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Modify
Modular Gear Set & Cylinder Set Review
By
FarEast from ArniesAirsoft.co.uk
Back in July I posted some news regarding Modify’s new modular gear sets,
and as promised they sent us a set to test. These are so new they could only
send us one without the external packaging as these aren’t ready yet.
Now a lot of speculation has gone into the fit and how they work with the
many types of gearboxes out there from the famous Tokyo Marui gear box to the
infamous JLS. This review will try to separate the fact from fiction by
testing it on as many gear boxes as possible.
Now this main review is on the actual Modular gear set and the new piston
sets by Modify and it’s fitting into a 1st generation Version 2 Tokyo
Marui Gear box, so all photos will be of this gear box. Due to the time
needed to fit it in other brands of gearboxes only some images will be taken
and no step by step review or fitting guide will be posted.
The Modular Gear Set
As you can see the set contains the spur, bevel and sector gear all contained
in the fixing brace. The brace itself is made out of tempered stainless
steel, resulting in a very stiff mounting, perfect for duress and tensions
placed on these parts during operation.
One of the other features of the brace, is the tempered stainless steel
bushes that are fixed on to the bracket, these have a double groove in them
for oil, allowing the axle of the gears to rotate freely through these.
The whole unit is then mounted to the gear box using another set of bushings,
these come in 6mm, 6.1mm 7mm with larger sizes in production for other high
performance gear boxes and the only roll they play is to firmly hold the rest
of the unit in place.
Also in the set is the anti-reversal latch and some of these features are an
absolute godsend, the first feature is the added e-ring. This prevents the
spring that pushes against the gear box wall thus engaging the latch into the
bevel gear. There is nothing worse when building a version 2 gearbox to have
the main spring release as you join the two halves together and the
anti-reversal latch springing out as well, resulting in 15 minutes of looking
for that damn spring.
The other great feature is the addition of a groove in the top of the
anti-reversal latch allowing you to insert a Philips head screw driver and
turning the latch out and away as you install the bevel gear.
( I personally think that selling this as a separate would be good
business as I would personally appreciate these in other gear boxes.)
Lastly in the set is some synthetic lubricant with PTFE and is perfect for
the bearings. Although there are probably much higher quality products on the
market, the lubricant is good quality and very convenient for those of us
that doesn’t have any in our kit.
Modify M4-A1 Cylinder Set
The Modify cylinder set is the whole deal and contains brass cylinder with plating,
stainless steel cylinder head, POM air seal nozzle, polycarbonate piston and
piston head. The packaging of the Modify set is very secure with enough
packing to keep it safe even from moderately abusive delivery services.
Straight away when handling the Modify sets you can feel the quality and
craftsmanship that has gone into producing the product. I would have to say
straight away that the finish and quality is certainly up there with Systema
cylinder parts and the finish of the brass plating is excellent.
The cylinder head is probably one of the nicest I have seen for a long time
featuring double O-ring that really helps in prevents air loss on the forward
stroke of the piston, while also securing the cylinder to the head. One of
the benefits of this is that by placing grease between the O-rings cuts down
on mess and also the grease being blown out of the cylinder during the first
hundred or so shots. The grease stays exactly where it is needed, between the
O-rings.
The dampening on the inside of the cylinder head is made from rubber rather than
foam and actually does a better job as it doesn’t get compacted after
time.
The piston head set is very well constructed and the thrust bearings allow
the spring to spin freely removing the wear and tear that is inflicted on
pistons without it. I would recommend though that users of thrust bearings
should use lock tight or other thread locking liquids as the screw that hold
the piston head set in to place has a tendency to unscrew it’s self.
Taking a closer look at the bearing it is made again to very good standards
and the grooves on the outside are designed to catch grease, although I would
recommend silicon spray over the grease as it allows the bearings far less
resistance.
The piston as you can see uses the new 3 groove rails, if you aren’t
aware of this the system prevent grease buildup at the front and back of the
piston where it is then deposited into either the gearbox or worst still into
the air nozzle which eventually fouls the hop unit and the barrel, resulting
in a less effect hop and also decrease I accuracy and range.
Now one of the disappointments is the teeth on the piston, only the last
tooth is metal. Now although this is perfect for us players using sub 1 joule
weapons it does pose a potential weak spot for players able to take their
guns to higher power ranges and adding the 3 groove rail system to the
equation players looking to up grade might want to look at the non- 3 rail
version.
Putting this aside though, the Modify piston is very well made and not being
able to go above 0.98 joules this piston is perfect for both the high speed
and high torque gear sets.
Finally the lowly air nozzle, this is 100% compatible if all variants and
makes of M4A1
tappet plates and I was able to successfully mount it on Tokyo Marui, JG,
JLS, Systema and a whole range of other 3rd party tappet plates.
