Artemis CP-2. Well, hold my beer..

[Racing]

Right. Always liked the Artemis/Snowpeak/Diana guns. Light guns that are to the point. So there i was awaiting the new M-60 to arrive but that took like forever right so..

This lowly CP-2 got up for grabs and seeing how cheap they are, relatively, why the eff not...



Plan was for a PCP conversion right off, but that said i "uncorked" the thing on the Co2 cartridge and iīll be dipped.. thing made 30J!! 
Sure. Cartridge didnīt last for *hit but.. still

So. Right. Iīve from a looks point of view come to take the AEA HP series to heart. Dunno why, just.. like them. Sorry to say though theyīre not imported up here. So this CP-2 right?
Right.



No. No i do NOT need a lecture on making my own tank thank you very much.. LOL. To make this happen i made the thing very offset.



Got a PR-900 as well (and a P-15 and a.. and so on) and the innards of the CP is about dead ringer for the PR. If thereīs anything that iīve found to be sub par itīs the material of the valves, which more than anything on these "el cheapo" guns reminds of repo material made out of surplus Coke cans from the far east. Mushroom &^^&..



Right. Seamless high pressure tubing, a bit of threads and a TIG welder later.. Yep. In business.

As i noodled around with the thing on the bench it soon enough struck me that a hammer spring for an Impact is a drop in. Cool enough, and the difference vs the stock thing is massive.

Them Co2 cartridges doesnīt exactly sport the pressures of a PCP gun do they.. so with bare porting of approx 5mm, an Impact hammer spring and a system pressure of 200...
Tried the thing out with them 14+ grainers i had used in it in Co2 form. Nope. Supersonic right off the bat.
With 25,4īs though, and that 450mm barrel i saw 960fps right out of the hole! 
As slammed together, that was it!

Tank got a bracket welded up front to hold a pic rail, and thus an Atlas bi-pod copy.

Thing here is, i was at first afraid that steel tank would make the thing insanely heavy. But.. these CP-2īs weigh of like NOTHING stock why the weight of the tank and in turn that far down on the gun HELPED.
Huh?
Yeah see, as power goes up on these things they are so light that they jump around like one legged chicken upon firing.
That tank and the Atlas with itīs rubber feet made for a massive difference, now you were actually able to start hitting stuff for real.



Right. Valve body, and the poppet in itself as well. The boys at Artemis sure cut every corner they could for these things and the truth of the matter is that a couple of "pick a parts" and threads are about no more. In turn, a single screw in single shear.. yeah right, that coupled with 200 bar. Hello!
Jumped around in the material bin but couldnīt find any 7075 in at least reasonably correct dimensions when i saw that i had a bit of Alumec laying around (compare titanium grade 6 approx LOL).
Right.
So cut material up for both this CP-2 and the PR-900 when at it. In turn tossed and turned as far as dimensions for ports and their angles... That and WAY tigher tolerances.

Stay with me here..



..n in typical cheaper Artemis fashion the charging handle of course sheared off. Granted, an Impact spring in there. But still.. So turned a new one on the lathe in a jiffy, still on a M4 thread per stock though. Just with a "collar" for the thing to pull up against, and thus getting rid of the bending motion.

Hammer in turn, stock spring guide is a piece of plastic at the end plug of the setup. That too didnīt really take all that well to what a hammer spring for an Impact hands so.. Did me a hammer spring guide that rides with the hammer instead. Yep.. adds a little to hammer weight while at it.
Btw. Tank volume is now 300ccs. Sports a regular Foster up front and a "depressure" screw + o-ring.



This being a "skeleton gun" i for one at least find them hard to take a decent pic of. If the background is anything busy they kind of get lost..
Anywhoo.. At first i hoped that iīd get away with using the stock moderator these come with. Small n compact. Now. With the new valve in place that kind of upped what it spat out even more, iīm now at 1040-1060fps using 25,4īs.
Filled that thing up with baffles as well as dampening material.. to no avail. So. Made me a fresh one out of 34*3 6082 Aluminium. Uhu. Rear end of it welded shut, front one you can dismantle to service the unit.
Anyways. What the Dr ordered, itīs a 5 chamber jobbie and truly turns the thing reasonably "backyard friendly".





Right. So what more is up? Well.. this is where iīm gonna go full retard and as we all know one should never go full retard..
These things come with the option of two barrels. One of 450mm and one to make the thing into a "pistol" using a barrel of approx 190mm. N.. iīm going to try and index them two like you wonīt believe and join īem.
That brings that the "pistol" barrel will lose like 25mm or so.. but no matter if it works. In that case iīll have me an extension making this thing 600 total, which would be more like it.
..and it canīt very well do more than fail.
Weīll see where it ends up.

This far though i have to say that iīm rather happy with the outcome. Being a 22 it carries decent punch at least, it is rather rugged being all aluminium and plastic, still very light weight and to the point and in turn about.. costs of nothing.

[BC81]

Now that is friggin custom wow!!! Good job man!

[AlanMcD]

I agree that is awesome, as is already.  But that ~600mm joined barrel is going to be one very long "noodle" of a barrel even if it works.  Any plans to support it or protect it somehow?

