17 replies to this topic

[diamondbacknf1626]

Ok, before we start anything, let me warn you, this may take a while to explain. I’m going to do my best to make sure I remember to get everything down, so bear with me. My idea behind this was a quick reloading pistol with not necessarily amazing ranges paired with a fairly high powered gun that would take a bit longer to reload.

I give you the Crossfire 2000:


Let’s get to work. Here are the internals of the Crossfire, stock:


I’m going to take the mod in four steps. One and two are more of an overview, because these mods can probably be found in other places on the site.


Step 1: Crossfire Mods

What you’re going to want to do first are some basic mods to the Crossfire. First, take your plunger tube/barrel portion of the gun out, and cut it towards the end. Then, what you want to do is take a piece of PETG, and squeeze it into that orange piece. Then, wrap e-tape around the base of that PETG until it fits snuggly in the black plunger piece (Not tightly, or it will be awkward to prime). Like I said, this is basic stuff, so I did not take detailed pictures of the process. Here is what it should look like when it’s done though:



Then, you’re going to want to beef up the spring, because this one’s spring sucks stock. My spring I believe was from either a Chainblazer or a Rattler, but regardless, it’s a beefy spring. Here’s a comparison (Stock on the left, with the replacement on the right)


Now, since the main spring is so powerful, you’ll need to replace the catch spring with something a bit stronger. I actually recently found a bunch of industrial strength catch spring size springs, which did the job perfectly. Here’s a quick comparison:

The new catch is obviously on the left.


Now, you’re done with the mods to the Crossfire portion of this pistol of destruction. Close it up and test it out, make sure everything’s working alright. If it is, congratulations, you’re ready for step two.


Step 2: Airtech 2000 Mods
Alright, now we’re on to the AT2k part of this mod. This I have very little pictures of because A: I already had minimized a 2k before I started this project, and B: It’s not too tough to find elsewhere. Basically, what you’re going to be doing is removing the goo gage along with all of the yellow tubing in a stock 2k and replacing it with ten inches of what I believe is 3/8 od vinyl tubing. Then, you need to perform a simple mod to increase airflow, that has been done by both Imaseoulman and Tantum Bull, I believe. Correct me if I’m wrong. But basically what you do is cut the stem at the front of the 2k tank down to the point where it widens, in order to increase the air output of the tank. Then, cut a little less than half of a PVC coupler, and glue it on there. Then, in order to make this work, you’re going to need to bend the firing pin and remove the spring and orange piece from the pin. You can use a dremel or cutters for this. Then, use some wire and attach a keyring to the pin. This will be your trigger. You also want to wrap the tank with e-tape until it is one uniform diameter throughout. Match it up with the ridge on the back. This will help greatly later. I know that was really wordy, but here’s a final picture once all of that has been done (note: in the picture, it’s an o-ring. You want to use a keyring, because it needs to be a quick pull to effectively release air. An o-ring will stretch a bit and delay the release):


What you also want to do that I forgot to mention is to cover your vinyl tubing with wireloom. That’s the black tubing you see in the picture. You can find it at your local hardware store. This will protect your tubing from any damage during use.

Now, if you survived that enormous wordy paragraph, we can move on to the next step, the integration.

Edited by diamondbacknf1626, 07 May 2009 - 08:25 AM.

[diamondbacknf1626]

Step 3: Integration
Now this step I actually have a fair amount of pictures for, so here we go. First what we need is to clean out the shell, and trust me, there’s a lot of that to do. Here are just a bunch of pictures of where you have to dremel, sand, and grind in order to fit the 2k components. It probably won’t take long to do, there are just a lot of little places:

Sand that down to remove the ridges along it.



Make these holes on both sides. The one to the right is for the firing pin and the one to the left is for the tubing.



Now you want to make these holes in the back for the keyring to exit along with the tubing on the bottom.



Now, you make that cut in the bottom of the handle, as that is where your pump is going to be located.


A lot of this cutting will take some guess and check as there is no way I could give you exact measurements for everything, but those are all of the places that you should be dremeling out.


Now that all of the gutting of the shell is out of the way, you need to have something to nest the 2k tank/valve in. I was originally going to secure it right into where the amo holder of the Crossfire was, but then decided I wanted to have the ability to open up the gun and service the tank again if necessary. It also wouldn’t look that clean, and wouldn’t be at all protected. This idea stemmed from a post where someone stated that a 2k tank fit perfectly inside a titan barrel. So you guessed it, you need to cut 2 1/16 inches out of a titan barrel, like so:



Then, to keep the ability to access the 2k tank, you’re going to want to cut the barrel into two equal half pipes. It does not need to in any way be exact, as you will see later, but get as close as you can. Now, you’ll have two halves of the titan barrel, like so:



Now you need to mount half the titan barrel in the shell. You only want to attach on half, because you still want to be able to open everything. You could mount the other half if you’d like, but I prefer it this way. It should look like this:

I just used some superglue, and it’s holding up great.


