22 replies to this topic

[Buffdaddy]

The Vortex line comes out this week, although some of us have been able to find blasters on the shelves a bit early. After hearing about a modded Proton hitting 80 ft. ranges, I decided to open up the Praxis once I got home and see if anything similar could be done. Conclusion? The thing is already built for a bit of extra modification.




Unscrew your blaster and take the top of the shell off. Nothing too difficult there. After undoing a few extra screws, the disc sled/barrel assembly can be lifted out.



Move the faux barrel forward so you can see the rest of the internals clearer. The torsion spring powers a plastic arm that propels the disc forward, and there's a little spinning (non-motorized) wheel the disc squeezes past when launched, that induces a bit of spin on it. Sorry I didn't take a pic of that, but it's unimportant for the mod.


To get to the spring, you need to remove/slide off a few pieces. Take those two screws out and remove that plate. You'll have a spring-loaded bumper fly out, just remember that goes there. Once the plate is gone, you should be able to slide the top cover of the spring assembly forward, so yo can get access.



And here we go. The mold has several different slots for a screw and washer to hold the spring arm at, with the middle one being the default. Just move it to the forward slot. Be warned, though, you will likely spend 5-10 minutes trying to actually get it in place; I ended up having to take the launching arm off, then moving the spring, and finally reassemblig/rotating everything back in place.


Reassemble everything, and you're all set. I am now seeing 70-80 foot ranges, with essentially no material cost. I'm not quite sure about replacing the torsion spring for more power; while that is theoretically possible, we only want to stress the internals so much. You MIGHT be able to wrap some rubber bands on the arm as a form of spring addition, but I'm happy with the blaster as is.

Questions?

[105nerf]

Wow this is awesome when i heard that most of the vortex used those kinda springs i didn't know that you could do a proformace mods thanks.





,105nerf

[joeri]

Maybe an extension spring would be a good idea for a spring upgrade, because a good one would be easier to find.
nice mod!

[arfink]

Nice work! Can't wait to get my hands on one of the new line.

[nerfispwnage243]

When I first saw internals for this gun I was both surprised and disappointed with the lack of visible mod potential... But this is a wonderful idea and I'm doing this when I get this blaster. Is the whole Vortex line like this?

[Buffdaddy]

All of them (sans Nitron) work like this, kinda like how the recon/raider/AT/longstrike are all the same internally.

[Keo]

Wow, what an amazing idea. Get something that can hold it's own quite well, - provided there's no,wind without any external parts or even removing any.

[mysterio]

A potential spring replacement- deploy torsion spring. Beefy as hell, and about the same size.

[sparklefish123]

Sorry to question your ranges but are they measured with FPS or flat shots along a tape measure. On Jerm's Youtube his Praxis hit 50 FPS stock. With the mod you didn't doesn't seem to increase it as much which would make that sensible. Am I correct?

[Buffdaddy]

'sparklefish123', on 09 Sept 2011 - 6:44 PM, said:

Sorry to question your ranges but are they measured with FPS or flat shots along a tape measure. On Jerm's Youtube his Praxis hit 50 FPS stock. With the mod you didn't doesn't seem to increase it as much which would make that sensible. Am I correct?

Flat shots along a tape measure. I definitely don't have anything for measuring the actual projectile speed.

[sparklefish123]

'Buffdaddy', on 09 Sept 2011 - 9:01 PM, said:

Flat shots along a tape measure. I definitely don't have anything for measuring the actual projectile speed.

That's darn good ranges for a small spring relocation. Props to you good sir.

[cheyner]

I did this last night to both a Praxis and Vigilon, and I am quite impressed.
I suggest buying the refill packs with your blasters though, the disks can be hard to keep track of when they start ricocheting.

[moosa]

Ha. Nerf's like, "here you go modders. Enjoy."

Edit: Thanks for making it seem like this mod was actually easy. Dick.

Edited by moosa, 11 September 2011 - 04:24 AM.

[238232]

Good grief that was annoying.

Here's my tip for the spring relocation: Don't bother removing the spring arm. Instead...

* Undo the screw that prevents the spring end from moving
* Get the spring end out of its current position. It'll now be fairly exposed.
* Loop some string/wire around it and pull it to the desired location, then use a screwdriver or something to push it down.
* Put screw in
* Remove string/wire.

[Buffdaddy]

'moosa', on 10 Sept 2011 - 10:31 PM, said:

Ha. Nerf's like, "here you go modders. Enjoy."

Edit: Thanks for making it seem like this mod was actually easy. Dick.

Hey, when I say it will take 5-10 minutes to make a single, 'simple' step happen, that kinda implies it won't be the easiest thing in the world

'238232', on 11 Sept 2011 - 1:58 PM, said:

Good grief that was annoying.

Here's my tip for the spring relocation: Don't bother removing the spring arm. Instead...

* Undo the screw that prevents the spring end from moving
* Get the spring end out of its current position. It'll now be fairly exposed.
* Loop some string/wire around it and pull it to the desired location, then use a screwdriver or something to push it down.
* Put screw in
* Remove string/wire.

Hmmm, sounds good. Will have to try on my Vigilon later!

[nimane9]

Anyone else here want to stab themselves after taking out some of the tight screws? But on topic, I am currently doing this to my Praxis and to say the least, it's an experience.
EDIT: Just finished the mod, muzzle velocity is noticeably greater.

