LDT ATM classic army xm177
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Love the XM177 / CAR15 platform. 
I’ve got everything I need to build one of these suckers up from a CYMA but that skinny handguard. 
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Wonder what dumb smuck put a V2 cylinder head in a CYMA and wondered why it would not feed gels
Dunno…… can you give us a couple of clues? 
So I bought most of a CYMA marine of a guy, gearbox receiver, barrel and handguard. It was cheap and I can resurrect anything so why not. At this point in the hobby I get more of a kick from getting some broken neglected shit working than just buying something and upgrading it, also I am a sucker for punishment. Disclaimer, it is going to be upgraded modestly, otherwise it just wouldn’t be mine!
looks wise, its been well used and apart many times… looks like it had been on the patio in the weather for a while, anything metal is rusted, cobwebs and dead insects all through it, and a mud wasp nest in the upper receiver and barrel for bonus points. I spent an entire afternoon pulling it apart and cleaning it as best I could. Came up ok, just need a fake bolt release, body pins, and a mag release… and a stock and buffer tube bolt and plate… nothing too hard to find, though my luck says these parts will need some fit and fiddle to get working properly. They almost always do!
The gearbox… may not have been in the weather outside, but was the subject of all the advice of the internet done as poorly as possible. Bushes were jb welded in, were not all straight and sat proud enough that shimming would have likely been more compromise than good. Spent half hour every day, with various substances removing epoxy and then reinstalled the bushes correctly.
It has SHS gears in it the guy says… They were the worst fakes I have seen, the bevel was stuffed, the sector was short stroked TERRIBLY, the teeth removed were jagged AF, and not removed enough so it looks as if it was probably still picking up the piston! All the gears were worn and damaged so in the bin now.
The piston, was an aztech piston and head… the rack was munted to hell from the poor short stroking, the head was scuffed to fuck (to be fair… they do that them aztech heads) and as a result the stock aluminium cylinder is stuffed also.
The stock head was siliconed into the cylinder… that was easy to remove as it didnt work, probably didnt clean the cylinder oil off before attempting this.
There was a piece of cardboard with tape for the mag terminals and a busted ldt tpiece. I would guess it didnt work, but all good I have a 3dprinted mag terminal block for this so you can run gen8 style mags with an LDT tpiece and nozzle and not other changes.
And the best part, for me; the wiring is out of an LDT warinterest nylon box, with nicks everywhere in the wires, and a deans that was so melted it probably wouldnt go in the battery without force, and the heatshrink was not covering the melted mess so there was exposed terminals that were plain dangerous.
Finally, what looks like an SHS m100 or m110 from wire diameter, is bent and twisted, so I am tipping the poor thing had many attempts and changes before the previous owner gave up.
Gearbox case, spring retainer, tappet plate, selector plate, and anti reverse latch are all that I didnt toss to landfill from this mess… still a good deal as I love me a CYMA metal box and I can still get it working.
After a week of owning this, its cleaned, bushes are installed correctly, I have succesfully shimmed gears into it, just waiting on a motor to arrive before finishing the gears’ shimming.
I have also modified the shell slightly to accept a T238 1.9 basic mosfet as I have a few, and I just dont want to chance the ldt cutoff lever not working, also gives me an excuse to use one as I have them and have never used them yet.
A week of an hour a day, and the restoration side is done and I am finally feeling like its moving forward, also, the lower half of the handguard can be removed to barrel mount my m203 launcher! YEW!!
A few decisions on grip, stock, inner barrel and hopups to go, and a few parts to source, but reckon I can have it rocking in a week or two!
All this while I still have three other blasters needing work to finish. Two bitsa blasters that are almost done, and a double bell ak that just isnt going right since I got it second hand for a reasonable price.
Always good to have a bit of projects lined up for the christmas new year break!
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Well the filament order arrived now for the test prints
Yes that is a boat on my 3d printer it sail’s the 7 extruders, plundering filament.
Also a side project for later, some distraction grenades for shits and giggles.
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Today’s message at church was that old men should exercise self control. Decided to test my compliance by rewiring a CYMA metal magazine after the earth/ground wire (the black one) decided to break - causing intermittent non-feeding issue.
I discovered that soldering small wires to small objects and maintaining control of small compression springs is a valid test of one’s level of self control for an old man
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Well the first part finished up, looks good so far just now need to print the test and get a rifle or 2, might start a thread on the dumb shit i 3d print and upload the proper photos i took for this and not a crappy phone one.
I have some of those clam shell handguards🤔
Just for the hell of it and because I’m an.old fart who likes my old school blasters… 
Current bench project is an old Bing Feng M14 EBR from the laboratory of our resident mad scientist (cheers @Bigmuthadrums for the hook up on this. 
) It apparently has been massaged into an insane FPS and ROF beast, not a huge stretch when you consider who built it. 
Just looking at the solid alloy spring retainer’s got me nervous about popping the box appart for the required sector gear shimming…
I got a feeling there’s a mighty big spring on the other side of that retainer 
Won’t start a thread on this, but I did promise Mutha I’d post results up of the finished rebuild. Good times for old farts! 
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Lower ROF, I think on that one🤔
Can’t really remember what I’ve done to half the builds🤣
I know it had awesome range and higher FPS
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Helllloooooo M150!
Nah, that was only a M100😆
I build everything to M100 then change spring or motor to suit🤪
Looks thicker than the M100 I put in my 416D… hmmm… Better get my eyes tested.
All cleaned, shimmed, and running again. New alloy piston head, great cylinder compression out of the gearbox, dribbling gels assembled.
Obviously an air seal issue at the nozzle, although I’ve tried a few different ones for the same result. No biggie, I love tinkering with these oldies. But too friggin’ hot to pursue it this arvo, looks like a tomorrow morning jobbie.
Gotta say, such an easy tear down.
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Did it suffer from the wobbly gripbliie some of them did.
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That is awesome, I love that there is still some around, I personally really like the m14 EBR, just wish they did a better job of it they were a little janky and problematic in their day. I hope there is a good brand one at some point, that would get me very happy.
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They all have wobbly grip issues… bad design by BF but creative shimming fixes that with minimal wobbleocity, no problem. This came pre-shimmed anyway.
Mutha also gave me a very nice 3D printed stock for it, kind of AWM style. Tried that on today, man it makes it solid as a rock. Changes the look quite dramatically though. I’ll put it on again and post pics tomorrow.
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I know what you mean… that’s why I was happy to take this one on and get it chugging.
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I must of missed Mutha’s fire sale 