Reinforcing a gearbox

[tylamarre]

I'm certainly not an expert on welding/metallurgy, etc but when I chose to repair my gun (the gears were stripped), it got me thinking about what it would take to reinforce a gearbox without altering its shape/performance.

I don't know if it's been done before, but I would like to apply a composite plating to my old stock gearbox to strengthen the cast (cast is weaker) metal.

I found other methods of strengthening steel here.


What's your take on this? Ever heard of someone attempting such a thing?

[Amos]

It's MUCH easier to just buy a reinforced gearbox.

most gearboxes aren't even steel, so those strengthening methods don't apply.

[tylamarre]

Thank you Amos. I already have a reinforced gearbox. I'm just thinking of trying it myself with my old A&K stock gearbox. If it is not made of steel, do you know what metal it is? It might make a difference when I try to plate it.

[Crunchmeister]

What it's made of is pot metal. Composition will vary from batch to batch. You can't really expect any consistency in composition. Some batches will be stronger than others, depending on what metals were melted down.

[ThunderCactus]

I'll explain why this is impossible
1) The casting is composed of many differing metals (a dirty casting), some of which are completely incompatible and should not be in there (IE; aluminum and iron). Mechboxes are generally comprised of mostly zinc or magnesium alloys, both of which are very weak compared to steel and even aluminum alloys.

2) It's a dirty casting. You can't heat treat, harden, or change the composition of the metal. You can't even weld it because it's so dirty. Your best bet would be soft soldering (under 450F).

3) Composite plating does not do what you think it does. It will not magically increase the tensile strength of the object your plating (which is what you need to make a mechbox stronger). It will however greatly increase the wear resistance of the surface of the object your plating, incase you wanted to use your mechbox as a brake pad in a ford festiva or something.

4) Increasing hardness will increase the chance of cracking your mechbox


Your best best is to use sorbo pads. Physically modifying a mechbox is incredibly difficult and incredibly not worth the effort.

[LegioXIII]

Hmmm...Manitobans.

A couple of questions about sorbo pads.

Do they reduce the amount of noise generated when firing?

I notice I can hear the piston slamming into the cylinder head, which other than the motor / gears spinning generates the most noise on my gun. The sound suppressor I use actually works and dulls the muzzle report to almost nothing.

Do Modify enhanced V2 cylinder heads come with sorbo pads attached?

I'm considering ordering these:

MASK 3G Force DUO for V2 Gearbox

and this

Modify High Speed Ultra Piston - New Version

or this

StormTech MAX Impact Polycarbonate Piston

[Amos]

the MASK kit is the only real sorbo kit available

Contact me, I've got quit a few sets of them in Winnipeg already.

[CDN_Stalker]

One thing that will help is to greatly round off the corners of the front where the end of the cylinder sits. Every break I've seen has been at these corners. It's not a guaranteed fix, but will at least help. Can also try reinforcing with JB Weld or something too.

But, reinforced mechboxes are cheaper these days than in the past, so it's often just easier to buy a reinforced one (BTW, reinforced simply means it takes longer to break, rather like stainless steel takes longer to corrode, it 'stains less' than carbon steel.)

[tylamarre]

Wow, I'd never even heard of sorbo pads- they look amazing! However, if you get a sorbo kit, do you need a special piston, air nozzle etc.?

On the flipside, there's a guy on youtube that put a carbon fibre coating around the cylinder part of the gearbox and hes running an m150 spring, no prob

[DEATH2000]

Originally Posted by tylamarre

On the flipside, there's a guy on youtube that put a carbon fibre coating around the cylinder part of the gearbox and hes running an m150 spring, no prob

Link please? id like to see that

[ThunderCactus]

That doesn't mean it's not broken on the inside, or even a good idea....

And you don't want a piston with full metal teeth, it's overkill, and it's more likely to damage your mechbox than save the piston.
The prometheus piston in my 249 went through atleast 160,000 rounds, at 360fps and 1500rpm for the last little while. I'd still have it in there, but I setup my SW-comp incorrectly and chewed it up. Still worked after though lol

[tylamarre]

It looks clumsy to me, but heres the vid for the cqrbon fibre reinforcement; (link)

[Qlong]

YouTube - Heavy Duty V3 GearBox XM8 Airsoft

You can get better results by using one of the these:

[Amos]

That's hallarious.

[tylamarre]

Originally Posted by Qlong

YouTube - Heavy Duty V3 GearBox XM8 Airsoft

You can get better results by using one of the these...

I don't understand how a pipe band would ever prevent a gearbox from cracking, in fact it would only increase the stress on the metal frame.
The video was pretty amateur, but I think the guy did a good job with the carbon fibre+metal plate. He could still access the internals, yet he managed to reinforce the major stress points of the frame without covering up the screw holes. I just don't understand why he took off the guide rails for the piston... somethings going to go very wrong...

I think the strongest gearbox you could ever create would be with a laser cutter and a block of steel. But that's just way too expensive. What about a nylon/other high strength polymer to replace the metal? Nylon is very durable and has excellent abrasion resistance.