Tools for Air Rifle Repairs .

Bits and bobs and odds and sods for fixing up air rifles.

Once upon a time not so long ago, my kit consisted of a couple of screwdrivers, some 3 in 1, a drill and an old Relum Telly .22 air rifle.

Ask any airgun tinkerer or tuner what the most important tool for working on an air rifle is, and you will be told it's the chronoscope. I would say that's true as you need to be able to diagnose the problem in the first place, as well as ensuring your rifle stays within legal limits - fixing a rifle so well it shoots over 12 ft/lb is not the fix at all!

This Combro Mk IV will cost you about £50.

Over the years as I have picked up old air rifles to work on, I have also had to buy, find, or make the tools to work on them. This has usually meant buying fairly inexpensive things like bit sets from Homebase, giving me a range of flat blades and hex's and providing a cheap alternative to expensive gunsmith screwdrivers,

These two bit sets tend to cover all needs

These dial calipers I got from a car boot sale, and are very useful for measuring main spring dimensions and the measurements of the finer tolerences found on some of the better quality air rifles I own.

Dial calipers are not only bloody useful but look a bit sexy as well.

I have found discount shops a good cheap supply of wire wool, white spirit, sand paper, craft knives, metal files and loads of other stuff that would otherwise have cost me a fortune.

Six mm ali tube with a slot cut in the end clamps around cheap wire wool and wet and dry,

I have also made a fair few tools as well, such as a spring compressor which is most certainly needed on most of my spring air rifles.

DIY spring compressor took an hour to knock up (and another hour to fix after 4 inches of pre load on a Titan main spring did it some mischief).

I even made up some parts to turn a drill driven wood lathe into a metal tuning lathe, though if truth be told it needs redesigning as it's currently only good enough for turning plastic bar, or aluminium at a push.

This lathe bodge is good enough for knocking up Delrin top hats and spring guides if needed.

The 'Fonely lathe ('fonely means 'if only', as in 'if only i had a lathe') also doubles for knife making.

Knife making jig will surfice til I get a belt sander.

And here is a large grinding wheel I picked up somewhere, however the law of momentum tends to have it's evil way if I haven't got anything pressed against it.

The momentum on this grinding wheel has been known to destroy a drill.

Full size and jewellery pliers, mallet, hammers, cheap O ring sets and a cheap Draper mini drill with accessories are just some of the tools i've collected , and of course a selection of moly and silicon greases and gun oils have all been acquired over the years.

Can't remember what this lot cost in all, but it wasn't a lot considering.

In the back garden I have a small shed where I test rifles and invent tools, but the kitchen table is by far the best place to work on air rifles. Some good music and a nice drink and you have the perfect working enviroment.

Good music to work to, and a single malt in the hand that isn't holding the camera.

TTFN, 

Best wishes, Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe.

 

Webley and Scott Hawk Mk II

A blast from my early teens

After removing the rust from the Webley Hawk and taking a closer look at the name engraved in the top of the action, memories started to trickle in to my mind of using this air rifle as a teenager. Did my uncle have one he use to let me shoot up Lickey Hills?, or was it the one me and Paul Pedley used when we skived off school and take down Langly Mill to blast cans with? But there's no mistaking it, i have had dealings with this air rifle in my youth. So when this dawned on me it was a no brainer, this is the one to fix up first.

For now i just want to clean her up and reseal the piston and breech as the rifle was only putting out two ft/lb, if things look promising i might then invest in a new main spring, remove the paint and blue it, sand the stock, treat with oil and possibly varnish.

First i removed the stock which is held on with a philips head bolt at the front of the trigger guard and two longer philips head screw bolts that run 45 degrees upwards on the fore stock.

Webley Hawk Mk ll, the best Christmas present a big kid could get in the70's.

Using 0000 wire wool and gun oil i removed all the rust from the action and barrel, this left about 50% of the original enamaling that had not come off with rust and general wear. 

Looks almost respectable once the rust had been removed.

There was a long crack in the stock running from the end of the cocking slot to the side of the trigger guard, i eased the crack apart and let Locktite run into as much of it as i could then pressed together for ten minutes. This works amazingly well from past experience, and any excess gets sanded of when treating the stock.

 The trigger housing is welded onto the end of the compression tube, there are three pins that hold the trigger, sear, and the safety slide which are secured with circlips.

