B3 steel spring guide homemade

[singleshotcajun]

The bane of the B3 is the cheesy plastic spring guide. The plastic guide is prone to breakage and just like the triggers there are no aftermarket spring guides available. I am a Machinist and have access to lathes and milling machines at work but I wanted to do a project that had me making a spring guide without the use of a lathe.I decided on pipe fittings. A 1/2" pipe cap provides the bases of the guide,it is 1 1/8" O.D nominally. From there we use a 1/2"pipe to 1/4" pipe reducing bushing then install a 1/4" pipe nipple.Tighten all threads killer tight with Locktite on the pipe threads. Now, using a belt grinder grind down the reducing bushing to .720" O.D and grind the 1/4" pipe nipple to .460"O.D .All that is left to do is to drill a cross hole for the retaining pin and make a thrust washer for the spring to rest on. The location of the hole for the retaining pin and the length of the .460" journal can vary as needed. I did not grind clearance for the rear action screw I shortened the action screw instead other wise the end of the machine screw will touch the spring guide before it gets tight.The thrust washer will allow the spring to rotate when it releases. A greased thrust washer on the spring greatly improves the shot cycle. The shot cycle will go from BOOOOIIIINGGGGGG to THUMP. I just installed the first one on a B3-1 and it works great.
pictures
http://s84.photobucket.com/user/cajuncj/library/air/B3%20tuning#/user/cajuncj/library/air/B3%20tuning?sort=3&page=1&_suid=137842490745306883380142716404

[Motorhead]

There ya go .... GREAT fabrication skills !!

[Fwawa20]

This is great I been thinking about tearing mine down and tuning her again. Does yours have the leaver seal or synthetic seal?

[singleshotcajun]

This one has a synthetic seal. After honing the air chamber I lube it with a mix of Moly grease and pure silicone oil.

[singleshotcajun]

Finished another spring guide this afternoon and installed it in my B3-3 .22. It even cocks smoother now.

[robert w]

Finished another spring guide this afternoon and installed it in my B3-3 .22. It even cocks smoother now.

the plastic guide looks a lot like whats inside a gamo big cat. I had that to snap in my big cat. you made a fine looking replacement for your gun... or job well done sir

[nced]

Nice work and VERY ingenious use of commercial materials to make the assembly! Kudus to you sir!!!!

I personally prefer Delrin as a guide material because it does a better job of dampening spring twang/vibration than steel so I made my B3 guide of Delrin...........

I noticed that the sliding compression tube had a surprisingly nice interior finish so I also replaced the leather seal with a home rolled oring sealed piston cap like I use in my HW springers (spring guide not completed in this pic).............


While the factory compression tube was pretty good, the piston was pretty rough looking like it was made with a hammer, chisel and file. Here is a pic of one B3 disassembled parts.........


I chucked the piston in my lathe chuck and cleaned up the outer surface plus, squared the piston face to the shell...........


I then cut and fitted an oring sealed piston cap............


The gun after the mods wearing a 6x Burris Compact scope that cost about 6x more than the gun (shown after removing the factory sights).............


Here is a pic of a 25 yard target shot when the gun still had the factory sights..........


A 25 yard target shot with the 6x Burris scope mounted................


As a side note.........the oring sealed piston cap conversion raised the factory velocity of 550fps to 700fps with JSB Exact pellets. Matter of fact, this is the only gun I've owned that shot the JSBs more accurately than the CPL, and this gun shot patterns instead of groups with the CPLs!

A few pics of the stunning Chinese quality control for this $19.95 Cummins Truckload Sale wonder I bought. Actually, I bought a couple and swapped out parts so my "shooter" would have the best parts...........

Some fine stock butt plate fitting...........


Some fine Chinese part "fit and finish" of one gun.........


The trigger pins were so sloppy fitting that I lathe turned new better fitting ones............



How about this factory spring guide? LOL.....no lens distortion in this pic, the guide was actually this crooked!...........

[robert w]

was quality control asleep on your guns nced ? but for $19 you get what you get. they seem to be a diamond in the rough just waiting on some hands to smooth the rough spots down so they can do more than expected.

[singleshotcajun]

I considered using Delrin for a replacement spring guide and may do so in the future. I need to get a lathe for home projects. I am a Machinist/Millwright by trade and can do some "government" jobs at work but I'd rather not.The company I work for is BIG and is European owned so its Ixsnay on anything ungya even air guns. For now tuning the B3s well by flattening the spring ends,honing the air chambers,installing the steel spring guides with the thrust washer is working out well. I really think the thrust washer with a healthy dose of Moly grease is the biggest factor in reducing the crazy harmonics. I bought a few of these fine specimens back in the 19.99 days but now they are mostly 40.00 plus ,plus shipping. The traveling Gypsy tool sales no longer carry them either at least in my area. I don't know if I'm willing to pay 55.00 and gamble on getting a "good" one or a parts gun.The last one I bought was in March of this year and it had a poorly drilled bore,cutting the barrel to 15" and recrowning helped out. Just think about all the Chinese rifles leaning in the corner of a closet or garage because of a broken spring guide.Maybe I should start a home for orphaned B3 rifles 

[dwalk]

very innovative...well done