Quote:
Originally Posted by ILLusion
In general, die cast products (especially the cheaply done casts found in many airsoft products) have very loose tolerances, poor surface finish, and a poorly finished product will also have a lot of molding flash. In general, the inconsistency is the most annoying part, and is why it makes installing one Guarder kit a completely different experience from installing another kit, even if it's the same model and coming from the same production batch!
Poor casts also have surface imperfections (pitting is common), mis-casted areas (due to poor injection), and die casting will also degrade over time, even if you leave it to sit there. The environment will actually cause it to corrode, particularly on uncoated areas.
VFC just happens to do it better - I assume because this is because they just focused all their effort on ONE model, versus other companies who try to pump out tons of different models and have to spread out the development costs of creating multiple die casting moulds (it is very expensive to machine a mould. Start up cost is high)
As for the requirement of Guarder Hi-Capa/1911/MEU slides requiring the blowback unit tab to be snapped off, it's stupid engineering because it renders the blowback unit completely unusable with any other brand of slide. All it would take, is for a minor change to their casting mould, and it saves end users the grief and incompatibility. Same goes for their 226 kits... it has an even stupider mod requirement to the BBU, that MOST users out there do not have the tools to perform. And all it would take, is two small channels to be created in the slide.
Bad engineering. :P It's about usability, not durability.
As for Nova kits, I haven't had the problems you're mentioning. Almost all the kits I've had were pretty much drop in fits, except for some slight difficulties fitting the BBU in straight. Some minor filing is required, but that's all I've had to do.
Regarding gunsmiths, what you're describing in regards to gunsmiths charging an inspection fee is not unreasonable. $100HKD works out to roughly $20CAD, and that's how much I charge for inspection fees as well. Unless you're my team mate or attending an event that I'm attending where I've committed my leisure time to the hobby, I will charge you that fee. Simple as that. If you're commanding my time to look at your gun for whatever reason, then there's a value to my time. Not for the act itself - but for my time, and as it is, I don't even have that much time to look at guns (I have an entire racks of guns waiting to be looked at, fixed, or custom built right now, as we speak...) I'm not going to take the time out of my day to give you a free opinion or suggestion for it unless I'm being compensated for it the business helps to support my livelihood in some way. Otherwise, I'd rather be spending the time making money to pay off a house mortgage, put food in my kid's mouths, pay for their education, and to buy my wife (and my mistress) designer handbags. LOL
I also absorb the inspection fee if you decide to go with my suggested mods, and obviously, you'll be paying for the upgrade parts - I sure as hell won't be paying for your parts!
As for WA... sorry, don't know. My experience with them is limited at best. If anything, you would have an easier time getting that answer for yourself, as you're on the ground in HK with massive access to parts. We don't have such luxury here... God knows Kwong Wah is my third home whenever I'm in HK (second is LKF. LOL)
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Thanks for the reply :P
I thought the tabs, even when cut off, would still allow the BBU to fit the original marui frame or any other kits since you're just removing a non-load bearing part, and that given the rear screw that imitates the firing pin is what really locks the BBU in place with or without the tab won't make a difference.
Thanks also for the info on the NOVA parts :P
Hmm well 100 bucks in Hong Kong is a lot for someone that's been living in Hong Kong for some 10 years XD I don't know, I would've thought that inspection costs should be less given that the gunsmiths in the retail shops I doubt only get income off the labour cost when they should have a basic stipend from the retail shop themselves. But that is besides the point. I guess I'm just a bit biased towards the smiths charging 100 bucks for the inspection fee when I know most of the issues my airsoft friends have with AEGs or GBBs are really obvious fixes yet they'll still charge 100 bucks for the work done. I would've fixed some of the issues my friends encounter for free since they are just tightening the valves or adding a layer of oil to the o-rings on the GBB mags in order to fix leaks; or simply washing out the grime that accumulates between the piston/piston cup and nozzle to get the gun working again.
Then again I don't do this for a living so I guess my opinion may well change if I were in their shoes; it's just that for a lot of the issues my friends and I get in any of our airsoft equipment a simple google search will suffice; I don't see why a 5-10 min google search and some self-labour in disassembling the guns to figure out the issue can cost 100 bucks. I only go to gunsmiths nowadays if I can't find my answer with google or if I don't have the tools to modify the parts myself.
The part where I emphasised that you have to pay for the aftermarket parts they installed was for my intent to convey that sometimes the smiths just throw in upgrades for some reason that does not actually fix the problem or are not worth as much (i.e. adding expensive advised Systema parts to AEGs when certain China or Taiwan made items costing 1/2 or 1/4 the price of the Systema part would have been sufficient) and that adding up all the cost of the parts and the inspection fee the cost of 'upgrading' or 'fixing' an airsoft gun in HK seem way too expensive in my opinion. I know that my friend was willing to part HKD 1500 just to install bushings, a stronger spring and have a general look over the shimming and any other issues with the gun. When you think about it, shimming at most takes an hour (and I've only reshimmed my gearbox three times after reading up on all the technical issues with shimming a gearbox correctly and that took me 1/2 and hour or so) and it's not that hard, the spring costs only HKD60 (for the guarder springs within SP100-SP140 IIRC) and even the hardest bushings you can get (the Modify ones) cost HKD 172 at WGC (and that's probably one of the most expensive set of bushings). Adding the total together (assuming labour cost should be HKD 100) the smith is charging HKD1168 over what I expect would be the maximum he charges. Anyway back to the main point I'm not trying to say that paying for the aftermarket parts fully by yourself is atrocious but the whether the items are actually required plus the fact that I believe most of the smiths are not exactly truthful to the extend of which you need aftermarket parts is something I'm weary about.
Sorry for going a bit off topic there, but I just wanted to clear up my intentions of my previous post.
Anyway, as for the WA parts I had a reply on another forum that said the WA recoil spring, guide rod (I think the guide rod plug too in this regards) fit the marui frame just fine. However I am trying to get confirmation about the standard recoil spring plug and whether that fits fine too.
Another thing, I dunno about your experience, but in general most Hong Kong airsoft retailers don't like to tell you anything in the shops when you ask whether certain parts fit certain guns unless it's already written in the package of the item or if it's very obvious. The service in almost all the shops are extremely limited and in some places like I feel like the staff look at their potential customers with disdain unless they start whipping out cash. I really don't want to spend money for experimentation when there is a possibility that someone else outside Hong Kong have tried it already and know the results (since being a student money's always tight) and for I have a pet peeve about having spare parts that I know are pretty useless outside certain niche builds that I might do or fix sitting around and if the WA recoil spring plug really doesn't fit and I bought one to try on my SIS then the plug falls exactly into that category. :P
Anyway, thanks again for you help. I'll report back here if I find out the WA plug fits in the future.