Don't Do This to Your Piston!

[@jhqtech]

Bloomies tought me a long time ago: Polish the rails where the piston slides, and polish the rails where the tappet plate slides. Makes all the difference. (If ur fancy, polish the bushings as well)

[@marinusdedreu3833]

I do it on every build. Takes about 10 minutes with a polishing wheel and compound with a Dremel

[@danbyler8223]

I saw this at the absolute perfect time. I literally just noticed the issue of my piston being too tight in the dsg build I'm working on and this information helps a lot. Honestly, you're vids are always on point and super helpful, thank you!

The problem I see with your old method is that you made a rounded groove and probably made it also too wide, which allowed the piston to move up and down. If you are going to deepen the groove on the piston, just don't use a ROUND bit. Find a proper squared file and file a squared channel. Check fitment, then adjust the walls of the groove if they are also too tall. Alternatively, if it's the walls that grind, file them down first, then check if the groove is now grinding. If it does, file with a square profiled file. I agree that filing the gearbox is easier and allows for polishing later on, but it can be done either way.

[@Undoing77]

My smithing experience is almost entirely with real steel, not airsoft so maybe I'm just looking at it wrong, but why are all these pistons made from cheap ass plastic as opposed to something like Delrin (like paintball marker bolts) that's more durable and can be machined more precisely? Is it a weight thing? Or cost maybe? I just seems odd that with all the shiny AEG upgrades available, everyone's piston looks like it came out of a dollar store dart gun. Enlighten me please, wise airsoft techs.

[@dominikkis1541]

It's weight. If your piston is too heavy, it causes a lot of problems.

[@danielerridge1214]

I have found that E&C gearbox shells, and Specna ( I think they are E&C ) shells are very narrow.

[@drewmurray6480]

The Chinese factories don't have the best quality control and i have had to mod more parts than part's just drop in and be as smooth as butter

[@unfussylobster]

I guess I've been doing it right then. I've had techs tell me I was doing it wrong and going over board by shaving the rails down. Great video.

[@amboemlauw]

Just buy Cyma pistons with full metal rack 😉

[@hidde3064]

+1 Unbreakable

[@Static_MK3Focus]

< Kratos lmao jus playn, those cyma pistons are pretty solid

[@Static_MK3Focus]

i found that in all my time of building ( about a year and half now) that, to nobody's surprise, krytac is the one that gives me the most headache. So much dremel work that's not needed if they just take out the extra metal. The piston fitment thing comes with VFC shells the most in my experience. 6 out of the 8 VFC guns i worked on had piston fitment problems with SHS pistons.

[@robertkennion9020]

you massacred that piston..use the right tools dude! It is good that your showing all the mistakes you have made on your own and customers guns. Your still learnign and you will get there one day if you keep learning.

[@NitrogenPurged]

Good point. I find on the Cyma svds this can be an issue. But that gear box is a pain any way.

[@seseroblesdmd8020]

Happened to me once! Cant figure out why my motor was having a hard time. Until I checked piston body fitment.

[@BorisYeltzin]

I have to replace a cut off lever and my piston is cocked back. How do I manually release the piston before disassembly of the gear box?

[@jj87a]

Just buy the correct piston that is 100% compatible with the gearbox. If AOE is corrected properly the piston should be traveling backward, not up. Here in gel blaster land (Australia) we've been having to run dremmel bits through pistons to get them to fit older gearboxes for a while - which is fine for lower end builds. Doing these things for a dsg/tsg build is flat out stupid...... just buy the right parts.

[@TheAirsoftTech]

There not really such a thing as “the right part.” Sure you can buy Lonex pistons for Lonex gearbox shells and retro arms pistons for retro arms gearbox shell, but where do you limit that? Is putting a BTC spectre in my Lonex gearbox shell considered “buying the wrong part?” Just learn to modify your stuff and it’ll work properly. Also, the force of the sector gear hitting the piston pick up tooth combined with the resistance of spring will cause the piston to attempt to rotate or strain upwards; regardless of how good your AOE is.

[@jj87a]

@@TheAirsoftTech Wrong and wrong. You can buy different off the shelf pistons with different geometry. Trying to adapt a square peg to fit in a round hole will always be less than optimal. With high stress builds min/maxing is super important, if you're going to cheap out and try modify the wrong part you will encounter issues. Modifying a piston for a 300fps build that gets run on semi is fine, doing that for a dsg or tsg build with m160+ spring is asking for trouble. Use the right parts from the start and save yourself these entirely avoidable problems.

