videos on youtube to help you out. Since doing it the first time i have taken apart all of my guns and shimmed an relubed the internals. I have also taken them apart again after a few games and was really happy to see zero gear wear on them. Most guns have very little and low quality lube and dont have the best lube in them. So in short just go for it worst case scenario is you brake a part, learn what you did wrong and wont make that mistake again.

yes people told me not to maintenace unless i kmo what im doing but i dont and want to learn

Lastly, i forgot to include this in the original, i dont have rail covers for my rails, is it really bad to just leave them the way they are until around christmas when i put some stuff on them?

It’s been said here but I’m going to repeat it anyways.

If you want to upgrade something, Figure out what you want out of your gun first and use upgrades to get your AEG to that point.
remember that every "upgrade" part you put in your AEG will have positive and negative effects on your AEG

Heavier spring, more FPS, more wear and tear on all internals, slower BPS.
Faster motor, faster ROF, more wear and tear on gears, bushings, piston, tappet plate ect ect.
11.1 lipo, faster ROF, trigger contacts burn out more stress on all internals once again.

See what I am saying?

Inner barrel cleaning and bucking washing ,I am a big fan of. I do mine when I start to notice a decrease of accuracy.

If you want lightning fast trigger response this has always worked for me...

High Torque motor, (I’m a big fan of the guarder infinite torque up motor)
18:1 or 16:1 or 13:1 gear set.
Highish discharge 7.4
Low discharge 11.1.

Again, this combination can have a negative effect as well. AEG over spin. that’s then you shoot on semi auto and so much torque is produced that your piston gets pulled back and a shot gets fired in semi and your piston pulls back again and stays compressed until the next shot is taken. This caused stress on the piston, gears, ARL, ect ect. If you want a super fast setup like this I would look into a AB mosfet to stop the over spin of the gears.

If it aint broke, dont fix it. We are playing with cheap offshore potmetal toys with shitty tolerances.
the more you take apart and put it back together the sloppier those tolerances get, you can strip a thread somwhere, pinch a wire, lose a small spring. I am a firm believer, play with it untill it goes POOF and rebuild the internals...


Not only will this combination give you an impressive rate of fire it will also give you amazing trigger response.
come find me the next time were at the same game and I’ll let you shoot my AEG's

[Pinoy]

I've only been into airsoft for a couple months and was wondering the same thing. My brothers gun started smoking at a game after being 3 weeks old and ground all the gears and melted all the wires. I was hesitant at first to open a gearbox but i figured the gun was toast anyways so might as well. I ended up replacing the gears, bushings and rewired the whole thing. Most advice i got from people was to not touch the gearbox unless you know what your doing. If you dont try and learn then you will never know what your doing. First time taking one apart takes a while as does setting up your shims but with practice it gets really easy. Tons of good videos on youtube to help you out. Since doing it the first time i have taken apart all of my guns and shimmed an relubed the internals. I have also taken them apart again after a few games and was really happy to see zero gear wear on them. Most guns have very little and low quality lube and dont have the best lube in them. So in short just go for it worst case scenario is you brake a part, learn what you did wrong and wont make that mistake again.

+1

The only disappointment I had changing over from paintball to airsoft was how crappy the quality of airsoft guns are and how much more complicated they are to maintain, upgrade and fix. Upgrading your barrel, motor, hopup, bucking, nub, battery and connector is super easy but for the love of all the airsoft gods don't open that mechbox unless you either have an extra AEG or two or have allot of spare time and a clean work space.
Most of what you would want to upgrade will probably fail eventually so really no need to upgrade until it fails. (Piston, piston head, spring & spring guide). Most new guns are now shipped with a ton of lube in them.

[jsae]

You have been part of LMAG for less than a month. Please consider the following:

First upgrade the player, then upgrade the gun."

Refer to the Airsoft Info module for background information on player upgrades.