A Spring vs. a year of intense usage

[MaciekA]

This is an M130 spring after about a year of fairly intense play, having fired many 10s of 1000s of rounds. Folks who play at 437 and Finch Field will attest to the thorough thrashing this gearbox was given throughout 2012 and partially in 2011 ... It was my go-to setup. Finally the spring has given in. The rest of the build is going strong though. The Diablo is going to need some TLC before it's ready to come out again. I knew it felt funny at the cold game a couple weeks ago..



I wish I could remember what brand of spring this is but I can't.

[ThunderCactus]

systema springs were notorious for breaking after a year, apparently they weren't made of steel or something.
But inclusions are possible. Ferrous spring failures are more uncommon than plane crashes in manitoba lol

[Hectic]

could be the cold contributed to the spring breaking but id tend to agree the spring may have had a defect, i think i havent heard of a spring breakin in my almost 6yrs in airsoft and ive cracked two gearboxes (damn v2's) and killed the tension on a 440fps bolt action down to 360 even broke an m4 upper rail right off the reciver lol.

[spartan117]

A ball bearing Spring guide should fix that issue.

[Styrak]

Your piston head and o-ring looks pretty nasty too.
Like, damaged.

[MaciekA]

Originally Posted by Styrak

Your piston head and o-ring looks pretty nasty too.
Like, damaged.

I thought so too but after some cleaning it was looking good.

The gearbox was full of nature stuff.

You know, cedar bits, little seeds and stuff, dirt, rocks. Good times

[ManateeMatt]

Originally Posted by MaciekA

I thought so too but after some cleaning it was looking good.

The gearbox was full of nature stuff.

You know, cedar bits, little seeds and stuff, dirt, rocks. Good times

If you cant figure out where you have played by taking apart your gun, you are not playing hard enough.

[MaciekA]

Originally Posted by ManateeMatt

If you cant figure out where you have played by taking apart your gun, you are not playing hard enough.

Hehehe, ain't that the truth.

Anyone who plays with me regularly will instantly know where the cedars came from.. No scientific analysis required

[Trev140_0]

Your sloppy ass bearings caused it. haha

USE MODIFY BUSHINGS.

(internal joke please do not climb on me--between me an Maciek)

Had a friend who had a brand new KWA GenII gearbox fail after 4 games. Brand new. When I opened it, saw his shitty bearings (one blew up) and sought out bushings for the 9MM hole. Read NINE. Just you try and find them.

Since then have swapped my stuff out to bushing.

Add in the VFC comes with stock Steel bushings, Maciek and I are pondering theories about slop introduced by bearing over bushing.

The spring failure here to me is likely a stress riser. All it takes is a "nick" in the steel on a fatigue point and she will snap. The spring may have compressed up against the washers on the spring guide and put in a start point for a scratch.

Either that or its Macieks crazy ass shit rate of fire he often leaves out.

:-)

(what happened??)
haha

[Trev140_0]

btw,

Where is the Bearing for the spring guide Maciek?

Just noticed that now too and the other poster. I did not even know spring guides come WITHOUT a bearing.

I have only seen WITH the bearing.

After looking again, I thing you have your issue. If that spring is essentially "fixed" at one end, you are introducing another load on the spring, as well as the load not being even. As you get closer and closer to the fixed point, the side load increases. The bearing 100% would have taken care of this, providing there was not a pre existing "notch" or failure point in the spring. Add in the cold and you get this.

[ThunderCactus]

Actually I'm surprised helical gears don't cause bearings to fail frequently.
In industry you can't use helical gears in higher load application without angular thrust bearings or switching to herringbone gears.
In higher speed setups it's definitely worth using bushings though.
The bearings will work (especially kanzen ceramic bearings) but I bet 90% of gunsmiths don't know how to properly grease bearings or even what grease to use lol

[Trev140_0]

If you look on any stressfull set up you will see bushing.

Landing gear on aircraft
Front end of every car on the road

I can go on and on. The bearing in these guns under "axial" load at different times. Add in some good old fashioned "dust" in the summer games and these bearings become home for dirt and ultimately cause the nylon to wear out.

Toss on the variable of 6 bearings, and I like my chances of a stiff bushing with no chance of slop vs a bit of rate of fire. (only advantage)

[lurkingknight]

Do the hybrid style.. Bushings on the sector, bearings on spur and bevel.

reminds me.. I should take my p90 apart and clean it before nightfall 2. Probably about 15-20k rounds through it since last july when it went uber.

[ThunderCactus]

That would be a great idea, but I'd take it one step further.
bushings on sector
ceramic bearings on spur
ceramic bearing on small side of bevel, bushing on the large side where the heavier radial/axial force is

But that's just being super anal lol
After seeing maybe 3 bearings in total fail, 2 G&P and one I think chinese or something, there's no reason not to use them unless you're making a ridiculous setup

[Azathoth]

I've seen many springs broken, usually ACM brand and some systems ones back in 08-09. Up until recently never seen a a gearbox shell blow off the front but King arms ones were common at that time.

Systema bearings crapped out on a drop in of mine 2 years ago after 3 years of abusive use on a 1.7j gun. Despite the blown bearing gun still cycled and shot great. Even gamed it knowing the bearings was dead.