Crosman 112 needs some new grips

Hot off the Crosman 116, I stripped and resprayed the old longer barreled 112. Didn't see a reason to blog the tear down and rebuild as it was identical in every way.

For some reason, probably too much time between coats of paint, the wrinkle paint didn't wrinkle. Devious. It produced a sort of bumpy, lumpy texture. Since it wasn't what I was after, it got stripped off and re-shot with less time between coats. Worked perfectly the second time around. Maybe even a bit better than on the 116. Definitely some learning curve to the wrinkle finish.

Since I'd sent the original 112 grips off to Nick, I had to do something. (And that was the idea for sending the grips off to Nick.) Anyway, there was a grip party as you can see. Just some spare grips from various guns for "research". Settled on using some rosewood left over from a knife handle project that's still languishing due to chronic laziness. I truly wanted to just make a set of simple grips and use up some of the wood on hand.

The rosewood by itself wasn't quite thick enough for the grips, so I Gorilla glued a thin piece of maple--about 1/8"--to add some thickness.

Fascinating, I know. Glued wood. The rosewood is sandwiched in the vise with a walnut and another maple backer. It was handy and it was flat. And a few clamps. Never too many clamps when gluing.

A day later, an inseparable piece.

Chopped the piece to size.

Traced the grip frame onto the piece.

And did a quick cut out.

Cleaned up the edges.

Wow, this looks bad.

Maybe if I back up. Nope. Still awful.

Started shaping the sides.





Asymmetrical curve to the top.

And notched the trailing edge.

Spotted for the grip screw hole and through drilled. Followed by countersinking for the head of the #6-32 grip screw.

Getting there. Overtones of a 1911 grip shaped to fit the 112 frame. I don't completely hate it.

Sanded more curve into the grips. They're almost completely curved in profile now. Added a relief cut at the bottom for some visual appeal. Made the second grip to match. The grip on the right has been finish sanded and lightly polished.

One coat of Arrow wood finish on the right.

And on both.

Just laid the grip on the frame.

Reassembled the 112 and bolted the grips on.

Still need to add a blind pin or a protrusion to keep the grips from rotating on the frame, but they're good enough for now.

More soon.

Manu-Arm Air Pistol Disassembly, Part 2

On I go…

The cocking bar, that part of the cocking linkage that pushes the piston back.

I don’t know why it has that square bit. Possibly a sort of anti-beartrap? Hmmm.

One trigger pin pushed out.

The sear is odd, there’s a ball bearing on the sear and one on the piston.

The trigger and its two pins.

I couldn’t remove the “cocking body”.

The pin just wouldn’t come out more than this and I did not want to destroy the gun.

The rear sight.

A setscrew locks the plug to a cross-pin.

I was too lazy to drag out my spring compressor so I just used a bar clamp. The spring does have a significant preload.

Pushing the cross-pin out

The end plug. Notice the integral cruciform spring guide.

The piston.

See the ball? Shiny ball

.

The piston seal is a simple slug of molded elastomer. I forgot to take pics but it has a groove on the underside as it’s molded. I think an easy replacement would be an aluminum slug with an o-ring.

All the parts…

Here’s a poor shot of the two sear balls in contact, representing a cocked condition. When the trigger is pulled the one ball slowly rotates out of contact, which yields a sliding motion as the sear releases. Not crisp, but smooth.

Anyway…reassembly is exactly in reverse. I took some time to properly lube everything. The gun does shoot smoother than before.

Manu-Arm Air Pistol Disassembly, Part 1

A while back a request was made to take apart my Manu-Arm air pistol. Finally got to it.

The box.

Pistol and drawing.

Drawing.

Instructions.

.

It’s not a bad looking pistol, for all the potmetal and plastic.

One screw through the grip.

And two screws on either side into the action.

The housing comes apart typically.

Notice the trigger adjustment screw.

There’s a dowel pin loosely in that grip hole to align the grips.

The action removed.

A view of the action…

And another of the trigger…

Break the barrel to relieve tension.

Remove the pivot screw. Notice the steel washers on the pivot bearing.

I punched out the cocking linkage pin. I was very cautious when knocking out pins as most of the parts are potmetal and could break.

Barrel removed. More to come…