Woken up at 4 am this morning and had this going round in my mind.
Does having the firing pot spring under more tension (tightened down) mean the hammer spring has to be under more tension?
Conversely, if the firing pot spring is looser (undone a bit), will the hammer spring be under less tension to achieve the same results?
Am I right in thinking that a tighter firing pot spring will be more air efficient and increase shot count?
Firing pot spring tension
Re: Firing pot spring tension
I think you need to bear in mind the number of usable shots will depend on the shape of the power curve and how much variation you find acceptable.
As you screw the pot in the power will reduce but you can compensate by opening up the adjustment screw on the transfer port. You will reach a point where the transfer port is unrestricted so any further screwing in of the pot will lower the power. Dropping the power will increase the shot count. I think air efficiency is best with the transfer port unrestricted. Moving away from this setting will probably result in a loss of consistency. Beyond this point, if you want to maintain muzzle energy you will have to increase pre-load on the hammer spring or use a stronger spring. If this results in hammer bounce you will lose air efficiency (I haven't tried this so I can't say for sure).
Going the other way, the lower the valve spring pressure the greater the influence of cylinder pressure, so the power curve will be accentuated. At lower cylinder pressures the valve operation may be erratic and wasteful.
Hammer/valve tuning to get more shots is generally done with a regulator installed and the approach usually adopted is to lower the reg pressure and reduce hammer weight/pre-load - the opposite to what you are proposing. Obviously, the reg eliminates the effect of varying cylinder pressure.
I've always taken the view that AA have probably played with different spring and pot settings so what you get is near optimum and not worth messing with unless you install a regulator.
As you screw the pot in the power will reduce but you can compensate by opening up the adjustment screw on the transfer port. You will reach a point where the transfer port is unrestricted so any further screwing in of the pot will lower the power. Dropping the power will increase the shot count. I think air efficiency is best with the transfer port unrestricted. Moving away from this setting will probably result in a loss of consistency. Beyond this point, if you want to maintain muzzle energy you will have to increase pre-load on the hammer spring or use a stronger spring. If this results in hammer bounce you will lose air efficiency (I haven't tried this so I can't say for sure).
Going the other way, the lower the valve spring pressure the greater the influence of cylinder pressure, so the power curve will be accentuated. At lower cylinder pressures the valve operation may be erratic and wasteful.
Hammer/valve tuning to get more shots is generally done with a regulator installed and the approach usually adopted is to lower the reg pressure and reduce hammer weight/pre-load - the opposite to what you are proposing. Obviously, the reg eliminates the effect of varying cylinder pressure.
I've always taken the view that AA have probably played with different spring and pot settings so what you get is near optimum and not worth messing with unless you install a regulator.
Re: Firing pot spring tension
Thanks Tony.
Cleared up my confusion.
Cleared up my confusion.
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 35 guests