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Thread: Detachment Issues

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Dec 2017
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    Leeds
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    I might not have the largest of collections (13 air rifles and 3 (maybe 4 ) air pistols) and I dont see myself ever selling them. In fact the only air rifle I have ever sold was my Original MOD 45 and that was to my brother!

    I also have the knack of whenever I see an old and abused air gun, I find myself buying it (if I can afford to do so, I aint that bad yet...) For example I bought a Diana MOD 55 of free ads not too long ago. The thing is in shambles, missing parts, damaged wood ect.... and I knew I would never find parts for the thing and nor do I have the skills to make them. But I bought it anyway. Now it is sat on my work bench waiting....

    Ill get it right one day....

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
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    Middleton, Manchester
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    1,393

    Detachment issues

    Thanks to ggggr for those kind words. My background is in engineering, and I like to mend things, especially neglected and abused air pistols. Generally I don't form any bond with my projects, but get pleasure from the challenge of getting them working well. This particular pistol turned out to be very accurate and nice to shoot. If I didn't suffer from arthritis in my hands I could well have kept it. It's gone to a good home.
    Life is to be enjoyed, not endured.

  3. #18
    ggggr's Avatar
    ggggr is offline part time super hero and seeker of justice
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    May 2008
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    I really dont do as much as I used to with airguns now but tend to revisit old problems. However, recently i was on the look out for a rough / damagled Webley modifying. I'm not a butcher but reckon if something is boggered in the first place then you cannot really do to much wrong.
    A nice chap on here found a late Premier for me, missing grips and a trigger and not cocking--------------with a worn fulcrum. I looked at it and it was a lot better than I thought it would be. I decided to fit a trigger I had in the spares box and thought while I was at it to remove the trigger guard and sear pins. Apparently the late MK1 Premiers had the trggers fitted with the guards in place, so the 2 pins are covered in paint. I wanted to remove the pins. Jeez they were tight!!! The back one I actually had to drill a bit and get some plus gas in the hole and it was still a swine to shift
    I cleaned the remaining pins up and found one for the damaged one, then fitted the trigger to the gun. It still wouldn't cock, so I wondered if I reversed the cocking shoe it would work and it did! I fired a couple of shots and had a feeling it would be a good one.

    Webman had sent me a set of home made wooden grips when I bought a Mk1 off him the other year and i drilled the holes for the locating peg in them.

    Another nice chap off here welded the fulcrum up for me and posted the frame back the other day.

    Today I decided to clean it up and put it back together. It fairly flew together apart from a tight pin in the trigger guard. I've still not got the sight spot on (bloody Webley rearsights!) but what a lovely thing it is! The mainspring is slightly tired but the firing cylce is pretty quick. The trigger is light (I'm hoping the sear is not on the way out!) and it is bloody accurate.
    So my intended project got kicked into touch and I've got another working Webley.

    Sometimes I really do think that they appreciate a bit of effort and some of rough ones are great to plink with
    Cooler than Mace Windu with a FRO, walking into Members Only and saying "Bitches, be cool"

  4. #19
    Hsing-ee's Avatar
    Hsing-ee is offline may also be employed in conjunction with a drawn reciprocation dingle arm, to reduce sinusoidal repleneration
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
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    Quote Originally Posted by ggggr View Post
    A phrase I was introduced to yesterday by Phil (PjBingham).
    I think it means that after you have got a rough gun up and running again, even if it is still rough, that you have formed a bond with it and cannot let it go.
    I know I have this problem, which is why I have so many crappy old guns.
    A few of my favourite pistols are my dog rough Scorpion, a rough Tempest, and a rusty Senior I got from John (Duomatic 410). I had trouble letting go the .177 Tempest with a bit missing out of the frame, where I think someone had fitted some flat bar to make a shoulder stock. That was the one I got off Hsing-ee. My niece had the sense to claim that one before I started to do it, but it was still hard letting it go.

    I have the feeling that this affliction is more common amongst those of us who tinker with the really rough stuff.

    Do you suffer from this?
    I think it is actually ATTACHMENT issues. You get attached to the object and then cannot let it go or detatch from it. If you do, you will have the nasty feeling of ALIENATION.

    The phenomenon is actually quite deep. In re-building the machine, in this case air-pistols and rifles, you put your labour both mental and physical and sometimes artistic, into the object and transform it from one state to another. The object then contain or represents part of you, it can legitimately be seen as part of you. So of course it is difficult letting go of part of yourself.