[Goose]

It is truly amazing what a man can do with a chop-saw, a tig-welder, and a little determination.  Nicely done!

You are an inspiration.

Ride on,

J~

[ranchibi]

Awesome build there! You have mad machining and fabrication skills!

[avator]

Yep, I like to tinker but that's above my skill set.

[Spacebus]

Yep, I like to tinker but that's above my skill set.

Same here! This is a really cool build though.

The joined barrel is interesting, but I would probably replace it with a PR900/LR700/CR600 barrel.

[customcutter]

Very nice.  Thanks for posting!

[Rob M]

awesome ! nice to see people still building stuff ..

[sb327]

For sure, I really enjoy the custom builds.

Dave

[Racing]

Thx a bunch gents.
All to happy to share. Believe i posted on that very modified PR-900 a while back too.
Thing is, these guns are so inexpensive that if you F it up it isnīt the end of the world. This one i picked up from a guy local but it was new, to the letter, and it ran me approx 100$
No harm no foul in short.

Have come to tinker on PCPīs for a little while by now and am fascinated by their performance seeing what they are.
From a looks POW though this one isnīt my cup of tea at all, but then again.. as a tool (rodent control) is sure does the trick. At an easy 100 meter ranges.
As mentioned though groups open up slightly shooting slugs, giving thought to looking into that. Still shoots reasonably well no matter which way pill you opt though.
Call it "practical hunting accuracy" if you wish, and weīre certainly within game.

So yep. This was just a fun and fast done little project. Still waiting for that M-60 of theirs to show up on our shores. Need to get me one of those..

This one though projects are never done i guess...

[Racing]

I agree that is awesome, as is already.  But that ~600mm joined barrel is going to be one very long "noodle" of a barrel even if it works.  Any plans to support it or protect it somehow?

Legit question.
I guess thereīs two schools on this. Seeing FXīs debacle lately on "barrel tensioners".. right. Might be.
Then, iīm one of the powder burner boys at heart and a true believer in getting nodes and anti nodes to work FOR you. But.. that said you are 100% correct cause that minescule in diameter little barrel there IS exposed. As *ell even.
Whatīs more, yup. Making that 450mm barrel a 600mm barrel sure wonīt help on that count.

Setting some sort of "support" up, thatīll leave the barrel completely free to move with nodes/anti nodes.. and clearance just enough to do exactly what youīre getting at. Support the thing if disaster strikes.

As the tank is out of steel itīs a rather small effort to add some sort of bracketry to do exactly that.

For the PR-900 of mine.. peculiar cause that one got a shroud too, albeit a rather slim diameter one to clear the tube. This one, not as simple as even though the tank is installed very offset it still "eats up" very needed space to make a shroud fit.
Check sum is that a shroud for this little huffer would be, to the letter, pointless as i regard it.

Then.
The PR-900 and the longer of the two barrels for the CP-2 are the same. Ie; 450mm in length.
On the other hand, adopting a barrel from basically any 22cal gun is just as doable i guess. But the point of joining the two in THIS case is the futile exercise in itself. To see if it can be done, and get away with it.

In turn, as is this thing lacks a pressure gauge. Welding a threaded bung to the tank isnīt exactly rocket science, but where weīre at iīve got a compressor standing around that sports a calibrated gauge and truth be told.. as it is iīve REALLY come to question many of them gun installed "mickey mouse" deals. Iīve seen them like 60 bar off..
In short where iīm at now itīs all good sans one really.

If anything in such a case whatīll come, apart from that retarded barrel idea, is a SSG setup and in turn a "return lock" aīla the Hatsan setup.
In short small mods that pays back big. 300ccīs on a gun this small makes for a reasonable shot count, at least to me, as is.

[Racing]

FWIW the about just as modified PR-900. Performance wise about on par, just an earlier build on my behalf.

On that note.
Many are drifting vs heavier and heavier pills. Bought a box of 34īs (JSBīs) that i tried in it and.. nope. Muzzle energy took a dive you wonīt believe.
But the thing here is that to wring even more out of it pill weight HAS to come up. I will NOT go supersonic with this thing (or any of my PCPīs for that matter). Iīve started to reason as such that the heavier pills need more of a chock to get going so to say. Thus, i presume that part size is of essence and in that case 5mm upstream of a 22 simply wonīt do.
Mark. UPstream. Ditto for the valve and itīs first up entry hole and second of itīs exhaust port. Poppet is home brew too as stated and carries a stem of 2,2mm. Made out of common hardened steel. As bearing surface is directly vs the valve housing, had that housing been made out of any kind of regular alu i would have gotten cold feet as far as galling.
As is now though, made out of Alumec, it couldnīt care less. Nope. Not even in "natural" state (read - sans anodizing and what not)
Alumec truly is some rather high end *rap.. that simple.
Them guns earn their keep as "ditch cleaners" (read - rodent control, magpies and what have you) which is the objective of them. So.. as building reasonably effective moderators is rather simple affair to me.. iīll stay subsonic at all cost thank you very much.