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Post by The Goat on Jul 21, 2018 17:50:14 GMT
I bought a stock as a rock JM M4A1 from Tactical Edge Hobbies. It arrived within a week, but I was not supplied a battery, it was missing from the sealed box. When I called up I was expecting an argument due to the fact that I myself would sound like I was scamming for a spare battery. This did not occur and the owner was apologetic and express posted out a battery to me, with some gels thrown in for the inconvenience. Awesome customer service from these guys, and I highly recommend them. The first mod I purchased was a metal decal set from Beast Pro - Metal Decal Set. It was a pain in the arse to put on as the metal decal was very difficult to peel off the clear top layer. It kept misaligning the decal but I got there in the end. Here's how it turned out:
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Post by The Goat on Jul 22, 2018 2:49:52 GMT
The next step was to start ordering a whole heap of gear for the main upgrade. This is what I ordered:
EDIT: BeastPro came through and sent the correct trigger out. Thanks guys!
27: 6.75 Inch Alloy fishbone from Wish 28: Tactical Torch/Laser from Wish Aaaaaaand it's all here:
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Post by The Goat on Jul 22, 2018 3:27:03 GMT
The first thing I did was remove the gearbox from the receiver and take a photo of the wiring layout. In my research I found that a few guys kept asking about how the wiring was supposed to be laid out after going balls out and forgetting where it all went.
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Post by The Goat on Jul 22, 2018 3:30:24 GMT
Next I wired in the motor.
Make sure that when you do this that you have the positive and negative in the right place. The easiest way to do this is compare the motors face to face next to each other and you'll see a difference in the rotation. Then lay them side by side and de-solder and solder each wire individually. You will of course need to remove the motor from the PC casing.
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Post by The Goat on Jul 22, 2018 3:37:34 GMT
I now opened up the gearbox and separated all of the components. I removed the bushings from the case and replaced them with the bearings. BE CAREFUL HERE If you press too hard on the gearbox case you may crack it, as some of these bushings are in there pretty tight. What I did was place a small socket on the inside of the case behind the bushing and use another smaller socket a little smaller than the bushing on an extension to apply force to press the bushing out. Just go through your socket sets and get the sizes you need - I can't remember the sizes I used. Sorry. I then massaged a healthy dose of gease into the bearings to lubricate them.
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Post by The Goat on Jul 22, 2018 3:53:34 GMT
The next step was to fit the gears. I inserted one gear at a time, then placed the other side of the gearbox case on top and checked for any side to side movement in the gear. This is a dry run so don't grease these up just yet.
Just hold the two pieces together with one hand, and with the other use a small screwdriver point to push on the gear axle each side to check for movement. If there is some movement, insert a shim and keep going until you have eliminated the slack. Place the required shims in the gearset configuration to the side of your workspace so you know which shims are required on each gear once you've checked them all. Just be patient and do these one at a time, if you get lazy here you may end up ruining your work and wasting your money. Don't take any notice of the bushing on the tappet pin, my son was being a dick... Now it's time to give these bad boys a healthy dose of grease. Place the gears back in the gearbox and make sure you grease up the teeth as well. IMPORTANT Make sure that the top gear that drives the tappet plate is posititioned with the "toothless" side facing up. If you have bought the gearset that I did, you position the two top gears with the X's up.
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Post by The Goat on Jul 22, 2018 4:15:48 GMT
I installed the padder head onto the plunger and greased up the O-ring, cylinder, nozzle, and bearing inside the plunger. Next I installed the tube/tee, stock trigger (let down BeastPro), switch, plunger assembly, nozzle and tappet plate. Make sure everythine is greased up. I went with the stock return spring because the "upgraded" one that I bought was shit. It was longer and looser than the stock one so I left it out. The stock spring is the one on the top of the image. Line everything up and screw it down.
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Post by The Goat on Jul 22, 2018 4:20:43 GMT
Now I inserted the new spring and cushion into the gearbox. As stated before I had to cut the cushion down to the right size so that it would fit into the gearbox.
The stock spring is on top in the image. Now place the pinion gear onto the motor and tighten it down with the grub screw. Grease that sucker up and screw the motor assembly into the gearbox.
Now all you have to do is reassemble the rest of the components.
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Post by The Goat on Jul 22, 2018 4:25:28 GMT
Now The reason I opted for a longer 29cm barrel tube will become evident. I placed the hopup into position on the end of the barrel. And now with the hopup further down the barrel, my suppressor will not interfere with the gel's exit from the barrel. I won't be screwing anything down until I dial in the hopup, then I'll fit the supressor afterwards.
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Post by The Goat on Jul 22, 2018 4:27:56 GMT
I installed all of the other equipment I bought and here is the finished product:
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Post by The Goat on Jul 22, 2018 4:29:08 GMT
And some images of the toys: That small 45 picatinny above the torch/laser in the image below is for the GoPro mount.
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Post by The Goat on Jul 22, 2018 4:32:34 GMT
I dialled in the hopup and installed the suppressor. What a rush! There was a fair amount of recoil when firing.
I used my comp gels and at a distance of 20M they were disintergrating upon impact with a solid surface, it has that much energy. My son volunteered as a test subject, and at 20M, here's the result from a 3 burst firing: I then asked him to fire a one second burst at me from 5M away and all 23 hits drew blood. I didn't, and won't post any images of the carnage in case there's some haemophobiacs out there.
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Post by The Goat on Jul 22, 2018 4:40:54 GMT
My next projects will be to fit the alloy fishbone, and then camouflage paint the blaster. Hopefully I'll hear back from BeastPro soon and I will be sent out the correct trigger, and I'll install that once it's done.
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Post by westlaket on Jul 22, 2018 7:04:05 GMT
This is a great detailed thread! Certainly going to help me out in the future when I build an M4a1! Brilliant, looks awesome too.
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Post by Matt on Dec 17, 2018 11:28:31 GMT
Hi, great write up on your build. I'm looking at upgrading my M4A1 V8 as well and searching for info on what is required. I understand that upgradi one component will have a knock on effect causing you to then upgrade other parts. My question at this stage is with one of the springs (I think it is part no. 10 in your original post). How do you know which one you need? 1.3, 1.4, 1.5......
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