Saturday, March 15, 2008

Airsoft Gun Durability Problem

Have you experienced this problem with your airsoft AEG yet?

Broken plastic spring guides are far to common among all airsoft gun makes and models. TM, E1, JG and the list goes on, all have plastic spring guides, plastic bushings or both. Kudos to the airsoft gun manufacturer's who have started adding these at the airsoft gun engineering point. I will say Classic Army airsoft guns all come with the durablility upgrades installed. A stock CA features both metal spring guide and steel bushings as stock features. BUuuuut, there is that price thing for those of us who would rather take 300 bucks and build our own B.A. custom airsoft gun, so here are two basic durability upgrades that should be performed or installed on most airsoft AEG's or clones with metal gearboxes.

Plastic airsoft gun bushings are little teflon based gear shaft holders in place to act as bearings for your stock airsoft gun gears. Think of them in terms of wheel bearings for your vehicle. These little bearings house gear shafts that revolve at about 850 RPM and pull back a spring under tension that when released exceeds 1 joule of energy which equals "Torque". Without getting all scientific on you, the torque applied at the shaft ends is an unequal force that will expend energy in the form of friction induced heat and since these bushings are plastic based they will melt away...How many shots or full auto bursts before they give out is anyones best guess, but about three to six months depending on the quality of plastic used has been my observation.

SOLUTION: Hard steel bushings are the simple answer. Yes you can buy uber duber ball bearing bushings for a gazillion dollars for 6 or you can just buy plain No Name Airsoft hard steel gun bushings for $12.00 a set. Airsoft ball bearings are still a moving mechanical device and as sand, water and dirt build up inside the bearing raceways, they will begin to mechanically fail. This is hard to detect early and once the bearing completely fails you could be looking at a catastrophic failure that wipes out all the gears, piston and more depending on the timing. This picture shows NNA 6mm airsoft steel bushings installed in a version 2 mechbox. I recommend these to players for upgrades and these are what I use in ABZ airsoft gun repairs I perform at the shop unless the customer request something else.

Airsoft Metal Spring Guides: Take a look at the picture at the top of this page and you will see why I recommend metal spring guides for airsoft gun durability. Again there are many styles and designs available, some serve other purposes as well as being a guide and shock absorber for the recoil of a powerful airsoft spring but this is a spring guides engineered purpose, so why use plastic? A steel No Name Airsoft metal spring guide for $12.00 works just as good as the super roller bearing titanium uberum fiber fantastic airsoft spring guide for 29.99. Again lets remember the forces being applied to the very point the plastic guide shown above broke at.

Durable Airsoft Guns: Well now you know the 2 key things to "check for" and repair to make your airsoft gun more durable. If ordering a new airsoft gun keep in mind that many of the clone airsoft guns are a great buy but will need the above mentioned durability upgrades added.

If you do not have the desire or experience to upgrade your own gun then check out some of Airsoft Battle Zones ready to buy upgraded airsoft gun custom clones. These airsoft guns have the above mentioned airsoft durability upgrades installed already and have been re-shimmed, re-greased and fine tuned to perform flawlessly out of the box. These are covered by a full 30 day airsoft warranty and the ABZ airsoft company is in Wisconsin, U.S.A.