by Steve » Mon Mar 17, 2014 1:36 am
I've chased the super-high RPM fairy for quite a while. It basically comes down to upping the RPM drastically reduces the life cycle of your AEG. As it has been explained to me, there are certain things you can do to up the ROF.
Weaker springs create less resistance, and allow the AEG to cycle faster (for some value of faster), but the weaker spring may not extend fast enough to get the piston fully forward before the sector gear comes back around to grab it again. The teeth will eventually end up stripping off the stock piston (eventually being pretty quickly if you shoot a lot). Stronger springs put the piston back in battery, but take more work (time) to push back, decreasing your overall ROF.
So, the first step is to use a stronger spring. But then the velocity is too high. So you cut a couple of teeth off of the gear with a dremel to short-stroke the piston. And then install a bore-up kit to get some of the velocity back. And then upgrade the motor, replace the air seal components, piston, bearings, gearbox, wiring, new gears, tappet plate that you have melted, about three more motors, etc. Next thing you know, you've rebuilt the stupid thing three or four times, paid the initial cost at least twice in parts, and it has absolutely NO factory internals left. And then get two more and repeat everything above again and plan on having to rebuild at least on of the three after every weekend event, because AEGs just don't handle 30+ RPS for long periods and if you don't have at least three high ROF guns up and working at the beginning of the day, you won't have 1 working at the end of the day. And then realize that finding a good tech means that you pay for labor, but you end up not screwing up nearly as many parts (trust me: it's cheaper to pay a pro to do it once rather than doing it yourself a half dozen times and STILL having to take it to a pro to get it fixed).
And then take a deep breath and realize that, within reason, a good tech can tune something in the high 20 / low 30 RPS by doing a total internal rebuild ONCE, and it only needs to be rebuilt every six months or so. 42 RPS is total bragging rights and all, but parts get stupidly expensive and don't last very long.
I've heard about, but haven't used a PolarStar engine (mostly because I don't want to use a paintball air rig). That might be a more reliable solution. The old-school Mac-11's had stupidly high ROFs (but small mag capacities). You might be better off picking up something small and compact that you like, and as you destroy components, rebuild it for speed. I've pretty much given up pouring tons and tons of money into high ROF, and have instead jumped on the "shortest possible rifle" bandwagon, so my information may be dated. I'd probably ask what was realistically possible in terms of ROF upgrades from one of the experienced techs at a local shop (Jesse at AONW, for example).
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