[CrusherW9]

The AUG is a fairly unique gun that I hardly ever see on the field. It's also a gun that I've always really liked the look of and in fact is the first 'real' airsoft gun I ever used. Recently, I've finished my G36 build, which turned out amazing by the way, and now it's time to work on something new so I picked up a boneyard AUG on black friday with the intention of making it a DMR. I haven't spent a whole lot of time working on it yet, but for the past few months, I've slowly collected more and more parts for the build. This is going to be a guide on AUG specific tweaks. It'll be completed over some time but I'm planning on devoting more time to working on Airsoft stuff so hopefully it won't take too long to finish.

Things I'd like to (eventually) cover:
- Shimming the upper receiver stuff
- Shimming the body stuff
- Noise suppression
- Running a mosfet with microswitches in order to remove the clunky trigger assembly and tighten up the trigger feel.

Expect a guide on shimming the upper receiver tonight.

 

[CrusherW9]

Upper Receiver Work
I was on a quest to end all wobble on my AUG and it has turned out quite well. Not only will this help improve consistency, but it makes the gun feel MUCH more solid.

1. Get a phantom kit! I got the Angel Customs kit for mine and it's pretty nice. The phantom kit does a few things for you.

• It allows you to mount a railed fore grip to replace that terrible stock grip.
• Because it fits so snugly, it helps support the end of your inner barrel.
• It adds a bit of weight to the front of the gun which helps balance it out a bit.
• It also looks really nice :tup:

2. So there's a few things going on here. The first thing I did was wrap the black bit in electrical tape. I noticed that it was sort of splitting at one end and so I wrapped it in tape to keep it together. I just did one spiral here but feel free to apply as much as you like. I also wrapped the silver tube with electrical tape as well. There really isn't a reason to wrap the end that sticks out but I did anyway because I figured it might help absorb some vibration in the barrel. Not sure if it helps at all, but I did it anyway. And lastly, I got some teflon around the lip on the black plastic cover. Electrical tape was too thick for me but it might work for you.

3. Hopup work. Fairly standard. Shim your hopup arm, flat hop/r hop/change bucking, etc. I use the good old super glue and paper method as you can see here.

My hopup dial moved way too freely so I put some teflon around here. It really could be done better and I'll probably revisit this later but for now, it works.

Now it might be hard to see, but I had to shim these two keys that fit into the black barrel cover because my hopup chamber was able to rotate slightly. Obviously, that is a very bad thing so 1 layer of super glue and paper on the top of each fixed the problem very nicely.

When I was reassembling, I noticed that the barrel assembly had a bit of wobble between the hopup end of the barrel cover and the metal receiver. So I just added a bit more tape and now the wobble is gone.

I had to add a few layers of paper/super glue here but this helped a lot! Really snugs up the metal receiver to the barrel assembly.

And lastly, make sure you lock down the end of your barrel. The Angel Customs Phantom kit has this o-ring so I don't really have to do anything with it but I may replace it with a HS5 barrel shim. We'll see.

I think that sums up all the different things I did. As mentioned, I may make an update or two but I found these little tweaks to be helpful. Feel free to ask any questions or for clarification on some of the pictures. I know it might be hard to tell what I'm talking about at some parts. And lastly, please forgive my phone pictures :bird:

 

[Ursu13]

And lastly, make sure you lock down the end of your barrel.

Which end? The one from the flash hider?
And another question: where did you get a metallic hop-up chamber? I searched for ages and found only 1 on ehobbyasia, I think. It was too pricey, so I didn't bought it.

 

[mike0brien]

For the hop up wheel I added a layer of electrical tape or scotch tape to the flat area it rides around and that snugged it up quite well, dial never shifts at all.

Also for the hop up arm I found at home depot they sold thin small pieces of brass and aluminum(?) that I cut to fit. One piece on either side of the hop arm snugs it up quite well.

