FX How do you use your power wheel?

[Yardstick]

How do you use the power wheel on your FX PCP airgun (Impact, Crown, etc…) with multiple settings? Or maybe the question is ‘do you ever use….? I’m not sure I fully understand the point of them yet. I have only gone through the tuning process on an Impact X and the video I watched only talked about tuning from the Max setting. Can the power wheels be set up such that you can use a different setting for different calibers without going through the full tuning process of setting regulator(s) and other dials in addition to the power wheel? For instance - can I have my Crown MKII set up with the .22 pellet barrel on one setting (Max) and then swap to a .177 barrel and only tune with the power wheel without going through regulator adjustments? Or is that not how the power wheels are designed to work?

Edit to add a question (below) about using the transfer port wheel.

 

[Vetmx]

I’ve never looked at them as “power wheels”. It just a hammer spring adjuster that has numbers. They are very convenient to use searching for the best accuracy after you get your peak speed for the reg setting set. I always set my peak reg speed on the maximum number on the wheel then work my way down.

 

[dens228]

I’ve never looked at them as “power wheels”. It just a hammer spring adjuster that has numbers. They are very convenient to use searching for the best accuracy after you get your peak speed for the reg setting set. I always set my peak reg speed on the maximum number on the wheel then work my way down.

Where is your micro set at before while you search for peak speed before turning the macro down?

 

[NAProf]

Hi Guys,
For reference on understanding the "Power Wheel" and "Micro Adjuster" here are a few numbers. First, both adjusters do the same thing - they adjust the amount of hammer spring compression. On the Crown MkII (and any of the rifles with the 0 - 23 step "Power Wheels") each step on the PW is almost exactly .2mm change in hammer spring compression. Each complete revolution of the Micro Adjuster (Internal Hammer Spring adjuster on the Crown and Maverick) is 0.5mm of change in hammer spring compression. So moving from a setting of 10 to 20 on the PW is 2mm of increase in compression which is the same as 4 complete revolutions of the Micro Adjuster.
Because you have to take the stock off the adjust the Internal Hammer Spring adjuster on the Crown, I set it to a nice round number like 5mm. I then start the PW low and step it up until I get the velocity I want or max out. Lots of playing around with the PW and Reg pressure to get a "harmonically tuned" set of settings that shoots with good ES and SD at velocity near where I want. I then use the IHS to allow me to move the PW setting to something like 15. That way I can crank up or down a bit depending on wind conditions.

Sorry for the long explanation. It is absolutely worth the time to watch Sub12Airgunners video on YouTube which shows how he tunes the Crown.
Cheers,
Greg

 

[Vetmx]

Where is your micro set at before while you search for peak speed before turning the macro down?

I set my wheels on the max number. I use different wheels on two out of the three M3’s that I own. But even with a Dreamline, I set the wheel on max or highest number. Then I use the micro or screw on an MKll or Dreamline, to work my way up to the max speed for that reg setting. So where is my micro set at? That all depends on the reg setting. But I always know that when my wheel is set on Max, that’s the fastest my gun will shoot on that reg setting. It makes life very simple for tuning, disassembly/reassembly and just a quick checkup if something seems awry.

For example if I get a weird velocity drop or rise, I can just open my valve and return my wheel to the max number. I know what my max speed was with the gun wide open because it’s in my notes. If that speed doesn’t jive, I know I have a problem that isn’t valve related.

From doing so much tuning, I kinda know where to start my micro for a given reg setting. But all it takes is you establishing one base setting with the micro on that gun and everything is easy after that. With your wheel on max, valve wide open, if you work your way up to let’s say 2.5 on the micro at 100b for your max speed, now you’re good. If you don’t like what’s going on at 100b, now when you return your wheel to Max, #16 or whatever, your micro will be back at 2.5 automatically. Then you bump your reg up to let’s say 115b and start clicking the micro until you find your new max speed. The cool thing is if you are up shooting at 135b and decide you are switching projectiles and want to return to a lower reg setting, it’s all in your notes. Just reset your reg to 100b, wheel on max, micro on 2.5 and you should be good to go to start testing there without wasting time and lead. I just made up all those numbers so don’t try to use them.

 

[dens228]

I set my wheels on the max number. I use different wheels on two out of the three M3’s that I own. But even with a Dreamline, I set the wheel on max or highest number. Then I use the micro or screw on an MKll or Dreamline, to work my way up to the max speed for that reg setting. So where is my micro set at? That all depends on the reg setting. But I always know that when my wheel is set on Max, that’s the fastest my gun will shoot on that reg setting. It makes life very simple for tuning, disassembly/reassembly and just a quick checkup if something seems awry.

For example if I get a weird velocity drop or rise, I can just open my valve and return my wheel to the max number. I know what my max speed was with the gun wide open because it’s in my notes. If that speed doesn’t jive, I know I have a problem that isn’t valve related.

