Saturday Score! Diana Modell 5, "V"

(Just scroll down past this preamble ramble for the details...)

Well Felice has a cold and stayed home today instead of going to work. So I went out with my youngest son Max to get some cold medicine. I had heard that Crosman airguns were on sale at the local discount store (Bi-Mart) where I was to buy the remedies, but only CO2 carts were on sale (20% off) so I didn't buy another 1377 pistol as I intended to. Once you get it into your head that the day is going the be an airgun acquisition day, it's hard to let go, so rather than returning directly home, we took a very long round trip and stopped in at the local non-pawn pawnshop. Anyway, I digress...At the pawn shop I bought a "Diana Pistol" and a Crosman Phantom (broken front sight) for $125.00 total, or $62.50 each, the Diana was priced at $89.99, the Phantom at $69.99.
EDIT: I found that my earlier recollection of the Diana at $69.99 was wrong, so I changed the price above to the $89.99 that was actually asked. This highlights the importance of always bargaining at pawn shops. I was able to buy the two guns for $35.00 less than the asking price.

The Phantom sight will get fixed/blogged later, I only bought it so I'd have a project, which is a bit perverse. I noticed a guy holding a bicycle pump as I was leaving, turned out to be a high pressure pump, as used on PCP airguns, but he saw it and bought it first, for $19 (you know, $200 less than it would cost new)! Oh well, you can't catch every fish in the sea.

The Details:

The Diana Modell 5. I say "V" in the title because that's what the Blue Book calls it. There is no "V" on the pistol though.

"Modell 5 D.R.P."

A nice stepped barrel

Two grip retaining screws with cup washers on each side hold the wood to the action.

Well, if it were in perfect condition it would have been a steal, but there's a bunch of rust pitting on the right end of the action.

The triangular front sight.

The vee rear sight.

The wood grain is pleasing.

That's quality, not only is there a lock screw for the barrel pivot, but also for the link!

A slotted sight adjustment screw, and the logo across the top.

The D logo with an arrow running through it.

The trigger is solid, rather than a stamping.

As is the linkage, solid steel.

The breech washer is leather.

It has a vee detent. The pistol locks up solidly but is easy to break.

You can see the catch, rather than a machined pocket, down inside the slot.

Anyway, it seems to shoot well, at least as far as cans at 20 feet are concerned. I'll have to chrony it, oil the washer, and take some 10M shots to see how she (and I) group. I'm really delighted to have another beautiful vintage airgun, at a price I could afford, in my collection.

The 1377 Project Continues: Pump Arm, Part 2

Now a little woodworking.

A small rectangular walnut block gets squared up on all sides.

The top speed of 5000 rpm on the manual Taig mill works well with router bits.

Finding the edge.

Milling a 3/8" wide channel with an endmill.

Spotting for the screw hole that attches it to the pump arm.

Rounding over the edges.

Fits like a glove!

Drilling for the screw hole.

I drilled just deep enough to spot the pump arm for the screw threads.

The pump arm was drilled and tapped for a #8-32 screw.

The walnut block was counterbored.

And the two were screwed together.

The walnut block makes it easier to pump, as the 3/8" wide aluminum really starts to dig into your hand after a while. The other benefit is that it functions like a palm rest, allowing you to hold the carbine comfortably and steady.

I didn't bother sanding and finishing the walnut or the pump arm as there are going to be many opportunities to ding, scratch and otherwise abuse them throughout the build. Better to only do the finish work once!

The 1377 Project Continues: Pump Arm, Part 1

Well, having done all I could from the barrel band to the brake, next item up was the pump arm.

First step was to press the pins out.

Then I took a picture.

I loaded the picture as a background into Rhino, scaled things by the distance between the two roll pin holes in the pump arm and did some design work.

A 3/8" thick, 4" wide by 12" long give or take.

The two roll pin holes were spotted with an undersize drill bit.

Then the mill did it's thing, helpful little robot that it is.

The cut progressed.

Hmmm, notice another barrel band there? Turns out the first one I did had the holes a bit too far apart, which I only noticed when I removed the pump arm.

Rather than let things just drop out of the plate, I programmed it to leave .050" thick "sprues" on the parts connecting them to the plate.

