Strike Industries Mega Fins rail = Awesome

[radgokart]

Awesome rail. I ordered it in 11in over the holiday weekend and got it for $106 after tax, which was a STEAL. I'm blown away by how light it is. My barrel maker told me the fins would clear, but they didn't, so I lightly dremeled them for a basically invisible fix. I was worried that the heat sink nature of the fins would cause the rail to get hot to the touch, but that didn't happen. It got just barely warm, so I guess the fins really do work to dissipate heat. On a side note, they send a free t-shirt with this rail as a promo, but I forgot to add it to my order. Strike sent one out after emailing them, and they got it to me pretty quickly. I'll definitely be getting this rail for all my other builds going forward.

[Merc1138]

Wait, so the fins that are supposed to dissipate heat from the barrel aren't actually making contact with the barrel(which would also ruin the concept of it being a freefloat handguard)? If that's the case, then the fins aren't doing anything(whether they would if actually in contact with the barrel is debatable as well).

edit: Now that I think about it, wouldn't they just get in the way of airflow making the cooling even worse since they aren't in contact to conduct heat away?

[SloChicken]

Wait, so the fins that are supposed to dissipate heat from the barrel aren't actually making contact with the barrel(which would also ruin the concept of it being a freefloat handguard)? If that's the case, then the fins aren't doing anything(whether they would if actually in contact with the barrel is debatable as well).

edit: Now that I think about it, wouldn't they just get in the way of airflow making the cooling even worse since they aren't in contact to conduct heat away?

Actually without getting too egg headed about it

first one must understand the basic concepts of heat(energy) transfer and associated vectors.

The one where the rail would touch the barrel is a conduction process. I doubt the rail actually touches the barrel, so that would not apply

However, there is radiant energy process from the ambient temperature of the rail vs the ambient temperature of the barrel. This would happen, much like the warming effects of the sun on your face. The energy is transferred in the same way to the rail from the barrel
Think ice cube sitting a foot from a flame.

the airflow you mentioned is negligible. This would fall under "convective" heat loss but really I doubt many are holding their barrels up to a stiff breeze in the hopes it will cool

better yet, just pee on the barrel, old skewl like and use the conduction manner of energy transfer to cool the barrel. I bet it works much better ...

there are other concepts such as specific heat that would add to the conversation, but suffice it to say, this would work. Further, the fins being closer to the barrel would add to the effectiveness of this radiant energy transfer.

That said, it is really a moot concept as it will be a rare event when this amount of change will make any noticable difference

[radgokart]

I believe they work by increasing the surface area available for the heat rising from the barrel. In this regard, the entire rail itself is a heatsink. The airflow to cool it off would be airflow on the outside of the rail, not necessarily inside near the barrel. I know CPU heatsinks work like that, with fans usually cooling them off, but they do make contact with the CPU. Physics aside, a keymod rail for half the price of the rest of the market is a steal. I'm not affiliated in anyway with SI, I'm just a happy customer spreading the word.

[watevers1]

post some pics!

[Merc1138]

Actually without getting too egg headed about it

first one must understand the basic concepts of heat(energy) transfer and associated vectors.

The one where the rail would touch the barrel is a conduction process. I doubt the rail actually touches the barrel, so that would not apply

However, there is radiant energy process from the ambient temperature of the rail vs the ambient temperature of the barrel. This would happen, much like the warming effects of the sun on your face. The energy is transferred in the same way to the rail from the barrel
Think ice cube sitting a foot from a flame.

the airflow you mentioned is negligible. This would fall under "convective" heat loss but really I doubt many are holding their barrels up to a stiff breeze in the hopes it will cool

better yet, just pee on the barrel, old skewl like and use the conduction manner of energy transfer to cool the barrel. I bet it works much better ...

there are other concepts such as specific heat that would add to the conversation, but suffice it to say, this would work. Further, the fins being closer to the barrel would add to the effectiveness of this radiant energy transfer.

That said, it is really a moot concept as it will be a rare event when this amount of change will make any noticable difference

I'm well aware of radiation, conduction, and convection. Having air as a barrier between the heat source(in this instance the barrel) and the rail(supposed additional radiator that is expected to radiate more heat than it absorbs from the air and not the barrel) makes it pointless. The only way would work is worth a massive amount of surface area in extreme proximity to the heat source(not necessarily in contact) to get the air trapped between the items thin enough to act as an effective conductor. But that's not happening with this rail. Here's a video that actually mentions it for a moment in it's application to get heat from a CPU(or more specifically a heat spreader that would be above a CPU) to the actual heatsink while being used as a bearing.



No, you don't have to wave the barrel around in a stiff breeze for convection to pull cooler air up through the rail as warmer air escapes the top.

If the pricing is ok just to have a lightweight freefloat rail, that's cool. But the gimmick with the fins is dumb as hell.

[SloChicken]

My point is, it can be argued that the "Fins" have merit. Hell, they work for sharks ...

However, I still say peeing on it will work better to cool it.

Yep, it is a gimmick. Who cares ... I haven't seen it, and don't have any need to, but if the guy likes it, then good on him. It isn't my horsie on the merry-go-round, what do I care.

People get so worked up about everybody elses AR (Read:horsie). It is kind of silly. Just let the guy go shoot a 'yote already ...
Even if he does wear tactical floating undies to do it.

and that is all my after work beer has to say about that.

[ky2970]

[infringed711]

^this

[SloChicken]

Here you go.

http://strikeindustries.com/shop/index.php/catalog/product/gallery/id/313/image/2921/

http://strikeindustries.com/shop/index.php/rifle-enhancements/mega-fins-ak-modular-key-mod-handguard-rail-1.html

[ky2970]

Hmm, I've rapidly fired through my Dissipator many times and have never had the rail too hot to handle. The portion of the rail I grasp is right around the gas block.

[Junkie]

While I don't know a ton about heat transfer, I don't see the fins doing anything measurable unless they're in contact, in which case you no longer have free float. Not a bad price for a free float forend though.

[whipkiller]

My point is, it can be argued that the "Fins" have merit. Hell, they work for sharks ...

However, I still say peeing on it will work better to cool it.

Yep, it is a gimmick. Who cares ... I haven't seen it, and don't have any need to, but if the guy likes it, then good on him. It isn't my horsie on the merry-go-round, what do I care.

People get so worked up about everybody elses AR (Read:horsie). It is kind of silly. Just let the guy go shoot a 'yote already ...
Even if he does wear tactical floating undies to do it.

and that is all my after work beer has to say about that.

Where would an operator go to get some of these?

[Voo]

lols.. unless the rail is providing a serious temperature gradient, it's not really having any effect on reducing barrel temperatures..

Air is a horrible conductor of energy. As Merc1138 pointed out, by not having any contact with the barrel, you're really not removing any energy. Conduction would have been your friend but there goes the FF accuracy. Short of this convection via more surface area on the barrel (flutes or divots) might have helped, but that's not the case here either..

Regardless, buy what you want as it's your money- I totally respect that.. just don't be surprised if people give you the "huh?" face. It's just a natural reaction when you buy stuff that doesn't really make sense.. Kinda like how sharks use fins.. you know, for cooling.. :-)

[SloChicken]

quit talkin' sense ...