Carbining a Tornado?

[Dave S]

Ok, I got out the Chrono.
Its making.... 4.3 ft/lb with hobbies, and 4.1 ft/lb with AA field.

So, not a great powerful gun then.
However I wasnt expecting too much, and this is the base from which I shall try a couple of things
What does a *really* good one put out? about 8ft/lb?

Dave

[Hsing-ee]

Ok, I got out the Chrono.
Its making.... 4.3 ft/lb with hobbies, and 4.1 ft/lb with AA field.

So, not a great powerful gun then.
However I wasnt expecting too much, and this is the base from which I shall try a couple of things
What does a *really* good one put out? about 8ft/lb?

Dave

The power is down because of the piston washer with its lost volume.

A good standard Relum Tornado with the 'best power' pellets (probably Hobby) in good condition should do just on 9 ft/lbs. The 'most accurate' pellets might give 8 or 8.5 ft/lb.

There was a bloke on here, I think he is banned now, spent alot of time re-engineering a Tornado and got the power up to 10.8 or so. I think this was with an Airsporter or strong Meteor spring and a well-fitting guide, so it wasn't a tooth-jarring recoil monster. I think with the low efficiency of the tap-loading design, the swept volume and trigger design that 10 ft/lbs would be a good figure to aim for. But sweet shooting accurately at 8 or 9 ft/lbs would be good too.

[shepp1]

If you carbine it at least it will fit into the dustbin easier!

[Hsing-ee]

From the front to the back ...

1. Get crown of muzzle perfect.

2. Check alignment of the tap, shim if necessary to get the pellet entering the throat of the barrel perfectly. See article by BTDT.

3. Replace piston head with HW77 or similar synthetic seal. BTDT has done this.

4. Reduce rear piston diameter and fit PTFE buttons.

5. Fit Airsporter or Meteor spring and matching Derlin guide*.

6. Make piston liner from steel or PTFE sheet.

7. Polish sears and check pins on trigger unit.

8. Fit trigger shoe (find one on the 'Bay).

9. Fit trigger stop.

10. Have a look at changing the pivoting points on the cocking lever as suggested by Guy.

11. Fit with one-piece mount and heavy scope to increase weight.

12. Fit with adjustable buttplate.

That is all that I can think of to improve the rifle, lubing correctly is a given. Experiment with different pellets until you find the best one.

*Spring and guide can be got from Protek

http://www.proteksupplies.co.uk/page38.html

[Hsing-ee]

Dave--unless you alter that piston washer, you will be p-ssing against the wind. A decent washer of leather,ptfe,an O ring or parachute seal would help things.
Old article "Cheap and Tasty" in AGW about 1981, basic tuning and about 10.8 out of a tornado.
Mk1 -5 meteor spring is nicest to use (with a guide). Mk 6 meteor spring gives more power. I had one shooting through 7 beer cans (no chrono ) with the mk 6 spring before i settled on a nice plinking spring 4.8ft lb, that did not aggravate my dodgy arms so much.

Guy's right, the piston seal is deffo the biggest problem at the moment, serious upwind urination until this is sorted. I think it was a Relum Taurus (Telly 200) break-barrel in that article, b/bs are easier to tune up.

[Dave S]

Turning it up to 11 (thats 1 better init?) isnt really the plan, I dont think its what this rifle is about.
My plan (such as it is...) was to get the thing shooting just using the bits and bobs floating about in the garage,
then see where to go from there.
It shoots much nicer that I expected, so now to tuning to make shoot nice, and making look nice.

Dave

[ggggr]

Turning it up to 11 (thats 1 better init?) isnt really the plan, I dont think its what this rifle is about.
My plan (such as it is...) was to get the thing shooting just using the bits and bobs floating about in the garage,
then see where to go from there.
It shoots much nicer that I expected, so now to tuning to make shoot nice, and making look nice.

Dave

Same thing Dave--sort out the piston washer---get it efficient and then fit the weakest spring you can.
As you know, I tinker and I "TUNE" a fair few guns by fitting an old spring (no idea what it is) that feels nicest to shoot. I had a Milbro 76 and a Bsa light doing a MIGHTY 2 ftlbs---but bloody good fun to shoot.
AND--I've got to say, my 4.8 ft lber was bloody accurate. I sent it to a mate to play with when I had to move out of my house. They are not actually THAT bad a rifle.
If you struggle with this, associate it with the lingerie section of the mail order catalogues .

[Hsing-ee]

If you struggle with this, associate it with the lingerie section of the mail order catalogues .

A Relum in suspenders? That should give I.J. nightmares for a month....

[T 20]

Mick has converted one of these to O ring piston head and there is a parachute seal conversion I think?

Hi Guy

Sorry for the late reply.

I haven't got any pictures of any Tornado O ring conversions, , but I do have some of the Relum junior piston I did which is exactly the same.

first off a bit of decapitation.

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/...s/DSCF1253.jpg

then I machined up the new piston head from brass, I machined it to take a standard BSA Meteor O ring and threaded the tail of the new head at 1/4" unf.

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/...s/DSCF1276.jpg

when the new head is fitted to the piston with a nylock nut it looks like this.

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/...s/DSCF1296.jpg

I used a Meteor MK5 spring and spring guide in the Tornado, though I think the Meteor MK6 spring could have worked better.



Jim Tyler showed a synthetic seal conversion in AGW where he used a 26mm Weihrauch seal on a homemade adaptor.

So now I have to strip it all down again and refinish it. I found the 'its a bit rusty' thread in the main forum, and I think Ill have a go at that sort of slow blue, see if I can get it to look as nice....

Dave

Hi Dave

If you need any help with the Fume Bluing give me a shout --- I'm always happy to help.




All the best Mick

[Dave S]

Cheers Mick, Ill see how it goes to start with. Got a lot of polishing to do first...

I did start making an adaptor to take a spare Baikal IZH61 seal, maybe thats a thing to finish.

Dave

[barry32]

I have been playing around with my tornado for a while now I shortend the barrel flush and it doesnt look to bad but ive been having trouble getting enough compresion. what I done first was I got a hw 95 seal but that didnt work to well also fixed a bsa seal to the piston and sized it down the most I got was about 5ftb but woodfields do an adaptor so you can put the seal onto the piston is cost about a tenner plus postage so maybe thats the way to go good luck

[ggggr]

Any news on this Dave?
sure all the many Relum lovers on here would like an update.

[WILBA]

Ive often encouraged the carbining of Relum Tornadoes.

ATB
Ian

what by cutting them in half

[I. J.]

A Relum in suspenders? That should give I.J. nightmares for a month....

Puking as I type.

[ChrisGerr]

Hi Guys,

First post so go gentle on me

I have just acquired a Relum tornado which is being stripped, blued and French polished as we speak I bought the gun from Protek last month and whilst looking around for new seals, upgrades etc. I found this Dutch website that does customised parts for these quirky rifles. I will be fitting the Protek single spring conversion unit with a PTFE spring guide and steel 'top hat' (think it's an airsporter spring) and a PTFE piston head from here http://www.metura.nl/?menu=search&search=relum

They post quickly to the UK and I asked what single spring they used and answered with Diana 35/50 spring. Before the strip, it was pumping out just over 9 FPE with accupels, superfields and AA's....will post an update/pics once the refurbishment is complete

ATB

Chris