Securing the fill probe in the Leshiy 2 so you can use the Foster end to refill

I got my 22 cal 250mm Leshiy 2 earlier this year and only recently got some time to work with it. Interesting design, like it enough to have I just ordered one of the new REPR regulators with a 30 cal plug and 30 cal 350mm barrel and 300cc bottle. The many discussion threads on the Leshiy 2 and the and the many EDgun YouTube videos have been especially informative for a retired mechanical engineer and airgun hobbyist like myself.



Like many of you I don't like using air fill probes on my airguns. I have 5 or 6 different sizes of probes to keep track of now and a few more which probably don't fit any of my current airguns anymore. They can be finicky to use and those little O-rings can be easy to cut by accident. Someone asked in another thread if there were a way to secure the fill probe into the Leshiy 2 so that it could just be left in place all the time. That way gun could be filled using the male Foster fitting on the probe, the same way as they fill up the HPA tanks on different paintball markers. The main goal being to secure the fill probe so it doesn't move or pull out of the gun when you are connecting or detaching the compressor hose to the Foster end of the fill probe. And if possible, a small non-permanent mod like this shouldn't involve any drilling or glue or large ugly clamps.



The top of the fill probe on the Leshiy 2 stands slightly above the curved side of the gun butt when fully inserted. There isn't anywhere convenient to mount a small clamp, and anything which holds the probe in the gun by pressing down on it's top collar needs to be very thin or else the female end of the Foster fitting won't connect properly.



Here's one simple way to do it, it took me about an hour once I had the dimensions worked out correctly. The attached pictures explain it better than the text does. I used a thin piece of 1/2” wide nylon strap 8 inches long – the kind of strap with Velcro on either side which is often looped around a bundle of wires to keep them together. And a piece of thin black elastic cord, or just black string, to secure the strap to the stock.

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Carefully cut 2 small holes in the strap to accept the stem of the probe, one one at 2 inches from one end of the strap, and the other hole 3.5 inches from end of strap (1.5 inches from the first one hole. Both holes should be smaller than the probe stem because the strap needs to fit the probe very tightly when pushed through the holes.



Press the base of the fill probe through the first hole

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and then loop the end of the strap back up over the top of the probe and push the Foster end of the probe up through the second hole 

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Then finish the loop as shown in the 3rd picture. Using the Velcro strap makes this very easy and I already had a piece of it. But you could use any very thin strong black nylon strap which can be made into a closed loop like this by sewing etc.

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Inserted into the stock

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I also found a piece of elastic string to use for securing the strap to the stock as shown in the pictures. That worked better than regular string because of the constant tension. The probe can be easily removed at any time by cutting the string.

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This Mod works well, it's small and inexpensive and isn't very noticeable, especially with spare magazines mounted . It's tight enough so that I can rotate the probe in place slowly with my fingers with a firm grip, but there is no in-or-out movement of the probe when I pull on it or when the compressor hose is attached and disconnected to the male Foster end of the probe.

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A few more pictures, this time with the protective cap on and using a black shoelace instead of elastic to secure the band. It also holds the probe very tightly in place. 

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I love these small low cost DIY projects. I used to post a lot of Helium vs air power tests on the Yellow forum 25 years ago. Used low pressure Helium from $10 US (at that time) disposable 'party balloon' tanks through a hand pump. That was the best kind of Mod, inexpensive and no permanent changes to the gun, all it did was to increase the top power out of a PCP by about 50% compared to using air. 

A more professional approach for securing an air probe to the Leshiy 2 would be for a machinist to cut an additional O-ring sized groove about 1/8 inch below the probe collar, so that the new groove is even with (visible through) the small gap in base of the stock where the probe enters the gun (just below where the strap curves up over the edge of stock in the picture above). A small retaining clip could be slid into place through the gap in the stock to engage that groove in the probe to hold it securely in place in the stock. This is exactly the same way that a moon clip holds a pistol cartridge in place in a revolver so it doesn't slide out. But the Velcro strap and shoelace was free and it's working well for me so far with the small cap over the end of the fitting to protect it. I could even hook up my larger tank to it to keep the tank in the gun topped up if I could afford the money and time to shoot that many pellets. 

JP
 
Thank you rafr, I never thought of that and I'll give it a try. It's a more elegant solution than rigging up an external retaining band. The main functional difference between the two approaches being that it would take more a bit more effort to remove the fill probe from the gun if the air tank needed to be emptied first. It reminded me of a warning in one of the Leshiy 2 disassembly videos about being careful to line up the fill probe correctly in the fill port before refilling the air tank or else you might not be able to insert the probe. But I'd mentally filed that info-bit under 'problems to watch out for' and then ignored in as a potential solution for a different requirement. 

I recently mounted the fill probe semi-permanently in my new 8-shot semiauto ~48fpe AEA SS+ 30 cal. Before I received the SS+ I'd ordered a T shaped fitting so I could add both a Foster fill nipple and a pressure gauge in the original pressure gauge hole. But it stuck out too far and didn't look good. 

The pressure gauge on the 30 cal SS+ is located under the gun and in front of the trigger guard and stands about 1/2 inch below the base of the stock. The fill probe stands about 1/8 inch from, and along one side of the pressure gauge. All it took was a rubber grommet (~1/4"x5/8") pressed down over the fill probe to securely squeeze it into the narrow space between the side of the pressure gauge and the fill probe. I could have used a little piece of double-sided tape between grommet and gauge but it wasn't necessary. The quick fill end of the probe now sits immediately between the pressure gauge and the front of the trigger guard so it doesn't get in the way of shooting and it looks like it belongs there.

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I've read that some people just replace the pressure gauge on their airgun altogether with a quick fill fitting and just use the better pressure gauge on their compressor or large tank as they refill. That would work well enough on a gun where you only get 2 to 4 magazines per air fill and can keep track of the magazines used, but not ideal.

The fill probe on my Huben K1 is located a couple of inches from the end of the barrel and sticks out at about a 10:00 position when looking down the barrel. It's not a gun where I'd want to replace a pressure gauge (located at the end of the underbarrel air tank) with a quick fill fitting. I used a black elastic nylon band on the Huben to hold the fill probe in place and a black nipple cover so the whole thing matches the color of the barrel, with no metal exposed it doesn't show very much. Not sure how I'll like it but it's functional and easy to remove and Ok for now anyway.



JP


 
Here's a quick tip.. Remove the 70 duro o rings and replace them with 90 duro o rings. Lube the3m and with firm pressure, snap the probe into the fill port. It will lock. Strong, secure, and will stay that way until you remove it with force. 

Knife 
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Now THIS is a great idea! Gonna try it myself in the next day or two.

Thanks Knife!
 
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i have an uragan and the fill probe port goes straight through. i was thinking of drilling and threading a blind hole in the end of the probe and using a short screw and washer to semi permanently attach the probe with a foster fitting to the gun. i can't seem to find where anyone else has done this and it seems like a simple solution. does anyone know of a reason this would not work?