The Lesser Spotted Original/Diana 35

[T 20]

Well I had no intention of buying another gun, but Hsing-ee put a gun up for sale that I'd been promising myself for over thirty five years and at a price that I just couldn't refuse --- so I bought it.

This gun is one of those guns that should have been great but somehow wasn't --- The Original 35. :-

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Much has been written about the low power of the Original 35 :-

https://www.pyramydair.com/blog/2008...the-contender/

https://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread...ighlight=Diana

And on paper it should have been a reasonably powerful gun, but it wasn't, and it was never one of those guns that featured often in Airgunworld.

So for various reasons I'm going to have a play.

As bought it's doing 425fps with Superdomes and 500fps with Hobbies, which I must point out is more than Alistair told me it was doing when he sold it to me.




All the best Mick

[I. J.]

What date is it?

The '35 is a very underrated gun. I have a couple in my collection and while not a 'dustbin killer' the trigger and build quality put it amongst the more popular but higher-priced competition.

[T 20]

What date is it?

Ah Ian --- I was going to contact you as it seems that they were only made upto 1987.

It's stamped 04 68 so April 1968.



All the best Mick

[I. J.]

Ah Ian --- I was going to contact you as it seems that they were only made upto 1987.

It's stamped 04 68 so April 1968.



All the best Mick

Odd. I have one for sale (on another airgun forum ) surplus in my collection that is dated 10.89 so ....

The one Im keeping is dated 1953.

Another, the rarer B version (.22) is, I think even earlier but has no serial number.

[T 20]

The '35 is a very underrated gun. I have a couple in my collection and while not a 'dustbin killer' the trigger and build quality put it amongst the more popular but higher-priced competition.

Yes, I like the trigger as I also do the T01, bits I don't like are the barrel lockup, the piston seal, the piston stroke and the transfer port.
As the Original 35 was fitted with a slightly longer Spring than the Airsporter and Mercury you'd expect it to be at about the same power level but it wasn't, which keeps me interested.



All the best Mick

[T 20]

Odd. I have one for sale (on another airgun forum ) surplus in my collection that is dated 10.89 so ....

That's why I was going to contact you Ian.
Another weird thing that I read was that Mayer and Grammelspacher got the UK use of the Diana name back in 1984.

Love those two 35s you've shown, I do have an earlier Diana 35 though as it was made pre WWII but it's a hell of a mess.



All the best Mick

[I. J.]

When I was younger (yes, I was once young ) I lusted after my mates Original 35. It wasn't exactly a 'dustbin killer' but boy was he accurate with it. Ive often seen him hitting (empty) 12B cases beyond 30 yards, standing.
The '35 is a rifle not often tuned and sorted so it will be interesting to see what improvements over standard you can make.

I also have a tatty .177 version that I will get around to sorting and advertising on here when I get a round tuit.

[Geezer]

I have one very like that from the 70s, and one from before they used date stamps (50s? early 60s?) with better build quality.

I like 35s. As alluded to above, they have nice triggers. They handle well (not too heavy, not too light, not too long, not too short, just right). They are well made even in the cheaper post-1966ish versions. They are mostly a little better than contemporary BSA and Webley models (setting aside Webley blueing) and BSFs (setting aside how punchy the BSFs were).

If you can live with 9-10 ft-lbs typical muzzle energy, rather than the 1970s/80s demand for “full legal hunting power”, they are very nice to own and use.

[T 20]

When I was younger (yes, I was once young ) I lusted after my mates Original 35. It wasn't exactly a 'dustbin killer' but boy was he accurate with it. Ive often seen him hitting (empty) 12B cases beyond 30 yards, standing.
The '35 is a rifle not often tuned and sorted so it will be interesting to see what improvements over standard you can make.

Yes, that's about the same story as me Ian, my best mate, Andy, had a 35 and could hit anything he aimed at, but unfortunately Andy died in an horrific car crash in the early 1980s which is part of the reason why I wanted one.

For a quick tune, (though nothing's carved in stone) I'm looking at fitting a synthetic seal, longstroking the piston a tad and sleeving the transfer port down --- so nothing too drastic.
There is one thing I've read on here that points to the main problem of getting power out of an Original 35 but I need to get inside mine first to find out if this info is correct or not.

Before I do all that I'm going to make my very first spring compressor so I don't lose my balls.



All the best Mick

[TonyL]

Yes, for me, also, the Original 35 was one of the more "exotic" German rifles brought to the fore by the advent of Airgun World that I would have loved to have owned back then.


Another project to follow with interest.

[TonyL]

The '35 is a rifle not often tuned and sorted so it will be interesting to see what improvements over standard you can make.

.

For a quick tune, (though nothing's carved in stone) I'm looking at fitting a synthetic seal, longstroking the piston a tad and sleeving the transfer port down --- so nothing too drastic.
There is one thing I've read on here that points to the main problem of getting power out of an Original 35 but I need to get inside mine first to find out if this info is correct or not.

Before I do all that I'm going to make my very first spring compressor so I don't lose my balls. :

All the best Mick

Yes, I guess the awkward and fiddly nature (perceived or otherwise) of stripping / replacing those trigger balls will have put many of working on these rifles. I'm sure I've read in places that using grease to retain those balls when rebuilding helps immensely.

[T 20]

Yes, I guess the awkward and fiddly nature (perceived or otherwise) of stripping / replacing those trigger balls will have put many of working on these rifles. I'm sure I've read in places that using grease to retain those balls when rebuilding helps immensely.

Yes Tony,

I always grease my balls when working on a Diana.

[evert]

Greasy balls or not, some interesting info on Diana 35 tuning came up in this thread (you probably read it Mick):
https://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread...5-power-dreams

[T 20]

Your ventures into the polyorchidism nature of the D35 trigger mech will be of great interest Mick if it indeed has 3 balls

Fully greased up pictures will give a new meaning to air gun porn

And I think a parody of the song ( My chocolate salty balls ) will be a fitting end to this D35 project

All the best

John

Well I've just said sod the spring compressor, stripped the beast and managed to hold on to my balls.

Piston bore is 28mm

Piston stroke is 69mm

Piston weight is 237grams

Transfer port is 4mm X 19.2mm

Cocking arm free play = 3mm

Max stroke length = +10mm

The removed Spring appears to be the original factory Item of 33 coils of 3.1mm wire.

Other things of note is that the piston body is cheap and nasty and has two cocking lever slots --- 180 degrees out.

The compression part of the cylinder seems to be well made and all good but the open part of the cylinder has been distorted by the spot welds for the scope rail to the extent that the piston catches on them.

Something else which is a bit weird is that the dimensions I've taken from the D35 are pretty close to that of a HW35, in fact the transfer port is identical.
The only things that are slightly different are the swept volume, D35 = 42cc, HW35 = 46cc, and the D35 piston is lighter than the HW35 piston.

So my plan of attack stays the same, more stroke and sleeve the transfer port down, but now I'm thinking of adding some weight to the piston.

Weighing a Mercury piston earlier showed that they weigh in at 300grams at about the same bore and stroke as the D35 and I find that they make 12 easily on a shorter Spring, so the D35 piston's light weight could be the key to their lack of power ?

I'll have a little think on it now.




All the best Mick

[TonyL]

Well, after reading that little lot I don't feel so bad about missing out on one now.