From doing so much tuning, I kinda know where to start my micro for a given reg setting. But all it takes is you establishing one base setting with the micro on that gun and everything is easy after that. With your wheel on max, valve wide open, if you work your way up to let’s say 2.5 on the micro at 100b for your max speed, now you’re good. If you don’t like what’s going on at 100b, now when you return your wheel to Max, #16 or whatever, your micro will be back at 2.5 automatically. Then you bump your reg up to let’s say 115b and start clicking the micro until you find your new max speed. The cool thing is if you are up shooting at 135b and decide you are switching projectiles and want to return to a lower reg setting, it’s all in your notes. Just reset your reg to 100b, wheel on max, micro on 2.5 and you should be good to go to start testing there without wasting time and lead. I just made up all those numbers so don’t try to use them.

I like that method. I always started with macro on 8, micro on 3. I’m going to use yours when it’s warmer here

 

[FelixS]

How do you use the power wheel on your FX PCP airgun (Impact, Crown, etc…) with multiple settings? Or maybe the question is ‘do you ever use….? I’m not sure I fully understand the point of them yet. I have only gone through the tuning process on an Impact X and the video I watched only talked about tuning from the Max setting. Can the power wheels be set up such that you can use a different setting for different calibers without going through the full tuning process of setting regulator(s) and other dials in addition to the power wheel? For instance - can I have my Crown MKII set up with the .22 pellet barrel on one setting (Max) and then swap to a .177 barrel and only tune with the power wheel without going through regulator adjustments? Or is that not how the power wheels are designed to work?

I use mine exclusively for different projectiles within the existing tune and same caliber.

 

[Trucker3573]

The micro is the main component for sweet spotting velocity for a given reg pressure. That component should be the focus when starting tuning. Where the power wheel is set when you do this only matters in how much of a range you want to move from the optimum spot. If you tune for max velocity with the power wheel on 1 you will have no quick movement down. My .25 m3 is set to shoot 33 gr at 910-915 fps at PW 16. I then can dial the macro down to 6 and shoot 25.39 at 890-900. Much easier and faster to use the wheel than crank the micro up and down that much.

 

[dens228]

The micro is the main component for sweet spotting velocity for a given reg pressure. That component should be the focus when starting tuning. Where the power wheel is set when you do this only matters in how much of a range you want to move from the optimum spot. If you tune for max velocity with the power wheel on 1 you will have no quick movement down. My .25 m3 is set to shoot 33 gr at 910-915 fps at PW 16. I then can dial the macro down to 6 and shoot 25.39 at 890-900. Much easier and faster to use the wheel than crank the micro up and down that much.

That's why I start both in the middle. Turn up the macro until it peaks, then back, if it jumps down in speed too much I go back to the prior macro and use the micro. I don't really care where the macro is for documenting my settings, I care where the micro is.

 

[Jay308]

I use it as a quick tune wheel to see where I’m at in the curve at a given pressure. You can find the plateau, knee and slope. I then set the power wheel to whatever number is closest to the knee and fine tune a 1/8 turn at time on the micro until the SD/ES are low. I leave the PW on max when finding the reg pressure that is close to my desired FPS.

If you use the PW to shoot 2 projectiles, you need to tune for the heavier and turn down the PW for the lighter but the 2nd one will always be a compromise as you will be out of the knee and have a higher ES/SD. I just pair a heavier pellet with a lighter slug and change nothing. My current .22 tune is for the FX 25.4 and the 22 hybrid slug.

 

[rcarlisle]

I also tune my DreamTac with the hammer wheel on max, TP on high for a given reg setting. I've found that if you do this with the heaviest projectile you intend to shoot, you can often find acceptable tunes for lighter projectiles by dialing down the hammer wheel and/or TP. You will have to accept compromise on the dialed-down tunes. But useful things can be done.
I've got the DreamTac (in .177) shooting 13.43gr, 10.34gr, 8.44gr and 7.87gr lead, first by tuning for the 13.43gr peak velocity at ~120 bar on the reg using the micro wheel (screw?). The 10.34gr ended up with a very acceptable tune in terms of ES by dialing back the hammer, though a tad loud. Things start getting a little loose with the 8.44gr but works as a shorter range bird buster. I shoot the 7.87gr to a max of 15 yards, but again, quite accurate and sports a pretty crazy shot count.
But in all honesty, only that first tune is "right", the others just happen to work and are repeatable. Fine for backyard plinking and pesting, but if you're into competition or have a hangup about pinpoint accuracy and extreme efficiency, you'd probably tune for a single projectile and only that projectile. Thankfully, all those knobs and dials let those of us who are slightly less discerning easily go between various projectiles. Now, doping for all that so you can switch projectiles and keep on target is the other half of this operation.

 

[Yardstick]

I wanted to bump this up with one additional question - Is there any additional tuning that you do with the transfer port wheel? Or is that one that never really gets used?

 

[Bobbybeef]

I never use the transfer port wheel I did the other day put it on low I was trying to see how low I could go and with 8.4;jsb reg at 100 it was 7.4fpe I was trying to get to 6 without setting the reg way down. I use the hammer wheel for accuracy i bump it up or down to make the pellet as accurate as possible.