The front of the outer barrel that grabs onto the upper receiver I found not only had the forward and backward play you corrected for but some up and down movement that I remedied by placing one wrap of electrical tape around the barrel.

Thanks for the ideas Not sure if I will be able to get Teflon tape around that inner tube of the outer barrel but I will try... already a tight fit.

 

[CrusherW9]

Which end? The one from the flash hider?
And another question: where did you get a metallic hop-up chamber? I searched for ages and found only 1 on ehobbyasia, I think. It was too pricey, so I didn't bought it.

Yes, the flash hider end. And it's a Lonex hopup chamber. You can find them here, among other places.

For the hop up wheel I added a layer of electrical tape or scotch tape to the flat area it rides around and that snugged it up quite well, dial never shifts at all.

Yea, that's what I was thinking about doing but I'll probably use paper/ca glue.

The front of the outer barrel that grabs onto the upper receiver I found not only had the forward and backward play you corrected for but some up and down movement that I remedied by placing one wrap of electrical tape around the barrel.

Could you clarify which piece? You're talking about the teflon'd end of the black piece in the first picture, right?

 

[mike0brien]

Can't see the pictures at work as our computers block most things... but the area I wrapped with electrical tape is the space that is made of metal with two screws holding the plastic part of the barrel to it.

 

[mike0brien]

Ever have a wobbly upper to lower receiver issue? My OLD marui aug has some wobble between the two, trying to think how to stiffen it up a bit.

 

[CrusherW9]

Mine wobbles a tad too. I haven't looked into it much but I did try and shim the lower where the halves intersect. It didn't work at all. I think you have to build up the area farther into the lower towards the gearbox. But like I said, haven't looked at it yet. I haven't worked on much airsoft stuff at all, recently :lame:

 

[mike0brien]

All I've done is R-hops on R-hops lately for people.... Thankfully I can more or less mindlessly do it now so I can watch Netflix or something.... I was thinking the best spots would be where the upper contacts the topped curved part of the body OR maybe shim the block that holds it in the receiver to pull it back a bit tighter?

 

[mike0brien]

Just an update on this, when trying to tighten up the upper to lower I found what had the greatest effect was putting some shims (in my case of a quick test electrical tape) on the back on the block that holds the upper to the lower. It seemed to pull the upper back farther into the lower greatly reducing movement in all directions.

 

[CrusherW9]

Weewwwww it's been a while since I've worked on my AUG. But I made some progress the past two days and it seems to be working great. It used to be chopping BB's in half and shooting the halves out (Fix detailed later) but now it's shooting 460.

More shimming!

I had to put a bunch of electrical tape on the gearbox slide thing because my nozzle was intersecting the hopup at an angle and smashing BB's into the edge of it, causing them to shatter. I think this is because I'm using a Lonex shell. It's also always a good idea to align your air nozzle to be concentric with the barrel so you made need to do this anyways. Worst case, it locks the gearbox down from any possible movement. You can check the alignment by shining a light into the hopup chamber and looking down the barrel. You can see the air nozzle at the end of the barrel. If it's off to one side, correct it by shimming the gearbox.

I put some foam on the gearbox holder plate thing to ensure it doesn't move at all.

I taped some cotton on the front of the magwell insert thing with the intention of it filling the gap between the plate and the body in order to prevent BB's from falling into the body and rattling around. The other side of the plate is still quite open, but hopefully this helps a bit.

As @mike0brien had mentioned, putting tape on here makes a HUGE difference. My upper and lower have no/very minimal play now. You're going to want to put tape on the top part of it in order to prevent the receiver wobble. But I also found that putting it on the bottom makes the square profiled body pin thing fit snugger, which I like.

Lastly, I needed to shim the hopup chamber lock nut thing a bit with some good 'ole CA glue and paper. Now my hopup should hold it's setting.

Lastly, here's a video detailing some acoustic stuff as well as the trigger response (mentioned in another thread).

