FAQ for Tokyo Marui Hi-Capa, 2011, 1911, MEU & Detonics type variants

[apilar]

Excellent! I'm glad you figured it out.
I still believe that filing the notch was beneficial

[kar120c]

Originally Posted by ILLusion

Yes, you can - with the use of a longer inner barrel.

I resume this old post.........howe longer should be the barrel to fit the adapter without any issue?

[ILLusion]

Originally Posted by kar120c

I resume this old post.........howe longer should be the barrel to fit the adapter without any issue?

In general, 1" longer would be about the bare minimum that you would require. You can definitely go longer, but would have to keep it covered with a silencer.

I think a P226/Glock 17/Hi-Capa 4.3 barrel would be about the right length for your use on a Detonics.

[Wepeel]

I'm planning to use a 7 inch barrel in my Hi-capa but I can't seem to find any 7 inch slide/comp sets.

I've looked on ProG4, alpha airsoft, Airsoft Surgeon sets, ProHandgun and Davidson Custom but they all seem to be 4.3 slides with a comp made for a 6 inch inner barrel.

Does anyone even make 7 inch sets?

[ILLusion]

7" kits have fallen away from popularity, due to the unwieldy size of them. I ran a 7" setup for a while, but time and time again, I kept going back to my 6" setups. That also seems to be the trend in general for most competitive airsoft shooters these days.

I think one of the only sets still available from my supplier is an STI Custom Shop Ported model.

Beyond that, something can be assembled for you, using a standard 5.1 slide + comp barrel + compensator. It won't have lines as smooth as a fully integrated kit, but it will get you the size you're looking for.

Beyond that, look at the Shooters Design Limcat models... those use full length slides. But again, same issue as I'd just mentioned - the lines won't be as clean as a fully integrated kit.

[kar120c]

Originally Posted by ILLusion

In general, 1" longer would be about the bare minimum that you would require. You can definitely go longer, but would have to keep it covered with a silencer.

I think a P226/Glock 17/Hi-Capa 4.3 barrel would be about the right length for your use on a Detonics.

Thanks, I have a TM Desert Warrior 4.3 too, so I can try its barrel

[apilar]

Alright so im posting this here because it relates to my 1911's but i suppose the 'problem' could occur on any other gun.

So, i have 3 sister guns. All TM 1911's single stack MEUs.

The oldest is a guarder full metal kit. about 3 years old
2nd is a full metal hurricane kit. about a year
and 3rd is a nova ldc kit about 6ish months old.

Just by noting the length of time i have owned these guns It is fair to assume that the oldest would have the most shots through the gun.

Basically my problem is slide to frame fitment. More specifically the slide to rail fitment. I have noticed over time that my guarder kits slide had been gaining more and more slop as time went on. I figured that was normal since the wear between slide and frame is inevitable.

This prompted me to investigate options as to how i could go about reducing wobble by getting more rail thickness, since it seemed impossible to increase the thickness of the slide rails.iincreasing the rail thickness could be done with a new rail insert. Before handing out the money on this new, albeit waaaay sturdier looking rail piece i thought i would experiment fitting the slides onto eachothers frames. since they are all essentially the same gun.

So a wobbly guarder kit. A perfect hurricane kit. and a slightly wobbly nova kit? (this was disappointing) But this is essentially what im working with.

So i took my hurricane slide and it fit pretty tight and snug no matter what frame it was on.. so i was thinking shit im going to have to maybe buy a new slide.. but it wont fix the problem of the wobbly nova kit etc.

I started swapping slide and frames all over the place and i found that my two wobbliest guns, guarder and nova could be 'fixed' by just switching the rails between the two guns.

I ended up doing a 3 way switch just because it turned out to be the best fit for all 3.

What really bugged me was the fact that my oldest guarder original pistol rails that should have been worn down the most and filed by (who ever put the kit on the gun) was a perfect fit on my brand new nova kit.. and while that was dismaying.. i put my old guarder slide, that should have been worn down from the 1000's of rounds through it, on my brand new rail set that i personally fit to the nova kit and required no filing it at all was a perfect fit.

This makes no sense. unless, the design or thickness of the rails in TM guns has changed.

All brand new rails and a new slide it will wobble.
Old worn slide and rails it will wobble.
but by putting an old slide on new rails and new slide on old rails fixes this problem?

If anyone has any insight as to why this may happen i would be interested to know. I figured that the more use the slide and rails have the looser the fitment. This is the reason I purchased a new donor gun for my nova kit because i wanted it to have that shiny new feeling.. and then it rattled about and slopped side to side until now when i put my old frame on it.

let me know what you think!

thanks guys,
Alex

[jordan7831]

I have also noticed this in several 1911s i have owned as well. Does anyone have any insight on the tanio koba slide spacers? I heard mixed reviews on their effectiveness.

[apilar]

the hurricane kit came with a slide spacer and i had originally put one on my guarder kit.. it was originally super tight and required filing to get to fit but it still wobbled like crazy.. except the hurricane kit.. its a beast.. fits like a glove

[Wepeel]

How can I add trigger slack to my Hi-Capa? I like two stage triggers but right now there is only a breakpoint.

[ILLusion]

Originally Posted by apilar

*snip*

In the 1911 platform, you have to realize that there are actually 16 points of major contact along the slide/frame rail.