This is a really great, and lazy way to fixture things.

The pieces were separated from the plate with the band saw.

I probably should have nested some other parts in there, that scrap will be hard to use...

The little sprue ends will be sanded off.

Reaming the roll pin holes after drilling through.

I spent about 30 minutes figuring out how to fixture the pump arm so it wouldn't hit anything as the table travelled. I then used the indicator to make sure the top was parallel to the table.

I milled the top flat, getting rid of 3 of the "sprues" Notice the Kant Twist clamps, you can never clamp a part too solidly in a setup like that.

The channel was milled for the pump linkage.

Pinned to the 1377. I'm not sure if I'll stick with the roll pins, or use screws, or what.

You get a heck of a lot more leverage with the longer arm.

This is the mess I created. Several dustpans of chips were removed from the manual and CNC Taig mills.

2 Weeks Along

Well I've been working at this blogging for two weeks, I'm definitely spending more time in the shop working on my airguns. It is a good motivational tool. Late this week (Sat-Sun?) I should have a post up on the 1377 pump arm, which is 80% done right now. I have a few other projects in the work, a beater Blue Streak that has some parts missing, some more Predom hijinks, and maybe I'll finally get around to making a spring compressor.

I wanted to thank Derrick, who, in spite of having known me for only two months and via the internet at that, generously lent me his Webley Hurricane to play with. It might have a problem or two that I can fix, we'll see. And I may end up buying it...although he feels that I'll end up becoming disenchanted with it overall.

I should add that while at this point I have no desire to either repair other people's airguns, or make aftermarket parts (and that may change once I get some experience), I am always looking for free/cheap airguns, especially weirder designs and those having problems. I love new problems.

Like this Slavia 624, which I bought for $10.00 ($25.00 after S&H) on Gunbroker, that might have spent a period of time underwater...I didn't take enough pics as I fixed it, I think I took this one in case I couldn't figure it out when time came to reassemble...

This is my Benjamin "Rocket 77", 267(? It's late, and I'm too lazy to check...I'll edit it tomorrow if I'm wrong)

Uses 8 gram CO2 cartridges. $49.00 at a local gun show, and the seals were good. Real gas hog though. I didn't have to do anything to it at all, which is also nice.

Anyway, just thought I'd throw out a little progress report.

Fixing a Broken Cometa Indian Safety Switch

I've had my eye out for a Cometa Indian air pistol since reading this post on the AVA forum. I love odd mechanisms like the rack and pinion cocking action of this pistol. I was able to buy one from a post on the yellow airgun forum as one of a lot of 3 "parts" guns. The described problem with the Cometa was that the safety switch had a chunk missing. I was able to buy it for quite a small amount of money because of this, and indeed it's about the only way I can afford airguns at all.

The pistol did indeed have a chunk out of the safety! It didn't effect the functioning at all but I felt I should fix it. I debated contacting Cometa for a replacement or making a new one from scratch but in the end decided to rely on everyones favorite fixall, JB Weld.

I think what happened is that the owner forgot that the switch was blocking the cocking arm, and he sheared it off by forcing the arm up. Generally if you feel you have to force something on an airgun, you're probably wrong and should inspect the situation further.

First I drilled some angled holes into the switch with a hand drill.

Then I bent and fitted a piece of wire, as a staple.

The staple ends had a small amount of JB welt smeared on, and into the holes and I pressed it in.

I made a dam around the safety from some .005" thick shim stock. I oiled the sides of the shim so it wouldn't stick to the JB Weld.

And filled the area to overflowing with JB weld, working it in so that it made contact with the whole surface.

After leaving about 20 hours to harden I pulled the form off.

I then carefully filed the JB Weld down so that it was level with the surfaces of the switch.

I then relied on one of my other favorite airgun repairs, the black paint pen. When I showed the repair to Felice, in spite of having seen the broken safety earlier, she couldn't understand what I had repaired. In and of itself that doesn't mean much as I suspect she may not pay close attention to my airgun blatherings. I shot the pistol several times and checked to see if the JB Weld was holding, and it looks good. As long as I remember not to force the cocking arm that is...