And come to think of it Cardew wasn't a professional tuner either.
Though he did do a few experiments where he opened transfer ports up.
All the best Mick
Did he really. I no longer have a copy so I will take your word for it. Cardew used to tune quite a few rifles for shooters in addition to repairing/restoring antique pneumatics, Giffards etc. He charged for the work he did. Cant agree with you about ports having read his books.
The main point of my first post was to agree with the advice that whatever you do should be "undo-able"if it doesn't work out
Yes he did --- in both editions of Power Without Powder (there were two different editions) Mike recommended opening the HW80 transfer port out.
As good as Trigger to Muzzle is and how revolutionary it was when first released in 1976 you need to bare in mind that a lot has changed in 37 years.
In 1976 calculators were in their infancy --- 1977 being the first year they were deemed good enough to use them in O level exams.
Decent cheep chronographs were unheard of.
Digital scales were unheard of.
And all Weihrauchs had Leather seals fitted back then.
You would need to have followed Gerald Cardews later works in Airgun World to have read his transfer port and stroke experiments.
Most home tuners on here have equipment which Gerald Cardew could only have dreamed about in 1976.
Amen to that
All the best Mick
Yep, Mr Wade certainly advocated opening the TP up.
And, YES, as above re The Airgun from Trigger to Target.....Revolutonary and eye-opening in its day. I have read and re-read it many times in the past. And we can all be grateful for Mr Cardew's work and insight.
But times move and technology has moved with it, especially with the advent of the synthetic seal.
Jim Tyler and Dr Mike have dis-proved some of the Cardew work. For example, the reliance of the springer on a controlled burn in order to make power.
Not having a go at the book or theories. As I say, we can all be grateful for this insight. With every generation of new tuner, we now have a wealth of previous work and information to tap into to. Many of the basics are in place for the modern tuner to just tweak and, step by step, make small, incremental improvements. So we all owe much to Mr Cardew, Mr Bowkett, Messrs Hancock and Popes, Jim Maccari, Ken Turner etc. And, in AGW and right here on the BBS, the many expert tuners such as your good self, Mick, Bigtoe, Wonky Donky and many, many more.......
But the ones who I'd also loved to have really met are those earlier pioneers. The guys that came up with the original theories and ideas. How did they work out or guess at the bore and stroke dimensions, for example? I assume that, firstly, it was down to handling/size/weight to arrive at an aesthetically pleasing layout that was portable, dictating the outer cylinder diameter, thus the internal. Then lengthen the stroke to up the power.
I remember in one of John Milewski's excellent little write ups of an early 1900s rifle (can't remember the make/model right now), where the maker fitted an aluminium piston in the target version to reduce recoil.
Without digging books out, someone remind me of which was the earliest springer. Was it the Quackenbush design? And, I know they were a little later (post WW1?), but those Lincoln Jeffries rifles were beautiful, no?
THE BOINGER BASH AT QUIGLEY HOLLOW. MAKING GREAT MEMORIES SINCE 15th JUNE, 2013.
NEXT EVENT :- May 2025.........BOING!!
Trying to get another set to play with.
These grub screw.... Do you need to do anything else to the grub screw, other than drill them?
Cheers
B
Just make sure the gurb screw length is the same as the port length to save making any extra lost volume.
Cheers
John
Snooper601 Suspect a simple fault, or a simple engineer He who dies with the most toys wins!
QHAC Official lubricant development engineer.
drill them from the back so the Allen key still works to get them in and out and make sure each one is sized to exact length to finish flush with each face both inner and outer.
Hi Alistair
The big thing I found out with that exercise was that you could increase the power output of certain guns by reducing the transfer port diameter.
The other classic example of this is the Webley Hawk MK2 --- sleeve the transfer port down and watch the power go up and the recoil come down.
U.K.Neil, kindly gave me a Webley MK3 at the Boinger Bash --- this is next on the list for a reduced transfer port.
All the best Mick