Haenel 55R pistol project now finished at last

[Garvin]

Am I right in thinking the moving air feed tube sticking out of the piston imparts a forward momentum directly to the ball, with an air burst following on behind?

If so, where in the barrel is the ball when the air drives it forward, or does this all happen so fast it's viertually simultaneous?

[averageplinker]

Brilliant, just bloody brilliant!

[ccdjg]

Am I right in thinking the moving air feed tube sticking out of the piston imparts a forward momentum directly to the ball, with an air burst following on behind?

If so, where in the barrel is the ball when the air drives it forward, or does this all happen so fast it's viertually simultaneous?

An interesting tricky question Danny, and one that you can only really guess at. This is my take on it:

The repeater principle works as follows: In the cocked state there is a ball in the barrel held in place by the pressure of the ball behind it from the magazine. The ball is resting against the end of the air tube. When the gun is fired, the air tube pushes the ball past the ammo’ feed hole in the side of the barrel and seals the hole against air loss. The ball is then accelerated forward by the mechanical thrust of the air tube as the piston picks up speed. I imagine that the compressed air in the cylinder will not have built up enough pressure to have much effect on the ball until the piston is nearing the end of its stroke, when it will then rapidly accelerate the ball, which is already travelling as fast as the piston, along the rest of the barrel. So the two effects add together, but when the one effect takes over from the other is anyone’s guess.

I am currently experimenting with varying the internal diameter of the air tube and increasing the strength of the main spring to see what happens.

[Leonardj]

Awesome workmanship, John.
As has already been stated, truly a masterpiece.

[cinedux]

A scientist and an artist-a rare and wonderful combination!Trev

[dvd]

An interesting tricky question Danny, and one that you can only really guess at. This is my take on it:

The repeater principle works as follows: In the cocked state there is a ball in the barrel held in place by the pressure of the ball behind it from the magazine. The ball is resting against the end of the air tube. When the gun is fired, the air tube pushes the ball past the ammoÂ’ feed hole in the side of the barrel and seals the hole against air loss. The ball is then accelerated forward by the mechanical thrust of the air tube as the piston picks up speed. I imagine that the compressed air in the cylinder will not have built up enough pressure to have much effect on the ball until the piston is nearing the end of its stroke, when it will then rapidly accelerate the ball, which is already travelling as fast as the piston, along the rest of the barrel. So the two effects add together, but when the one effect takes over from the other is anyoneÂ’s guess.

I am currently experimenting with varying the internal diameter of the air tube and increasing the strength of the main spring to see what happens.

First of all, well done for the very good reproduction of what is undoubtedly one of the rarest airguns and one that is full of mechanical innovations while still managing to look really good.

I think that experimenting with the air tube might yield some interesting results .
If I understand the concept well, the internal volume of the hollow tube that pushes the ball forwards at piston speed is dead volume which drastically reduces the efficiency of the pressure raised by the piston seal. If that is the case, then most of the balls final velocity is imparted to it by the mechanical thrust of the spring driven air-tube.
So, decreasing the internal volume of the air tube should have the added benefit of increasing the velocity of the pressurised air behind the ball.
I do not consider balls as being very good at effecting a good seal with the bore because they do not flare into the rifling like waisted lead pellets. So that could also be a major limiting factor for ball shooting airguns.
But as has been said its not about the power they make, its more about the craft and thought that went into creating them.

[45flint]

Question you say you can recycle the round balls several times if you have a soft target. I never thought about that, thinking of my Haenel 28-R. But hard for me to see that given rifling and the Haenel is a little over 300 FPS? Ball ammo is very difficult get get anymore.

[ccdjg]

Question you say you can recycle the round balls several times if you have a soft target. I never thought about that, thinking of my Haenel 28-R. But hard for me to see that given rifling and the Haenel is a little over 300 FPS? Ball ammo is very difficult get get anymore.

I can appreciate that the rifling might cause too much damage to the ball for recycling and the lack of rifling on my repro' pistol is an advantage. I think the 28R will be more forgiving of a bit of distortion than the LP55R because of the nature of the magazine. The Schmeisser detachable magazines rely on the ball shot being within a narrow diameter range and even a slight broadening can stop the ball leaving the magazine and cause a jam. On the other hand there seems to be more room inside the feed tube of the 28R. Still it is worth trying a soft target to catch the pellets (I use a cardboard box stuffed with an old towel) and checking out the reusability of the lead balls.

[Dutch]

Amazing effort, this is stuff for dreams! True craftsmanship and the result might possibly be better than the original because of the materials used (original being potmetal). Chapeau to you!

[ccdjg]

Many thanks to you, and everyone else, for the kind endorsements of my efforts. Not fully deserved, as my projects are always more about patience overcoming adversity than craftmanship, and if I had to do it for a living I would certainly starve.

The choice of aluminium for the frame was the nearest I could reasonably get to the “Leichtmetall Druckguss” that Ernst Dieter in his book said was used for the original pistols. This is usually translated as “Die cast light alloy” so would almost certainly have been an aluminium-based alloy. This would be better than the usual “monkey metal” zinc alloys used on cheap guns. While it might not have been as resilient as soft aluminium, it would have been more resistant to scratching and dents.

Anodising the aluminium was the right way to go for me, as I have been disassembling and re-assembling the gun many times while experimenting with springs and air transfer tubes and I have had a few dings, which thanks to the anodising haven’t left any permanent marks.

[lightning22]

Question you say you can recycle the round balls several times if you have a soft target. I never thought about that, thinking of my Haenel 28-R. But hard for me to see that given rifling and the Haenel is a little over 300 FPS? Ball ammo is very difficult get get anymore.

From memory BB shot is 4.4mm, I know I have split cartridges in the past to supply some for members to try in their gallery rifles.