Write-Up: Longshot Boltsled Reinforcement

Over the many years of people Longshotting, many boltsleds have succumbed to the power of notoriously potent springs and died. I opened up my longshot today for some maintenance only to discover that my sled has a crack in it! LS + NF spring if anyone was curious. I thought, if those springs could slowly eat away at my sled. I'm doomed! So... solution. There have been one or two boltsled reinforcements floating around, but I decided to do it my own way. Similar to others, but not the same. Let's see how I went...

Materials:

- 0.5mm Aluminium Sheet (can be bought from hobby stores or bunnings)
- 3 Day Super Strength Epoxy Resin ($10 at bunnings or k-mart)
- Boltsled (from your longshot...)
- Pliers (needle nose and the fatter kind o.O)
- Perma Marker
- Scissors (to cut out the sheet)
- Some hand-eye coordination...

Picture below for people who love pictures.



Step 1:

Place your aluminium sheets and trace it around your sled with a perma marker. Make SURE you cut OUTSIDE the perma marker, not inside it, You will understand why later on.



Step 2:

Sand down lightly the area of reinforcement on L joint of sled and aluminium cut out (to get best bond with glue)



Step 3:

Shape your aluminum with the pliers to make it fit nicely on the sled joint.



Step 4:

Wash plastic under warm water do get rid of the dusty sanded plastic which may get in the way with the bonding. Don't do it with aluminium, it will rust. Pat it down to dry it down with some paper towel



Step 5:

Mix 3 day epoxy together and put it on both the plastic and aluminium sandwiching them together.





You're done! It's a basic write-up but just there to give you guys an idea of what you NEED to do before you add anything better than an LS spring. Keep in mind a LS + NF combo started to wear away at the sled. So like some dude said on these forums... add anything more than the lognshot spring... REINFORCE IT!

I have tested it, it does work in the Longshot, but there is a very thin margin of error if you don't do it properly it won't run smoothly on the guide rails.

That's effing awesome. Its very clean too. Thank you so much for the alternative. Have you added a stronger spring or such to test it, I really would like to see how this goes.

Currently drying, will be testing it on thursday. But it will work. It's MUCH better than the coat hanger method. Aj's done this method too and apparently he hasnt' had any broken sleds... from the last I spoke to him about it (like a LONG time ago). I think he may of used a different method but I'm not sure. All I remember him saying is "laminating aluminium".

Yeah I used this method too, I laminated all the way down the long part of the sled, but this method should be fine as 99% of the stress and breakages occur at that right angle corner.

Very clean dude, good write up!

Aj

would I need to do this If my Ls was shotgun gripped? I know that the shotgun grip evens out the stress, but I'm just curious.

Great writeup, it will be a great help for people buying longshots. Onesmall thing:

littlebro05 wrote:Don't do it with aluminium, it will rust.

You don't have to worry, aluminium won't rust.

Biggles

littlebro05 wrote:Don't do it with aluminium, it will rust.

Aluminium wont rust and that is not 5mm thick aluminium
You could even sand the aluminium to make it rough just like you do with the plastic
You also might want to mention file/de-burr the bottom of the aluminum laminated sled to ensure the catch slide freely

0.5mm maybe?

chrisb wrote:

littlebro05 wrote:Don't do it with aluminium, it will rust.

Aluminium wont rust and that is not 5mm thick aluminium
You could even sand the aluminium to make it rough just like you do with the plastic
You also might want to mention file/de-burr the bottom of the aluminum laminated sled to ensure the catch slide freely

chrisb you are truely the aluminium king. Where would we be without you?

yeah sorry about not having anything worthwhile to contribute.

Littlebro05 used the 0.010" thick aluminium sheet from K&S metals.

Deburring the metal would make life alot easier, I'm surprised that he didn't do it; we did metalwork together in school, and deburring was a must.

I also find it very convenient that the permanent marker thickness of the tip works well for the thickness of the boltsled.

Switchblade wrote:

chrisb you are truely the aluminium king. Where would we be without you?

