Is this not essentially the same as banding? This mod is also quite a pain in the ass to pull off too. tho the rolling of the tube would make it much easier then to slip it down the length.
Its pretty much the hardest mod to do to the MS aside from replacing the air system with an external tank.
They're the same concept, yes, but the problem with banding is that it's hard to get an even distribution of rubber bands. Bike tubes are even by their nature on the cylindrical tubing.
I'll agree with you that layering rubber is a pain. I know because I've done it many times and have tried to think of easier ways to do it. Right now I think finding rubber tubing with an ID slightly larger than the chamber OD is the best method because no stretching is necessary. Newer methods involve stretching the inner tube (middle, not the outer tube) and sliding the larger tube over. I haven't had success with that method but others have.
@ Doom: I got averages of 20' before modding, and would only put out a clip and a few shots. Now, I can fire almost three, at an average of 25', using 2' stefans. Normal taggers get no range increase. I did consider layering inner tubing around the bladder, but I'll need to buy the bike tubing first.
While I don't have mine with me I'm sure it shoots over 30 feet without modification. Yours probably is a dud. It might be most worthwhile to buy another one.
One thing I'd like to clear up too is that doing the common PC expansion modification that involves removing the walls of the housing will reduce the useful life of the bladder. Hasbro reduces the expansion for a reason, and it's not to make the gun have less air capacity or power. The expansion of the bladder creates tiny tears in the rubber that reduces the operating pressure. More expansion creates more tears that do reduce the operating pressure dramatically. Replacement is trivial (to me at least), but if you don't want to replace then I wouldn't suggest doing anything to expand the capacity. If you do want to expand the capacity I would suggest buying a piece of 3 inch PETG pipe to replace the Magstrike bladder's current housing and some latex tubing to replace the bladder. It would be an involved modification, but I think it would be worthwhile and it definitely would be cheaper than an HPA tank.
Edit: Don't get the wrong impression though. You won't see a reduction in performance right away by increasing the expansion, so I wouldn't think the reduced performance is due to the expansion modification. You should see a temporary small increase in performance from the expansion actually. It takes a good deal of expansions (10+ from what I remember being told) before the tearing/thinning becomes evident.
Edited by Doom, 03 May 2008 - 07:31 PM.