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  1. #1
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    Taming the HW80 my way

    I've seen a few posts/threads of late about keeping the power down on this mighty beast & getting a decent firing cycle. Questions vary from how much weight to remove from the piston to which spring to use.

    we all know how Venom did it with the Lazerglided 80 & it's well known Bigtoe01 did a similar thing by sleeving the 80's 30mm cylider down to 25mm, he went that extra mile & fitted a Walther LGV rotating piston & altered the trigger latch sear to accommodate the Walther piston rod. For those that have yet to read Tony's blog your missing out, do a search on here for Bigtoe01 & you will find a link on his profile.

    TonyL has always said how he liked my short stroke modified 80 ever since shooting it at last years springer bash, whilst tidying my workshop today I came across a project I had been working on & had entirely forgotten about, it had been left to the dark corners invaded by spiders.

    Where is my 80 I wondered, I remembered it was in bits but where? An hour or so searching & I had everything to hand, a quick piccy or two to show you what I had done some time ago.

    I machined the standard piston along it's length on the lathe & then machined two more slots in the mill 12mm wide equal distances from the cocking slot.

    Delrin was used to make buttons for the piston skirt & alloy short stroke nose. Complete the finished item was heavier than I wanted, ugly too. but then again 30mm diameter & 68mm of stroke is quite a bit of air to shift through a 3.6mm transfer port.

    I used the standard spring 3.6wire 23o/d but it was easy to cock & shot like a dream. This configuration would give around 10/11fpe in .177, mine is .22 & was a little hot still.


    Anyway onwards & upwards the project, I had forgotten I was working on a rotating drop in piston with the intention of using the standard HW latch sear.....Now thinking back I may have stopped working on it because I was told two of our most eminent tuners said it couldn't be done, Errm!

    Well the piston was made, a bit heavy but here it is the weight is due to the latch rod at 112gms it's not a light weight!

    All it needs is a rear bearing making Snap it on Get one of my 3.2wire 35.5 coils 260f/l springs, top hat & guide & put it together.

    This is the rifle FULLY COCKED It cocks as normal rather than have quite a bit of play prior to contacting the piston.

    How does it shoot, well the stroke on this version is only 60mm, 12fpe is no problem at all, makes it with loads to spare. It shoots like a dream, so quiet too, I'm amazed myself with this one so lord only knows what TonyL would think because it's miles better than when he last shot it. Quick but not snappy, no lag or hint of laziness. Is it as good as a 80 Lazerglide? No! it's so much better it's in a bifferent league, truly!

    OK so it's .22 what would it be like in .177 I here you ask, well I can tell you, a quick route round to find my 95k with the 310 barrel, a quick change over a tin of JSB Exact over the chrono 10fpe & stunning to shoot. I have a HW55T I shot bell target with last week, the 80 is quieter, smoother, easier to cock & has miles less recoil.......am I happy I'll say! Yes Pete I know........that makes a change eh?

    Let me tell you, forget upping the power on a HW55.........Detune & tame an 80, I promise you won't regret it, it's the way to go.

    Is it finished NO!
    Last edited by wonky donky; 23-03-2014 at 09:32 AM.
    IF IT'S NOT BROKE.........DON'T FIX IT!

  2. #2
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    Thank you for that brilliant info , and can i ask you if you are going to the springer bash and if you can bring this along for us to enjoy ??.
    cheers Maz.

  3. #3
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    Thanks WD, great write up.

    So the lesson here seems to be that (very) short strokes in large diameter cylinders do work, but need heavy pistons ?

    I may revisit my sirocco that we'd spoken about previously - .177, 31mm bore, I short stroked to 61mm but only got 9 FP - maybe I should add some mass to that piston....

    Anyone else looking for to the springer bash even more now ?

  4. #4
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    Brilliant stuff! Thanks for sharing, Dave.

    Cheers, Craig
    Put on heading 270, assume attack formation

  5. #5
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    Smile

    As above, an informative read & one i would like to try at some time.Well done.

  6. #6
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    hi wonky done much the same tune on my 80 but with buttons and a longer / softer spring [its got a big bespoke piston linner so the spring is held tight] still thinking off taking a bit of weight of the piston ? but it feels nice as it is ,wots your thoughts on light pistons wonky. also short stroked a smk xs20 [95 clone] made a delrin head for that one ,that on a 26mm piston. that shoots well but not had none of them down since short stroking to see how thay are wearing on the heads, id love to shoot a lazerglide or one of your or bigtoe tunes to see how mine compears and see wot all the fuss is all about
    atb john
    ATB JOHN
    hw 100, hw80 mk1, smk xs20, bsa scorpion pistol, feinwerkbau 127, hw99s

  7. #7
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    Hi wonky,
    Good job, just noticed the latch rod has a button on the end, not the usual hw slot.
    Have you made piston rotary and modded the trigger sear?

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by maz001471 View Post
    Thank you for that brilliant info , and can i ask you if you are going to the springer bash and if you can bring this along for us to enjoy ??.
    cheers Maz.
    I hope to Maz

    Quote Originally Posted by Jon Budd View Post
    Thanks WD, great write up.

    So the lesson here seems to be that (very) short strokes in large diameter cylinders do work, but need heavy pistons ?

    I may revisit my sirocco that we'd spoken about previously - .177, 31mm bore, I short stroked to 61mm but only got 9 FP - maybe I should add some mass to that piston....

    Anyone else looking for to the springer bash even more now ?
    Jon I used lots of pre-load to try to counteract any piston bounce, I'm going to redesign the piston now because as it is I'm not in the springs sweet spot. When I did the original conversion for last years springer bash I used the heavy standard spring to counter act bounce & a lot less pre-load.

    Quote Originally Posted by gibboj View Post
    hi wonky done much the same tune on my 80 but with buttons and a longer / softer spring [its got a big bespoke piston linner so the spring is held tight] still thinking off taking a bit of weight of the piston ? but it feels nice as it is ,wots your thoughts on light pistons wonky. also short stroked a smk xs20 [95 clone] made a delrin head for that one ,that on a 26mm piston. that shoots well but not had none of them down since short stroking to see how thay are wearing on the heads, id love to shoot a lazerglide or one of your or bigtoe tunes to see how mine compears and see wot all the fuss is all about
    atb john
    Hello John, I do lighten my pistons on the 95, 77/97 & short stroke them using an alloy head. This is the last 97 piston i did this week that's 30gms lighter with the short stroke, bearings & seal than a bare standard piston. If you don't mind me saying delrin is not the material to use for piston noses, it will fail in time. Delrin is a good bearing material but doesn't take shock too well.

    Generally I short stroke 77/97 in .177 by 8mm, 95's by 12mm, .22's shorter. My own 25mm HW77 in .22 is 68mm with an "O" ring conversion.

    Thanks for your comments guys.

    I have a couple of .20 HW's to do, a 95 & a nice Green Laminate 77 as well as 2 TX's the later 3 being my own rifles that I hope to bring to the springer bash together with a Diana 280 in .177 & a HW99s that I did the anti gall fix on myself, in a different way to Tinbum! Think I might put some pics up on a new thread of that?
    IF IT'S NOT BROKE.........DON'T FIX IT!

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by wonky donky View Post

    we all know how Venom did it with the Lazerglided 80 & it's well known Bigtoe01 did a similar thing by sleeving the 80's 30mm cylider down to 25mm, he went that extra mile & fitted a Walther LGV rotating piston & altered the trigger latch sear to accommodate the Walther piston rod.

    TonyL has always said how he liked my short stroke modified 80 ever since shooting it at last years springer bash,




    How does it shoot, well the stroke on this version is only 60mm, 12fpe is no problem at all, makes it with loads to spare. It shoots like a dream, so quiet too, I'm amazed myself with this one so lord only knows what TonyL would think because it's miles better than when he last shot it. Quick but not snappy, no lag or hint of laziness. Is it as good as a 80 Lazerglide? No! it's so much better it's in a bifferent league, truly!

    OK so it's .22 what would it be like in .177 I here you ask, well I can tell you, a quick route round to find my 95k with the 310 barrel, a quick change over a tin of JSB Exact over the chrono 10fpe & stunning to shoot. I have a HW55T I shot bell target with last week, the 80 is quieter, smoother, easier to cock & has miles less recoil.......am I happy I'll say!!

    Let me tell you, forget upping the power on a HW55.........Detune & tame an 80, I promise you won't regret it, it's the way to go.

    Is it finished NO!
    This sounds ABSOLUTELY AWESOME, Dave.

    I'm frothing at the mouth already!!

    I know I'm not the first...many, many springer fans will have debated for years as to which would be the best way to go......narrow bore / longer stroke vs big bore / mega short stroke.

    Much of the more recent thinking has pointed more towards the smaller bore option being the favoured option, with lighter piston weight and the fact that pellet release pressure is achieved whilst the piston is further from the cylinder end wall, supposedly giving more manageable surge characteristics.

    But THIS is very encouraging. Yes, your short stroke 80 I tried last year was beautiful. Okay, we weren't doing clinical accuracy testing, but I have no reason to suppose that it would not be anything other than very accurate and forgiving.

    And you say that this latest project results in an even better firing cycle. FANTASTIC!

    This could finally lead to the 80 re-establishing itself as a firm favourite amongst UK shooters.

    I know I asked last year if you'd consider making a short stroke piston commercially available.....If this thing works as well as it should, and judging by your findings so far, it does, this could be a very simple drop-in affair, so easy for those with only basic skills to completely transform their rifles at home; something that many couldn't undertake a reduced cylinder conversion without more tooling or expertise. And I really love the idea of the longer rod, as I've mentioned previously, so you don't get that "dead" movement on initial barrel opening.

    Bring back the mighty 80. A big, solid, heavyweight of a thing. Solidly engineered to last a lifetime. Loads of weight to settle the aim and soak up the slight recoil.

    With you mentioning the performance vs the 55....... Just think how sweet you could make one with an even longer rod, tiny stroke, set up to produce 6 or 7 ft.lbs!!!!


    I WANT ONE!!!! Please!
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    NEXT EVENT :- May 4/5, 2024.........BOING!!

  10. #10
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    same basic make up as my LGV piston with a short stroke 30mm nose and the LGV piston weighs less....

    Not as shiny though

    You have to remove around 8mm off the stroke by adding to the nose minimum to allow the new style cocking shoe to be used, you can go down to 55mm stroke if you do the rod and the nose and still see 11+fpe at 30mm especially in .22

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by bigtoe01 View Post
    same basic make up as my LGV piston with a short stroke 30mm nose and the LGV piston weighs less....

    Not as shiny though No Tony its not got a short stroke nose.

    You have to remove around 8mm off the stroke by adding to the nose minimum to allow the new style cocking shoe to be used, you can go down to 55mm stroke if you do the rod and the nose and still see 11+fpe at 30mm especially in .22
    No I just made the body of the piston longer! If I had used a short stroke nose the piston would have been lighter but I'm not entirely sure I want it much lighter tbh

    There's always more ways than one!
    Last edited by wonky donky; 24-03-2014 at 01:20 AM.

  12. #12
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    aye i know BUT you have increased weight, I did an LGV piston here for an 80 with 30mm nose that weighed 230g 70mm stroke, 50g lighter than where you are at... which means you can tune the piston weight now with steel or brass tophat etc or use acetal to keep the weight down.


    get drilling some holes or thin it down some more.

    Alloy body, threaded skirt, steel bearing band on the back loctited on (hardened steel) may be the best bet

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by bigtoe01 View Post
    aye i know BUT you have increased weight, I did an LGV piston here for an 80 with 30mm nose that weighed 230g 70mm stroke, 50g lighter than where you are at... which means you can tune the piston weight now with steel or brass tophat etc or use acetal to keep the weight down.


    get drilling some holes or thin it down some more.

    Alloy body, threaded skirt, steel bearing band on the back loctited on (hardened steel) may be the best bet
    Absolutely no chance! Don't forget I'm at 60mm stroke not 70mm. my first mod was at 68mm! I'm heading for 50mm & I feel you can go to light. there comes a time when you get diminishing returns & I feel it's far sooner than the theories may suggest.

    Anyway I have not increased weight the original piston was well over 300gms 340ish iirc?

    The lighter the piston the more spring/pre-load, I know this you know it & others on here have been finding out....I put a thread on here some time ago HOW MUCH PRE-LOAD IS TOO MUCH but deleted it because it attracted mostly uneducated responses.

    Untill I have more of my own data it remains as is...anyway you haven't shot it! I had a chap here today with his shooting mate from Liverpoll trying it & they were absolutely blown away with how it shot.......the one lad has had rifles tuned at all the best tuning houses as well!

    No nothing radical, a bit at a time will do!
    IF IT'S NOT BROKE.........DON'T FIX IT!

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