Gears, pistons, lions, oh my!

[Newman]

Guys, I've always thought about asking this, and now I've finally gotten around to doing it.  I know all about the real guns, the ammunition, gear, etc., but I don't know crap about the stuff in AEGs.  I have a couple questions I hope someone experienced in this area can answer.
1. What are shims?
2. Can you go step by step in telling me how the whole AEG system actuates/fires?  I always thought it went-trigger makes circuit which makes motor turn gears, which compress spring, which hits piston that compresses air that hits bb....  
3. What are bushings?
4. What exactly does a tapplet plate do?  Is it part of the hop-up unit?

I really want to know what everything is, when I'm about to own 2 AEGs.  I've never taken apart my MP5 and don't plan to, unless someone shows me exactly how to do it and put everything back in.  The problem, of course, is that I own an Airsoft Elite gun, and not a TM, so it'll be different.  Thanks anyway if you can answer those questions.

[ammo990]

I also want to know more about the insides of my aeg, I'm planing on upgrading it soon. I really don't want to take it apart and not have any idea on what to do after. Maybe next skirmish some one could teach us a bit about aeg internals?

[Ed]

I am still an ameture, but I think a lot of it has to be with your state of mind: are you going for torque or high speed?  A lot of parts do the same thing.  For example, upgraded bushings are about $25 and might give the same performance upgrade as a gear set for $55.  But if you wanted to use a stronger spring, the gears would help your gearbox pull back that stronger spring.

It's hard just to explain it all at once.  I suggest if you want a few FPS and performance upgrades, that you should invest in something like a full kit (with gearbox, spring and bushings) for something like $60 at Redwolf.

[Newman]

Damn it Ed, no offense, but did you even read my post?  I didn't ask anything about upgrading, I just need to know what the heck bushings/tapplet plate/shims are.  I know Ammo said something about upgrading, but did you even read my questions/post?  Just needing some info man...

[Minky]

Well young Newman, let me give it a shot.

1) Shims are just....shims.  They are washers of different thicknesses basically.  They shim the gears up so that there is little to no play in them, and they all mesh together well.

2) I think you've got it pretty much, except it would be more like: trigger makes circuit, battery provides juice to motor, motor turns gears, gears move piston, which compresses spring, which gets released and pushes piston head forward into cylinder, forcing air through nozzle, hitting BB, forcing BB on its merry way.

3) Bushings are what the gears rest against, and are plastic in stock Marui gearboxes.  Metal bushings provide better durability and less resistance for the gears, and there are also bearing bushings available for use with high speed gear/spring set-ups to provide even less resistance.

4) The tappet(no L) plate holds the air nozzle in place, and also moves back and forth to chamber BBs to be fired.

I think most of this info is correct, but anyone feel free to point out my mistakes so that Newman doesn't get any more confused than he usually is ;D

[Newman]

I get just as confused as anybody about things I haven't learned yet. ;D

[Viking]

Newman when I receive my upgrades mid next week I will be taking step by step photos of my "attempt" to upgrade my M4, Ill point out some of the parts in those photos for ya.

[ammo990]

I was looking at some upgrades and i noticed there is a KM 590mm and a 650mm barrel, are there any differences between the two? (preformance wise, not size)

I also wanted to know, if i upgrade just the spring, do i need to upgrade somthing else like the gears, motor, or battery? Oh, and what would be a reasonable spring % to upgrade the spring to?

[Viking]

I am prolly wrong about this ammo but… don’t you mean a 6.50mm and 5.90mm barrels? 650 mm barrel would be HUGE. But anyway I don’t know why you would want a 5.90mm barrel, a bb is 6mm, so it has to be bigger then 6mm, basically the closer to 6mm the barrel the better accuracy and a slight improvement in FPS from what I understand but like I said I am prolly wrong.

[Bigmack]

he's talking about length, Viking...not the bore.

[Viking]

And as I predicted I am wrong.  

[Bigmack]

no worries, mate..
even great men like us make mistakes every few years...

;D  

[Hadoken]

Pika of Airsoft Players wrote a great article on upgrading a Version 2 mechbox with a new spring and metal bushings. You can check it out here.

He breaks it all down well so you know what all the parts are so if you're interested in what the internals look like go ahead and click away. Also if you're upgrading internals like some of you will be soon (Viking) the place is a good guide on how to do it right. I bet I would have had some trouble without it, especially with taking out the stock spring. Ack!

[Newman]

Again, thanks everyone for the help.  But...my M4A1 came today!  Woohoo!  The trademarks are puttied over (Locutus, Viking, Bigmack-no yelling at Newman for messing up and buying from the "wrong guy" now ;D) but this baby is a beast!  Fricking A!

Bad news: at school today I twisted my neck too far to the right, and it made a really loud (other people could hear it clearly) popping noise.  Half a second later, the blood drained from my face and I couldn't move my neck anymore.  I didn't go to the hospital, but I immediately went home and have been either sleeping, eating, reading, or now finally typing, because I can't move my neck to the right at all without searing pain.  God (or whoever) really likes to punish Newman when something good finally happens...

[Unnamed]

yeah, the movie villains can crack thier necks but its never generally recommended. Maybe they should put a disclaimer at the beginning of the movie.  ;D

or maybe its assumed that people wont be that stupid

i dunno....