Trilogy upgrades

[Jordan]

Anyone know where to find the specs/dimensions for the groove and lip/flange of a feedneck stub that would accept Eclipse or Empire clamping feednecks? Or do I just need to buy my intended feedneck first and then put some calipers on it?

Anyone have some feedneck brand or model recommendations for Trilogies?

Courtesy of zdspb.com:

[MrBarraclough]

Thanks. This is very helpful. I should have thought to poke around ZDSPB a bit more.

[Alexndl]

Just found this on youtube, most modified trilogy I ever saw...

https://youtu.be/eL0sI5LlVYE

[William the Third]

That's an awesome trilly. I'm not 100% sure, but I think my friend, Mikey, made those grips.

[Cunha]

trinity i believe made a clamp on feedneck adapter for the trlly

Otherwise you gotta saw off the original feedneck and cut it for empire necks.

Other option is to grind out the stock feedneck so it actually fits hoppers. This is probably what I'd do if I was doing it on a budget. The stock neck is real narrow, but I'm fine with a slip fit neck if it fits my hoppers.

[NONOBLITUS]

Yes they did and it’s on the one in the photo of mine I posted up earlier in the thread. It sits about 3/4 “ higher. But with a small hopper I don’t even notice the height difference

[NONOBLITUS]

[MrBarraclough]

trinity i believe made a clamp on feedneck adapter for the trlly

Otherwise you gotta saw off the original feedneck and cut it for empire necks.

Since Nummech sells a thread-on feedneck boss to which Empire/Eclipse feednecks can clamp, would I be better off cutting the thin outer wall off the Trilogy's feedneck (cutting it down to the internal "step" where the wall thickens) and threading it with a tap? That sounds like it would be easier than trying to cut a groove into the feedneck stump; keeping it within tolerances would be a challenge since I don't have a milling machine. According to ZDSPB, it looks like most threaded bodies use either 13/16", 7/8", or 15/16" threading. I imagine I'd go with 13/16"-32 to preserve as much thickness as possible.

Edited to add: I just picked up a replacement Mini GS clamping feedneck from ANS for $5. Just have to figure out the easiest way to get a Empire-compatible flange/groove into or onto the Trilogy. Haven't been able to find any of the old Trinity adapters.

[Cunha]

The Easiest thing to do is hacksaw the stock feedneck down a little and take a dremel and carefully grind out the inside of the stock feedneck till hoppers actually fit inside it. Just make it good friction fit and add tape to loose hoppers. No clamp needed at all and it can be miles lower than the trinity adapter.

Otherwise you want to machine it for empire feednecks for sure but its a hard job to do with home tools though it can be done, it is painstaking.

With home tools you are shopping the feedneck basically all the way down and filing to create the dimensions above. With decent files it is totally doable but much harder than dremeling the inside of the stock neck.

[MrBarraclough]

Thanks for the advice. Yeah, I figured that machining an Empire boss into the existing feedneck would be a big ask for a home job. I would need to grind out a reasonably straight groove of consistent depth and then file/grind the material above to create the desired height within tolerance. But that would assume the OD of the feedneck is close enough to that of the boss, which I'm pretty sure it is not. Grinding that down to the correct OD while keeping it tolerably close to round would be a huge PITA.

What about my idea of hacksawing off the top of the stock feedneck (just the thin-walled upper part), grinding it level, and tapping it for a threaded Nummech Empire boss adapter? (or just adding a threaded feedneck directly at that point) Down where the wall is thicker (the internal step against which the hopper neck was meant to rest), the ID is around 0.731" and the OD is 1.2", so the wall thickness is 0.2345, at least per my cheap calipers. That ID isn't too much smaller than the tap drill size (0.779) for a 13/16-32 thread tap. I wonder if I could Dremel it out evenly enough to then tap it, to avoid buying a 25/32 bit for $25.

Of course, as I wrote the above it occurred to me that Dremeling the ID of the lower feedneck in order to tap it for threads is no easier than Dremeling the ID of the upper feedneck to accomodate larger hopper necks, as you suggest. I had thought about doing that but was worried about the material being strong enough since the upper feedneck wall has a thickness of only about 0.08-0.09". So you think I can afford to take a hundredth or two off to make it fit without weakening it too much? My stopgap measure so far has been to sand/grid down a couple of my older, cheaper hoppers to fit the feedneck, but I'd love to be able to swap in any of my hoppers.