Any advice would be welcome 🙏
Hi all
My K11 cylinders are no longer holding air,can this be a DIY job or is there anyone in the UK who can repair them .
Regards
James
Any advice would be welcome 🙏
You are in luck (or not, actually...)!
I happened to speak to Bob Clevely of Checkmate Guns today about this very thing; apparently the valve piece inside the cylinder is shaped like a mushroom, and is made of a polymer that gives slightly when it seals across the cylinder opening. When it ages, it no longer gives enough to create the seal. This material is currently unavailable, and no one seems to know exactly what it is, nor is there anyone at SAM who is able to say. Bob says that he has a supplier who believes they know what the material is, so as he has now got a few cylinders needing new valve material, he is pushing this to the top of his 'to do' list. Here's hoping!
He should let me know, so I'll keep the thread updated.
if you know someone local with a lathe these are easy to make, The Sam cylinders are very easy to dismantle, does it lose air when on the pistol, if so it is likely to be the o ring on the hex end of the cylinder, a very easy job. I dismantled mine using a soft jaw lath chuck to hold the cylinder (piece of leather around the cylinder so as not to mark it) with the lathe locked the hex fitting on the end will undo quite easily allowing o ring replacement. The valve end again is easy to dismantle and the valve itself very easy to strip, these were by far the easiest PCP cylinders iv'e worked on, If you have the Anschutz cylinder with a manometer it's a different story as the leak could be coming from the gauge itself, they are also not as easy to take apart. I made my own valve seal but for the life of me can't remember what the material was, I obtained it from a local engineering outlet, it was a nylon based derivative I believe, not sure if it was the same as the original material but it worked, that was nearly 3 years ago and it's still working as I know the current owner, If you do dismantle obviously ensure fully empty and also protect the hex fitting from damage when undoing, I used a block of nylon machined to be a tight fit on 2 of the flats then fitted a wrench to this rather than directly on the cylinder fitment, Without insult or offence, If your unsure leave it to someone who can do it as a damaged cylinder will be hard to replace and a full fill failure will be far worse, Mine was a K12 but I believe cylinders are the same.
Last edited by nige346; 20-03-2018 at 08:37 PM.
Steyr LP10, Steyr LP5,
Vintage Collection - Walther LP53, HW77k Venom, BSF S20 Match, Original 35, ASI Target plus lots more
Thanks Nige, that's a good measure of the issue, which according to Bob is all to do with the quality of the material. I don't have access to a lathe any more, so will be sending my two cylinders to Checkmate.
Do you have a sketch /drawing with dimensions as I know someone who could make them for me. The cylinders are leaking off the gun and have no gauge & are now totally empty. They do not look difficult to take apart so I may well have a go.i may try a direct o ring replacement & see if that’s the problem.were they loctited or not if you can recall ?
ATB
James
I Forgot to say thanks for the info by the way 😊
No Loctite, I don't have dimensions sorry, I did have a look in my box to see if I had one of the old mushrooms but no luck, once you remove them they will be easy to replicate, I made mine on a small hobby lathe that I had at the time, nylon 66 will probably work fine if you seat them prior to fitting, air pressure keeps them closed so as long as the seat is good it should work fine,
Steyr LP10, Steyr LP5,
Vintage Collection - Walther LP53, HW77k Venom, BSF S20 Match, Original 35, ASI Target plus lots more