Carbon Fiber Sleeve on the IZH 61 -- Part 2 Final

With the barrel sleeved in carbon fiber, it was necessary to make a new barrel band with a larger bore.

















































The IZH barrel band allows for mounting an open sight.  Not gonna bother with that.  After sleeving the barrel and pondering a new barrel band, I found this excellent post on the Canadian Airgun forum.  Mr. Samija has apparently already gone down this path while tuning a model 61 for his son. He certainly did a much cleaner and tighter tolerance job than I.

Despite my recent problems machining plastic, I bought a 1" diameter piece of acetal from McMaster-Carr.  Think it was under $5.




























Lacking a 15mm drill bit to match the OD of the carbon tube, I considered boring to size on the mill, then remembered to cross check the size against fractional bits.  15mm = 0.5905", 19/32 = 0.5937  I can probably live with a couple thousandths clearance.





























With a .500 edge finder, I found the side of the rod, then dialed in 0.750" to be on center (1/2 the edge finder tip diameter + 1/2 the diameter of the work piece).





























Drilled a hole in each end.  Figured I'd screw up at least once.





 







 





















Test fit then cut the ends off to what I think is 1/4" too long.

The original barrel band was not the correct height for the threaded hole in the breech.  Was hoping it was, so I could simply make this to the same center line height.  Nope.  

Started to get all fancy with my measurement, but the thought of measuring the top of the forend on the gun to the center of the threaded hole in the breech started to make my head hurt.

Gonna wing it.  Drilled for the mounting screw.






















Flipped and faced the top.























Chamfered.























Test fit. 
 

It looked like the height was off by about 0.020". This is actually closer than the factory band, but not close enough.  Went back to the lathe and stepped the OD to make it a bit slimmer.  Then made the base even shorter.  Scuffed it with a maroon Scotchbrite pad in an attempt to match the IZH finish.

Actually went shorter, because I didn't have a 0.020" washer, but I did have some acetal washers that are about 0.050".   Found that it's often easier to source a thicker washer than one made from what amounts to shim stock.

Used the assembly itself to approximate the correct height. 

Here's the amount the barrel needs to come up.

Washer installed.  The finish looks like an acceptable match. 



























Don't see an alignment issue, so it's done.

A few glamor shots.  The wisteria over the deck is in full swing and dropping blooms everywhere.

So, the IZH continues to evolve.  It's now very close to what I envisioned for this little rifle.  Still want to make a shorter muzzle brake and spend more time shooting it.

Thanks for checking in.

Carbon Fiber Sleeve on the IZH 61 -- Part 1

Been shooting the short barreled IZH 61 trying to find my ideal set-up.   Looks like Nick and I have done over 20 blog posts on these rifles.  After adding picatinny rails, sling mounts, mounts and red dots,  I found some cheap carbon fiber tubing online and thought I'd sleeve the barrel, too. Why?  Well, because it would look amazing. 
























The tube ran about $7 shipped from Hong Kong, and 4 weeks for delivery.  The IZH 61 barrel has a nominal OD of 13mm.  Not needing this for structural support, I opted for a 13mm/15mm  (ID/OD) carbon tube.  That equates to a wall thickness of 1mm. 

The tube arrived and as I suspected, didn't quite fit over the barrel.  I stripped the barrel down to bare steel, then changed course and sanded out the ID of the carbon with 150 grit emery cloth on a long mandrel. 

Got a snug slip fit.   Not shown:  re-blued the barrel.

Eyeballed the length and cut it 1/8" long with a hacksaw.  Wrapped the tube before the cut with masking tape to help prevent splintering.  It can be helpful to treat carbon fiber like wood or fiberglass.

Faced it closer on the lathe then finish sanded the edge.

This isn't necessary, but I opted for a semi-permanent installation.  Pretty sure I can break the epoxy bond with either a heat gun or a torch if I ever change my mind.

Thin coat on the barrel and slid the sleeve home.

Used a gray scotchbrite pad to knock back the gloss finish to a matte.  Ran out of time about here.  Still need to make a new barrel support for the larger tube size.  Despite my recent misadventures with plastic, there's a piece of acetal on the bench. 

Hopefully I can get to it tomorrow.

Adjustable QB Recoil Pad Ver 2.0

I couldn't warm up to the plastic recoil pad spacer I made for the QB a few weeks ago.
























Found a piece of .500" thick aluminum and started again.  Slotted with a .250" end mill for shank clearance...

And cut the T-slot.  The slot is the same .500" wide x .125" tall size as previously used. 

I'll spare everyone the shaping and sanding pictures.  It was the same, but worse, as the aluminum is a lot harder to grind than plastic.

Put a slight angle (about 5 degrees) into the base of the spacer where it fits against the wood.   It's hard to see in this picture due to the silver color washing out.  May revisit this and add another ten or so degrees.

Much happier with the results.  I've still got a Bisley adjustable pad to fit to another rifle, but I need a break from shaping aluminum butt plates. 

More soon.

Findlay Airgun Show Finds

Here's some of the stuff I found at the Findlay show last week.    



















At $5/tin,  I couldn't have done any better on pellet pricing.

An inexpensive Daisy target aperture. 

Don't have a plan for this sight yet, but it should fit a variety of rifles.  

A Hammerli Master target pistol from noted collector Larry Hannusch was too good to pass up.

I read an online review where the writer claimed that the Hammerli was what a Crosman 2240 wanted to be when it grew up.  That might be the best way to describe how much I like this pistol.  



Some projects coming up:  The adjustable recoil pad got a revision, some carbon fiber tubing for a barrel sleeve, wood grips for the Hammerli...


Check back in a couple days.  I'll have something up.