Removing the circlips then drifting the pins out allows the trigger and its tension spring to be removed then the sear, safety, and sear tension spring can slide out, i thought it best to take a photo so it would be easier to remember how to put it back together,

The tab that bends 90 degrees to hold the trigger in place on the safety slide had snapped off

The breech was loose in the forks so i drifted the pivot pin out and applied pressure to the forks in a vice in small stages,  using rubber inner tube to protect the metal.

The amount of old British air rifles from the 70's i have to do this to is unbeleivable

Now it fits nice and snug with no play what so ever.

No play in those forks any more

I don't know what it is about British air rifles not using Screw bolts for the breech pivot, it's one of the things that do let these excellent air rifles down.

A new breech catch spring might be in order, but the old one will do for now.

I was very careful to catch the breech catch pin and spring, but luckily it was not under to much tension.

I also noticed the .177 barrel was moving in the breech block slightly, this just needed a hex head grub screw on top of the breech block tightening to hold it firmly.

A hex grub screw holds the .177 barrel in place, two small hex bolts hold the rear sight on as well.

The Webley Hawk Mk11 came with two barrels originally you could interchange, but alas i only have the .177 with this one.

The end cap came of really easily as i was able to push the retaining pin out with no pressure on the end, the spring was in pretty bad shape at one end with zero preload overall.

Nice solid end cap, but a spring guide would help here for sure.

The piston is quite weighty so doesn't need a spring with loads of preload as a rule, and at first glance all lubrication had dried up.

One grubby piston with the knackered main spring next to it.

The whole of the inside of the compression tube was generally grubby along with all of its components.

The hand tells how dried and grubby it all was.

There are two piston rings made of PTFE or something similar, these had become very worn over the years and quite brittle. I broke one when i removed it but the other came out in one piece, they cost about £ 20 for spares so i think i will try rubber O rings. whether it's two O rings or one O ring and the undamaged PTFE ring, it all depends on which combination gives the least friction.

PTFE  piston rings beyond repair, 19 mm ID and 2.5mm thick. However a 17 mm ID x 2.5 mm rubber O ring makes a good replacement as the 19 mm ID was to big in rubber.

Now it was time to give the compression tube a clean with white spirits and OOOO wire wool, and definately scrub the piston down more importantly. Then white spirits on a cloth to remove any wire wool bits left behind, this was done with the aid of a rod and tape to secure the wool and cloth on.

White spirits and wire wool shift all grime, but does tend to struggle with disintegrated buffer washers on BSA's.

Now it was all nice and clean i spent the next hour polishing the compression chamber and piston with Autosol metal polish, it was well worth it as they were gleaming at the end of it.

Smooth and shiny inside and out, and a bloody aching arm.

I slipped two O rings onto the piston and tried to see if there was much resistance, though this was after i filed all the sharp edges off before i had cleaned and polished the rifle admittedly. The piston moved down the chamber with about two pounds of pressure, and moved a tiny bit and stopped still when i tried with my finger over the transfer port.
The transfer port was looking okay but i decided to rejuvenate it with some silicone grease, I also applied a smear to the piston O rings as well.

Logun silicone grease protects and rejuvenates rubber seals, ideally used on PCP's but it's always done my breech seals the world of good.

For now i'm going to make some slip washers and a delrin top hat and use the old spring, if it all looks good then i might invest in a new spring and treat the stock and metal work. So that's it for part one for now, part two will be real soon as all the rifle parts are sitting in a box on the kitchen table and getting in the way.

TTFN

Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe 

The SMK B 45-3 Gets Sorted

The problems are finally solved,

 

After many, many months of trial and error i can say with confidence that the problems with the inlet valve are fixed, and the pump arm has a lot less side to side play. There were times i thought i should let it die with dignity, but with it's simple design there was no reason this shouldn't be a really devastating multi pump. Besides i had invested to much time to give up on it, i am especially pleased with the new stock i built it for starters.

The side to side play in the pump arm was caused by the pump arm being half a millimeter smaller than the the space allowed for it in the front sight assembly, 

Front sight assembly.

the only thing i could do to pack the sides evenly was use shims made from drinks cans. Two layers either side reduced play but didn't stop it, and three layers wouldn't fit with out them tearing apart. 

