HW/Weihrauch Fresh tune for a new R7

[Sqwirl57]

Stumbled into a good deal on a basically NIB R7 last week that I couldn't pass up. I decided to give it some aftermarket love before passing it on to someone who needs one. It got new a new ARH spring, a Vortek piston seal, custom acetal guides, and a acetal sleeve (~0.04" wall thickness). Here are some pics:

Machined parts prior to final fitment:

Finished piston assembly:

And the most important part. Results! And even better, these are the first 12 shots after zeroing my UTG 3-9x40. This was shot indoors at 10m from a bag. This thing is going to rock and roll when its all settled in. I forgot my chrony at work so I'll have to do that portion tomorrow. Oops.

 

[A.G.R]

Very nice. Are you drilling ,reamer … the sleeves then mounting them on a steel bar to turn od down..
I always take a deep breath when doing grooves on the pistons. It’s a bit testing.

 

[beerthief]

Stumbled into a good deal on a basically NIB R7 last week that I couldn't pass up. I decided to give it some aftermarket love before passing it on to someone who needs one. It got new a new ARH spring, a Vortek piston seal, custom acetal guides, and a acetal sleeve (~0.04" wall thickness). Here are some pics:

Machined parts prior to final fitment:

View attachment 436753
View attachment 436751View attachment 436752

Finished piston assembly:

View attachment 436750View attachment 436755

And the most important part. Results! And even better, these are the first 12 shots after zeroing my UTG 3-9x40. This was shot indoors at 10m from a bag. This thing is going to rock and roll when its all settled in. I forgot my chrony at work so I'll have to do that portion tomorrow. Oops.

View attachment 436756

are you going to the new show in PA ? i would be interested in this gun

 

[Sqwirl57]

Very nice. Are you drilling ,reamer … the sleeves then mounting them on a steel bar to turn od down..
I always take a deep breath when doing grooves on the pistons. It’s a bit testing.

For the sleeves I measure the piston depth and then make a mark on an appropriate sized Speedbor bit. Then I drill that far and remove it from the lathe. From there I use some calipers to measure the exact depth of the sleeve, add 0.1", and then mark and cut the sleeve off the rest of the material. After that I flip it, chuck it, and drill out the piston rod hole.

Conveniently enough, the ARH 30S spring fits a 3/4" bore perfectly so I push it onto a 3/4" rod and then chuck the rod so I can make my final cuts to the exterior of the sleeve. From there its just fitting it to the piston and making some final cuts.

 

[Sqwirl57]

are you going to the new show in PA ? i would be interested in this gun

I'll be there but I would be suprised if this thing isn't sold by the end of the week. There are a few guys at the club asking about easy to shoot plinkers. I also have an R9 that is going to get a very similar treatment, minus the sleeve though

 

[A.G.R]

I'll be there but I would be suprised if this thing isn't sold by the end of the week. There are a few guys at the club asking about easy to shoot plinkers. I also have an R9 that is going to get a very similar treatment, minus the sleeve though

Why not sleeve it..
use a .125x .785 spring around 32 coils and it’s smooth as hell and still have room for sleeve. I’ve got my .17 hitting 920 with 8.4 …15 ft lbs.

also would be interested in your method to cut grooves.. parting tools seems the norm
I’ve ran into some HW 80 pistons that were dificult From surface hardening

 

[Sqwirl57]

Why not sleeve it..
use a .125x .785 spring around 32 coils and it’s smooth as hell and still have room for sleeve. I’ve got my .17 hitting 920 with 8.4 …15 ft lbs.

I just meant because it already has a sleeve or so I thought. My HW95 did so I was assuming the R9 did as well

 

[Sqwirl57]

Ok so I had to run to work to grab the chrono because I needed to know. It appears we have an over achiever on our hands here. I was expecting ~7fpe and ended up around 8.5fpe with 7gr Meisterkugeln

 

[jccams]

Yep, that one is definitely running hot. As long as it's accurate good on you!

 

[Mycapt65]

Yep that's hot. But they can be plenty accurate and still nice to shoot at that power. My wife's 30 shoots 7.33s in the 740s without any dieseling and is crazy accurate. It's a welcome anomaly. Most of my 30s usually sit at or just above 700 with 7.33s. Approximately 8 fpe.

Nice job Jon. I'm envious of your equipment. It gives you a lot of options I'd like to have. Well done you!

 

[Sqwirl57]

Yep that's hot. But they can be plenty accurate and still nice to shoot at that power. My wife's 30 shoots 7.33s in the 740s without any dieseling and is crazy accurate. It's a welcome anomaly. Most of my 30s usually sit at or just above 700 with 7.33s. Approximately 8 fpe.

