HW30 Galling

[TXRMike]

I know it's a known issue and I knew I'd get around to fixing it one day. I wish I'd have fixed it sooner. It's exactly one year old this week and has about 2K rounds through it. Mine is really more like a gouge, removing metal in stead of piling it up. I put moly paste on it twice in the last year. I didn't try to smooth the gouges because I'm not ready to re-blue that area. I did polish / sand the joint of the cocking arm at the pivot, which is the culprit. I also lightly polished the cocking arm just behind the shoe / end. There was a surprising amount of wear on the receiver where the cocking shoe follows the piston. I only lightly cleaned up the arm there because the wear was so even and mild except at the very end of the slot when closed. It was pretty deep there but I didn't want to relieve the arm and allow it tolerance to reach the spring. The short linkage was nicely / loosely fitted in the breech block. The long linkage was very tight where it connects to the short linkage, too tight. I oiled it with Kroil and worked it a lot. I want to loosen it with tools but I need to learn what's ideal first before I make any more changes.

 

[Sqwirl57]

I cut down a piece of acetal rod that I sized in my lathe and tapped it into my cocking arm and that was the end of the galling issues for me. Now the arm just glides on that instead of the metal to metal contact. The 50S comes with a Derlin insert already but the 30S doesn't for whatever reason. Don't know why.

 

[Teber66]

My R7 does the same thing.

 

[coop709]

I have one HW30 and three R7's. One of them has this issue and a previous owner tried to repair it with what appears to be an epoxy compound. It's not going to cut the gun in half... I have never seen one of them gall themselves to failure. It should be fine after you have clearance for the cocking rod.

 

[Feinwerk]

You might be able to fashion a suitable bushing from a piece of kitchen cutting board that you can shape and press/tap fit into the fold of the cocking arm. Maybe not as slippery as delrin, but cutting boards are typically made from polyethylene blends which are fairly lubricious. You can test them before you buy by running the edge of your fingernail across it or the edge of your knife blade. The less it drags on your nail or blade, the better.

It always floats my boat when I can find an inexpensive consumer off the shelf product made from the material or the shape that you desire for a project and repurpose it. You can buy delrin rod and bar stock as a separate specialty item all day long, possibly from Amazon even, but there are some satisfaction with finding a domestic source from a local store that you can snag inexpensively.

There may be some off-the-shelf items made from delrin available at your hardware store that you can repurpose into a bushing piece, such as furniture glides perhaps or something similar that are meant to stand up to sliding friction. Look at spacers, thick washers and bushings in the specialty hardware drawers .

Nylon could also work and you can get little nylon bolts all day long at hardware stores. A little work with a hobby hacksaw and a file will have a piece shaped up in no time.

I use cutting boards that are 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch thick for a variety of home brew projects where I need a polymer / insulator/bushing. So easy to cut and drill and shape.

Feinwerk

 

[Mycapt65]

No bushings required. You have my number call me.

 

[Bear-of-Grayling]

The joint in the lever being tight is not the problem. It should be tight. Built that way. If the tight joint was at all an issue the gulling would have started on day one. The bent spring is the only thing that changed. It bends and when enough it gets to the shoe and or piston wall and starts putting lateral pressure on the one side. That is why your damage is not centered. The groove in the receiver will also be scared on the same side. When the gun is at rest “with a bent spring” this is when there is the smallest amount of spring pressure and it slowly shifts the piston to one side. Continual use will cause the groove to get eaten until the joint in the lever binds. Then the joint also jams “doesn’t function properly” and starts digging into the receiver. Opening the joint only works until the groove is eaten enough to start the process over again. A sleeve and a good fitting spring guide will hold the spring straight (unless the spring has a internal flaw) and the problem is solved. Buffing the shoe is also a help to insure the spring does not get/ hang on it.

 

[SpiralGroove]

Yeah, the HW30's, HW35's HW50's can show this issue.
You should have been alerted - this was going on by the sound or increased cocking tension .

The plastic cocking wedge in the cocking arm needs to be adjusted - I usually take out the spring below it applying additional pressure.
You also may need to remove some material from the plastic wedge, or in one of my older guns - remove some metal from the actual cocking arm causing the binding. If you grind some off - 1/16" at the most - just re-blue and you'll forget you even did it.

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