Very basic spring compressor.

[comanche 2,799]

 When a  customer offered me a broken air rifle I politely accepted and expected the worse. They came back with a Feinwerkbau 127 Sport!

True,  the piston seal was obviously not living up to its name but it wasn't a properly broken air rifle and I offered to fix it for them. Luckily they didn't take up the offer.

I wangled the spring out by hand but hadn't realised quite how long the thing was. The spring and trigger unit overhung the cylinder by at least twelve miles. Ok, five inches( and that's not bloke inches). 

Sourcing and fitting a new seal was easy but, whilst I reckon a strong person with three hands could replace the spring on their own ,I was going to be better off with a compressor . 

So I made one from what was available and cobbled it together in a narrow doorway.

Actually the spring pressure itself wasn't too daunting but the compressor kept  everything roughly in line leaving free hands to make little adjusting wiggles and insert the retaining bolt.

Edited July 25, 2019 by comanche

[comanche 2,799]

Without a compressor ,keeping the blade of the safety catch in place would have been a pain. A couple of cable ties held it flat against the trigger unit  until it was safely inside the cylinder.

At which point the first cable tie was cut free .

After that ,reassembly would've been straightforward  if I had remembered to insert the sliding latch for the cocking lever into the cylinder along with the pistonAt least my Heath Robinson compressor was able to prove it wasn't a one hit wonder as  Ihad to take the spring out of the gun again.

With everything where it should be  ,the rifle was put back together in record time,a veteran scope rescued from retirement and a few shots fired.

I was pleasantly surprise at how smooth the rifle felt and my initial doubts about the stability of the two-piece mounts holding the vintage Silver Crown scope in place seem misplaced so far. 

But then this is not a Remington ("A cure for scope creep Sir? Just throw the scope away and use open sights,Sir" ) Express.......

This is a Feinwerkbau .

 

Edited July 25, 2019 by comanche

[comanche 2,799]

These things were objects of lust when we were in our teens. The sort of rifle a rich uncle or retired colonel might own.

      When I asked the 12 year old assistant in the gun shop what pellets might be best for it he looked blank. 

He'd never heard of Feinwerkbau.  I was a bit deflated. And felt rather old.

Edited July 25, 2019 by comanche

[philpot 4,927]

Well done that man, another old classic reborn. We have our Mark Williams who is a fan of these fine springers and I am sure he will be along after work (when he does any) and advise which pellets are working best in his two Feinwerkbau rifles.

Phil

[comanche 2,799]

25 minutes ago, philpot said:

Well done that man, another old classic reborn. We have our Mark Williams who is a fan of these fine springers and I am sure he will be along after work (when he does any) and advise which pellets are working best in his two Feinwerkbau rifles.

Phil

Ooh excellent. Any advice is very welcome.   

      I 've only popped with it at short range because it was getting dark but think this could be "The One"to keep. Which will make it easier for me to part with a couple of other rifles that I've kept for best but not really used.

 

Edited July 25, 2019 by comanche

[mark williams 7,549]

4 hours ago, philpot said:

Well done that man, another old classic reborn. We have our Mark Williams who is a fan of these fine springers and I am sure he will be along after work (when he does any) and advise which pellets are working best in his two Feinwerkbau rifles.

Phil

Yer cheeky fecker , I`m always working, " honest" 

 

The 127 I use Falcon Accuracy Plus  13.43 g, 5.52.  deadly accurate and running a very consistent 610 ft/sec -  11.1 ft/lbs.

My 124 I use JSB Exact Express 7.87g, 4.52. also extremely accurate and now running 810 ft/sec - 11.47 ft/lbs.( just had a V-Mach engine fitted by Lyn Lewis)

Here you go Comanche

The 124 mk1 is 1979.

The 127 mk1 is 1978.

The rifle above is my 124.

                            atb. Mark.

 

 

[philpot 4,927]

Told you Mark would give you some useful info BUT don't believe for one minute that he works hard. 

Phil

[Rez 4,957]

4 hours ago, mark williams said:

Yer cheeky fecker , I`m always working, " honest" 

 

The 127 I use Falcon Accuracy Plus  13.43 g, 5.52.  deadly accurate and running a very consistent 610 ft/sec -  11.1 ft/lbs.

My 124 I use JSB Exact Express 7.87g, 4.52. also extremely accurate and now running 810 ft/sec - 11.47 ft/lbs.( just had a V-Mach engine fitted by Lyn Lewis)

Here you go Comanche

The 124 mk1 is 1979.

The 127 mk1 is 1978.

The rifle above is my 124.

                            atb. Mark.

 

 

Nice to see you’ve still got that old UL on it Marko. 

[mark williams 7,549]

I`m struggling to miss with your old scope Rez, why did you sell it, its a good hard working scope. ?

 

               atb Mark.

[comanche 2,799]

40 minutes ago, Rez said:

 

Thanks for the pellet information. And your rifle looks rather smart. Mine is a 1981 model.

All I did was smooth and take the edges off everything rather than go for super-polished internals. The simplicity but amazing quality of the parts was a revelation so in truth the little bit I did was almost redundant. 

The only pellets to hand were Milbros ,which were all over the place , and RWS Superdomes ,which barring a probably user error escapee ,gave a 5p group at 20 yards.

       Both types of pellets were a bit tight to seat so I'll keep experimenting,especially now you have recommended trying Falcons.

Thank you!

Edited July 25, 2019 by comanche

[Rez 4,957]

2 hours ago, mark williams said:

I`m struggling to miss with your old scope Rez, why did you sell it, its a good hard working scope. ?

 

               atb Mark.

Hmmmm. Now that is a soddin good question mark.

A good hard working scope. 

Damn you. Wanna sell it back to me for the same price?

[bigmac 97kt 13,732]

1 hour ago, Rez said:

Hmmmm. Now that is a soddin good question mark.

A good hard working scope. 

Damn you. Wanna sell it back to me for the same price?

Bet the answer starts in f and ends in f  rezmond

[sam r 354]

useful thread good use of things laying about

[comanche 2,799]

1 hour ago, sam r said:

useful thread good use of things laying about

The only thing that had to be made was the base of the compressor. It is just a bit of old floorboard with two parallel batons screwed to it that the cylinder lays in. 

As you can see ,no great standard of woodwork skill was needed or available .

Then some rag to protect and pad the cylinder in place and a strap or belt round it in case it does decide to jump skywards and take out your eye or best china when under pressure.

On this rifle the thumb-piece of the safety catch overhangs the end cap so I had to put be carefull not to squash it with the jack head. 

Even with this rifle's very long spring the effort needed was minimal. The jack could be easily turned by one hand with no need to use the jack handle as leverage.

Even though the device worked well for ME, made the job easy and  wasn't at all scary to use I suppose I had better add a disclaimer*

*This method worked for me and I felt confident using it. But  if you try it at home THINK SAFETY and be aware of where that spring will go if something goes wrong and the jack slips.

[Rimfireboy! 1,463]

Well improvised, did the job for you and didn’t cost you anything. Excellent result