Modify Spring and Spring Guide
Along with the Cylinder and Gear set modify also sent us a spring and guide,
now modify certainly know their stuff and rather than sending the usual 90+
springs that a lot of companies send for us to test thinking that they will
be under the 1 joule rule, Modify has actually conducted a lot of testing
into gear, spring, thrust bearings setups and mixes allowing us to build a
complete gear box as close to the 1 joule mark as possible without exceeding
it. Excellent news for airsofter’s with little time on their hands for
extensive testing, continuous tweaking and modifications.
The Rotary spring guide uses the same thrust bearing technology as the piston
head allowing the spring to completely rotate on the guide. Now although this
version of spring guide looks identical to the old Modify spring guide, there
are some differences in design. The actual shaft of the spring guide also
rotates assisting the thrust bearings but also the spring allowing it to
return to its uncompressed state quicker and with less resistance,
theoretically reducing wear and tear on the spring.
So now we have covered the individual parts, the technology and innovation,
do they actually work and how well do they perform in a variety of gear
boxes?
Putting it all together
Now as I mentioned at the beginning of the review, I’, not going to do
a step by step guide for anything but the Tokyo Marui Version 2 gear box,
although I will supply images and feed back on numerous other gearboxes and
image will only be taken on areas of interest or concern.
The first thing I did was to insert the 6mm
bushings in to the left hand side of the gear box, this was easily achieved
but did require some pressure getting them to snap into position and lie into
the grooves, used a small rubber mallet to knock the flat.
Now the next part was probably the easiest thing I have ever done when
building a modified gear box (Pun not intended!) and that was to
insert all the gears. It was a simple task of dropping the gear chassis into
the bushings….done!
Now on a version 2 Marui gear box this was no problem along with a G&G
and ICS, but on other gear boxes such as the JG, Echo1 and JLS where a lot of
the time the holes made for the bushings are not aligned for standard gears,
so how can you get this to fit?
Modify have been very clever with the chassis design as it offers enough
support that you only need two of the three gear box mounts to fit. As the
three gears make a triangle the Modify Modular gear set only requires two of
the mounting holes on both halves of the gearbox to be aligned to guarantee a
secure mounting for the gear set.
In the above picture you can clearly see that the top two mounts are aligned,
due to the chassis bracket having their own bushings the bevel gear in the
Jing Gong gear box is held firmly in place without requiring any bushings in
the actual gearbox. Needless to say that due to the chassis bracket being made
out of tempered steel you don’t need to worry about the integrity of
the chassis. Not only that but you will also find that the motor now engages
correctly with the gears now.
Next to go in is the anti-reversal latch, with the new design this is a joy
to install compared to the original design. Again it’s nice to see a
company that looks at a design that works yet manages to find away to make it
better, and easier to install. Just place it on the end of a screwdriver and
drop it in twist and it engages the bevel gear, done!
Next to go in is the cylinder, cylinder head and piston units, these fit in
exactly like any other cylinder set and there is no trick or special way of
in stalling these. Although I must say that the set fitted in the Version 2
gearbox very snuggly, very important for those not wanting to waste any air
pressure.
Next to go in is the spring guide, even with me deliberately letting the
spring fire out the back of the gear box with the spring guide, the
anti-reversal latch stayed in place. Time to close up the gearbox, again this
is where that groove in the top of the anti-reversal latch really helps
allowing you to guide it into the top mounting hole. The gears slot nicely in
as they are already aligned and held up right in the chassis
So how does it fire?
The whole gear box runs smooth as silk, the piston runs back and forth with
little effort although the gear box does have a very distinct sound. Anyone
who has used the Angel range of gears will understand what I mean and it is
very different compared to the Marui Gear set. The out put is a constant 0.96
– 0.98 joules, which is absolutely outstanding!
Conclusion
I have to say this is one of the most innovative ideas and designs for
gearboxes that have come out in a long time; it enables the user to quickly
upgrade a gearbox with minimal fuss and confidence in the unit as a whole.
Users wishing to upgrade non-aligning gearboxes finally have an answer to the
problem, rather than spending many frustrating hours to no avail or
substandard results you can now drop in a Modify Modular gear set.
Although it’s not all good news, the individual gears are not available
as of yet and Modify have made no mention as to if they will release
individual replacement gears. Also if you do get a lemon the inability to
tweak the chassis could prove to be as frustrating as having to tweak a
non-aligned gear box. So we will have to wait and see what the quality of the
final production is like.
Pro’s:
Easy to install
No fuss
Pre-shimmed
Will fit all brands of gear box
Will work in non-aligned gear boxes
Con’s:
Currently unable to replace individual gears if any strip
No room to tweak gear set as it is a unit
Score and closing comments
I will give the Modify Modular gear set 8/10, all in all the unit is
very impressive and like I said before one of the most innovative and
creative ideas for the inner workings of gear boxes for a long time and I
will certainly be looking out for future products from Modify.
I would like to thank the team at Modify especially Jane who was very patient
in answering more torrid of questions and also for supplying us not only with
the sample but also the information about the product in the first place.
By FarEast from ArniesAirsoft.co.uk
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