You'll be fine without me, there are plenty of intelligent people on the forum

I'd suggest you still strengthen your bolt sled

Oh dear me, a typo... yes it's meant to be 0.5mm... time to fix that hahaha. I wrote it up in the spur of the moment because I thought may as well share since I'm making it anyway...

would this work if my bolt sled already broke, ive been trying to fix it using 3 day araldite, but the glue dosn't seam to bestrong enought to hold it and when i tryed the bodge it with ali it broke again :/

Neodore wrote:would this work if my bolt sled already broke, ive been trying to fix it using 3 day araldite, but the glue dosn't seam to bestrong enought to hold it and when i tryed the bodge it with ali it broke again :/

If it's already broke, you're already stuffed.

Neodore wrote:would this work if my bolt sled already broke, ive been trying to fix it using 3 day araldite, but the glue dosn't seam to bestrong enought to hold it and when i tryed the bodge it with ali it broke again :/

Actually There may be a way you can fix it. It's a similar way on how I fixed my big blast trigger using ShootEmUp's way. There's a couple reasons that using only JUST araldite won't work. It's because araldite doesnt' fuse the plastic together.

If you use this method of using aluminium as the '2nd' layer you would probably temporarily repair your boltsled because it's like having a '2nd' skin. It might not last long though. If my boltsled does break I will probably work out away to repair it. So, until then you're going to have to deal with a broken sled :(.

Actually, I want to have a go at that. Time to go to the WTB thread.

When I mean 'rust' I should say it can get oxidated. So phuong tells me, which is probably the correct term.

littlebro05 wrote:
Actually There may be a way you can fix it. It's a similar way on how I fixed my big blast trigger using ShootEmUp's way. There's a couple reasons that using only JUST araldite won't work. It's because araldite doesnt' fuse the plastic together.

If you use this method of using aluminium as the '2nd' layer you would probably temporarily repair your boltsled because it's like having a '2nd' skin. It might not last long though. If my boltsled does break I will probably work out away to repair it. So, until then you're going to have to deal with a broken sled :(.

Actually, I want to have a go at that. Time to go to the WTB thread.

When I mean 'rust' I should say it can get oxidated. So phuong tells me, which is probably the correct term.

well i can with out a doubt say that trying to use the longshot with a broken bolt sled is a bad idea. I pulled it back, cocked it (supprised the hell out of me that it cocked mind you anything will go with enought force) and if I moved the gun backward and forward i could hear something rattleing around inside it, opened it all up an found the black plastic bit on the back of the breach tube had snapped off.

Im thinking of getting one of the ali boltsleds but i might see if i can fix the bolt sled aswell just for sh!ts and giggles ( I sence a race on :P), this also means that due to the broken breach im now forced to make up an angel breach.

Would you mind selling this 'broken boltsled' to me, send me a picture of what the breakage looks like and I'm going to see if I can repair it. I'll pay $10 with the postage included because it's pretty much worthless at the moment so you're getting some of your money back on it.

Also you prime the longshot using the 'jam door' without the boltsled, you just have to glue it to the boltnub some how.

Neodore wrote: i could hear something rattleing around inside it, opened it all up an found the black plastic bit on the back of the breach tube had snapped off.

I'll be looking into this later this month

chrisb wrote:

Neodore wrote: i could hear something rattleing around inside it, opened it all up an found the black plastic bit on the back of the breach tube had snapped off.

I'll be looking into this later this month

I do have encountered this but only with a monster of a spring which shouldn't be in there in the first place.

I've also done this the same as AJ's. Good write-up, this can be a little tricky and if you Fk it up, it'll be a pain in the ass to fix. If you're not that confident, GET someone to help you out.

littlebro05 wrote:Would you mind selling this 'broken boltsled' to me, send me a picture of what the breakage looks like and I'm going to see if I can repair it. I'll pay $10 with the postage included because it's pretty much worthless at the moment so you're getting some of your money back on it.

Also you prime the longshot using the 'jam door' without the boltsled, you just have to glue it to the boltnub some how.

Ill take a couple of piccys for you if you like but i was going to try something like plastic welding to try and fix it.


I like my monster spring that and the damage is already done so ive now got
A) a reason to brass it
B) work out how to fix it

Plastic welding the joint won't make it any stronger though. It'll work but it won't be as strong as before. You may as well use this method but I have thought of a way to repair it. I just need a broken boltsled that have been broken on the sides!

littlebro05 wrote:Plastic welding the joint won't make it any stronger though. It'll work but it won't be as strong as before. You may as well use this method but I have thought of a way to repair it. I just need a broken boltsled that have been broken on the sides!

