GTA
All Springer/NP/PCP Air Gun Discussion General => Air Guns And Related Accessories Review Gates => Topic started by: UlteriorModem on November 21, 2018, 06:12:11 PM
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Here is a brief written review of Air Venturi's "Rail Lock" spring compressor.
In a nutshell, it works. But not without a few issues.
Firstly the construction is solid and durable. It should last a lifetime as long as you keep it clean and free of rust. Made in the USA that's a plus.
The instructions are brief and easy to follow. Pretty much fit one end to your scope rail Dovetail or Picatinny (more on this later) then center the drive bolt using the best feature the 'quick release' button. Then tighten the other screws. One smaller grub screw is supposed to help keep the drive bolt in position but the large quick release assembly has a detent drilled into it and more often than not, for me the 'alignment' grub screw would push it off center to one side. But if you tighten both screws well enough it stays pretty well centered.
Speaking of centering. When I first attached the device to my Benjamin titan using that gun's built in dovetail, the drive bolt was so low it was striking the end of the compression tube and could not be used. I ended up having to put a dovetail to picatinny rail adaptor on to 'raise' it some. Thing is now it is nearly too high and really pushes off to one side of the edge of the spring block. Some sort of way to adjust the 'height' of the drive bolt is going to be needed for many guns. Just a heads up. The device itself is NOT adjustable.
Also when using the picitanny adaptors one end of the tool is much wider than the other. It ends up in sort of a shallow V and can be quite frustrating to get on the picatinny rail correctly and still have the other end lined up with the assembly. See my comment about the 'centering' grub screw above.
The drive bolt has a nylon tip on it which is a nice touch, but it often tends to grab onto the spring block and rotate it while tightening the drive screw. If it was better centered this may not be as much as an issue. Also perhaps using a washer or something might help but as I said I was alredy way off center and there would be no practicle way to use a washer. I had to constantly put screwdrivers, punches or something in there to keep it lined up for the keeper pin. It was a bit fiddly but as I said in the long run it works.
To tighten the drive screw Venturi tells you to use one of the allen keys placed in the hole in the end of the drive bolt. While this seems perfectly acceptable and it works, it leads to alot of frustration from constantly having the darn allen key fall out of the drive bolt onto the floor. I probably have to pick it up at least 3 or 4 times every time I use this device! With my bad back not much fun. Not provididing a captive lever like one finds on a vise is a real oversite!
So there you have it. As I said it works, but not without some adaptation and patience!
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great review.....
mine has worked very well the 3 times i have used it on
german, turkish and china guns 8)
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great review.....
mine has worked very well the 3 times i have used it on
german, turkish and china guns 8)
Sure but how many times did you drop that darn allen key? :D
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great review.....
mine has worked very well the 3 times i have used it on
german, turkish and china guns 8)
Sure but how many times did you drop that darn allen key? :D
a couple times but then i put a bit in a driver and then it was perfect ;)
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Great review, thank you. Since I already have a home made compressor I have no need for the Air Venturi but I found the information interesting. A more compact unit would have been nice but for $100 it's definitely not worth the hassle to me.
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Thanks for the review!
I have one, but have not used it yet.
It is supposed to be perfect, so it is not. :-\
-Y
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Pics or at least a link please?
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Go to PA and search
Spring compressor
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LOL.... thought of that after I hit "post".
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Yea I should have provided pics but did not think of doing a 'review' until after the deed was done.
Also I kind of took it for granted that just about everyone knew of this gizmo or had at least heard of it. My bad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=PkJfi1TVFdY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=PkJfi1TVFdY)
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I also have this compressor and have used it quite a few times. I only have German guns and it works just fine on them. Now, I did have to place something between the "drive" screw of the compressor and the the rear of the trigger housing (on some guns the spring block). I just use a very small little wood piece between the nylon tip of drive screw and spring assembly. Small piece of wood, almost like a shim, if you would. Works great! I would post pictures of exactly how I use it, but I am not allowed. I'm too new here. Anyway, I would recommend this to anyone that does not want to fool with building your own. Very small and compact too.
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Funny this thread would pop up again today.
I just finished rebuilding a Benjamin Mayhem. The Mayhem comes with a picatinny rail welded onto the compression tube. The spring compressor had to go on the very end of the rail because its V shape when being attached to a picatinny wont allow it to seat properly onto the rail.
I thought it was actually going to go better than the Titan with its goofy dovetail to weaver adaptor required. It all went fine until I went to drive the keeper pin out and... konk. The backbplate snapped to an odd angle trapping the keeper pin in place. I tried and tried to 'adjust' the spring compressor but it kept wandering off to one side of the backplate driving it at an acute angle. After about an hour I finally managed to wrestle the keeper pin out and remove the backplate. The backplate in the Mayhem is a good deal smaller in diameter than the compression tube which makes it very difficult to center and align.
It did go back together better than it came apart but still it was no small feat to get the backplate lined up to where the pin would drive into place.
I am pretty disappointed in the Rail Lock compressor, at least for my Benjamin guns. I suppose it works a lot better with some other guns.
Again, in conclusion, it works... but not without some issues.