Short Stroke – airsoft gun modification
What is Short Stroke in an airsoft gun?
The modification described today seems to have passed the peak of its popularity. In times when we easily adjust the power simply changing the main spring of our system to the needs of a given game or the type of tasks we set before the airsoft gun, there is no point in looking for other ways to modify its power. However, this was not always the case. I came across an opinion that the Short Stroke came from the desire to lower the muzzle velocity of our BBs without the need to buy a new spring. This may seem inappropriate. After all, gears are definitely more expensive than a piece of properly wrapped wire? The point here, however, is that we do not have to buy new parts to achieve the desired effect, which is to reduce the power of the airsoft gun. Finally, all you need to do is modify the existing sector gear of toy. We do not introduce, theoretically and practically, new components. We only change the existing ones.
We achieve the desired effect by filing the teeth on the sector gear of our gearbox. In order not to disturb the cycle of our mechanism and, above all, the synchronization of the work of the piston and the nozzle, we must do it from the side of the gear that initiates its cycle, the pickup side. So, if we arrange the modified element, we can say that it is on the left side. From the on which most manufacturers place nozzle retarders. It is important that our goal is only to file the teeth on the part that reacts with the airsoft gun's piston. Removing them also from the one driven by the central gear of our gearbox could damage the system. It is assumed that we do not need to modify our piston. When the reduced number of teeth on the piston wheel completes its rotation, the piston will be released anyway. By subtracting the teeth on it as well, we make it usable only with a wheel that has the same number of teeth. It is worth doing it when we want to reduce the weight of the piston though.
Speaking of consequences, what happens after such a rework? First of all, as I mentioned before, the power of the airsoft gun decreases. So, this is a good way for people who are interested in adapting the AEG to the limits of combat in buildings. This is due to the lower spring tension and the shorter travel of the piston. It is worth doing it primarily when we have cylinders with a hole where we do not care so much about avoiding losses in the amount of air in the system. In addition, we minimize the chance of a premature engagement of the piston's work cycle. This is a situation when our gears are spinning so fast that they can grab the piston while it is still compressing the air in the cylinder. When we subtract a few teeth that could do this, the chance of such an action decrease. After all, such a modification can improve the trigger response of our airsoft gun and its rate of fire. That's because the whole cycle is accelerating. In principle, it does not shorten itself. It just shortens the phase in which the piston wheel works under load, which can lead to the desired effects.
How to make Short Stroke in our AEG?
Let's start with what we will need. After that, we will describe the stages of work step by step. To perform the described modification, we will need some kind of sawing or grinding tools. You can handle it with a file, but it will be much faster and more convenient to use a mini electric grinder. Any other tools needed to remove the gearbox of our toy will also be useful, such as punches, a hammer, screwdrivers, hex or Torx keys. A marker may also be helpful, with which we will mark the elements to be filed in our parts. And of course, to get to work, we will need gears and an optional piston for modification. Now that we have the list of necessary elements and parts behind us, let's get down to work.
1. We take the gearbox out of our airsoft gun. Depending on the construction we are dealing with, it can be more or less complicated. However, there is no point in focusing on this step in this article because, due to the multitude of possibilities, even most popular constructions cannot be described here.
2. Mark the number of teeth to be filed. I did it with a white marker. As I also worked on the piston, because I wanted to slim it down, I painted over the scope of work on its metal jaw.
3. Remove the material with a file or mini-grinder. It is important to try to do it carefully, so as to strive for the effect as if the removed teeth were not there.
4. Before we assemble the gearbox and put it back in the replica, it's a good idea to check if everything still fits together and simulate the airsoft gun's cycle manually. Thanks to this, we can see whether the piston wheel we made correctly interacts with the piston. When planning our modification, we should make sure that at least one metal tooth on the piston stays in the system. We can easily check this by simulating the cycle manually, especially when we decided not to remove the teeth on the piston.
5. Assemble the gearbox and place it back in the airsoft gun. To be sure, we test the replica and evaluate the results.
What to remember when doing Short Stroke?
As I mentioned earlier, this is a modification that has lost its popularity. Reducing the power of the airsoft gun is easier to achieve by choosing the right spring. This requires less interference with the system, especially in the airsoft guns equipped with a quick spring change system. With the easy availability of parts and in times when manufacturers often add a weaker spring to the replica, the need to lower the power in any other way is small. There is no specific ratio how many teeth to remove from our system to achieve the desired power. I recommend sawing down about two to four. When we want to get rid of more of them, it may be worth considering the DSG modification already described on the blog? On the other hand, by removing less than two we practically do not change much.
If it is not clear from the pictures and text so far, Short Stroke is quite an invasive modification. When planning it, it is also worth considering changing the gear ratio of our set of gears. The introduction of the 16:1 system and the modification being the topic of today's material should be enough to achieve a noticeable increase in the rate of fire and improve the response to the trigger. Coming back to invasiveness, by changing the number of teeth on the piston, it is good to be careful not to use it with standard sets of gears in the future. I did such a conversion myself some time ago and I have to admit that it wasn't particularly difficult. The airsoft gun that received it is working fine so far and if you are interested you can find me on Instagram and ask for more details.
Author: Boreq
Check out similar entries:
