The Webley Mercury pistol saga continued. Part 2.

[ccdjg]

It has been more than a month since I last posted, so in case some of you who have been following this thread are wondering what has been happening, here is a quick update.

Everything was going well until it came to milling a slot in the barrel for the front sight. I took meticulous care in appropriately clamping the barrel/barel housing unit in the lathe (difficult due to its awkward profile) and ensuring that the slot would be perfectly aligned with the barrel sight line. I was also very careful to ensure that the slot did not go too deep and penetrate the bore. Unfortunately I was so preoccupied with these details that I didn't spot the elephant in the room. The milling was proceeding slowly and smoothly and I was starting to congratulate myself on a tricky step completed, when I realised that I was milling the slot on the underside of the barrel. I won't bore you with the details of what went through my head, or what I said at the time, but it wasn't "Oh dear me!"

I tried to salvage the barrel housing/detent unit, but I had fixed the barrel in too well and couldn't remove the barrel without damaging the housing drastically. So I had to bite the bullet and make a complete barrel/ barrel housing/ detent all over again. Not something I relished.

I have also had to make a new piston from scratch, as I found that the precision steel tubing I had used was just that little bit too slack in the cylinder. Normally this is not a bad thing in a springer as you only need the piston seal to be a close fit, but in this design you need maximum contact between the cocking link and the piston notch to take the cocking force. Any excessive play and the cocking link can ride out of the slot. I found that with a powerful spring in the cylinder there was a tendency for slippage and deformation of the piston slot.

As I could not buy any steel tubing with a closer fit to my cylinder, or any with an adequate wall thickness that would let me turn it down to the right diameter, I had to make the piston the hard way, by turning down solid bar to the right diameter and then boring it out. Anyway, this has now been done and the new piston works fine, with no signs of slippage. The cocking link has been heat hardened, and the piston itself case hardened, so there should now be little wear with frequent use.

So the gun is more or less finished, and all that remains to do is some checkering to the grips, the lettering to be etched, and the whole thing blued. When it is completely finished and its performance assessed I will put together a final account in Part 3. I must admit, I am getting to like the dual cocking action more than I thought I would.