You also need to attach the pump into one half of the shell. Choose wherever you want to attach it. It can be farther up than mine, or farther back, your choice. I used a combination of hotglue first, and then some epoxy puddy to provide the strength it needs:



Now you can put the rest of the internals into the gun. You’re going to have to guess and check again where the 2k tank needs to rest in the Titan barrel as I did, before you get it right. I can tell you though, it won’t be all the way at the back or the front. You have to judge based upon where your pin is bent as to where the tank needs to fit. It’s not hard, but you have to make sure the pin has enough clearance to move within the shell. Once all of your internals are in, it should look like this:


For some reason, in that picture, it looks like the pump is tilted downwards. It’s not, and shouldn’t be, either, unless you’d like it to be. The one thing it cannot be is tilted up, because it will interfere with your barrel.
That picture also doesn’t have the Crossfire spring in it, just because it pops out unless you’re holding it down while you close the shell. Now close ’er up and you have one more quick thing to do that will ensure you can use the coupler without moving everything around when you twist the barrel out. Take your hot glue gun and squeeze some hot glue between the coupler and half of the Titan barrel. Again, only half. You want to be able to open the gun. It’ll look like this:


Now onto step four.


Step 4: Barrel

Ok, I can guaranty you now, that step four will be your favorite step. All you have left to do before you finish your Crossfire 2000 is to make a six inch barrel of PETG nested in some PVC to use with your couplered 2k. Take a deep breath, you’re done.

Here are some pics of the finished product:





I’m actually very happy with how this turned out. It looks nice and clean, and achieves exactly what I wanted it to. I haven’t range tested the 2k portion yet, but it should be similar to other singled 2ks. The crossfire portion when tested flat hit after five shots, an average of 48.4 feet. At the time (before I did the integration), the pistol was vacuum loading, which is when I achieved those ranges. As of now, it is not, so I only fire it with the dart at the end of the barrel. I have yet to re-range test with this set up, but I will edit my results in, along with the 2k ranges once I do. Regardless, though, the Crossfire wasn’t meant to have incredible range, but a good rate of fire. The 2k makes up in the range that the Crossfire lacks, while the Crossfire makes up for the ROF that the 2k lacks. The two together give you the Crossfire 2000.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Criticism? Anything would be greatly appreciated.

Edited by diamondbacknf1626, 07 September 2009 - 10:28 PM.

[chefdave]

Fix pics, and finish write-ups before posting in the future.

*edit* you finished just as I posted *edit*

Edited by chefdave, 16 February 2009 - 12:43 PM.

[diamondbacknf1626]

**EDIT**- Picutres are fixed **EDIT**

Edited by diamondbacknf1626, 16 February 2009 - 01:36 PM.

[Icespartan 1114]

I like it. Very inventive use of space.

[oh1134]

Cool. looks like someone figured out how to integrate an at2k. I got depressed trying to remove the @#$% goo gauge with a hacksaw and hot glue...

[OnyxZenith]

Very... Modular, Miniature, and compact, it reminds me of a hornet in a way... Try minimizing the pump so it doesn't purtruid from the front, (just a peev) but I LIKE IT!

[Daniel Beaver]

Very nice, this looks nicer than my Nitefinder/AT2k integration. I like how you maintained selective fire capabilities - is the keyring trigger difficult to use at all?

Also, nice thinking mounting the pump horizontally from the end of the grip. You could probably add a small section of PVC between the end of the pump and the bottom of the AT2k section to give it a more robust connection. As it is, it looks like there may be a lot of torque and shear forces being applied to the epoxy putty.

[diamondbacknf1626]

Icespartan_1114- Thank you, that was one of my goals. To utalize the space that I had. It helps to maintian a fairly clean look.

oh1134- A good tool to use would be a bandsaw or even a dremel to cut at the tank, and then to remove the tubing from the pump, use a pocket knife to cut it lengthwise, and then peal it off. You just need to be careful when you attach the new tubing to the tank, to make sure its airtight.

OnyxZenith- Thanks. How so? I would, but I'm not quite sure whether it'd make much of a difference handling-wise. If you were to make one and want it minimized, though, it wouldn't be too tough.

Daniel Beaver- That's one thing about it I like too. No, not at all, it's actually pretty easy. What I like about it is that it's far enough away from the main trigger to have room to pull back without triggering the Crossfire as well, but it's close enough that it feels like a double trigger: Pull the bottom part with your middle finger and it triggers the Crossfire, and the top part (keyring) with your pointer and it triggers the 2k. What do you mean PVC in between? Like, to bridge the gap between the pump and the handle? It really is extremely strong, but I understand, there is a lot of pressure on that one joint. I'll have to look into re-enforcing that.

