Project Update and a Machine

Nick and I have both been buried in non-airgun related projects of late so I thought I'd pop in with what's been happening here in Ohio.














I tore down this relatively new-to-me Baikal IZH-61 several weeks ago and it's still sitting idle on the workbench.  The cocking lever catch wasn't aligning properly requiring some fiddling to get it to latch.  I'm sure it just needs a little tweak to get it back into alignment.  But, you know the old saying, "In for a penny, in for a pound".  Got this from well-heeled airgun extraordinaire FrankB--who I believe got it in turn from Volvo.  If that's the case, it's almost home--at least geographically--as Volvo only lives about 15 minutes away.

It's exactly the same version as the one I previously covered here.

Looks almost completely dry inside.

Hoped to get to it this evening, but time didn't permit.   Hopefully in the next few days things will settle back down.

I was also side-tracked with a knife handle project.  Some brief info on it can be found here if anyone is interested in such things.

A couple weeks ago, I got a call from a friend who wanted to sell a 3-in-1 lathe-mill-drill machine.  I stopped by and took a look.  Since then, I've been moving things around to find a spot for it at the house.  It's not that big--the footprint is only about 2' x 4"--it's just ungodly heavy.  




















It's a like-new 2001 Shopmaster Eldorado.

5" diameter chuck.  The spindle hole is 1.125".  Just the ticket for airgun barrels.

It's got a DRO package. 




















Power feed, thread cutting...

Luckily,  there was also a lot of tooling. 

This is a knurling tool to produce diamond shaped cross hatching.

Lots of clamps.  Lots to clean up.

 
Piles of Morse taper and R8 endmill holders and adapters.

The machine is set up, relatively clean and I made some test cuts to familiarize myself with the controls.  Still need some practice, but it'll be fun.

More to come.

Crosman 1100 Miscellany

I resealed the 1100! It’s been holding gas for about a week and I’ll be doing more with it but I thought I’d share some various pictures. Reassembly was by and large just like disassembly in reverse.


I was given an aftermarket valve “stem” made from plastic. I decided to use it. Seems to work, but being new to the gun not sure how much of a difference it makes.

When reassembling in the housing I found it was a good idea to use a screw to capture the piercing end of the valve assembly in the tube with a screw while fastening it to the other half of the housing. The tube looks a bit scratched up, but I don’t care.

I found a replacement for the broken screw, it’s a later Crosman screw from some gun or the other. It’s ugly but it works.

I found some plain steel screws that were a match for the diameter of the old butt plate screws, but longer. I gave them a quick cold blue. I drilled the holes a bit deeper in the stock.

I cleaned up the butt plate as well. Just a quick buff after getting what looked like old varnish off.

I’m going to draw up the shot shell in CAD. I had a few that were split so I took them apart. My measurements varied from shell to shell so I want to take a bigger sample before I put anything up.

Pushing the wad out with a paperclip.

Weight of the shot charge.

The shot. Notice the broken one. It’s .09” diameter.

The end of the shell has a breakaway piece.

A shot shot shell.

One of the split shells had two wads in place.
I’ll write more when I start shooting the gun.

Flag City "Toys that Shoot" Airgun Finds

Didn't go on a mad spree this time around.  Actually came home with money in my pocket.  If loose change counts...
















Anschutz branded pellets.  Pretty safe bet that these are H&N manufactured pellets.

One hundred pellets each individually protected from his neighbors.  Amazing. 














This is the only airgun I bought this year.  It's a Hy-Score 800.  The "800" part is denoted by the beginning of the serial number.  I don't believe the model designation is actually marked anywhere on the gun.  It's a break-top, spring piston design.

It's a .22 caliber.  The receiver end cap is rotated counter-clockwise and a shutter opens to accept a pellet.  Rotate the end cap clockwise and the shutter closes.  Mid 1970's?  Bought this gun from noted airgun custom tuner, Ken Reeves.  Oddly enough, he was just selling it for the show promoter, Dan Lerma, as he was busy taking care of the vendors and attendees.  Expect that it'll clean up beautifully.

I was surprised to find that Nick also owns one of these exact same guns and did a brief blog a few years ago here.

Check back soon.

Crosman 1100 Piercing Cap and Idiocy

The tube, polished up a bit to remove the worst of the rust. It’s pitted. Shouldn’t be that big of an issue as it’s hidden by the forearm.

Unfortunately all the pounding, even though I used the plastic drift, flared out the end of the tube. Darn. This is an example of one of the many reasons why I don’t fix other people’s airguns. If I had to do it again I probably would have sawed the forearm off…

So I removed about .08” of length of the tube threads. I hope that it won’t matter and that I can remove even more. I can screw the cap on now but it is too tight for my liking. When I get things put back together I can check and see how much wiggle room I have.

That stuck piercing cap. I chose a spare socket…

And made a spanner from it…

And sheared off one ear from the force being applied. At this point I asked on the Vintage Airgun forum if there was a trick, and indeed there was: “That nut has a threadlocking compound on it, so it will require a bit of heat to free it up. But most importantly - that nut has a left hand thread. Heat it up, and turn it clockwise to remove it.” Thanks LeonardJ!

So out came my trusty heat gun.

Done after heating for about a minute. A left hand thread makes sense as you don’t want the front to unscrew against the thrust of the cap being screwed onto the tube. Nonetheless it was a surprise.

This is how I held it in a vise without marring it.

A small hard o-ring inside the end.

All the parts.

Yes, a left hand thread.

I think the spanner came out better the 2nd time around as well.

Yet Another Grip for a 22XX Pistol--Part 3 Final

Almost done with the rosewood grips.















Yeah, there was still more sanding.

Wanted more definition on the thumb shelf on the left grip.  Had to make a run to the hardware store for more sanding drums.

When I got bored sanding the grips,  I sanded the grip frame.

Quit at 400 grit.  It's going to get painted after all.  Not shown:  The grip frame and side plate were sprayed with three coats of black satin.

Wiped the grips down with a tack cloth. 

Rubbed in a couple coats of Zinsser Bullseye shellac.  Used the heel of my hand and burnished the shellac into the wood.  It dries in no time and can be repaired almost as fast.

The maple spacers have nice contrast.  

 

For now, I'm calling it good enough.  These were supposed to be (relatively) quick after all.  They get the gun up and running and they're nicer than the stock plastic.