In this article, you will learn the different airsoft parts available to upgrade your gun. This article is part 1 of a 3 part series. As you will see, there are a ton of parts out there to upgrade your gun. This article will talk about shims, bushings, gears, pistons, and piston heads.

Piston. An airsoft piston is basically a flat-tooth gear that compresses air in the cylinder. This is what happens in an AEG gearbox; the motor turns the gears which then engage the piston and moves it back until the spring is fully compressed. Once the spring is fully compressed, the piston disengages the gears and flys forward compressing air in the cylinder. That is why an airsoft piston is under a lot of pressure. If you mainly fire semi-auto, it would good to use a piston with metal teeth, but if you tend to have you AEG in full-auto, you should use a plastic teeth piston because a piston with metal teeth could strip your gears.

Piston Head. The purpose of a piston head is to seal air into the cylinder. You can purchase silent piston heads and also piston heads with ball bearings, which help to increase the FPS of your AEG.

Gears. The sector gear, bevel gear, and spur gear are the gears that are used together in a airsoft gearbox. Airsoft gears are an expensive upgrade for your gun If you want to have high speed or high torque setup you will need steel gears because other wise the gears will probably break. If you have a high torque setup, you should use helical gears because high torque setups are what they are specifically designed for.

Helical gears are also quieter than standard gears.

Bushings. The purpose of airsoft bushings is to keep the gears in place and allow them to rotate. You should probably replace your gun's stock bushings with bushings that are metal because your gun most likely came with plastic 6mm bushings. A 7mm or 8mm gearbox shell would be required if you want a high torque or high speed setup.

Shims. In order for your gears to stay aligned and correctly meshed, your gearbox has shims. If your shimming is to tight, your motor will wear down because it is working to hard to turn the gears. If your shimming is to loose, the gears may break.

Part 1 has alread been published on Raptors Airsoft Blog and Part 3 will be coming soon.