Tacitus
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Posts posted by Tacitus
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Any news on anything? Bout to get mine back, just told my tech to just put the stock piston back in. I need a working gun.
Whaaaat?? That's crazy talk. As a tech he should have a stockpile of different pistons for testing. I have an SHS full metal tooth piston in mine. I had to file down the teeth very slightly to prevent them rubbing the top of the sector gear on the forward stroke.
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hi has anyone had any issues fitting the folding stock as the holes in my one do not line up well.
Yes, further back in this thread many people have reported the exact same problem.
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When I upgrade guns for people, I always insist on choosing the parts myself. But even then there can be compatibility issues, as manufacturing tolerances can be very loose. Try to customise a Masada and there's a whole host of extra problems thrown into the mix. I've heavily modified mine just to get standard parts to fit, but I'm nowhere near finished with it.
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One thing though... I haven't had my gun for a good month and a half... My tech claims it just isn't all coming together as he wants it (he's a perfection freak, which is good but only to a certain point lol). He claims the gears needed modification and now the piston isn't wanting to work correctly. Idk if I want to believe his or not lol since a month and a half is enough time to MAKE a CUSTOM piston..
That all sounds entirely plausible to me. 6 weeks isn't so long to be working on a gun, especially a proprietary one with so many unique problems. May I ask who your tech is? And who selected the parts?
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I'm having a bunch put in it. Here's the list:
Firefox 11.1v 20c 1200mah lipos (x4)
AWS Pulse Mosfet
Element Ultra Torque Motor
RiotSC Revolution Gen. 2 Gears
Super Shooter 7 metal tooth azimuth clone piston
Prometheus POM Piston Head
ARS Cylinder Head Sorbo
PDI W Hold Bucking
PDI 6.05mm 300mm tbb
I plan on also having the microswitch replaced later and I am trying to decide between getting the Wiitech nozzle or the one you had made. Good things heard about the wiitech, can you tell me more about the one you had made? Great improvements? Sure would make my wallet happy if it was good
I didn't do a before and after test with this nozzle so I can't say for sure, but it feeds perfectly and provides an excellent seal around the cylinder head nozzle, so I'm confident that compression will be more consistent. I haven't seen a Wiitech nozzle yet so I can't say how the two compare.
What spring are you going to be using in you Masada?
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WHat are you putting in your masada? I will link a video of mine done when I get it back from my tech.
There's a full parts list in the comments section of my blog post.
What work are you having done to yours?
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I'm sorry to double post, but this should be a useful addition to the thread: I just made my review into a blog post, so it'll be easier for people to find (currently it's hidden somewhere in this ridiculously huge thread). I'm upgrading my Masada at the moment and I'll be updating the blog as I go, so people can keep track of it there instead of sifting through almost 100 pages here.
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Building an internal tracer unit into the Masada is absolutely doable. There are a couple of extra steps involved, but it's not a problem if you have a few roll pin punches and a dremel.
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I have some calipers arriving this week, hopefully today, so I'll measure a few pistons for comparison.
Can you be more specific about how piston length was a problem? Too long and unable to fully cycle?
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If a piston isn't compatible, it's usually because the piston teeth are slightly too close to the sector gear, causing excess friction. It's caused by the sector gear bushing hole being too close to the piston guide rails on the mechbox itself. This can be overcome by sanding/grinding down the piston guide rails on either the piston or the gearbox, piston preferably. This is common to many gearbox shells. It's better to modify a decent piston than choose an inferior one just because it fits the Masada gearbox with no modification. So I'd say go with your first choice of piston and sand down the rails of that piston until it meshes well with the sector gear. None of the other dimensions should be an issue, as with most AEGs.
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I'd just like to state that as completely untrue; A personal friend of mine is now the Wolf engineer, and has been for the past month or so. He's excellent at what he does; However, Wolf have only had 6 Masadas delivered, and i don't believe Jon has opened one up yet. It's definitely not the best place to get a Masada tinkered with as a result of this, i just felt the need to state the current Wolf gunsmith is excellent at upgrading and repairing any existing platform that isn't quite as brand spanking new as the Masada.
