Windowed magazines
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Windowed magazines
Problem: Using 18 round magazines, it's a royal pain to see how many darts you still have in them. Drums have a clear window on the back, and 6 rounders are almost completely hidden in the blaster body, so there's not much you can do. An 18 round magazine has a couple of cutouts to indicate when the magazine is full, but nothing in the middle, where you'll be spending most of your time.
Solution: Cut out a huge slot and put some clear plastic over it.
Honestly, I don't have any more 18 round mags to do a step by step, but it's a relatively easy to follow process.
1) Push down the dart follower using a stick of some kind (fig. 1). I use a piece of brass. This bit is shorter, but demonstrates how it operates fairly well. Note that you want the brass off to one side so that it doesn't get in the way of cutting, but at the same time the top end should catch on the lip of the mag so that it doesn't fly out (fig. 2). The point of this is so that when you start cutting into the side of the mag, you don't damage the spring or the dart follower.
Fig. 1: Magazine with brass rod holding the follower down.
Fig. 2: Brass rod lodged in lip of magazine so it doesn't fly out.
2) Cut, cut, cut! This can be whatever size and shape you want it to be, but here are the reasons why I made the window this big:
* The bottom of the window coincides with the bottom most cutout in the magazine. When you've filled up to here, you've got 18 darts in the mag.
* The width of the window is only as far as the ridges running down the length of the magazine. This is so when I epoxy the window in place, I'm attaching it via some nice large flat areas, rather than just the edges of the clear plastic.
* The top of the window is decided by a horizontal ridge which indicates how far the magazine will travel into the magwell. Why I don't cut past here should be self-explanatory.
Other tips include:
* Watch where you're cutting! If you push against the stick holding the dart follower down, expect it to come loose and fly for at least a metre. More importantly though, the dart follower will proceed to slam into your cutting instrument, with predictable results.
* Plastic shavings may accumulate inside the magazine. If so, get rid of all of them before you epoxy the window in place. Aside from possibly affecting functionality, it just looks annoying.
* Run your dremel (or file I suppose) along the bottom edge of the window cutout to turn it from a sharp 90 degree step into a slope. Also note the ridge running down the interior of the magazine. The spring pushes against the internal wall as it is compressed, failure to smooth this bit out will result in the spring catching on them as it is compressed. Nothing that a firm push can't solve, but it's still annoying when you're reloading.
3) Make the window out of some clear plastic. Mine is 134 x 54 mm. I did mine from 6 mm polycarb, which was severe overkill and made for a noticeably thicker magazine. I'd say 3 mm acrylic should be fine.
4) Epoxy in place. A thin film is all that's required. Too much will cause it to leak into the magazine, possibly blocking the dart follower, scratching your darts and so on.
5) Use it. See Fig. 3.
Fig. 3: Magazine with 18 darts.
Solution: Cut out a huge slot and put some clear plastic over it.
Honestly, I don't have any more 18 round mags to do a step by step, but it's a relatively easy to follow process.
1) Push down the dart follower using a stick of some kind (fig. 1). I use a piece of brass. This bit is shorter, but demonstrates how it operates fairly well. Note that you want the brass off to one side so that it doesn't get in the way of cutting, but at the same time the top end should catch on the lip of the mag so that it doesn't fly out (fig. 2). The point of this is so that when you start cutting into the side of the mag, you don't damage the spring or the dart follower.
Fig. 1: Magazine with brass rod holding the follower down.
Fig. 2: Brass rod lodged in lip of magazine so it doesn't fly out.
2) Cut, cut, cut! This can be whatever size and shape you want it to be, but here are the reasons why I made the window this big:
* The bottom of the window coincides with the bottom most cutout in the magazine. When you've filled up to here, you've got 18 darts in the mag.
* The width of the window is only as far as the ridges running down the length of the magazine. This is so when I epoxy the window in place, I'm attaching it via some nice large flat areas, rather than just the edges of the clear plastic.
* The top of the window is decided by a horizontal ridge which indicates how far the magazine will travel into the magwell. Why I don't cut past here should be self-explanatory.
Other tips include:
* Watch where you're cutting! If you push against the stick holding the dart follower down, expect it to come loose and fly for at least a metre. More importantly though, the dart follower will proceed to slam into your cutting instrument, with predictable results.
* Plastic shavings may accumulate inside the magazine. If so, get rid of all of them before you epoxy the window in place. Aside from possibly affecting functionality, it just looks annoying.
* Run your dremel (or file I suppose) along the bottom edge of the window cutout to turn it from a sharp 90 degree step into a slope. Also note the ridge running down the interior of the magazine. The spring pushes against the internal wall as it is compressed, failure to smooth this bit out will result in the spring catching on them as it is compressed. Nothing that a firm push can't solve, but it's still annoying when you're reloading.
3) Make the window out of some clear plastic. Mine is 134 x 54 mm. I did mine from 6 mm polycarb, which was severe overkill and made for a noticeably thicker magazine. I'd say 3 mm acrylic should be fine.
4) Epoxy in place. A thin film is all that's required. Too much will cause it to leak into the magazine, possibly blocking the dart follower, scratching your darts and so on.
5) Use it. See Fig. 3.
Fig. 3: Magazine with 18 darts.
238232- Posts : 1
Join date : 2012-01-12
Location : Sydney
Re: Windowed magazines
Pretty mags. Useful in war I think when you're going through looking for a full clip or something like that That and quickly checking your ammo to avoid dryfiring.
Echoes- Administrator
- Posts : 174
Join date : 2011-12-19
Age : 33
Location : Bass Hill, Sydney, NSW
Re: Windowed magazines
I am forever having issues keeping track of my ammo levels in 18 clips. It's like numbers saw into my brain and found the source of all my troubles, and then posted a solution to them. Thankyou sir, thankyou
Captain Crooks- Administrator
- Posts : 64
Join date : 2011-12-20
Age : 42
Location : Sydney
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