Air Gun Home :: View topic

AirAint177 · New Member

I'm looking for a consensus on using washers and bearings on the Main Spring in springers.

Using something to allow the spring to turn how it wants makes sense for reducing wear on the spring and cutting down on some of the twang.

Thing is, I'm thinking, washers and bearings will take up space. This space being taken up keeps the main spring more compressed than it would normally be while in the de cocked position. So, when it is cocked, it has less room to compress and less room to expand once fired and might reduce power. It can't expand as much to compress as much air as fast. Also, keeping it a little more compressed, won't that put more wear on it?

AirGunEric · Site Admin

Your thinking is essentially on-track. Adding things that will compress the spring further will 'wear it out' faster- but the question is "how much faster" a couple of 1/16" washers to allow for spring rotation wouldn't likely make any noticeable difference in spring rate/wear- the spring is already under some compression in the tube when not cocked. You are also correct in that the spring won't expand quite as far as it would without some sort of spacer- but more often than not- the lesser expansion distance is actually nullified and even over-powered by the spring being compressed more before release. Maybe that's not too clear- what I'm attempting to say is that a couple of washers taking up space will only reduce spring expansion a minute amount- and the additional load placed on the spring itself by, in effect, shims, shorten the expansion time- forcing air through the gun in slightly less volume, but at a faster rate- oftentimes resulting in more actual output than before the shims/spacers were installed- but this also tends to increase recoil.

However- don't over-do shims/spacers- you don't want any of the spring coils to 'bind' or meet one another- this reduces the springs overall effectiveness, increases the amount of force needed to compress the spring (i.e. cock the gun). Also, excessive spacing/shimming places a greater load on the piston/spring retention mechanism (i.e. the trigger assembly)- which can cause movement or breakage of components (see the "How not to Tune a Springer" in the 'Rifles' forum). To determine the "right" amount of spacing/shimming on any particular gun- it's more a trial-and-error sort of deal- you want to get power up as much as possible without excessive additional recoil, avoid spring bind, avoid retention pin (trigger) wear/breakage, and reduce "twang"- and these things are all variable on each gun and the specific components in it.

As for bearings- that's not my area. I've heard good and bad things about using them- typically they are alot thicker than washers- so they shim the spring more than would a few washers- and I've also heard that alot of people who have installed them find they need to be monitored and lubed (if/as required) regularly for maximum performance.