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\front sight assembly removed with relevant bolts and the handy metal washer to reduce side play,

I have washers that size so i could pack one side but i hadn't any thinner washers, and it works perfectly well just packed out on one side anyway. There was less play with one washer than with two shims either side, so one washer will do fine until i source thinner ones or thicker shim material.

The problem with the air inlet valve was that a raised collar cut into the rubber flap washer seal after about 50 full power shots, depending on the type and quality of the rubber. 

 The white rubber gets cut to shape and makes a good seal.

I found that the rubber that covers electronic cigarette refills was more durable than the thicker, softer rubber of an old car tyre inner tube. 

Inner tube rubber needs super glue to stop it twisting inside out.

After taking a mold of the inside of the valve i came up with two possible solutions.

Delrin seats measured against the mold.

Solution one was to make a delrin seal that would seat on the end of the spring and seal against the collar, but the three i made would not seal properly all the time. 

Turning seats and washers on the fonly lathe.

I am not able to turn things on my Fonly lathe to the tolorences required for an air tight seal, the slightest burr would unseat the seal as was the case.

12 mm for the outer wall.

Solution two was to stop the collar from cutting into the washer seal, by using the mold for the correct measurements i turned a delrin washer to sit outside the collar.

6 mm for the air inlet

 I chanced upon this idea when one of the previous flap washers had been completely cut, the outside part had wedged itself between the outer wall and the raised collar. However the violent motion of the compressed air exhausting itself from the valve unseated it and caused it to block the air inlet, but a ridged delrin washer would stay put and reduce the collar from a cutting edge to slight raised area to seal against.

The delrin washer to fit between the outer wall and the raised collar.

With the delrin washer in place i was able to use the tougher, thinner rubber from the refill caps, allowing more of the metal of the inlet seal retaining nipple to fill the 6 mm air inlet hole. The inlet hole is a lot of dead space for compressed air to build up in, which in turn can expand to push the pump head seal back down the compression tube. Now the pump arm locks in place and is not prone to springing out when holding 6 pumps or more, also it holds all of it's charge over night without any leakage though i only tend to store it with one or two pumps.

I was sold a pot of Logun silicone grease years ago and use it on all PCP rubber seals, i used it on the pump rod assembly so what ever works through is going to be beneficial to the valve seals.


I found that petrolium based grease and oil used to soften and degrade rubber seals, and this i'm sure was the case with this multi pump up until now.

Now i've said all there is to say on the SMK B45-3 i can use my spare time on some of my springers, they certainly need some more tweaking and TLC.


TTFN.

Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe.

 

 

  Now that's finished i hope to not see this lot for awhile.

All the tools you need to replace the inlet valve washer

 

The screw that joins the action to the stock.

 

\The screw that joins to the compression tube and barrel band as seen through the pump arm.

 

all the valve bits and bobs.

4.

Measure twice, cut once.

 

Easy when you get to do the same thing over and over again.

 

 

The Best Bits of Two Relums to Make The Tornado

Having passed on the Norica Quick to a friend i was left with the one underlever, that one being the old Relum Tornado. This one fired pellets well enough but was a bugger to cock, and seeing as i had a Relum Telly with no stock lying around i would strip both to fix up the Tornado. As all Relums have pretty much the same power plant and trigger assembly, i figured i could make a decent air rifle out of the two of them.

 Action and stock

 Taking the stock off the Tornado was just a matter of two flat head screws on the fore stock and the front flat head on the trigger guard, though i had to screw the sear adjustment screw right in as it's in the center of the trigger guard screw.

Front trigger guard screw with sear adjustment screw in side that

Unscrewing cocking linkage from the under lever cocking arm.

 Unscrewing the cocking linkage from the breech block and pushing it back to the circular hole on the spring cylinder was easy, however it does need to be gently prized out as the linkage is held against the cylinder by a strip of spring steel. This is because the cocking linkage is articulated, which is handy as the linkage slot on the stock is shorter and makes for a sturdier stock all round.

Leaf spring holding the articulated cocking linkage against the piston cylinder, for stock screws also screw into the sides of the metal bridge

There is a bushing on the linkage to stop it scraping the metal on the cylinder, in this case it was in good nick. With the linkage removed i easily pushed the two pins holding the sear and trigger out and with the trigger spring put them to one side, it was then ready to be put in the spring compressor secured with parcel tape yet again.

Two inches of preload on the main spring.

I compressed the end cap in a smidgen and tapped out the securing pin and released the pressure, two inches of preload on two springs one within the other running concentricly came out.

