First I want to say "great post" below with regards to helping out the guy with the low velocity rifle.

In that post I noticed the polished clylinder and had some questions if you don't mind.

How did you decide a polished clylinder was best and why do you polish the area on the spring side of the piston (the area not part of the compression chamber)?


TIA,
Russ

Hi Russ,

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Here is a copy of three parts of that post where I said WHY I did the hone and mirror polish...


"....When I disassembled the gun to retrieve MY spring, I slid a LED light with a long flexible neck down into the air chamber to look for any irregularities…well, no nicks or scratches, but I WAS appalled that a better job of honing the air chamber had not been done at the factory, but then again, I am the ULTIMATE nit-picker & perfectionist…I am just not convinced that a through hone and polish is done on ANY factory gun REGARDLESS of who manufacturers it….if it is an assembly line “production gun” and mass produced, well…the extra time just can’t be given to each unit off the line…that is EXACTLY WHY some manufacturers have a “custom shop” for putting out “tricked out stuff”….but ya PAY a “TRICK PRICE”…that is true of powder burners, air guns, $2900 Custom Vortec Bow Tie Heads for a Chevy 454, etc.
For a “manufacturer’s custom shop” gun, figure that you can expect to add 25% and up to the retail price of the gun depending on how NUTS ya go with the customization!...."


Next, I said...


"....If ya don’t remember, I had taken the gun apart to retrieve MY spring, so I thought that I would hone and mirror polish the inside of the air chamber as it was KILLING the perfectionist inside of me to look at it anymore....laugh....."

".....After all, there just isn’t THAT much that can cause such strife…barrel, breech seal and shim, air transfer port, compression chamber, and piston seal….5 possible culprits. I made a molded lead button of his barrel rifling and hand lapped his barrel & did a crown cleanup…no change…ahhhhhh…now it had become personal!!...."

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SO ya see Russ...part of the reason was because I cannot stand to see something that I feel is sloppy work...it gets under my skin and eats at me...secondly, as I stated, in a break barrel springer, there are really only 5 parts that can be responsible for such a problem...I DID mention one of the 5 when I listed the compression chamber...

I admit openly and freely that I was stumped as I had checked all 5 things...but I could not even begin to see that little "anomaly [shadow]" because there was so much oxidation or whatever the brownish crap was......go back to that post and look at the pictures again....it was really yucky....but ULTIMATELY I would have done the hone and polish ANYWAY to try and assure that there was consistency in the inner part of the compression tube....but as you could SEE in the first picture there was a rust-like substance that didn't just "wipe off" with a paper towel....remember, rust can and WILL pit metal...It had to be done anyway, but the perfectionist side of me just made it happen sooner than later...

Above and beyond that.....there is no way in hell that I could see such a thing and then re-assemble the gun and give it back to the customer without fixing it...doing so would, in MY book, be irresponsible, lazy, unprofessional, just plain wrong...

When I set my price for all of the things that I did, $140, I actually didn't charge for most of what I did...I did mentioned that often times I would split the S&H with my customers to help save them $$$ and I would do lots of "little extras" and not charge...just depends on the customer and the circumstances...customers who argued and held fast to beliefs that could be proven to be wrong didn't get the cool little perks...

Like my Grandpa taught me...."If a man isn't proud of his work, then he has not yet learned what it is to be a man..."

Hope this answers your question....

-Curtis

You also asked...

why do you polish the area on the spring side of the piston (the area not part of the compression chamber)?


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Well Russ....I was there anyway....LOL. Seriously, I WAS there in the compression tube anyway, it didn't take any longer to do....oh well....yeah....what ....another 5 min...That CRUDDY Crap COULDN'T be good for the metal inside of the tube...it is back to taking pride in one's own work...

Ya know, I wouldn't "not do" that area if it were one of MY guns, so why should I leave it unattended just because the gun doesn't belong to me....or I wan't getting paid to do it....

When I tune a gun regardless of who owns it or what they pay....I do it right from head to toe....would keep me up at night to think that I had something in my hands working on it and sent it out the door in a condition that was less than perfect based on the best work that I could do....

