When we last talked, parts were spread across my bench, which as we all saw is a disaster. But the repair parts have arrived, just in time for the wife to drag me off to the coast. I checked to make sure that everything ordered was there, and then had to back burner the whole project for a couple weeks. But, I had time to wrap it up just last weekend. So, here we go:

There is stuff for a few other projects in there, but you can see the “new” seal sitting by the old seal. My choice is to use an actual seal provided by the manufacturer, but that isn’t always an option for older air guns.

This seal was, I believe, new old stock, meaning that it has been sitting around for 90 years or so. And it is as hard as a rock. So I gave it a soak in oil to make it pliable. Oil soaking the seals allows for greater malleability, meaning, in practical terms, that an out of round bore in the compression tube can be sealed. The downside is you can get what is called dieseling, the oil burning up under the heat of compression. Not the worst thing in the world, but it can shorten the life of various parts.

But after a couple days, nothing had absorbed, so I dug in my spare parts and found another cup seal, left over from when I redid my Walther. These are basic leather pump seals, at one time available any any decent hardware store. Now, you need to go online to find them, as they aren’t used commonly enough anymore for stores to keep new ones in stock. They used to be found in every bicycle pump, well pump at the farm, and in many other basic appliances from the first half of the 20th century.

And after that was nice and loose, I installed it with a buffer below, to help prevent damage to the transfer port, the small opening that allows the proper amount of air to reach the pellet.  I lubed up the spring, a trick I had learned from many older, English air gun mechanics. This keeps the spring from rubbing against the compression cylinder wall, and losing power through friction, thus it works much like engine oil. Also, at the bottom of the picture, you can see where the piston connects with the sear.

I put the barrel lock back in place and reassembled her. The Barrel lock, seen here and in many older air guns was used to keep seal pressure positive when locking up before the advent of stronger locking mechanisms that came about post-WWII. The trigger on this model is pretty simple, containing the sear as an integral part and thus having a direct contection to the piston.


I didn’t have my bifocals on, so I just took a couple test shots to make sure all was well

All done. It is nice to be able to bring a 95 year old machine, of any type, back to life so easily.

Finding parts for old air guns is hit-or-miss, and worse here in the United States. But, we have JG Air Guns, while over in England, there is Protek, TW Chambers, and John Knibbs. It isn’t too surprising that there is so much more in England for this hobby, as they treat air guns the same way that we treat full bore fire arms; they have shooting ranges devoted to them, websites, and specialty dealers.

So, get that old pumper or break barrel shooting again!