Not bad for my first bolt, made without the benefit of a lathe, mill, or even drill press! I made this bad boy with only a drill, a vise, a file, and a dremel.
I found out there is a plastics supply store across the street from the industrial park where I work. I started with 3/4" diameter bar of Acetal (Delrin) stock. I jury-rigged a way to chuck it into the drill, and I used a rag on my leg and a file... I spun the rod while pushing down on it with the file against the rag to stabilize it.
This way, I turned down the diameter of the back small enough to fit loosely. Then I did the front of the bolt more carefully, checking to see if it would fit often. When it fit in the breech without binding but without any extra space, I stopped.
The rest I free-handed with the drill and a dremel. The air transfer hole is at a 45 degree angle. You can see where I marked the air inlet area with a Sharpie. A set loc-tited screw holds the link pin in, and the slot for the detent is dremeled.
It took me about 2 hours to make. Now for the best part: The performance! The whole reason I made this bolt is because the breech is larger than usual in this Spyder, and every bolt I have tried fits too loosely. A stock Spyder bolt with o-rings has so much blow-by up the feed tube that it would shoot the next ball about 6 feet up in the air. With this bolt, when I fire, the next ball BARELY jumps up about 1/4 inch! It doesn't even hop up enough to jump out of the feed neck! I'm very pleased!
I shot a hopper of paint and didn't get any breaks with this new bolt, so I'm thinking that the problem just might be solved! So what do you guys think of my ghetto-rigged bolt? Why is it that I can make a better bolt without the right machines than Kingman made with their fancy equipment?
