Some perspective

Some of the aircanes I've pulled the valve out of have some pretty hideous corrosion inside. It cracks me up when guys get on here and wax eloquent about the few years they have been pumping. Try 200 years. Rust never sleeps. Corrosion is a fact of life. It will not be denied.
I've worked on about every airgun that ever has been pumped with atmosphere and I stand by my comments.
Heavy users in humid climates using pumps as a primary airsource are most at risk of corrosion.
This week I took apart an 8 month old Sheridan Steroid that was not holding properly. Upon examination the Valve body outer oring was blown. First one I'd seen with the upgraded Viton orings I use. The failure could be traced to corrosion of the alluminum valve body at the oring groove which subsequently created a pathway for air that made the oring fail.
Corrosion was present inside & outside of the valve. This gun had been used heavily and was pumped to 14 times every shot.
Steel is not the only metal that corrodes. When moisture is present in a system without adequate lubricant to displace it and take it out with the air each shot it starts to work on the metal and the moisture can create some pretty acidic residue. Just like a car that is not brought to full temperature each running cycle the acidity of the lubricant can be pretty harsh on the internals.
Discos have alluminum valves just like the new Sheridan/Benjamins and there is a lot of raw alluminum in pumps as well. One of the reasons I anodize all the allumnum parts I use is because that puts a hard shell on the surface of the metal and will resist the corrosion raw alluminum is prone to.
Put raw steel or raw alluminum is an acidic envioronment and corrosion is accelerated several fold.
I fixed the Sheridan for free as I always do even tho the factory warrantee was voided by the Steroid conversion. It is still totally covered by Mac1. If the gun had been ACP modified I would have voided his Mac1 warranty and charged him for the repair. I'm not going to back someone elses work. You'de think that with the extreme cost of an ACP, that there would be some sort of backing from the converter but I will not stand behind someone elses work. Few mechanics use the quality materials that are required to get the longievity we expect. Just FYI.
My recomendation to the customer was to use pump values to compensate for trajectory rather than going to max everytime and use more secret sauce on the guide end of the piston so more lubricant flushes out the valve. The gun was used in a rather dusty environment and had lots of dirt accumulated in the valve. This we don't see in Steroids as the lube typically displaces moisture and dirt and blows it out with the air charge.
The guide end of a Dan/Benjy piston is manufactured with a porous metal so it can act as a reservior for the secret sauce so the lube leaves a film on the tube each stroke. We soak the pistons in secret sauce after they are remanufactured so the porosity is filled with lubricant. In this extreme use application the valve was definitely not getting an adequate supply of lube and my advice was to be more generous with the sauce on the guide end of the piston.
When you work on pump airguns that are between 60 & 200 years old you see stuff the average user with a 2 year old Benjy will not. Discos have only been available for a few years and if you take that level of corrosion out to 20-30 years you have a problem. I always look at the big picture, the heavy user, the long haul. Those are my customers and I'm trying to protect their investment.
Everyone sells pumps but basically nobody services them. If I'm wrong please show me your hand. I have a few you can look at. I don't work on them because everone I've ever had apart was corroded to death. If you like pumps buy two. They are after all disposable.
I suppose if you turn over your airguns every few years it can wind up being someone elses headache huh Doug?. Sorta like the people who lease their vehicles and never change the oil. It is a disposable world we live in.



"NO GUNS WOULD BE A RIOT"

Later

Tim

Mac1 Airgun