ARS MASK Piston Heads: A Warning

[McKee]

Originally Posted by Amos

How tight are you guys putting the screw in?

I install roughly 5+ of these kits a week and I've never had this happen... however, I've noticed that if you over tighten the piston head screw, the screw will protrude a little bit and push the sorbothane tablet out from the back...

I noticed that too when I took it apart.. I don't believe I overtightened it, hard to say as there is no real torque specification or anything.. Just tightened it till it was snug. Might not be a bad idea though to go till snug then back it off half a turn. Still though, I wouldn't trust the factory glue.

[HKGhost]

Originally Posted by ThunderCactus

I'm curious to how you're getting away with that, it's well known that blue loctite degrades polycarbonate. I've seen it happen a few times last year, but the loctite has to be between the piston head and piston face, it weakens the plastic and fails after just a few hundred rounds.
Loctite makes specific adhesives for polycarbonate, but regular super glue works really well.

Blue Loctite 242 contains the chemical Poly(methyl methacrylate) which most polycarbonate contains already. So Blue Loctite can't degrade it if the polycarbonate already has the same chemical within it's structure. You need to be sure to use Loctite Blue 242. I can't say the same for any other brand as some might or can degrade polycarbonate.

[THe_Silencer]

Originally Posted by Amos

How tight are you guys putting the screw in?

I install roughly 5+ of these kits a week and I've never had this happen... however, I've noticed that if you over tighten the piston head screw, the screw will protrude a little bit and push the sorbothane tablet out from the back...

I installed my first 3G head the other day. The only issue I had was that the stock piston head screw was a few mm short and would not secure the piston head to the piston properly. The send result is that the first few threads would start to strip on the piston head. I had this fitment issue with 3 different pistons. Luckily I managed to procure an adequately sized srew.