Nice job Jon. I'm envious of your equipment. It gives you a lot of options I'd like to have. Well done you!

I'm mostly suprised because these ARH springs are coil bound with much more than 0.15" of preload. This is the 4th or 5th 30S I've done this exact tune to and all were right all in that 7ftlb area. I'm wondering if some latch rods are just a few millimeters shorter and giving a bit more compression tube to work with?

 

[KWK]

Why not sleeve it..
use a .125x .785 spring around 32 coils and it’s smooth as hell and still have room for sleeve. I’ve got my .17 hitting 920 with 8.4 …15 ft lbs.

also would be interested in your method to cut grooves.. parting tools seems the norm
I’ve ran into some HW 80 pistons that were dificult From surface hardening

Anneal the piston skirt before you try to turn the groove. It doesn't need to be hard with the delrin ring. Make the ring any width you want. You can grind a grooving bit any width you want. 0 degree rake so it doesn't bite in (0 degrees for threading, parting, and form bits). Parting bits love cutting oil and power feed. Don't drown your parts with oil and it's slinging around. Just dip an acid brush and hold it right on the groove.
A bit like this.

Another simple way to do a hardened skirt. I rigged a die grinder like this to do a very excellent job truing one of my 3 jaws. And the jaws were sprung bellmouth. Imagine what happened when I tried to part off. Before I got my tool Dumore post grinder. Rig a diamond to your tailstock or headstock to dress a stone any way you want it. You can even use a cutoff wheel and then finish with the stone wheel.
In the shop I just find a way. That's why machining is cool

 

[fishing43]

From reading posts like these, it makes me wonder what some of you wizards could develop if you put your minds together in developing a new high quality springer or rammer. I’m first in line when that happens. So much great talent that could make America great in the airgun world! Thank you all for showing and discussing your expertise.

 

[KWK]

For the sleeves I measure the piston depth and then make a mark on an appropriate sized Speedbor bit. Then I drill that far and remove it from the lathe. From there I use some calipers to measure the exact depth of the sleeve, add 0.1", and then mark and cut the sleeve off the rest of the material. After that I flip it, chuck it, and drill out the piston rod hole.

Conveniently enough, the ARH 30S spring fits a 3/4" bore perfectly so I push it onto a 3/4" rod and then chuck the rod so I can make my final cuts to the exterior of the sleeve. From there its just fitting it to the piston and making some final cuts.

3 flute or spade Speedbor? My guess is spade.

 

[KWK]

For the sleeves I measure the piston depth and then make a mark on an appropriate sized Speedbor bit. Then I drill that far and remove it from the lathe. From there I use some calipers to measure the exact depth of the sleeve, add 0.1", and then mark and cut the sleeve off the rest of the material. After that I flip it, chuck it, and drill out the piston rod hole.

Conveniently enough, the ARH 30S spring fits a 3/4" bore perfectly so I push it onto a 3/4" rod and then chuck the rod so I can make my final cuts to the exterior of the sleeve. From there its just fitting it to the piston and making some final cuts.

Skip a step. After you bore 3/4" just take the full cut to remove the diameter. Use slow feed and sharp HSS *. The 1/8" (assuming you're using 1" stock) tube should be rigid enough to make the .085? cut. You stated .040 wall. But you have to do it in 1 pass. This is a very good technique to machine a thin wall tube. Otherwise you've lost sufficient rigidity to make another pass. Then part off and bore the latch rod hole.
* I actually just use the same general purpose turning bit I use on steel and other metals. Leaves a great finish on about anything. Turning and facing, same bit. Just loosen the post and rotate it either way.
An option would be use a small "pipe center" live center. If you have a live center with interchangeable tips like my #2MT Conzella set. And make multiple passes. Here (below) is an import clone. Conzella is German $$$ Handy kit!
Delrin is slippery and tries to get away when turning and drilling. Use ER32 collets and get a grip.

 

[Sqwirl57]

3 flute or spade Speedbor? My guess is spade.

This guy:

 

[KWK]

Ah yes, I happened to have a foe toe of my 2MT Conzella set and apparently had been using the pipe center. Even the import clone sets could be very useful. Recommended

You could also run Delrin on a dead center with some oil. Hey, it’s used for making bearings. Just don’t run too fast on a dead center. We used to run white lead and oil on our dead centers. That’s what the dauber on the tailstock of most vintage lathes is for. A little reservoir under the dauber holds your mixture. A dead center has a ring around It means it’s hardened and can be used in the tailstock. An unhardened center can be mounted in the headstock taper. That’s called a live center. Then you turn your parts with a dog plate, and a drive dog. Part has to be center drilled on both ends. The advantage to this is you can remove your part from the lathe and reinstall it without losing concentricity.
Hope you all find that interesting.