A friend of mine just last week had a faulty G36C returned to him from the techs at Wolf Armouries. They did not fix his gun, and reported that the feeding tube was cracked and couldn't be repaired. I openend it up and found no such breakage. There was evidence suggesting that the gearbox was never opened ie. factory locking glue still holding the gearbox screws in, brand-new looking screws heads etc. If I can fix it, any airsoft tech should be able to. Espescially one attached to a retailer.
I've had conversations with the techs at Wold Armouries in the past and I distinctly remember the terms 'angle of engagement', 'gear ratio' and 'sorbothane' were lost on them. Basic stuff that every tech needs to know. Based on my experience with that company, I would strongly advise against submitting your gun to them for repair.
I don't know how their tech department is organised, and I haven't spoken to Jon personally. My comments are only in reference to Wolf Armouries the company, not any single individual. But in my experience of their technical work, it is severely lacking.
Erm, it's still a standard gearbox, really. although the gearbox shell is a different form factor to the standard V2/3, the internals are all standard ARES affair. I fail to see how it is so incredibly difficult to upgrade compared to any other Ver 2, 3, 6, 7 gearbox etc etc.
I've been itching to say this exact same thing in this thread for a while now. There are a few quirks which can be learned in a day of tinkering, but it's still just an AEG
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I've been to Red Wolf HK and had purchased direct from their HK office (in Kawloon), so I assume the same is true in England (although I must admit, for a lawyer, I never bothered to check UK laws re: airsoft related purchases). I will probably be there the second week of January and will be staying at Chelsea Cloisters (as I do not want to impose on my sister's family) for two to three weeks, then it's off to Brussels. I am very curious about Wolf Armories though.
I must apologize Tacitus, Im a creature of habit, and often reluctant to try out new things even when it comes to airsoft parts. Although, as I type this message, I have on my table, Siegetek gears I purchased yesterday. I appreciate your tremendous assistance in sorting out my ACR. All I need now is a skillful gunsmith (I might just take you up on your offer should no sufficiently competent gunsmith be found locally).
I had the opportunity to watch my friend open his ACR's gearbox, and you were right. That was the smallest and weirdest looking cut-off lever I have ever seen. As you have forewarned me, the cylinder head is unique in having an unusually long brass nozzle which dictates an equally odd airseal nozzle without any 0-rings. The only redeeming quality of the ACR other than its handsome externals, is perhaps its nicely reinforced gearbox.
Let us know if you manage to buy directly from Redwolf UK. I thought they only sold to retailers but if not they could be a great source. Wolf Armouries is really nothing special, and the gunsmiths there don't know much at all. But it's the only airsoft shop in London so you might as well check it out.
Glad you've invested in Siegetek gears. They're probably the best single product I've purchased for airsoft.
Of the proprietary parts in the Masada, only the air nozzle and hopup nub cannot currently be easily upgraded. I've read about a method used to install an o-ring into an air nozzle, which should work for the Masada, but I don't have a decent lathe with which to try it. Apparently someone tapered the hole and glued an o-ring inside the opening, which should produce the same result as a normal airseal nozzle. I might try the method with an old air nozzle I have lying around to see if I can do it, and then carefully try it with the Masada nozzle.
Sorry for the offtopic question, but why are you guys like those Siegetek gears that much? And where do you buy them?
They are the strongest gears you can buy. Nobody has reported breaking them. They also have some nice design features which make them superior to other gears.
I should warn you not to buy them from a shop in Denmark called 'Airsoft Performance", run by someone on Airsoft Mechanics called 'Ringsted'. They resell Siegetek gears, but I was sent a faulty gear which did not fit in the bearing. It took a two months to finally get a working gear sent, including being ignored for two full weeks and having the owner be very reluctant to replace the faulty gear. At first he told me to modify it myself. Only after speaking to the manafacturer did he agree to replace the faulty gear with a working one. He actually wanted to just grind down the original gear and send it to me, but I argued that I paid for a brand new, working gear so that's what I should recieve. It ended up being the worst experience I've ever had with any retailer, let alone in airsoft. Always make sure you buy directly from the manafacturer, who has his own sub-forum on airsoft mechanics.
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Tacticus do you have any pictures of your internal upgrades/hop/wiring mods?
I don't have any, but I can take some. It's not very pretty in there but it all works. Is there anything specific you'd like to see?
Advice on upgrading the hop would be a huge boon
I don't have the space to do proper accuracy tests, so I don't know if the hopup even needs upgrading. The nub is intergrated into the hopup unit, which I haven't opened up yet as I still need to buy a 4mm roll pin punch, so I can't say how easy it would be to replace with a regular nub.
