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Building & upgrading TM Glock 17 GBB - My experiences

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  • Building & upgrading TM Glock 17 GBB - My experiences

    Pistols are cool, and nothing beats the satisfaction of owning people with one on skirmishes!

    My first pistol was a 2nd hand WE Glock 18, i just had to experience the full auto, apologies...
    I soon realised i wanted a pistol that could be a primary not just a sidearm.

    With the wisdom of many forums advise i bought a new TM Glock 17 with the intent of getting it reliable, accurate over dstance and fully functional.
    By functional i mean it always fires every round no matter, the slide locks back on empty and it doesnt miss a beat all day as primary.

    However i dont beleive in changing things just cos' and in getting it to meet my goals with only the minimum upgrade parts required has taken me round the houses, so hopefully this will be good advice for people wanting a purposeful GBB pistol that doesnt break the bank, with any luck it will apply to many other Marui pistols too.

    Im sure there'll be many things that have been said before, and some people may think otherwise but these are my experiences, i have put thousands of BB's through this set up and can soundly say its a solid performer

    So these are THE parts you need and nothing you don't and my findings;

    Tokyo Marui Glock 17 £115

    PGC Slide & outer barrel set £70
    For reliability you need a metal slide, with upping the power and hard use it wont be long before the cracks appear or worse on the TM slide.

    I bought this make of slide based on many praises and i can confirm that it definately fits very nicely. They are getting thin on the ground but are still available overseas.
    I did however find that where the BBU mounts into the slide i had to get some extra material machined out of the slide for the BBU to sit perfectly flat as prior to this finding i cracked a TM BBU, obviously halfway through a game.

    Laylax high speed recoil spring guide £24
    With your now heavier aluminium slide you need to up the recoil spring power so each time you fire the pistol fully cycles the slide home again.

    This spring guide is very nicely made from stainless steel with a ball bearing to counter spring wind up tension.
    I found with this build that using the Laylax spring guide and ball bearing with the standard TM spring gives the best operation and slide lock back upon empty mag.

    Maple leaf inner barrel & Monster bucking £16
    This is responsible for increased range, accuracy and FPS. Really nicely made and a bargain!

    I have extended the outer barrel and fitted a 5.1 Hi Capa length 138mm barrel, not to everyones taste but i liked the real steel Lonewolf look.

    UAC Fibre sights £34
    In a similar manner to the reason you need a metal slide you also need at least a rear sight made of aluminum for reliablity, the stock TM plastic ones arnt upto it long term.

    You dont specifically need this make but its pretty good bang for buck wise, i was quite shocked at how much these tiny parts cost actually.

    Maintenance
    To keep everything running smoothly this is all you need to do;

    - Daily lube all METAL ON METAL areas with Express gun oil, it stays put, keeps moisture out and stops premature metal wear...oh and smells great.
    You can get this online or from any local gun shop.

    - Daily lube the piston head seal with silicone oil, Abbey or similar is good, i prefer Gold cup oil as it lasts longer.
    If you ever find during extended use your pistol doesnt cycle fully chances are your piston head seal has run dry, this only happens when using certain low lube gases.

    - Clean the bore of the inner barrel as you would an AEG

    - Always store your mags with gas in, this is the best way of preventing leaky mag syndrome and periodically lube the gas route seal with silicone oil.

    So for a grand total of £259 you've got a decent pistol that works seamlessly and will consistently put out mag fulls for ages.
    FPS up from 270 to 300 on green gas and accuracy increased along with further range.


    What i found i didnt need...

    Firefly Rocket valve: Beautifully made and a lovely fit but in all honesty i found that i used more gas than the TM part, didnt make and more FPS and during extended use it could ice up causing cycle issues.

    Abbey Brut gas or similar low lube gas: It doesnt contain enough lube for a GBB to function continuosly.

    The swarf inside new mags: I strongly advise stripping down any brand new mags you buy and thoroughly clean the inside out with brake cleaner and cotton buds, i couldnt beleive how much crap was in my 4 new TM mags!
    When you have the mags apart lube all the seals with plenty of silicone oil and put a dab of Loctite thread lock on the main screw holding the base on.



    Laylax gas route seal Aero packing: Theres nothing wrong with these, i fitted them to all my mags but it turns out the latest TM gas route seals are actually identical! so save your pennies theres no gains here other than cool purpleness!



    High flow mag gas exit valve: Tried this out on a the mag that came with the pistol, FPS went up a bit, but didnt benefit range any further and used more gas in the process giving more cool down meaning the last few BB's out the mag wern't consistent.

    Guarder enhanced hammer spring: The latest stock TM spring is more than upto the task, only ends in similar but not as evident problems as above.

    Light silicone spray lube: for metal on metal parts this sort of stuff is not whats needed.

    Other than a Guarder Magwell for a nicer fit in the hand, TM Custom mags and the above all parts are stock TM, so readily and cheaply replaceable.
    I went for the Custom mags as the bulky mag base not only gives you something to grab hold of to pull out of the mag pouch but stops crap getting in the gas fill valve.

    Cheers for all who helped me along the way and hopefully this helps others!











    Last edited by Sprint; 11 May, 2016, 01:03. Reason: forgot some

  • #2
    Building & upgrading TM Glock 17 GBB - UPDATE

    So been using this as above for even longer now, thought id do a mini update for tose interested, still flawless function and form although i will admit i have changed the Maple mucking out for a Pormetheus / Nineball purple.
    Solely because the Maple was showing signs of wear in that with the hop unit wound to maximum i was getting less range than normal, the chrono confirmed FPS was unchanged, with the new bucking installed range is reinstated!

    Whilst ordering the replacement bucking Nineball's "Dyna Piston Head" caught my eye being all spanky anodised red and ported looking, so i thought id give it a go.



    The Dyna Piston packet contains
    1x piston head
    1x floating valve spring
    1x large cross section O ring
    1x small cross section O ring

    I found with the TM G17 blow back unit there is a raised circular 'platform' that the stock TM piston head centralises on via a counterbore on the back of the piston head, the raise 'platform' also contains most of the thread for the piston head retaining screw to screw into.

    The problem i had was that the Dyna piston head does not have this counterbore, meaning it cannot centralise itself within the blow back unit, this in turn means that even with no O rings fitted to it the loading nozzle may not slide freely, definatly not in my case.

    I soldiered on and counterbored the Dyna piston head myself, refitted, slid freely, great!
    I proceded to try both supplied O rings, the large one was a big no, the small one was better but still not a slick as the original TM piston head.
    I fitted on of my own smller still O rings to get the desired slick movement - contact just, negligible drag.

    Next i fitted the supplied uprated floating valve spring, much stiffer, threw it all back together, put a mag up it, pulled the trigger and promtly dumped all gas straight out the barrel.
    I tried various things, even the Rocket valve in conjuction with it, but whatever i tried all it did was dump gas, at this power level the spring is simply to strong and doesnt allow the floating valve to close off the barrel for recoil and recock.

    So all in all not too impressed with this product, all other Prometheus / Nineball products i have ever used have been A1.
    Did i get the wrong part in what looks to be the correct packaging??

    In summary i suppose you could possibly gain a small increase in durability being aluminium but thats it, unless you have a seriously tuned gun running high flow valves or HPA this isnt necessary, and to recap this doesnt even fit straight out of the packet!

    Personally id stick with the £3.50 Marui piston head and save the aggro!

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