Development

BOLTS DEVELOPMENT

The Type 12 RogueWorx bolt started life as a CAD model of the standard bolt. We then looked at all the other versions of the bolts people have produced over the years, including the RA-Tech steel bolt and the first ever machined Aluminium bolt produced by Matt Eaton and Aaron Logue a few years ago, and analysed the different features and dimensions of each design to see which ones benefitted the functionality. We kept and refined some of these features, discarded others.

We then added several new design features that nobody had thought of before to improve the strength, improve the function and reduce wear on other components of the gun. We had several 3D printed prototypes produced at various stages in different materials to test for fit and function. The design has also been optimised to make it easier to produce on a CNC milling machine as some features of the original cast design were unnecessary and nearly impossible to replicate on a machined piece. 

When we were happy with the design, we passed it to our chosen manufacturer who produced 2 production prototypes. One was plain aluminium, the other was anodised red by the factory. Those 2 prototypes were exposed to a combined total of over 5000 cycles in 3 different guns, using CO2, Red gas, Black gas and normal Green gas, with the guns being disassembled for inspection every 10 – 20 mags. The bolts performed perfectly and only showed minimal wear on contact faces where the bolt impacted other parts of the mechanism, such as the hop unit, buffer pin and hammer, as would normally be expected. Those same 2 bolts are still installed in Arron’s and Anthony’s personal KC-02, still working fine over a year later!

On the red prototype bolt that was anodised by the factory, we immediately had concerns about the process as the anodising appeared dull, thin and looked more like paint instead of an electro-chemical plating process. Our pre-order customers also wanted more colours than the factory could offer so we decided to contact a specialist plating company to get the bolts processed post-production by them. The plating company’s samples were extremely high quality, with rich, vibrant colours and a highly durable finish. They were also capable of producing virtually any colour as they mix their plating chemicals by hand and experienced eyeball judgement is employed to get the colours just perfect to suit the particular alloy being anodised, and to match any specific requirements. The possibility of customised multi-colour patterns for the anodising also became possible through our use of a specialist.

Though we don’t want to give away all of our designs secrets, we can highlight some of the key enhancements present in the RogueWorx Type 12 KC-02 bolt design:

• Precision CNC machined from a solid billet of 6061 Aluminium alloy, commonly used in aircraft and weapons manufacture.

• 40 grams weight, half the weight of the standard bolt to greatly increase cycle speed and gas efficiency. 

• Lightest metal upgrade bolt design available – Stock 80g, RA-Tech steel 113g, Eaton/Logue CNC 42g.

• Overall design shortened by 4.1mm to reduce weight.

• Improved return spring shoulder clearance to reduce cylinder wear.

• Improved trigger mech clearance to give smoother cycling.

• Trigger mech disconnector cams radiused to reduce cam wear, and improve cycling.

• Charging handle front arch stress points radiused to greatly reduce fatigue.

• Front arch smoothed and chamfered to reduce cylinder wear, increase strength and improve cycling.

• Main front contact face widened to reduce wear and distribute shock. 

• Bolt catch groove lengthened and radiused to improve clearances.

• Cylinder guide ramps added to prevent cylinder twisting, reduce cylinder wear and ensure a consistent return position.

• Unnecessary design features removed to optimise for CNC production.

We designed the RogueWorx bolt to be a drop-in fit that would be compatible with all pistons and charging handles HOWEVER after analysing the design with a professional aerospace mechanical stress engineer, we found that by adding a radius of just 1.5mm to the point where the charging handle slot meets the front arch bridge, we could greatly strengthen the greatest stress point and one of the most common fracture points of the original design. Therefore, this requires a very simple modification to your charging handle to make it fit. You just have to round off one edge of the charging handle, literally takes about a minute with a file or grinder, it’s very easy but results in a big increase in strength of the design. Many people have reported the bolt fits without this modification to the charging handle as the radius is so small, but RogueWorx does not encourage this lazy approach as it could increase chances of wear and failure of other components in the gun over time. Specifically, if the charging handle is not sitting flat, the gun will still cycle but there will be slightly increased pressure on top of the bolt carrier, pushing the nozzle down slightly during cycling. This will most likely cause premature ripping of the rubber mag gas routers, premature cracking of the cylinder/nozzle and increased stress on the charging handles itself due to poor force transfer.

We’ve made a video showing you how to install your RogueWorx bolt and modify your charging handle here: https://youtu.be/VrcMH0LI2Ks

Test firing video: https://youtu.be/wXqqyz2Cy34

Testing results showed a much faster and lighter bolt cycling speed, with much better gas efficiency.

Hopefully this has answered almost every question you can think of but please contact us via our Facebook page for a direct answer or email us at info@rogueworx.com if you want a longer reply!