I appreciate your gesture in correcting my mistaken notion regarding micro switches and their mechanical nature. Perhaps, I should learn to be more trustful of local gunsmithing skills. However, I neglected to ask what type of cut-off lever the Magpul ACR has? I ask, because a team mate's ACR now refuses to engage single/semi firing.
I only know this because I took the microswitch apart to see how it worked! I'm one of those people who has to take everything apart
I'd still be wary of a gunsmith who favoured modifying a microswitch over installing a mosfet though. The benefits of a mosfet are just too great to justify fiddling about with a miscroswitch, in my opinion.The cut-off lever is also proprietary unfortunately, but without having it in front of me I can't say if it's the cause of the problem. The whole trigger/fire selector design is actually very poor, and there are many possible causes. Loose manafacturing tolerances being a major concern.
As for the Siegetek gears, I've seen a set or two and was quite curious about them. SHS gears on the otherhand, I've had some horrific experiences with them, where they completely failed in the heat of battle. Local airsofters wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole (but then again, it could possibly be attributed to poor tuning).
Siegetek gears, although pricey, are quite durable and strong. I've put in the GS-R 14:1 into my ACR. As for SHS, I don't have any experience with them but I have seen ppl put up failures on the web :-
Yeah, some people have had bad experiences with SHS gears, myself included. I actually started an almost identical topic to the one you linked to, Anakchan. I should have been more specific when suggesting them: They are very affordable, so can be worth experimenting with if you don't want to fork out $100+ for a set of Siegetek gears. If they do break, it's the gear axle that goes so it can be replaced with a different axle (from a TM gear for example). I haven't seen any reports of the actual teeth breaking. Reports of axle failures have dried up now, so it may have just been a bad batch. I'd buy them again for a budget build, but if I can afforf it I'd go for Siegetek every time. I don't think anyone has broken Siegetek gears, at least when using them for their intended purpose. They also have some very nice design features.
My target FPS is 430-450 FPS, but that may seem overly optimistic at this point.
That doesn't sound too optimistic to me. If you don't want to get your hands dirty with upgrading and tuning it yourself, a decent gunsmith will be able to reach that power level reliably.
Not to worry though, I will be visiting my sister in Chelsea soon, and I intend to make up for the supply shortfall with ample purchases from Red Wolf UK while I'm in England.
How long are you in London for? I actually live in London, so if you brought your Masada gearbox with you, I could actually upgrade it for you while you're here. I don't think Red Wolf UK sell directly to the public, but there are plenty of retailers here. Unfortunately they are fairly expensive, and don't sell the cheap Chinese products I like to use, so I prefer to order from eHobbyAsia to save money. Orders usually take only 7 days to arrive so this might be a feasible option for you too.
While you're in London you might want to visit Wolf Armouries in Camden. It's nothing special and overpriced, but they have a few nice bits of kit lying around.
My ACR is comprised of Siegetek gears, AWS Scorpion X445, and Planet AE1000 motor. I'm -very- happy with this combination.
Similar to mine, apart from the 'fet. Have you installed the gearbox, hopup and bolt release sensors for your Scorpion? I've wanted to try out an AWS 'fet for a while now.
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Re: the Tavor, my team mates and I made the mistake of upgrading our units without checking the specs for its micro switch. After a few games using an 11.1v 1450 mAh 15C li-poly battery coupled to a Classic Army Extreme motor, my rifle gave out. Had my air smith replace the switch with a higher capacity one. Unfortunately, it took two months to finally iron out all issues.
As of today, I am still locked in a debate with my new air smith (actually the only one with upgrading experience with the Magpul Masada so far), with me insisting on a Mosfet, and the air smith claiming that he can rectify the switch problem by installing a thicker copper plate (to which I argued that a micro switch being electronic, the effort will basically make no difference).
Re: The Systema Silent Type Piston Head, I will take your advice and avoid it.
As for the ACR's gearbox, my over cautious approach is largely due to the fact that Philippine Shops are notorious for failing to provide proprietary spare parts for unique AEGs, forcing most to order from Red Wolf HK or direct from the manufacturer, which takes almost forever. I also took note of your assessment of the ACR's anti-reverse latch and have purchased a Guarder unit to replace it with.