Thanks for all the feedback, it's appreceated. Any more would be great.

Edited by diamondbacknf1626, 16 February 2009 - 03:43 PM.

[sputnik]

Sorry man, I still can't see the pictures...
Sounds really cool though.

A 2k in a Crossfire?
Great assassin's weapon.

Wow, I really like it.

Great use of the Titan barrel.

Sweet man.

Nice tape job on the PAS barrels, btw.

Edited by sputnik, 16 February 2009 - 06:26 PM.

[Banshee]

Now you need to put a nightfinder inside the crossfire and you're set!

[Forsaken angel24]

Interesting, I also like the Titan barrel use.
I am adding this to the directory.

My main concerns are:

The tubing getting snagged on something and ripping off.
The pump knocking against something and cracking off.

[Soothsayer]

I'd like to see some PVC shelling done to this thing, giving it a lot of strength and making it less of a anxiety gun.

[k9turrent]

yeah just as FA-24 said: I worry about the pump breaking off, You could stack a couple small pieces of cpvc to stabilize and to double as ammo holders

[diamondbacknf1626]

Sputnik- Thanks for the comments man, the use of the Titan barrel was one of my favorite parts actually. It keeps it looking pretty clean.

Banshee- I actually thought about that, except having it this way keeps it still fairly compact, rather than have a plunger rod sticking out of the back and another barrel in the front. Plus, I don't need a longer ranged gun for the top gun, that's what the 2k's for.

FA_24- Thank you. Sweet, thank you again. I can't wait to see it up in the directory. Both of those concerns are in the process of being dealt with. I have yet to find a way to re-enforce the tubing though, it's pretty solid, and I am careful with my guns. The pump though is already being adressed. A part two to this writeup will be up today.

Soothsayer & k9- Like I said before, already being dealt with. And k9, that'd be a good idea, but I already have something in mind, which you'll see shortly.

[diamondbacknf1626]

Alright, so I decided that enough people were worried about that pump snapping off of there, I would do something about it to make sure it wouldn’t. It takes away a bit from the cleanliness of the gun, but in exchange, the thing’s now built like a tank.

I give you Part 2 of my Crossfire 2000 writeup.

All you need is a small 1 ¼” or so piece of half inch CPVC. Then, break out your dremel and sand/grind either end so that it looks like this:

That part’ll take a little bit of judgment on your part, but nothing major. I was able to get it to the right size fairly quickly. Plus, it doesn’t need to be exact. It’s just serving as a foundation for the next step.
What this is doing is bridging the gap between the front end of the pump and the bottom of the shell. In place once epoxied to the pump, it should look like this:


Now the next part’s important. Like all of the other parts of the mod, you still want to be able to open the shell. Because of this, we’re just going to epoxy the CPVC to one side of the shell. It’ll look like this when you’re done. Here are a bunch of pictures from all sides:




(Notice how in that picture it’s not touching the shell. This is important).


(I added a ton more epoxy all around the pump).

I also added a bit more in the back of the pump to bridge the gap between that and the handle:




Now what I wanted to do is solve another problem there was with the pump being able to fall out while pumping. This was solved easily by using some of the same epoxy I used for the rest of the mod. What you do is take a bit and at each point that the pump dips in, you make a little ridge with the epoxy. It’s hard to describe, so here’s a picture:




Some things to watch are that you don’t actually adhere the epoxy to the pump itself. That would obviously be bad.

Now the other concern was about the tubing being ripped off. First of all, I’m very careful with my guns, so there would be very little of an opportunity for this to occur, if any at all. And even if the tubing did snag on something, it is glued to both the tank and the pump with more glue than I can explain. It’s solid. Plus, the wire loom over top gives it great added protection from getting cut or damaged. Another plus side for the protection of the tubing is that when the gun is being used, the tubing falls to the inside of your arm, rather than the outside. Therefore, your entire arm is shielding the tubing from snagging on anything. You can find a way to re-enforce it if you’d like, but it really should not be a problem.

Again, thank you for all the compliments guys, they’re greatly appreciated. I hope part two satisfies those who were worried about this being a fragile gun to use, considering now it’s built like a tank. The epoxy most likely will be sanded down to look cleaner at some point soon, and I’ll post how it comes out if I decide to, but that’s it for now. I hope that solves any uneasiness about the gun. Again, I appreciate all of the comments, keep them coming.

Again, questions? Comments? Suggestions? Criticism?

Edited by diamondbacknf1626, 07 May 2009 - 08:30 AM.

[Soothsayer]

There we go, that's what I'm talking about! Messy, but it definitely makes this gun seem like less of a mood killer during a war. Keep it up!

[AssassinNF]

I'm waiting for part 3 - Sanding down the putty and painting it (cosmetics)

Awesome mod, by the way. The extra epoxy putty was definitely a good idea - now it looks very solid.