    Karl Marx had a whole theory based on this phenomenon, in that a person works for another person, say fixing old air-pistols and making them useable and good again. The boss, who owns the workshop and the capital to buy old pistols as raw materials, then takes the refurbished pistols and sell them, giving the worker only some of the money. The worker is therefore alienated from himself, as his labour disappears into the object and he does not receive full compensation for it.

    If people have the skill, they love to make and fix things. Its much more satisfying as the objects - clothes, airguns, furniture, cars whatever - contain part of their owner. Its a strange process but much more interesting than just buying something made by people unknown in a distant factory.

  5. #20
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    Nottingham
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    821
    I have a Zastava GP45 that I have been working on for about five years now, still not quite got it going at 100% yet, but I am close.
    The amount of time I have put into it, modifying the grip, getting accessories, etc etc, I don't think I could ever part with it.
    I spent a lot of time working on a Haenel 303s, only to go and sell it, then almost immediately regretted it. Then recently I got the chance to buy it back, and yes, for more than I sold it for. Not going to sell it again!
    Too many guns, or not enough time?

  6. #21
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Cambridge UK
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    7,068
    I am not very good at 'bonding' with newish rifles but then I would not want to part with them. I am sure my daughter regards them as her 'inheritance' (only joking). But old, pre 1940 or so rifles that were not functioning well and which I have spent a few hours on to get them going again 'to spec.' are different. I just love the engineering and relative simplicity of them attaches them to me, although I guess I would sell a duplicate if space was at a premium.
    I had to smile at Guy's comment about the trigger shoe. I remember maybe 2 rifles and a pistol that were auction buys (buyer beware) and would not work. Rifles were 'pump up', pistol was CO2 and not too old. I tried and tried to get them to go properly and in the end entered the 'I wonder' phase of a repair whereby you bypass the assumption that whoever put the rifle/pistol together last time did so in the correct manner. In all these cases one component was round the wrong way or in the wrong place. All were restored to working condition. I wonder if the previous owner had stripped the gun and failed to get it working again so just sent it to auction.
    It is so good when you get it right.
    Cheers, Phil

  7. #22
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
    Location
    Zandvoort (Netherlands)
    Posts
    281
    Fabulous stories chaps! Similar issues here I'm afraid. My collection is growing steadily and my latest purchases are stunning and more focused on what I really want. The pressure (intrinsic and family) is increasing to pass on some of my earlier purchases both to fund the new ones and make a bit of space, this simply makes sense. What I found myself actually doing was increasing storage capacity by turning one of the wardropes into new & efficient hidden rifle storage. Also had a collector come over to have a look at some of the items, but in the end could not bare separating with them. Hopeless, I'll give it another try with the expensive Christmas period coming up.....

  8. #23
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    Swansea
    Posts
    5,046
    every rifle in my cabinate would go before my AA S300. she is battered a bit but i have such a bond with that particular rifle i cannot ever sell it.she has bagged so many rabbits for me i have lost count. funny how a old and worn gun can pull at the heart strings.

  9. #24
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    Nottingham
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    821
    Quote Originally Posted by Hsing-ee View Post
    I think it is actually ATTACHMENT issues. You get attached to the object and then cannot let it go or detatch from it. If you do, you will have the nasty feeling of ALIENATION.

    The phenomenon is actually quite deep. In re-building the machine, in this case air-pistols and rifles, you put your labour both mental and physical and sometimes artistic, into the object and transform it from one state to another. The object then contain or represents part of you, it can legitimately be seen as part of you. So of course it is difficult letting go of part of yourself.

    Karl Marx had a whole theory based on this phenomenon, in that a person works for another person, say fixing old air-pistols and making them useable and good again. The boss, who owns the workshop and the capital to buy old pistols as raw materials, then takes the refurbished pistols and sell them, giving the worker only some of the money. The worker is therefore alienated from himself, as his labour disappears into the object and he does not receive full compensation for it.

    If people have the skill, they love to make and fix things. Its much more satisfying as the objects - clothes, airguns, furniture, cars whatever - contain part of their owner. Its a strange process but much more interesting than just buying something made by people unknown in a distant factory.

    I struggle to drag myself away from 'The Repair Shop' on the BBC. Seeing how they work with metal, wood etc is quite inspiring as to what I could do when tinkering with an airgun, perhaps putting that extra bit if finesse into shaping or polishing something to make it work just that little bit better.
    Too many guns, or not enough time?

  10. #25
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Location
    Oslo, Norway
    Posts
    2,768
    Quote Originally Posted by ggggr View Post
    Do you suffer from this?
    I have problems understanding people who dont

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