[@TheAirsoftTech]

@@jj87a adapting an SHS piston to better function with a gearbox shell is not trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. In almost 10 years of Teching I’ve only ever had this specific issue three times, ever. I wouldn’t describe that as suboptimal hence why I’ve always done it. Since my technique has shown a weakness I’m adjusting my approach. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. There’s also nothing wrong with buying a part that fits better out of the box. The difference is my method is cheaper and has proven to be effective for hundreds of builds. Learning how to adapt and modify your parts to better work isn’t wrong. It’s how you save money, learn how things work mechanically, and adapt. It’s not about the right part vs the wrong part; that’s very simple thinking. Ultimately, either way isn’t wrongs they can achieve the same performance result. An SHS piston is $9 whereas a retro arms piston is $23.

[@Static_MK3Focus]

@@TheAirsoftTech everything is gonna be made different. you are correct, there really is no correct part sometimes, and you just use whats good. I find that most of my stuff is trial and error. SHS pistons are cheap, but they work great. Sure i splurged and bought a kratos, but it does the same thing as an SHS, and fits the same. Thats just the one thing i don't like about the community of techs, is that there are people too overly expressive of their opinons.

[@earljohns1025]

hi bro from across the pond (England) . you have great content, i realy enjoy them, im a technician 10year. plus skirmishing for 18years. i work for work as a engineer & in a airsoft shop for 7 years ,Defcon. its a great shop. keep up the contents. i file down the piston runners. 😊

[@N.I.C.K-]

love your content man, hope you come back to youtube soon!

[@secondtonone2107]

i was wondering if i drimmeled my sector gear from a 16;1 to a 13;1 if it would work like any other 13;1 gear

[@BlackWolf.-.-.]

I would have used a file so i could get if perfect if it were plastic

[@someairsoft]

I believe this is the reason the bottom of my piston head is warm down

[@CRONZ_2501]

Cool stuff !!! Keep it coming

[@judeforbus4180]

Hey man, I'm newer to teching my guns and I recently installed a perun ab++ into my v2 gearbox. I took apart my gearbox, installed the mosfet, and then put it back together. I went out to my yard to test fire, and im getting a lot of misfeeding, inconsistent fps, and double feeding with mags that i never had any issues with before. I've searched all over youtube and reddit and tried different things but nothing seems to be fixing it, would you happen to have any ideas what the issue might be? thanks so much

[@Static_MK3Focus]

active braking can be the problem, inconsistent FPS means you have a bad airseal somewhere, and Misfeeding can be due to the tappet plate, the hopup chamber, or you got the wrong nozzle length

[@judeforbus4180]

@@Static_MK3Focus awesome, thanks for the tips man

[@Static_MK3Focus]

@@judeforbus4180 I would definitely wait and see if Ryan (theairsofttech) gets back to you, he has far more knowledge than me, but I’m glad I could help

[@judeforbus4180]

@@Static_MK3Focus sounds good man thanks

[@chrisapolinar1102]

WoooW .... if i opened a gearbox and saw your "old method" done....I would've told that customer to never go to the "tech" that did this and don't listen to one word they say. Cause they obviously have no common sense or they just give no sh its about their customers. Never would've expected that from you.

[@kotsiosk7115]

Thank you for informing us

[@ryankoch3958]

Where r u based out of? Do you still do customer builds? I have a basic m4 that I want to be upgraded and couldn’t seam to find a tech near me.

[@TheAirsoftTech]

I do. Shoot an me an email: [e-mail]

[@zardissian]

Soooo... Is that some oddly satisfying fetish..? Grinding, drilling and modifying gearbox shell case which is at least twice more expensive as new piston? Ever thought about fitting a proper one without destroying neither shell case nor piston? Sometimes I feel sorry for people taking your advices... 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@pmancer]

Did you shadow ban me yet for calling you clever?

[@markthibault6551]

Not good advise. In my opinion.

[@Auto_Highlights]

First, keep up the good work. Wondering if you could do a vid on how to properly and thoroughly clean your inner barrel on guns

[@venusairsoft6783]

If you look back a bit he’s got a video on cleaning AND polishing your inner barrel.

[@adamkiss6890]

Stop wondering Start searching

[@andreadepaoli2455]

:)))

[@qzd777]

Too much empty talking