Modding a WE M4 outer barrel

[Aper]

Hey guys,

Ever asked yourself; Should I buy a new outer barrel for my project ? Or just do it myself and hoping for the best ? Well, I opted for the second option and really happy I did.

Took my old WE M4 outer barrel for this. My current project needed an outer barrel of at most 6 to 6 1/2 inches since my project consists of integrating a silencer inside my current rail system.

First off, I took my mesures. Where to cut to make sure the silencer tucks in good and that the metal sleeve doesn't obstruct the silencers way. Don't forget, mesure twice; cut once !

To have a perfect and straight cut, I went with a pipe cutter. I did 2 cuts on the outer barrel: one right after the hop-up chamber, and one and the very end of the barrel making sure the suppresor once screwed in doesn't come over the separation;


Once everything cutted down nicely, I took my Dremel to smooth out the surfaces of the cuts, making sure both ends have a nice surface to accept the epoxy (JB Weld/Permatex Steel/Ect.).

Once everything ready to assemble and epoxy, I stopped and thought: How the fuck am I going to keep a perfect straight assembly to make sure nothing moves during the process ? *Scratches head* ... fuck ...

And then the idea came to me. Wait a minute, I have some of those retarded wood dowels from previous IKEA furnitures left over that seem to have the good size.



Well damn, it was almost a perfect fit. To make it fit and not woobly, I wrapped the said dowel with Teflon tape not only to make it fit, but also making sure the epoxy doesn't overflow and at the same time epoxy the dowel inside the barrel. I personnaly used some Permatex Steel Weld for this time, which worked out amazing.



Once hardened (around an hour), I punched out the dowel and let it cured (about 4-6 hours to completely cure). The barrel was then perfectly straight and without any overflow inside the barrel;



Of course, once this finished the outer barrel would be rock solid for most, but since i'm a goddamn perfectionist, I took a step further by reinforcing the barrel with a metal sleeve. Took some more mesures and the outer barrel is almost a perfect .75 in in diameter. I took a look around my local hardware store and found this .75 inch copper sleeve in the plumbery section which was a good lenght and what I was looking for. At .69$ it was worth the try. Once home, tried it home on the assembled outer barrel and the fit was perfect since the epoxy needed little space to fill the space left.



Tried the silencer to make sure the lenght was ok. It was perfect;



I made sure to sand down the paint that was on the outer barrel and inside the sleeve to make sure the epoxy sticks well. I also used paint thinner to make sure no grease or paint powder was left before applying the epoxy. Then again, another 4-5 hours to let it cure, and then took the Dremel to buff down all the extra epoxy that was left off;




Conclusion; Pretty happy with the results and happy I kept my money instead of ordering an AEG outer barrel at the correct lenght to extensively mod the shit out to make it fit in a GBBR.

EDIT: I completely forgot to check if my barrel nut would fit at the end over that sleeve. Well lucky for me it did, and this error could've cost me a new outer barrel. Make sure eveything fits before applying epoxy and fucking up !

[Aper]

Final product once painted. I used some good ol' Krylon Camo, Ultra Flat finish. Make sure to cover the threads and the bottom of the barrel with tape to make a clean finish;



In the end, this looks like an outer barrel you bought off at a high cost in Chinaland, top quality result;

[localfreerider]

Good stuff, nice work!

[ebfud]

Very good stuff! Nice write up.

[Aper]

Bump. Old broken links fixed and all pics should be OK.