 

[mike0brien]

After this modifications crusher how is your grouping and range? Also what FPS are you shooting at? Curious to know how much of a difference all this made for you.

 

[CrusherW9]

I haven't actually shot it outside yet. I live in an apartment and I've been busy moving and such the past few weeks so I don't know how much range it has or how accurate it is. There's a game next weekend where I'll be trying it out so we'll see. I have faith that it'll perform well :tup: It shoots 460 with .2's and zero hop so it's about perfect. I have some of those orange/red ASGI .43s I'll be using with it but I think they might be a tad heavy. Unfortunately the only other BB's I have are Bioval .3s.

 

[mike0brien]

My aug shoots about the same and .43 were to heavy and caused weird fps inconsistency. I generally just use .32 bioshots.

Also how you mentioned that the gearbox was out of alignment and was causing BB's to smash the side of the hop unit I found that when you shim up the upper receiver to the barrel to much (especially toward the rear) you end up causing the hop up and gear box to be misaligned. Apparently the bit of wiggle room it has is so that it can line up to the gearbox and once the back of the hop unit is placed into the gearbox it is pretty solid even without shimming. At that point so long as your gearbox is solid in it's location and forward enough it will keep the back of the barrel stable.


Also on a side note what are your internals like? I am running a lonex a2 with prome Double torque gears with a 140 or 150 spring but I was going to swap to a set of 13:1 shs gears(think these gears can handle a 150? most seem to only go to 140) for a better trigger response, as I don't plan on trying to pull a 200 spring anytime soon. As for my barrel I am using an R-hoped and lapped prome barrel. Also want to throw in a blacktalon concept trigger if I can ever find one -_- they are never in stock.

 

[CrusherW9]

I tend to like heavier ammo than most so I'm thinking .36s might be perfect. I shoot those .3s in my guns that shoot 400.

Good to know about the alignment issue. I'll look out for that.

I don't know if they'd last, but I'd give the SHS gears a shot. They're only $18. Lonex makes some 16:1's that'd still be an improvement in trigger response. Those Lonex A2's are great motors! Did you use an HS5 lapping kit to do the lapping? I want to get one of those BTC's as well because custom mounting microswitches on the trigger and removing that stupid bar would make the trigger feel SOOOOOO much better. I ordered the one in my G36 from a guy (he's apparently a dealer) on Airsoft Mechanics. You might have better luck there.

My Internals:
Gearbox:
- Lonex Shell
- Riot 10:1 with Riot Pinion
- Chaoli 32tpa arm in a SHS can
- F.L.T bushings
- Lonex piston head, cylinder head, cylinder, air nozzle, and piston
- Some metal spring guide (don't remember the brand)
- Prometheus M135 spring
- NukeFET
- 3s 1400Mah 60C lipo

Barrel Assembly:
- Prometheus EG 509mm barrel
- Lonex hopup chamber
- Lonex bucking (flat hopped)

I might actually be giving R-hopping a go this weekend because I need to remake the nub anyways.

 

[mike0brien]

I will probably just put a 140 spring in it to be safe, but I want to maintain 450-460 fps with .2's so I may push it. Even when I ran .36's in my aug I had weird fps inconsistency as well (was using goldenballs) so I have stayed with the .32's since then.

Other bonus to getting rid of that trigger linkage is you can completely seal up the magwell, no chance of bb's rolling around in the body and possibly jamming your trigger(happened to me once).

As for R-hopping I say go for it. I honestly found that the performance from the flat hop was close to if not matching the R-hop, but the flat hop would wear out relatively fast (bb chews up the bucking quick and you are deforming the bucking a lot) but as for the R-hop, well no one has ever worn one out yet as far as I know.