Both inner and outer springs look okay.

 Both springs looked in pretty good condition if not a little compressed with age, there was no spring guide as the inner spring does this job.

Nylon piston seal replacing the original leather one.

 However the piston was a real bugger to remove and needed some real force at times, there was a nylon solid piston seal with a bit of metal showing on one side when it should have been a leather two piece inner and outer seal which is held on to the piston head by a metal rivet.

Relum Telly ready to come apart.

Some very worn springs indeed.

I put the Telly in the spring compresser and repeated the same procedure, this time there was a fairly healthy leather piston seal but both springs were buggered. Even the inner spring was to short or compressed and some plastic tube lid had been shoved in there to take up the slack, both springs were worn with bends on them.

Telly piston on the left with leather seal  for the Tornado, next to the original piston.

 So i decided the healthy springs from the tornado would go back in, and the piston with the leather seal from the Telly would be the better option. Also the trigger and sear pins from the telly would be used ,as both pins on the Tornado had snapped in half.

I cleaned the inside of the piston cylinder first with wet and dry dipped in white spirit on the end a piece of 6mm aluminium tube, this has a slit in the top so it can clamp around the edge of the wet and dry which is then rolled around the tube. Though if there is a lot of crud inside the cylinder you could pop the tubing in a drill and shift it a lot quicker, but i prefer to do it by hand as you can take a little more care doing it.

Aluminium tube with wire wool dipped in white spirit cleaning the inside of piston cylinder.

Repeated the same procedure with some 0000 wire wool wrap around the end of the tubing, this takes a bit longer as i really want to polish the cylinder up. i followed up with kitchen towel and white spirit to remove any thing inside , then polished it again with autosol and kitchen towel to give it a really good finish.

I did pretty much the same thing with the piston out of the Telly with the leather seal , and let about 10 drops of Abbey SM50 soak into the leather for a good hour. I cleaned the springs with white spirit and sanded then polished the ends, then polished the end cap and as much of the inside of the piston where the springs touched. At a later date i will have to knock up a slip washer and top hat, but that will be at another time, not now.

Trying to polish the inside of the piston

Dabbed a little SM50 around the piston seal and some Abbey LT2 grease around the rear of the piston and pushed it in to the cylinder, it was a firm fit and a lot easier to slip in than the old piston. then dabbing a little LT2 grease over the first half of the springs , i took a cloth and ran it around the coils so the excess grease spread even and thin along the whole length as to much grease can bind and slow the spring movement.

The barrel, cylinder, and piston were taped onto the spring compressor and both springs placed within with a dab of grease at each end,the end cap from the Telly was placed at the end and then compressed.

Cleaned, polished, and lubed, the end cap is lined up for the pin holes.

I also used the end pin from the telly and tapped that into the end cap when it was aligned, and the original sear, trigger, and spring were fitted with the pins from the Telly.

Cocking linkage ready for a touch of LT2 grease and slipping through the bridge into place.

The cocking linkage was a lot easier to reinstall than it was to take out, and the linkage pin screwed back in.

The Telly's trigger, sear and spring next to the tornado trigger show how they work.

As the Telly trigger guard stock screw didn't have an adjuster screw, the original was used when the stock was screwed back on, and then the adjuster screw was screwed back out so the sear would engage.

Trigger gaurd stock screw with sear a adjusting screw inside that.

With both fore stock screws put in, the rifle was ready to test, it was definately a lot easier to cock now so some good was done. After loading a pellet in the loading tap i fired a shot at the target board, the trigger was stiff and needed adjusting and i could feel the main spring twist the rifle in my hands when firing.

Oh well, a top hat and a slip washer needs to be made at some point to stop the rifle from twisting, as for the trigger i reckon some adjustment and a good polish of the sear contacts will sort that out. In fact an aluminium piston head with an O ring seal instead of the leather seal could possibly increase the swept volume a little, but these are the things of future work and blogs.

Relum Tornado with Crosman 4x15 scope.

At least i managed to remove that unsightly aluminium hooded site that was on it when i got it, removed the two grub screws but had to cut it off as it had been fixed on with locktite. But i like this rifle, it's quirky and appeals to me so i'm going to tinker with it till it's running just right. Though that may take a while, at least it will be experience gained and you never know it might end up a decent springer.

TTFN

Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe.