Webley Whiting Project

[ccdjg]

Back in January Fattman started a thread asking about members’ projects for 2015, and there were several replies with wish lists of things collectors wanted to do this year http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....t=year+project
My own rather ambitious New Year resolution was to attempt to make a reproduction Webley Whiting (two in fact), following the original patent drawings. Well, to my own surprise I have been making reasonable progress so I thought some of you might be interested seeing how things have gone up to now. I also intend to keep updating this thread periodically until (hopefully) the gun is completed. I have to say though that I soon abandoned the idea of making two guns as there was far more hacksawing, filing and general fiddling about than I anticipated and I didn’t fancy going through all that twice.

For those of you who don’t know, the Whiting pistol was patented in 1910 by William Whiting, who was then a director of Webley & Scott. Although the pistol never went into production, one original prototype does still exist, and in recent years copies have been made by those engineering maestros Mac Evans in the UK and Grant Stace in New Zealand. Here are the patent drawings http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...psen0gx8ed.jpg
and a picture of Whiting’s prototype. http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...psynawv938.jpg
It is easy to see why the gun was never commercialised, as the low swept volume would inevitably make the gun underpowered, however strong the spring, and it is unlikely to have had any more power than the average gat. Even so, the pistol has great historical interest and any Webley collector would like to own an example, even if it was only a modern copy.

Mac Evans very kindly sent me full size copies of the patent drawings he used when he made his guns, and these saved me a lot of time. The starting point was to get suitably sized mild steel bars http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...psvvgjnt0r.jpg
and cut out the main frame and cylinder block. http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...psawpojvup.jpg
This meant a lot of metal removal and the old lathe had to work hard, and it also called for some heavy duty hacksawing. The cylinder block was then bored to produce the cylinder, and the end threaded to receive a cylinder plug. http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...psolml4rzl.jpg
The cylinder plug was made from round steel bar and the spring guide rod was sweated into this.
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...psl5ir3mpn.jpg.

The pivot point on the main frame was then shaped and drilled, http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...psdezimeve.jpg
and the cylinder plug was milled to accommodate this when the cylinder block and main frame were assembled together. http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...pssntahmse.jpg
Fitting the cylinder block to the main frame was very time consuming as a very close fit of the mating surfaces was required where the air transfer port was located http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...psgprediz6.jpg

while at the same time the hinged action had to operate smoothly. http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...pszig0ip9f.jpg

The piston was turned to size from round steel bar and bored to receive the spring. Careful honing and lapping ensured that the piston head was a smooth sliding fit in the cylinder, while at the same time it gave a good air tight seal with the cylinder sides. http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...psrzqwzotg.jpg
The piston then had to be fitted with the bracket which engages with the cocking lever http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...psiilpkj1c.jpg
After milling the end of the piston the bracket was then brazed on to it http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...psm040dw9m.jpg

So I am happy with progress so far, but there is still a long way to go. The next phase of the project will involve the milling of various slots in the cylinder block and the main frame to accept the various moving components, and then cutting out the steel frame for the grip frame. Watch this space.

[sproat]

Highly interesting, can"t wait for the next instalment,

[Garvin]

Very interesting. Progress indeed! This is your destination...

[AC99]

A challenging project. You clearly seem to know what you are doing and have made a great start.
Well done!

[thisisdonald]

awesome ... looking forward to the next instalments

[Hollowpoint]

Excellent! Love seeing projects like this.

Just one thing though! you should be writing down all the measurements and dimensions and sending the plans to me.