I finished rebuilding another airgun today. I “rust busted” and honed out the compression tube on an old Crosman PowerMaster 760 built in January ‘1977’. Luckily, it was rusted and pitted badly only at the beginning of the pump stroke so I was able to save it. Otherwise I would have to find a better tube, they are few and far between for this early model. I decided to strip and paint the tube and receiver halves olive drab and strip and re-blue the barrel, trigger, rear sight and some screws. I had to put a new pump-cup in it, but the rest of the seals seem ok. It sounds like it has at least as much power as my original ‘1975’ PowerMaster 760 which still has the original 46 year old seals in it. I will have to find out just where it performs after running a few pellets over the chronograph. Hopefully the bore is not too rough, good barrels for this series are tough to get ahold of too. I think I could mill and lathe a newer type barrel and get it to work if I needed to. I might do it anyway, some of the newer barrels are rifled. Most of these old ones are smooth bore.
I had a Crossman 760 growing up but my mother made me get rid of it when I accidentally shot out a church window with a pellet...and yes, it was an accident! It ricocheted off the road when I was shooting at a squirrel.
@vtgrad2003 Interesting, I have shot windows with pellets (old junk car windows) and they just smashed the pellets. Steel BB’s on the other hand screwed them up. I never shot any regular windows though.
Starting another rebuild project, a Crosman 1400 .22cal. airgun 1st Variant made from 1968-1972. It’s rusted externally, the stocks are dried out, the rear sight is not correct for the gun, and the safety lever is broken off. The internals look great, lots of oil, no rust👍🏻 The barrel bore looks ok, but pretty thin rifling, maybe a few runs with a bronze bore brush with enhance them a bit, the lands maybe full of lead? The rubber pump-cup is as hard as a rock….or a vulcanite pipe stem🙂, basically, it’s crap. I have replacements though🙂. The assembled pics are from the auction. The disassembled pic is mine. I’ll try to post some progress pics as I go.
Went out to the lathe this afternoon and started in on making a couple of safety switches for the Crosman 1400 and another Crosman 140 I am starting to refurb. The 1400 had a broken lever, and the 140 is missing the safety altogether. Making the levers is next. Off to the milling machine for the next steps.
There is also a screw missing on the 1400, one of the screws that holds the trigger group in the action. It is a #10-40 tpi. a not so common size and thread pitch used in guns and I think some sewing machines. I am going to attempt to cut some replacements on the lathe. It will be my first time cutting threads with something other than a tap/die. Wish me luck🙂. I have three screws turned down on this rod ready for threading. The head thicknesses of the three are not quite equal yet, but I can trim them down at a later point. I decided to try to make three because that is how many I could fit on the piece of rod I had cut. Since my lathe has to be set up for threading by swapping out gears and rearranging them in the headstock gear-train and ultimately back again (read P.I.A.) I thought I would make a couple extra. That gold triangle is the tool bit for cutting 60 degree threads.
@RockyMountainBriar single pointing threads on a lathe can be a bit artsy due to the fact almost all lathes have some lag in the lead screw that moves the carriage.
But since it is a fairly small fine thread you may want to try doing the thread in a single pass, Usually threads that fine are rolled rather than single pointed or as you originally indicated cut with a die.
@Londy3 two days ago I might not have recognized the bird as an Oriole, but on Sunday I was at my daughters house and she and her future husband had put up an Oriole feeder off of their deck and had two pairs feeding, what beautiful birds.
Though I was surprised to find out that grape jelly and a half of an orange was the food.
Never was much of a fan of water color renderings but you killed that one, bravo.
@mapletop Speaking of backlash, I crashed my apron slightly awhile back and the half-nuts are worse than they were when I bought it🙁. Luckily my motor is not particularly powerful so it actually powered out rather than having all hell break loose. I have new half-nuts I could install, but they work well enough for most stuff…these threads…we’ll see. I have a tap and die set on the way🙂
@mapletop By the way, thanks for the advice on cutting those frog hair fine threads in a single pass. I plan on running the headstock with my handwheel that I use for tap and die threading….much safer and easier on the equipment🙂.
Thinking about your backlash comment, I may slap a spring or bungie from the carriage to the tailstock to try to alleviate some of that.👍🏻 OR….I could just use my right hand to hold the backlash towards the tailstock while I turn the headstock. 🤔
Come on now, talk like this just isn't proper! This is a pipe forum for god's sake!!!
"By the way, thanks for the advice on cutting those frog hair fine
threads in a single pass. I plan on running the headstock with my
handwheel
...I may slap a spring or bungie from the carriage to the
tailstock...OR….I could just use my
right hand to hold the backlash towards the tailstock while I turn the
headstock."
Comments
Damn you are talented!
Thanks man 😊
Watercolor... Much tougher and challenging medium than most people realize.
Well done...
Thank you sir
Blue bird
Interesting, I have shot windows with pellets (old junk car windows) and they just smashed the pellets. Steel BB’s on the other hand screwed them up. I never shot any regular windows though.
Normal widow panes are quite a bit thinner too.
Nice work. You have a lot of craftsman skill for sure.
Good luck buddy...
If anyone can, you can...
Watercolor
Brother Londy3 sure do have talent!
Speaking of backlash, I crashed my apron slightly awhile back and the half-nuts are worse than they were when I bought it🙁. Luckily my motor is not particularly powerful so it actually powered out rather than having all hell break loose. I have new half-nuts I could install, but they work well enough for most stuff…these threads…we’ll see. I have a tap and die set on the way🙂
Can't think of much worse than having "half-nuts"...😬
Stripped and/or broken half-nuts would be worse, they would be useless😬
When you get to be my age.......never mind!
By the way, thanks for the advice on cutting those frog hair fine threads in a single pass. I plan on running the headstock with my handwheel that I use for tap and die threading….much safer and easier on the equipment🙂.
You twisted, sick……
BUT, I know where you’re coming from😉
ALSO… just stop right here and notice…no “u”.😬