Edited by nimane9, 11 September 2011 - 06:46 PM.

[Crom Strom]

I've done this with both a Proton and a Vigilon. On the proton, the easiest way to do this is to just take a pair of pliers and pull out the pin the arm pivots on, then do the spring and screw relocation. The Vigilon was pretty similar... aside from the mess of components that are inside the shell due to the internal magazine. The main difference with the Vigilon is that all of the internals all ride on an internal frame. Removing/reattaching the armbox (and then relocating the spring) was extremely time consuming when compared to the Proton. The best advice i could give is to take it slow and remember to document what bits go where so reassembly is a little more smooth.

[238232]

'nimane9', on 11 Sept 2011 - 10:22 PM, said:

Anyone else here want to stab themselves after taking out some of the tight screws? But on topic, I am currently doing this to my Praxis and to say the least, it's an experience.

Ooh, ooh, me!

The hole for the screw under the "Vortex" was so deep my jeweller's screwdriver couldn't fit. I went over to my lathe and turned the handle down...

Further note: I find it impressive that they've got two shock absorbers. The design is thought through fairly well, even if it's a royal pain to take apart.

Edited by 238232, 11 September 2011 - 11:19 PM.

[Meaker VI]

'Crom Strom', on 12 Sept 2011 - 02:45 AM, said:

... The main difference with the Vigilon is that all of the internals all ride on an internal frame. Removing/reattaching the armbox (and then relocating the spring) was extremely time consuming when compared to the Proton. The best advice i could give is to take it slow and remember to document what bits go where so reassembly is a little more smooth.

Good grief the Vigilon has a ton of stuff going on inside... I opened it up to take a look, and decided that I could already fire the thing all the way across my house and wouldn't bother when I tried to pull the armbox off. An offset screwdriver or ratchet might be in order for spring adjustment on that job, just leave the armbox attached.

The only things I noticed that are likely to fall off or not be in place (if you leave the main firing group assembled) were the spin-inducing arm-wheel thing (it's just hanging on the side of the firing group and can fall off), the lever for the internal mag door, the mag spring, and a little lever arm above the trigger that probably is important, but I have no idea what for. I flipped it down when reassembling and it works fine. Also, it's important to remember that the mag-follower has to be down lower than the mag door, or you won't be able to close the door.

That said, there are a ton of questionably necessary parts in there. There are 2 draw stops (one for checking if there are discs loaded, the other for checking if the mag door is up), a trigger-stop (for if there are no discs in the barrel, but why stop the trigger if you can't draw the thing without discs loaded? That just makes the trigger feel flimsy), and a little retracting disc-stop for once it's in the barrel- it retracts when you pull the jam-clear switch, so I'm not sure if it also retracts when firing or if it's just for jam-clearing. All in all, it looks pretty well thought out. There is quite a bit of extra space between the internal mag and the armbox.

[Crom Strom]

'Meaker VI', on 12 Sept 2011 - 3:51 PM, said:

Good grief the Vigilon has a ton of stuff going on inside... I opened it up to take a look, and decided that I could already fire the thing all the way across my house and wouldn't bother when I tried to pull the armbox off. An offset screwdriver or ratchet might be in order for spring adjustment on that job, just leave the armbox attached.

All you really neet to do any of the mods to these blasters is a philips head screwdriver that can reach the recessed screws. The thing with the Vigilon's armbox is that it just swivels apart once you take out the pin holding the rubber bumper in place, making the whole relocation itself easy.

The hard part is putting the bitch back together.

[moosa]

The Praxis has like 10 different kinds of screws. And they're all in weird places.

A tip for you guys having trouble just getting the shell open: use a precision screwdriver and pliers.

[NerfNoob10]

Just finished this mod, and apart from all the pieces being a bit over whelming at first I didn't really find any part difficult. I think many of you are taking it more apart than you need to. you really only need to remove the shell and then i think 4 screws that release the entire mech from the other half of the shell. then there are two screws that you take out to get the cover of the torsion spring off. To relocate it I took two flat head screw drivers. One I simply put flat right above the three notches that the torsion spring could go on (this holds the spring arm up, keeping it from slipping onto one of the notches) then with my other screw driver I just pushed it back to the third notch, remove screwdriver holding it up, and bingo it falls into the third notch. It's really much more simple than it sounds. I also added a bunch of JB weld to the spring arm as the spring looked like it was ready to pop over the screw, its probably not needed, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't going anywhere.

[darknyght00]

'NerfNoob10', on 15 Sept 2011 - 03:22 AM, said:

... I think many of you are taking it more apart than you need to. you really only need to remove the shell and then i think 4 screws that release the entire mech from the other half of the shell. then there are two screws that you take out to get the cover of the torsion spring off...

The frustrating part (for me at least) is how you need to take off stuff to get to other stuff to take off to get to the stuff you want. If the Praxis was a food item, it'd be a seven layer salad with delicious cake on the VERY bottom most layer (the rest of the salad being a regular disgusting salad). I don't think this mod is very fun but at the end you have a blaster with very usable range that uses ammo with interesting flight properties.

Before removing all the locks, I tracked down where each one was and tried to figure out how it functioned. Some of these little buggers are sneaky. Specifically, the trigger locks seem to be designed by paranoid cryptographers. I'm still trying to figure out the rational behind including more than one trigger lock.