No disrespect to Bob Werner RIP but Superlube is mostly silicone and truly not the first choice for lubing an air rifle's compression tube. Moly paste however, is a good choice and the one selected by many of the professional tuners who occasionally post in the forum.
I realized when I posted my recommendation for moly paste over Superlube and added the comment about "better choices" and CDT I may be stirring up the pot. Perhaps I should clarify. I will use a quote from CDT to illustrate (circa 2012):"The Moly and SuperLube are two completely different lubes that have their own purposes. The SuperLube is used as and for part of the assembly process whereas the Moly is used as the true ongoing lube for the gun over a long period of time. The Moly is a must. SuperLube is great for installing piston and seating the piston seal against the cylinder walls as it is being installed and and does help fill the imperfections with the Teflon, but it has no where near the lubing life and quality of the Moly. It is very important that the Moly does not have a hi viscosity or thin carrier."
Everybody has what works for them! if all is done correctly and we get the results we want? then their is no wrong doing! different strokes for different folks
Come on Brett, I thought I was THE PNW lube expert ?
Infact 2 hardened steel surfaces which are burnished can have one of the lowest known coeffs of friction throughout the increase of velocity. This is why its difficult to beat a hardened steel top hat and guide in terms of speed for the gun. Other notes...Its interesting if we consider surface adhesion between mating parts, that only one known material never adheres to another (of the same material) at the molecular level. This is that of 2 hardened steels...at least until the hardness of one, or both breaks down and the surfaces are highly polished/ ground/ lapped.....Think highly advanced racing engines. All other materials (when 2 of the same run against each other) will have adhesion trying to occur at their surface layers and some of the worst of these will begin to gall.
2 harden steels of same type...i.e hardened silver steel guide with hardened silver steel thrust ring, will have the lowest coeff under load and velocity compared to say lower coef plastics against each other. It is because there is no adhesion of the molecular structure to each other.....Adding a lube will improve this further...Hardened steel guides and top hats would be the best ever but too costly for most off the shelf kit providers.Stainless steel isnt much good, because it yields its softer chromium when in a bearing situation, and will begin to gall against each other ...hence never used as a bearing unless in a corrosion resistant situation...Cast Iron on the other hand, yields self lubricating carbon and its porosity allows flow of carbon between the mating faces, exceeding that of even hardened steel but is quite brittle unless in a revolving bearing situation...Not really tough enough for our guides and top hats when drilled hollow for latch rods etc...Delrin run on delrin shows evidence of pick up migration very quickly and the two put together can cancel out their low friction characteristic. Not bad under moderate load with steel....but never 2 together like the TBT kit.Steve Pope recognised this, putting a delrin guide with a steel thrust washer....a better engineer.Trouble is mention it on bbs or Airgun forum and they all come out in support to blow smoke up titbums backside...He is in league with the moderation and you will get kicked off for such comments but no learning takes place....no advancement so i share my posts elsewhere. Could careless if anyone wants to ignore it. My income stream is not from tuning!The kit is fine as a cheap damper, but needs to be recognised as just that. There is a better way.
Some recent posts(both my own and others) have got me curious, how do you like to tune your German springers? Do you run a bought kit like a vortek, tin bum or ARH? Do you do something custom with different springs, seals and guides? I'd like to hear your methods and preferences, what your goal is for each tune(power, shootability, etc) and your best description of the shot cycle. The performance details(what pellet, velocity, accuracy) would be excellent to hear. I think it would be cool to just hear what everyone's own preferred methods are without too much debate, just for some good information and ideas!