*important* for all those using drop fowards/warps...

[Dave]

My friend recently bought a new Impulse and had used it once...in the process of gearing up for a new game, I was talking to him, and he was telling me of a problem he had. It seems that the threads in his grip frame for holding on his drop forward+tank had stripped, since his screws only had about a 1/4" bite. He wanted me to pick up some screws for him, so I went to the shop and got the longest ones I could, knowing I could just grind off the excess. Now, this got me thinking...

What about MY drop forward screws? How much bite do they have?? This became very important to me, because I run a warp AND a steel 68/3000 tank from a Kapp DZ stubby on my Z-grip, and that is a LOT of weight hanging off there. So when I looked, I was surprised to only find about a 1/4"-3/8" bite. I decided to do something about it. When I was at the shop, I picked up some screws for my mag as well. I brought out my fathers tap and die set, and he helped me figure out that a 10/32 tap fits nicely, and looking into the threaded holes on the bottom of my grip frame, when AGD tapped the threads, they didn't tap them all the way, so there was some unused meat at the bottom of those holes:D
I went to work...

When I was done, I found out could get at least a 1/2" bite or more...it put my mind at ease:) I decided to also do this to my Intelliframe, and I documented it so if by any chance you have the same resouces, you can also add this level of protection to your tank/gripframe.

>>>

[Dave]

Here is the grip frame, you will need to take the panels off, and get some wooden shims for holding it in a vise. Its not required to use a vise, but the more secure your grip can be, the easier it will be to tap the threads.
>>>

[Dave]

Here is the drop forward, with the old screws being used...notice that the screws portrude only about 1/4"!!! That not very much to hold a tank off of...

[Dave]

Here is what was used to tap the threads, a 10/32 non-tapered hand tap, and some aluminum tap cutting fluid.

[Dave]

The Intelliframe is secured in the vise, with a wooden shim on each side to keep it from getting scratched/indented by the vise. the cutting fluid is poured into the hole prior to tapping.

[Dave]

The cutting fluid is also put on the actual tap itself.

[Dave]

Ok...here is where we get down to business...the tap is inserted into the hole VERY carefully and slowly...you don't want to cross thread with a tap! The tap is slowly turned down farther until it meets some resistance. Then it is very slowly turned about 120-180 degrees, then backed off a full turn to shear off the new threads just cut inside the hole. This is repeated about 2-3 times, then the tap is removed, and cleaned, either with an air hose or a clean rag...

[Dave]

The tap is re-inserted, using plenty of cutting fluid. The tap is turned back down to where it meets resistance...and the process of turning and backing off is continued until it bottoms out, and you can tell this because the tap will not turn any farther with the same pressure used to cut what you already have. DO NOT tourque down on it!!! Stop right there!!! You can't go any farther, and if you use excess pressure, you run the risk of breaking off the tap, since taps are ultra hard for cutting, making them very brittle.

[Dave]

The process is used for tapping both holes, then the grip frame is now taken out of the vise, and an air hose is used to blow out the cutting fluid and debris from the holes. If you don't have an air line, you could use a rag, or a cue-tip, and then sit and let it dry, making sure it's clean.

The longers screws are then tested with the drop forward, and since they were a bit longer than I needed, I ground them off until they were just the right length. The right length should allow the screw to screw totally into the hole about 1 turn farther than where it cinches down on the drop forward.

Here is the result!>>>

[Dave]

Here is another picture showing the difference...remember, this is total surface contact with the threads, so we are getting about another 1/8"-1/4" bite.:D

[Dave]

The finished product!!!

If you have the means, I fully recommend doing this...it added another level of protection to my setup, and was harmless to perform. Depending on the grip frame, you may get different results...for the Z-grip, I got a good 1/4" extra. With the Intelliframe, I got slightly less. The one up next is the Emag, and I have yet to see how much more I'll get from that. After seeing my friends screw with the ripped off threads hanging off it, I'm glad I did this. At the very least, check your drop forward screws, and try and get them for the full length of the threads. Hope you all enjoy this, and good p'balling!:)

-Dave

[Russ]

Dave,

Excellent Post!

:)

[Dave]

Thanks...I'm hoping it will help out a lot of people...not too many think about such a small part on their guns, whether it's an old classic or an X-Mag

-Dave