Three exist on the top left of the frame: two on the internal frame. One on the external frame.

Three more exist as a mirror, on the right side of the frame.

Six more exist on the underside of the rail, as a mirror of the top of the frames' rails.

Two more contacts exist inside the dust cover, where the slide contacts it at the sides, just underneath the scalloped cut. Looking at a lot of slides, you'll see two nubs machined in to it - this is the contact point.

The final two contacts exist at the back of the slide, again, contacting the side of the frame on the valley of the rail of the frame. By extension, the frame mates to the valley of the rail in the slide, for an extra 2 points of contact, but for the sake of this discussion, we'll refer to these 4 points of contact as only two, since they are so close together.

All 16 of these contact points make up the overall fitment of the slide to the frame. Understanding all 16 points are also the key to slide to frame fitment. While fitment may be tight at first, over time, wear will take down all of these contact points, and both the slide and the frame will loosen up. Exacerbating this issue, is the fact that the Marui 1911 platform uses a dual receiver setup, which is not ideal. It causes alignment issues in some cases... and in other cases, can add additional contact points that are further unnecessary (problems usually arise when this happens.)

To narrow it down, there are two main forms of slide to receiver wobble:

- Axial - along the axis of the bore. Either the slide can lift up & down on the left side, and/or on the right side.
- Lateral - the slide is able to slide left-right on the frame.

The former type of wobble is easy to fix... moreso on real guns rather than on airsoft, but it's not impossible with airsoft, and I've tightened up many guns using real steel techniques. Care just needs to be made so that unrepairable damage is avoided.

Lateral wobble is much harder to fix and requires a lot more manipulation of the rail arms.


To put this in perspective with what your situation, Each setup needs to be looked at carefully to see what the differences are. You can usually tell this by looking at the spacing between each of the contact points between two different setups, as well as where wear points exist. For example, there should be minimal wear on the bottom of the slide... and this is where most differences occur. Some internal receivers fit tighter to the external receivers, and further inset. The tighter it is, the tighter the slide will be pulled towards the top of the frame. In very tight setups, a slide can get completely locked up against the frame. Slides are generally the guilty culprit in this - especially with die-cast slides, where the height between the bottom of the slide to the valley of the channel can differ by as much as 0.5mm. This area, if too thick, can bind up hard against the top of the frame.

As a gun is used, an internal receiver can settle in. Wear can cause the slide to loosen upwards, or the internal sleeve can settle further in to the external frame.

This is the best "explanation" that I can give to your scenario, and unless I have your guns in my hands, I can't give you the exact reasons for what you're experiencing. But what I've explained will be exactly what I'd look for to give you a detailed explanation for your application.


With all that said, because of the malleability and overall lower durability of cast metals, the best setups are with machined billet parts. ILLusion Kinetics recognized this a while ago, and the first CNC machined aircraft billet aluminum internal receiver was just released in July. It features monolithic rails (which also negates the need for a slide spacer - Tanio Koba, Airsoft Surgeon, Hurricane, or otherwise) and precision fitment of the hammer plate to the frame and all pivot points (hammer & sear). We don't have a 1911 receiver in production yet - it's been in research & development for a number of years now. There are difficulties caused by the two-frame system, and is made more difficult with the requirement to get a precision fit between parts. Anyways. That's production issues.

For now, the ILLusion Kinetics frame is available now and it fits Nova frames/slides reeeeeeeeally well. I have one installed in my Nova Kimber Warrior kit, and it has absolutely zero play axially, or laterally. It's the most solid setup I have, and now brings 1911's up to the level of ILLusion Kinetics built Hi-Capas.

[ILLusion]

Originally Posted by jordan7831

I have also noticed this in several 1911s i have owned as well. Does anyone have any insight on the tanio koba slide spacers? I heard mixed reviews on their effectiveness.

They work better in some setups than in others.

Specifically, they do not work with Shooters Design conversion kits.

I don't know if the Tanio Koba ones are still in production, but Airsoft Surgeon is now producing them. I have a handful of them here, and as far as I can tell, fit and function fine in all the setups I've tried them in.

The "mixed reviews" you've heard about their effectiveness are true, and another function of the problems caused by the dual-receiver setup of the Marui 1911 and its clones. Particularly, the inset portion of the internal frame that they fit in to may not have a precision location. If that slide spacer is crooked by even 0.001 degrees, it will cause slide movement issues.

However, in general, I highly recommend installing them wherever it will fit.

[ILLusion]

Originally Posted by Wepeel

How can I add trigger slack to my Hi-Capa? I like two stage triggers but right now there is only a breakpoint.

The easiest way is to file a bit off the back of the sear where the trigger disconnect slips between the sear and the trigger stirrup.

[apilar]

Thanks for the input illusion!

Im just curious if by 'ILLusion Kinetics frame is available now and it fits Nova frames/slides reeeeeeeeally well'

Is it similar to what prog4 was selling??
http://www.prog4.com/db/product-show.asp?refno=AR2056

[ILLusion]

Originally Posted by apilar

Thanks for the input illusion!

Im just curious if by 'ILLusion Kinetics frame is available now and it fits Nova frames/slides reeeeeeeeally well'

Is it similar to what prog4 was selling??
http://www.prog4.com/db/product-show.asp?refno=AR2056

Yes. Same product.

Blowback kick is increased dramatically with this part installed...