I remember reading somewhere on this site (or maybe nerfhaven) someone using coathanger wire to brace the bolt sled, Im trying to use the wire sunk into the boltsled to brace it, however i think there may be a problem because im not getting the two plastics hot enought to fuse yet.

I'm taking pictures but ill only do a write up if it actually works and dosnt break after a decent amount of usage i dont see this working for long in my LS because mine is starting to get to the stupidity level but it could be a fix for someones LS with less ommph, ideally something like a twin spring set up (nf+ls, stock LS+bigger ls so on and so forth)

It's because silly people like you try to put a monster spring into something that won't hold and that's why it breaks. You have to realise that 'modifying' something is one thing, but knowing it's limits is another.

Does anyone know a good way how to reinforce the back of the plunger? It's the part where the 2 screws are.

Ezekiel wrote:Does anyone know a good way how to reinforce the back of the plunger? It's the part where the 2 screws are.

get one made up...

There is actually a good way to reinforce it. And all you have to do is get layer some aluminium (about 3mmx3mm) and etape it until you can jam it between the 'deadspace' behind the rear spring stopper. This doesnt' really reinforce it but give it some support.

Do you have to reinforce the boltsled if you change the spring? By saving have to I mean will it otherwise break?


- SuctionCup -

The addition of a NF spring will eventually create a crack in your Boltsled if you don't reinforce it. The boltsled was designed for one spring and that's the stock spring or any force that the stock spring puts onto the Boltsled.

littlebro05 wrote:It's because silly people like you try to put a monster spring into something that won't hold and that's why it breaks. You have to realise that 'modifying' something is one thing, but knowing it's limits is another.

Well, now i know its limits


EDIT: on a side note the plastic welding seams to sort of work but putting any stress on it does seam to resplit the crack, i might have get a soldering iron with more heat and to try and melt the plastic into instant liquid.

I tried this out last night with one of my boltsleds. It looks pretty good. I did a dry run inside the longshot and there is a tiny amount of increased friction but nothing a little bit of filing wont fix.
Also wrap some tape really tightly around the parts of the boltsled to hold it nice and firm while the epoxy dries.

I actually recommend cutting the parts you are folding over a little bit too long. Then cut them back flush with the boldsled and round the edges off with a file. If you cover all the inner surfaces with 3 day epoxy it should give a stronger and longer lasting reinforcement.

Can I ask whether or not an added Recon spring (Recon + Longshot springs) will break the boltsled? I have had it in for a bit and had no problems yet but will that evenally break the boltsled? If so, after how much use?
Thanks...

hichrich wrote:Can I ask whether or not an added Recon spring (Recon + Longshot springs) will break the boltsled? I have had it in for a bit and had no problems yet but will that evenally break the boltsled? If so, after how much use?
Thanks...

Yes you need to reinforce it. Any spring addition or change requires reinforcement.

Psykka wrote:

hichrich wrote:Can I ask whether or not an added Recon spring (Recon + Longshot springs) will break the boltsled? I have had it in for a bit and had no problems yet but will that evenally break the boltsled? If so, after how much use?
Thanks...

Yes you need to reinforce it. Any spring addition or change requires reinforcement.

This should be at the top of anything to do with modding the longshot. It may take a while (mine took over a year and still hasn't fully broken...but looking at it it would not have survived another war) but it WILL break, especially if you dryfire the gun a lot too.

I am glad I got the aluminium boltsled when I did, it was basically the cost of another longshot anyways.

OK, I tried this method of bolt sled reinforcement yesterday, but unfortunately due to my lack of skill and inexperience, several parts of the aluminium not glued evenly around the original bolt sled. It created too much resistance on the rails, so after I primed the sled it will not sprung back when I pulled the trigger. So anyone who is not very skillful with metalwork (including me) should think twice before they attempt this method. Now I have to figure out some way to repair my bolt sled, I think I will have to file the aluminium parts that are in contact with the rails down to paper-thin layer tomorrow. Damnit, if I can't repair it, it is either I have to buy another Longshot or replace the whole bolt sled with Chris's aluminium sled