I was inspired by @Xemon's strapon double design for the Pop 2026 builds. The thought of a double that works excites me, and the Ion platform seems the perfect basis for it. I took a look at my Enmey bodies and my LTRs. At just the right angle, the LTRs nestle in perfectly together, as they have a bit of bevel along the bottom sides The angle would be about like this:
I believe the Ions would be better than the Enmey style bodies due to the rotating gas feed donut for bolt's volume chamber and the metal grip section with integrated ASA. There will be alot of weight on this baby, so some beef and simplicity is good. In a stock Ion, the grip locks the inner body to the outer body or rail. Right away it was apparent that I would need the inner bodies to lock independently into the outer body, and then the grip would lock into the outer body. I am choosing to only use the two mount screws for the front half of the inner body and l
leave the rear half stabilized by the friction fit with the outer body. This allows the donut to be rotated as needed without worrying about using the mount hole in the donut.
This redesign of the outer body was going to be alot, so I decided to do most of that work on a standard single Ion. I had been contemplating gun balance for awhile. Placing as much of the weight right over the grip would theoretically give better control. That would be especially helpful with two full hoppers mounted. Moving the action backwards to make that happen would also make a longer barrel handle like a shorter barrel. I moved the action backwards 28.6mm and made the rear of the outer body barely cover the gap between the rear of the inner body and the gas donut so it has some protection from direct gun hits. Banged it out and amazingly, it came out correctly the first print. The barrels on both picture markers are 16".
My plan on this first one is to tap the donut for 1/8npt and pop a macroline fitting in there. I will remove the guage and place another macroline fitting there. If all this results in a runner that is pleasing to use, I will start on the double body. That would be two of these merged into one print as shown above with a single rail under. I would make a matching 1/8npt on the other side of the guage port and would run macroline thus to each donut. Should be plenty of gas to feed each body. Last bit would be splitting the line from the smav to a QEV in each body. Might need some more bits from Clippard for that.
Anyways, I need to see if I can get this setback body running properly first. Waiting on new macroline fittings and Oring orders for that.
I believe the Ions would be better than the Enmey style bodies due to the rotating gas feed donut for bolt's volume chamber and the metal grip section with integrated ASA. There will be alot of weight on this baby, so some beef and simplicity is good. In a stock Ion, the grip locks the inner body to the outer body or rail. Right away it was apparent that I would need the inner bodies to lock independently into the outer body, and then the grip would lock into the outer body. I am choosing to only use the two mount screws for the front half of the inner body and l
leave the rear half stabilized by the friction fit with the outer body. This allows the donut to be rotated as needed without worrying about using the mount hole in the donut.
This redesign of the outer body was going to be alot, so I decided to do most of that work on a standard single Ion. I had been contemplating gun balance for awhile. Placing as much of the weight right over the grip would theoretically give better control. That would be especially helpful with two full hoppers mounted. Moving the action backwards to make that happen would also make a longer barrel handle like a shorter barrel. I moved the action backwards 28.6mm and made the rear of the outer body barely cover the gap between the rear of the inner body and the gas donut so it has some protection from direct gun hits. Banged it out and amazingly, it came out correctly the first print. The barrels on both picture markers are 16".
My plan on this first one is to tap the donut for 1/8npt and pop a macroline fitting in there. I will remove the guage and place another macroline fitting there. If all this results in a runner that is pleasing to use, I will start on the double body. That would be two of these merged into one print as shown above with a single rail under. I would make a matching 1/8npt on the other side of the guage port and would run macroline thus to each donut. Should be plenty of gas to feed each body. Last bit would be splitting the line from the smav to a QEV in each body. Might need some more bits from Clippard for that.
Anyways, I need to see if I can get this setback body running properly first. Waiting on new macroline fittings and Oring orders for that.
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