The "joys" (aka. trials) of being a gun doctor!

[AuroraUnit117]

Guy came in to get a a&k masada fixed he bought broken, turns out the old owner put half tooth piston into a stock masada....no wonder it didnt work

[lurkingknight]

well... it probably worked for a little bit.. there's some pretty gnarly PME going on with that piston.

[Styrak]

Just recently got a hard one.

Guy gives me his AK (clear body, metal gearbox, probably a JG or CYMA) and says it doesn't fire. Alright.
Get some time to work on it and there's his included battery which is attached. Pull the trigger and nothing. Alright, just as expected.
Take the battery off and in light of being thorough, I attach my own battery and pull the trigger.
Zip zip zip. Sigh. There's an easy gundoc fee.

I find it's usually the people with partially clear or cheaper guns that have a simple problem like an uncharged/toasted battery.

[Danke]

Doesn't the reciprocity of the system regenerate the battery?

[Spike]

The same kind of people who will try and act like they know what they're talking about.

"Yeah I just need a new air seal for it"

"It's not working, I think it just needs a new gearbox. How much are new gearboxes?"

[lurkingknight]

was only a matter of time before I got a client that wanted to argue the hour charges and nickel and dime me. 2 years of clients and this is the first one that didn't want to pay up an already favorable hour count that I rounded down AND out of good service principles didn't charge for another service that was promised to the previous owner of the gun.


Apparently my time is worthless and I shouldn't be paid to work on people's stuff when I could be out there enriching my own life.

shame on me.

[ThunderCactus]

I don't miss dealing with that.
I've actually had a 16yr old argue the benefits of Rhopping a stock barrel (which I didn't know yet, but had assumed it was low quality...found out later it was indeed a scrapped barrel)

[Styrak]

Hey, I found a new piston head design! Oh wait, no it's just a broke as shit G&G "teardrop" type piston head. Found the oring and bits of the outer edge of the piston head inside the cylinder.

This was on a customer's gun, but I'm ashamed to admit I believe my main gun, a G&G Sig550, has the same teardrop piston head. Although after 100,000+ rounds (probably closer to 200,000+ or more), it's still going strong. On ALL stock parts including piston head actually.

[lurkingknight]

you can r-hop any square cut barrel.. ymmv on performance. It will be an improvement over standard hop sleeves, but it really depends if you got lucky with a straight bore or not. The point of going to a nicer barrel is getting the bore diameter you want, a higher probability you will improve on the bore straightness, and in stainless a harder material than brass that hopefully be less resistant to corrosion and or scratching.

Originally Posted by ThunderCactus

I don't miss dealing with that.
I've actually had a 16yr old argue the benefits of Rhopping a stock barrel (which I didn't know yet, but had assumed it was low quality...found out later it was indeed a scrapped barrel)

I think I've only ever seen 2 piston head failures, one was a guarder head in my p90 pre sorbo.

The other was a client gun, also no sorbo. Can't remember the brand off the top of my head.

[cetane]

I had one let go like that after ~5,000 or so...

Originally Posted by Styrak

Hey, I found a new piston head design! Oh wait, no it's just a broke as shit G&G "teardrop" type piston head. Found the oring and bits of the outer edge of the piston head inside the cylinder.

This was on a customer's gun, but I'm ashamed to admit I believe my main gun, a G&G Sig550, has the same teardrop piston head. Although after 100,000+ rounds (probably closer to 200,000+ or more), it's still going strong. On ALL stock parts including piston head actually.

[ThunderCactus]

Originally Posted by lurkingknight

you can r-hop any square cut barrel.. ymmv on performance. It will be an improvement over standard hop sleeves, but it really depends if you got lucky with a straight bore or not. The point of going to a nicer barrel is getting the bore diameter you want, a higher probability you will improve on the bore straightness, and in stainless a harder material than brass that hopefully be less resistant to corrosion and or scratching.

You can also Rhop any non-square barrel. I've gotten really good at doing PDI and orga barrels with the angled and curved windows.

My point was it's chancy to Rhop a stock barrel. ESPECIALLY when you're charging $45+ for it.
Dude has you Rhop a barrel that turns out to be bent, scratched and otherwise just crap. Then complains to the world your Rhop sucks. You explain the problem is the barrel. Then you get flak for knowingly charging $45 to Rhop something that was destined to never be good.

I'm not going to have someone waste $45 on a crap barrel no matter how much I dislike them lol
It's a far better idea to spend 1/3 of that money on a good hop rubber that provides similar performance AND is transferable between any barrel.

Rhopping a stock barrel is like putting racing slicks on a stock vehicle and expecting it to be a race car.

[AuroraUnit117]

Had a customer bring in a brand new echo 1 AK. Wasn't feeding he said. 'oh the hop up or gearbox might be screwed on it'

Put mag in.
Wind mag.
Feeds flawlessly.

He wasn't winding the highcap. Explained to him how to do it and charged him a hour labor as a 'your a dumbass' fee.

[lurkingknight]

Originally Posted by ThunderCactus

Rhopping a stock barrel is like putting racing slicks on a stock vehicle and expecting it to be a race car.

lol. My previous hobby was doing just that. It depends what, where, how you race and what level you're racing at, but I'm not going to argue that with you here.

Even with a shit barrel there are measurable gains.

There's can always a case made for it. Of course I'm going to advocate r-hopping a new/upgrade barrel, but sometimes there's always going to be someone that challenges your judgement/advice, even if you tell them the risks.

Of course you're rolling the dice on the barrel being a shit one, but meh depends on the guy wanting the job to be done. Halfassed measures are only done upon request.

But I generally don't get those types of clients.

[ThunderCactus]

Of course there are going to be substantial gains going from a stock hop to Rhop, even on a stock barrel.
My point is, depending how much the barrel holds back performance, it's significantly more cost effective to use just a regular upgraded hop rubber in place.
There's a peak performance to both, but if the barrel is holding back the Rhop by 10% of it's performance, then there's no point having an Rhop over a PDI-W.
You'll get measurable gains with both, but one is $45 permanently attached to that barrel

[Styrak]

Originally Posted by AuroraUnit117

Had a customer bring in a brand new echo 1 AK. Wasn't feeding he said. 'oh the hop up or gearbox might be screwed on it'

Put mag in.
Wind mag.
Feeds flawlessly.

He wasn't winding the highcap. Explained to him how to do it and charged him a hour labor as a 'your a dumbass' fee.

Those hicaps can be tricky.