Does that make any sense? LOL

-Curtis

How do you feel about tuning my 350? I know you 're no Paul Watts but dang, I think you might be close! You seem to be very maticulate and care a lot about the work you do. I really admire that. You also seem extremely honest and remind me of myself when I had a couple of businesses and used to give stuff away for free.

I put my 350 through the chrony today and it was consistently 12-15fps slower with every different pellet in my arsenal than it was 600-700 shots ago. The gun 's been shot about 2,500 times now and I 'm pretty sure it's disguistingly dry causing havoc for the piston seal and possibly the spring which is all bent out of shape (or literally) begging for some lubes It could not even shoot 800fps once with JSB exact jumbos when a couple of months ago I was averaging 806-807fps. Today 794 was the best I could get. CP's are down to 830's to low-mid 840's when 850's was the norm. Even Crow Magnums and Kodiaks were down by about 15fps.

I haven't cleaned the barrel in a while so I 'll do that in a couple of days when I get the ballistal I 've ordered but it's doubtful it will regain 15fps. I want to get it tuned either way. The gun has not become much smoother at all the last 300-400 shots so I think it's past the break-in point.

Send me an e-mail (click on my name) if you can help out and are interested. I 'm in no rush so you could take your time if you want to. I have no way of reaching you so I had to post it here. I 'll understand if you can't do it, no worries.

Diana 350 Mag .22
Hammerli 850 .22
A few Crosman CO2 & Pump .177

I'll tell ya what....I'll do your 350 tune for this reason...you seem to be a person who appreciates FACT over FICTION and I have never see any of your posts or replies in which you argue a moot point or provide bad or misinformation.

I quit doing this type of work (I guss I should say as a serious hobby as it was never my sole income and I never advertised, was all word of mouth referrals)....anyway, I quit doing this because people argued SO much when they didn't know what they were talking about OR something would happen like, when doing work for people in my local area, they would come to get their gun, I was proud of the work and would talk to them about it and THEN the kiss of death...I would shoot the gun right in front of them so they could check out the numbers on the chrony and they didn't match up with what the manufacturer claimed the gun should shoot and the people would think that ((( I ))) ruined their gun...never could get it through their heads that the manufacturers (or distributers - *rolls eyes*) shoot light or hyper-light pellets to get high muzzel volocities and take the single best number out of HOW MANY SHOTS!?!??!

I guess I need to break down and register here as a user...wanted to see what this place was like BEFORE I did that so that if the crazy stupid talk started up and pointless arguments developed, I could just leave and forget it. I am happy to say that I like this place and the people here that I have talked to. Misinformation and inaccurate information seems to get challenged in a POLITE way and the facts are brought to light...that is comforting. I have tried hard to do that with posting info and actual pictures like the T05 trigger post or the Hone -N- Polish deal...or the Sling Swivels....you know what I mean...things that I think will truly help people, especially the "do-it-your-selfers". I just HOPE that it stays that way...I love tuning airguns and would love to do it again as it is relaxing and satisfying to me to see a good product being brought up to its full potential and to make somebody truly happy....I just don't ever want to deal with the nonsense, bad info based arguments, and having people who don't have accurate info critique my work in a negative way when I put some much of my heart into doing whatever it is that I am doing...life is too short for that kind of stress.

I will get an email out to you today and I will include my phone # so that we can talk and I can get a feel of what you want and you can size me up too...*smile* If you don't see my email in your IN BOX, check you Spam or Junk Folder...

-Curtis

Thanks for the reply and yes I think you answered my questions. I asked because I didn't know if you had done some measuring or such that proved to you that a polished cylinder was better.

My experience is in other ares such as pneumatic/hydraulic cylinders and motors. There you don't want too fine of a finish and in particular you want a cross hatch hone.

It is clear you pay a lot of attention to detail so please don't take my comments as finding fault in any way. I was just taught a "different way" and was curious about why you do it "the way you do it"



Russ