[Anzu]

AEG and Springer pistons tend to be very different and with different seals. I only know of the rubber cup piston heads, flat rubber piston heads, and O-Ring seal piston heads. There's also pistons made of different things like aluminum, plastic, and steel. Assuming the piston is the correct weight, what would the best piston be? My use for this information would be to consider machining my own piston for my ICS Tomahawk, which I'm trying to get the best performance out of. Thank you for your responses in advance.

Cup seals perform the best, but are pretty finicky and difficult to manufacture a one-off of (by my understanding). O-ring (or ideally X-ring) seals are the easiest to make but you lose some energy to excessive friction usually. Aluminium is fine as long as the piston catch is steel, if it's easier to make it all steel go for that. I'd copy the design of the Stalker piston weights wise btw, has the most adjustability, and machining plastic/aluminium/brass weights from pre-made tube for it should be pretty easy. Add threads on the front for an airbrake too as you've the volume for it. Glide rings are pretty mandatory too if you want it to feel decent.

 

[Anzu]

Interesting, it's only recently I finally understand the concept of why the cup seal is better. What does an airbrake do besides quiet the rifle and prevent the piston from slamming into the cylinder head. What are glide ring? As a side question, TNT made a rubber hop-up concave nub that I'm thinking about casting in aluminum, since I don't think rubber will be good enough to push both the bucking and R-Hop, but what do you think? Would I be fine with just the 80 degree rubber nub?

An air brake does just that, usually if you're using one you do have that spoonful of spare volume at the end of the travel left unused anyways.

The glide ring is just a ring of some decently slippery plastic at the front of the piston that prevents the piston from scraping against the cylinder walls.

Ideally you'd have the nub integrated into the arm to prevent it from tilting, 80 "degrees" (Shore A) rubber is pretty stiff though, should work fine. Would look at Masada's existing nub(s) too, they're machined aluminium. A solid nub is usually better, less variance.

 

[Anzu]

I really wish someone would make an all-steel piston for both 15 & 19 tooth AEG pistons setups. There are so many "lightweight" pistons, but nothing to support people that want to use heavy BB's.

They exist, they suck. Kill your piston rails slowly. Easier to just add heavy spacers for AOE and after that inside the piston body.

Most of the time you're hitting PME harder than a freight train though, for what seem to be non-significant gains.