For gears, I have opted for the Systema Helical STU ratio gears. My motor choice is Systema's Magnum motor (Both I have purchased earlier as possible spares).
As for the PDI, it is not my first choice, but i thought it prudent to stick to a safer alternative.
I appreciate your input and advice, and hopefully, all will be well with my Masada in a week.
It's unfortunate that your Tavor microswitch caused such problems, but it's very useful for Masada owners to know about! The microswitch is actually mechanical, and not electronic. If your gunsmith can modify the switch with thicker metal, it will decrease resistance thereby increasing the current it can handle. It does seem like an unnecessary modification however, considering that a MOSFET would bypass the microswitch completely while providing other benefits. I'd be suspicious of a gunsmith who felt he didn't have the skill to install a MOSFET in the Masada. While it's more complicated than some guns, it's easily possible as the handguard area is very spacious for extra electronics etc. I have a SW-AB LONG from Extreme Fire, with some extra electronics I've added to power my internal LED tracer unit.
Systema gears are notoriously weak, so I would avoid them. When they fail they can take other parts with them due to loose pieces of metal getting caught between other moving parts. Again, there's more info on this at AirsoftMechanics.com. I would recommend forking out the money for a set of Siegetek gears, but people have had good results from the cheap SHS/5KU/Element gears (all the same product, rebranded).
I don't know what your target FPS is, but I'm not knowledgable enough to say what power level might damage the gearbox structurally. You may well be able to go higher than a PDI 190% spring, but you will have to check ASM (linked above), research it, then make an educated guess based on information on V2 gearboxes (or even better ARES V2 gearboxes). You should also be aware that you can gain higher FPS simply by improving the airseal, so that should be your first goal if you want to use a slightly weaker spring. Teflon tape around the cylinder head, and around the hopup bucking will prevent airleaks at those points. Unfortunately the proprietary air nozzle has no O-ring inside it, presenting an airleak with no easy solution. You might be able to modify an airseal nozzle designed for a different gun to work in the Masada, such as this one after tapering the end to actually fit inside the bucking. Also I found the stock O-ring to cause too much friction inside the cylinder. I replaced mine with a stock TM O-ring with great results.
Let me know how your upgrade progresses.
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I appraciate the review. I suspected that the micro switch might present a problem during upgrading, having encountered a similar problem with my Ares CTAR-21 Tavor. My ACR is due for upgrading this week and I will be insisting on a MOSFET to avoid prematurely frying the micro switch. However, could you tell me what cylinder head type my ACR has? Is it a version 2 or 3 cylinder head? Also, in an attempt to prevent gearbox stress fractures from forming due to the weak points presented by the twin hex screws located in the mag well, I have decided to install a PDI 190 spring coupled with a systema silent type piston head and a sorbo pad. Do you think these will be enough to prevent gearbox failure? Your input on the matter will be highly appreciated.
What problem have you encountered with your Tavor?
The cylinder head is unfortunately also proprietary, which I forgot to mention in my review. This is due to the length of the cylinder head nozzle. Luckily it's not a part which needs upgrading, as a perfect airseal can be acheived by wrapping some PTFE (Teflon) sealing tape around the cylinder head.
The Systema silent piston head is a bad choice, so I would discourage you from buying it if you haven't done so already. It is not supposed to be used with normal cylinder heads due to the shape. It's too heavy (heavy piston assemblies are to be avoided), and lastly it's overpriced like 99% of Systema's product range.
As far as I'm aware, it's very difficult to crack a gearbox unless you're unlucky and recieve one with a manafacturing defect, or you are running a very high power setup (for which careful tuning is crucial). The PDI 190 is a relatively weak spring so you will probably not crack your gearbox with it, but other parts may fail. I don't know what other parts you plan to upgrade, but I doubt the Masada could pull that spring at a decent rate of fire, or last long before something breaks. I wouldn't expect the magwell screw holes in the Masada gearbox to affect its durability at all, as they are well away from the cylinder window (the part which cracks when a gearbox does start to fail). But I'm far from the best person to comment on the durability of gearboxes. Head over to the forums at AirsoftMechanics.com and run some searches on gearbox durability (and look for info on a decent piston head too). All the information you need on airsoft is already on that forum. You don't even need to start a new topic. The Masada gearbox is similar enough to the V2 gearbox that information you find on the V2 will largely apply to the Masada gearbox in terms of design. As for durability I don't think anyone has done actual tests, and I don't think you'd be able to persuade anyone to run tests, as the only way to get a new shell would be to buy a new Masada. There are a few steps you can take to minimise stress to the gearbox shell, but without any scientifically obtained data on the durability of the shell, you'll have to just do your best and see how it goes.
