Tuning questions

[temchik]

Hi All, having just ordered the $44.50 Ruger Airhawk, I am researching my tuning options, reading a lot of material, but have a couple of questions to the knowledgeable:

Piston sleeve

A lot of people seem to remove the piston sleeve and throw it away. Others discuss how to make one for their rifles out of aluminum sheet, tin cans and plastic soda bottles. I've watched a lot of "takedown" videos and a lot of mid- and high-end guns have piston sleeves, so why remove it? Is the sleeve just a cheap way to make the spring fit better into the piston?

Top hat, washers

In understand that a lot of people add a top hat (with or without washers) and I understand that it helps with the twisting (what was that word, torsional?) recoil, especially when paired with a washer and, possibly, reduces spring vibration. But wouldn't compress the spring more thus unnecessarily increasing the power of the rifle and making it unstable? I could see "power spacers/washers" in some tuning kits where you add a washer to increase power, so the change must be pretty significant with such a small difference in "pre-compression" (one would think)

Thank you in advance, this is a great forum and I am learning every day!

[bmb]

I just had my air hawk apart last night. "lost my Springer virginity". Wouldn't the cocking linkage rub on the spring without the sleeve?

[temchik]

I just had my air hawk apart last night. "lost my Springer virginity". Wouldn't the cocking linkage rub on the spring without the sleeve?

It would, but the damage is minimal, with proper lube. it's low pressure low speed, any grease can handle that, so I wouldn't worry about it. My cheap Gamo and Stoeger don't have the sleeve and, after 1000 of shots I see no evidence of the rubbing.

[Roadworthy]

If you choose to dismantle your new gun I strongly recommend polishing both ends of the spring.  I use wet or dry sandpaper on a flat under water.  When reassembling put a bit of moly on both ends of the spring.  It tends to reduce twang.

[Anylizer]

 Having tuned several guns, with & without sleeves, I can say that sleeves reduce "Twang" immensely! (if done properly) From now an, all tunes that i do, will have sleeves, whether they are part of a kit, or homebrew type. (delrin,soda bottle, milk bottle) Also using "heavy tar" on the spring will reduce twang alot.
  I have not experimented with top hats & washer adjustment, so I cannot comment on their performance, but I think your assumption concerning those is probably correct.

[temchik]

Still confused about the top hat and washers, several tuning kits have them but as far as I can tell the spring size is exactly as OEM which means it will be under more pressure unless it's cut. Or does it compress and settle?

[R1]

When I replaced the spring in the R1, I put fender washers under both ends of the spring.  Cut to fit and then polished both faces of the washer.  I have no torsional 'twang' at all.  The R1's spring just sat on the lower guide that was cut in 4 places and bent outward.  That created 4 points for the spring to hang up on.  The top of the spring rested on the liner, which also had cutouts for the spring to get caught on.  I polished both ends of the spring and with a little moly on the ends ended up very quiet.  The washers gave the spring a nice flat area to unwind on without getting caught.  Just what I did.  Seems logical.

[temchik]

Good stuf, thank you