Hello Airgun Nation
I hope you all can help me learn about making custom spring guides for spring piston air rifles. I thought I could reduce my learning curve before the chips start to fly by tapping into the collective knowledge of members here who have made custom spring guides. I would greatly appreciate it if they would share some of their hard earned wisdom born of experience. I will list some of the questions I have been considering, but would welcome any empirically derived advice.
I will begin by making a set of guides to fit the OEM spring in my TX200, but hope to move on to making improved guides for some HW rifles and perhaps others.
I know this subjects gets pretty deep in terms of really tuning a shot cycle, and I would welcome some suggestions about how to think in that regard, but my initial goal is just to dampen all spring vibration and get consistency in the rifle, I guess as measured by the chronograph.
I am thinking of starting with a guide made of acetal, for ease of machining. Is there a significant difference between the acetal homopolymer Delrin and generic acetal copolymer material? Have you had more spring guide failures with the generic copolymer material? Is there a compelling reason to use another guide material?
I am hoping some of you can share your “order of operations” for making spring guides?
I would love to know your reasons for doing certain steps before others.
Do you bore out the interior of the guide for the piston latch rod before sizing the outside diameter of the guide to the inside of the spring? Perhaps, even with a tailstock center this would make the guide flex too much and complicate turning to a precise diameter? I have never worked with acetal on a lathe.
Does anybody bore the interior then mount the guide on a mandrel for turning the outside diameter?
Do you use a slip washer in front of the top hat?
Are you using a two piece rear guide and leaving a loose fit between the part of the guide that goes into the spring, and the washer-like spring seat that slips on to that longer part of the guide? I have read this can keep the guide from failing in the area where the longer part of the spring guide transitions to the flange that holds this slip on washer/ spring seat. This loose fit can potentially also help with both spring torque and latch rod misalignment on the piston. What type of clearance or “slop” are you allowing between these parts?
Do you have any details to mention that you think are important. Places to chamfer or radius the guide parts for durability or performance?
If you read this far, and want to help an amateur who is about to start making his own spring guides, Thank you!
I hope you all can help me learn about making custom spring guides for spring piston air rifles. I thought I could reduce my learning curve before the chips start to fly by tapping into the collective knowledge of members here who have made custom spring guides. I would greatly appreciate it if they would share some of their hard earned wisdom born of experience. I will list some of the questions I have been considering, but would welcome any empirically derived advice.
I will begin by making a set of guides to fit the OEM spring in my TX200, but hope to move on to making improved guides for some HW rifles and perhaps others.
I know this subjects gets pretty deep in terms of really tuning a shot cycle, and I would welcome some suggestions about how to think in that regard, but my initial goal is just to dampen all spring vibration and get consistency in the rifle, I guess as measured by the chronograph.
I am thinking of starting with a guide made of acetal, for ease of machining. Is there a significant difference between the acetal homopolymer Delrin and generic acetal copolymer material? Have you had more spring guide failures with the generic copolymer material? Is there a compelling reason to use another guide material?
I am hoping some of you can share your “order of operations” for making spring guides?
I would love to know your reasons for doing certain steps before others.
Do you bore out the interior of the guide for the piston latch rod before sizing the outside diameter of the guide to the inside of the spring? Perhaps, even with a tailstock center this would make the guide flex too much and complicate turning to a precise diameter? I have never worked with acetal on a lathe.
Does anybody bore the interior then mount the guide on a mandrel for turning the outside diameter?
Do you use a slip washer in front of the top hat?
Are you using a two piece rear guide and leaving a loose fit between the part of the guide that goes into the spring, and the washer-like spring seat that slips on to that longer part of the guide? I have read this can keep the guide from failing in the area where the longer part of the spring guide transitions to the flange that holds this slip on washer/ spring seat. This loose fit can potentially also help with both spring torque and latch rod misalignment on the piston. What type of clearance or “slop” are you allowing between these parts?
Do you have any details to mention that you think are important. Places to chamfer or radius the guide parts for durability or performance?
If you read this far, and want to help an amateur who is about to start making his own spring guides, Thank you!
