[HelloKitty]

Background:
I'm shooting my AEG and the next thing you know the proverbial *click *click sound occurs. We've all had this experience. What do I do?

I either take or send the AEG to a friend or to a shop for diagnosis and repair. Or, I might try to troubleshoot it myself if I happen to be a tech or at least be proficient with mechanical things.

After being on and off with airsoft over the past few years, I've mostly had shops repair and upgrade my AEGs, GBBs, etc...


Conflict:
But the downsides of using a shop have been made apparent to me.

-Long wait time (sometimes months if it's a complex upgrade/repair)
-Expensive (most places charge $20-40 an hour)
-Cyclic (all it takes it one little part to break to repeat the cycle of bringing it in)


Resolution:
The time, frustration, and money wasted on bringing my gun to a shop has made me think deeper about a better way to go about tuning/repairing my toys.

I know there are free online resources that have disassembly videos of various versions of gearboxes, but it never beats having someone show me how to properly tune and fix guns in person. Taking apart an already properly functioning gearbox is much easier than opening up one that has chipped gears, horrible shimming, broken parts everywhere and trying to figure out what to do.

I would describe my mechanical abilities as average, I'm of course not as naturally inclined as some people who become airsoft technicians just from tinkering around on their own. Those people who are self-made techs deserve my respect.

I wouldn't want to become a tech as a job, I simply want enough skill and experience to fix my own guns to bring resolution to the conflict outlined earlier and for that satisfaction of being able to do it yourself. The only ideal scenario I can think of would be if I paid someone to sit down with me and each of my guns and have them show me how to take it apart entirely piece by piece. Where I would find such a person I don't know.

What do you guys recommend?

Thanks

-Matt