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I'm looking to upgrade to a tight bore barrel but I want to confirm the length before I buy. I took the inner barrel out and it measured 15 in not the 14.5 that I've seen stated. Are barrel lengths not end to end? (Sorry, first time upgrade for me). I read a review that the barrel is 375 mm, which is pretty close to 15 inches.
Before it is pointed out that I should search the thread, the topic search sucks because even though it returns results, the links never point to the actual reply and it's a 65 page thread. Takes too long to read it again.
Thanks in advance.
I don't know why the barrel has been described as 14.5in, maybe to mimic the RS version?
As for the actual inner barrel length, you appear to have answered your own question. However, I don't think there are any precision barrels available at that exact length, so you will have to buy a shorter barrel. The closest I can find is an M4A1 barrel at 363mm long. You will still see an improvement despite the shorter length (assuming that the stock barrel can be improved upon, which is probable considering the quality of the rest of the internals). In airsoft, barrel length doesn't affect accuracy as much as with a real gun. The important factor is the consistency of the inner diameter along the entire length of the barrel. PDI and Madbull make good barrels, Madbull being my choice as they're cheaper. You also have to make sure the cylinder volume is matched to the barrel length, but with such a small difference between the stock Masada barrel and an M4A1 barrel, you might be fine sticking with the stock cylinder.
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That's very interesting. I think mine has a similar problem, but related to the fire-selector: When the fire-selector is set to semi (12 o'clock), the trigger must be pulled all the way back (and squeezed quite hard) to activate the microswitch. Setting the fire-selector a few degrees to the left of semi-auto (about 11.5 o'clock) is needed for normal trigger operation. It's annoying, but I haven't looked into fixing it yet as it's easy to work around. It's a shame that the whole trigger/fire selector/semi auto cutoff mechanism has been so poorly designed.
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After looking at it, I'm baffled as to how my gearbox passed QC, when the gearbox shells are together it pushes the trigger itself back out of alignment with the micro-switch mechanism.
Can you take some photos to demonstrate what's going on there?
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Is there really a fault with the folding stock preventing it from fitting to the body? If so, surely Magpul PTS need to recall the faulty stocks and replace them with working ones. It should be a matter of urgency if a product is released for sale with inherent faults.
Can we hear from more people with first hand experience/knowledge of this issue?
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Ah, brilliant. I'll order some roll pin punches then...
+1 for you!
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Thanks for such a detailed response
My wording of the last question was unclear, I actually meant to ask if the hopup housing block itself is firmly held in place after reassembly?
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Can you come up with a list of directions and parts you used for that? I want to install internal tracer led's myself.
Actually I'm planning to start offering custom built internal tracer units as an upgrade service in the near future, with a solid design that I've spent some time developing. If there's enough interest from overseas, I might also offer kits for people to install themselves.
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Sorry mate, there's no polite way to do it but just simply hammer it out with these. :-
Good to know it's actually possible. I have a few more questions for you!
I assume these are standard roll pin punches?
Do you know which size is the best fit for the Masada?
Were you able to avoid damaging the paintwork around the roll pins?
Did reassembly go smoothly?
And lastly, is the hopup assembly still firmly held in place after being reinstalled into the body? No wobble or anything like that?
The reason I'm so curious is because I'm working on an internal tracer unit for the gun. I've installed some LEDs around the feeding tube and it works great, but I want to put 2 more in the hopup just to get the light as close to the barrel as possible, for brighter semi-auto shots.
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Nice little write up Tacitus!
Thanks
I didn't plan on writing that much, but I got quite into it. It was very late so apologies for any spelling errors!I forgot to mention that the hopup assembly is held in place by two roll pins, which are very difficult to remove. If anyone has any tips on how to remove them, please let me know!
MagPul PTS MASADA ACR
in Rifles (AEG)
Posted
No need for a torque motor to pull that spring. An SHS high speed motor will easily pull it, and much faster.