Air Gun Home :: View topic

Slavia · Moderator

So most of us know that tar type products are available for quieting a twangy spring. Does anybody know about making your own?

A while back I read on the Mexican forum (mexicoarmado.com) where a guy was melting roofing tar into a grease base. He tested it by putting some between his thumb and index finger, and if it formed strings when he pulled the fingers apart, it was ready.

Today I was waxing my old wooden cross-country skis, where you have to melt in a pine tar base to get the wax to stick. I got to wondering what would happen if I melted a bit into a synthetic grease. You can get either the pine tar that needs to be melted in with a torch, or a liquid form where the pine tar is dissolved in a volatile solvent. They also sell pine tar for adding "grip" to baseball bats.

Any information, experience, links, or ideas?

AirGunEric · Site Admin

I personally have never been too comfortable with the idea of adding what is effectively sludge to the spring/guides of a springer to eliminate twang. And of course, a different sludge, er, tar, needs to be used depending on ambient whether conditions. In Mexico or Southern California, not necessarily a big deal with a temp spread of maybe 40-50*- but in the snow belt where the difference between summer and winter temperatures can be 100+ degrees, this becomes more relevant.

An idea that I saw awhile back that was interesting (on a Russian or Polish forum I believe) where the spring was surrounded by a plastic liner- made out of PET plastic. Of course the plastic and petroleum lube likely didn't go well together over time- but I found the idea somewhat interesting and it insulated the spring enough to virtually eliminate twang- even more so than a tar. Perhaps an acetylate tube could be machined to surround the spring when compressed and thereby avoid any petroleum-lube/plastic disintegration issues (?)

Slavia · Moderator

rsterne · Moderator