Also something else you can use to help make the upper receiver tighter to the lower is this: http://www.shapeways.com/product/KGH5E8PCS/airsoft-aug-a3-conversion-rear?optionId=55871441

The guy made that to be coupled with this as well: http://www.shapeways.com/product/YSAD9DJJU/airsoft-aug-a3-conversion-front?optionId=55871578

The purpose of it was to take an airsoft a3 and make it look more like a real a3 (as the tittle may give away) but the back piece conforms to the lower very well, and so long as you bolt it to the upper it basically links them together stopping almost all movement.

Also this thing seems like a cool idea: http://www.shapeways.com/product/NCH6CEHNP/aug-barrel-stabilizer-with-rails?optionId=58759075

Haven't tried it so I can't say it works but it could be a good way to stabilize the barrel and gives you the option to mount your own vert grip/bipod etc.

 

[CrusherW9]

Other bonus to getting rid of that trigger linkage is you can completely seal up the magwell, no chance of bb's rolling around in the body and possibly jamming your trigger(happened to me once).

That's a great point! Didn't think about that. It's on my todo list, I just want to make sure everything else is working properly first because the Chimera in my G36 was a HUGE pain, but for a variety of reasons (it being a V1 Chimera contributed to it greatly).

Haven't seen those shapeways links; good ideas. I have a phantom kit though so the front end ones won't work for me. Do you have an A3?

 

[mike0brien]

Not sure of the differences between a v1 and v2 so I can't say what kind of headache will be saved by using a v2.

If you mean an airsoft "a3" yes I do have one and I have used these shapeway pieces. Closest we can get to a true a3 for now without a lot of custom fabrication.

 

[mike0brien]

So still can't my hands on a BTC Chimera... but I did put in 13:1 speed gears on a core sp150 spring (they feel like prome 140's) and it actually improved my fps consistency. I shoot 372-373 instead of when I was shooting 365-373 with the prome gears. Odd eh? logic makes sense in my head, not sure how to explain.. anyway as to what this topic pertains to.



So trying all the different shimming to aid in accuracy I found certain ones to really help and others not so much.

Shimming the inner barrel by wrapping it (whether ptfe tape or otherwise) definitely is a big help. seems to cure any resonance the barrel may experience from the shock of the gearbox cycling.

Tightening up the barrel to the upper near the front where the barrel locks into the upper is a good idea, reducing the side to side motion makes hop more consistent as well as the back and forth motion, I found shimming the rear of the barrel unnecessary. Yes the back can move in the upper but once the hop up inserts into the gearbox it locks it down and shimming the back can actually cause the hop up and gearbox to be misaligned which is no good.

One thing that definitely helped a lot was shimming the hop unit where it enters the inner barrel. the small amount of twisting it could do seemed to be causing me to have random flyers left or right, mostly left for me. after doing the super glue/paper addition as crusher does I no longer had flyers.



Now mind you, I didn't really notice the benefit to these mods until the bb passed the 200ft mark, so if your not planning to engage far distances you may not need to go through the trouble of all this, but if you want a dmr aug I say it is definitely worth taking the time.



Also as for the shapeway things I linked earlier. I do recommend the pieces that make your aug look more a3-esque. Especially the back piece as it tightens up your lower to upper, but the barrel stabilizer that would fit into an a3 ris is not recommended.
The inner circle of it does not line up well with the barrel, and is slightly larger then it, so it doesn't really stabilize the barrel. In fact on my gun it was pushing the barrel a bit to the right and causing it to curve a bit, no good.

 

[CrusherW9]

Nice follow up. I took, my AUG out to a game two weeks ago and never got to field it. I kept getting jams right at the beginning of the barrel. Of Course it works fine at home and then when I get to a game something breaks... I suspect it might be because of what you said about shimming it preventing it to engage the gearbox/nozzle properly. I'm going to have to look into it.

My beloved G36 also went down during the game. I suspect I blew my pickup tooth or pre-engaged as a result of weighing down my piston with washers. But man it had some great creep to it though. I'm going to be removing the washers now for better reliability.

We're going to be having a gun work day this weekend so aside from fixing my two guns, I have at least two other club members guns to fix.