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Old 04-15-2021, 04:15 AM   #1
Mikel_24
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WOOD GUN: Refinishing gun for a friend

Hi there,

This thread is also about someone elses gun. A guy from my spearfishing club bought this gun (cheap) because as you can see is meant for lefties.

The thing is that it had a few issues that needed to be fixed. I don't believe is a comercial gun because some of those issues I consider mayor... and a manufacturer should never let a gun like this out the door. It would speak badly about him.

Let's go on with the pictures:

BEFORE
This is the only branding I found on the gun. My GoogleFu must be weak, because I couldn't find anything. Toro Spearguns?


It is a 105cm stretch double banded gun.


Band inserts (to be removed).


Exposed wood in shaft track


Exposed wood in band holes in the muzzle area. Also, the carbon fiber cloth presents sharp edges. Seems like it was skinned and then the excess was cut without any further sanding.


Peeled CF in the muzzle. In general CF was not well adhered to the wood underneath.


Mech. It is an MVD Predator, which requires two pins or, at the very least, a screw on the back hole + a pin at the front.
Original builder was somewhat lazy and used only the back screw and another one in the front (slanted) so as to prevent the mech from lifting. Craaaaaaaapy.


Trigger finger cut-out is too small. I have a size 8 hand and with winter gloves on I would have a hard time getting my finger in there. Trigger guard is comercial and edges are sharp (just laser cut, not tubled, deburred or polished at all.


Loading pad is just rubber caulk (SIKAFLEX), just as the handle grip. Not a bad solution, but it is also partially detached from the wood.


Reel, YAKASUB brand, was seized. Upon dismantling I realised the plastic nut had the threads chewed and was a bad quality reel in general. Someone stuffed a small piece of all thread in between the reel shaft and the blind nut. Clearence issues? No idea. Anyway, will not be used again (dyneema yes, it is good quality).


Screws have all the heads ****ed. Maybe they used an drill driver and slipped. No waterproofing of screw holes at all. Wood has darkened arround those areas.


Another spot where the CF was peeling.
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Old 04-15-2021, 04:16 AM   #2
Mikel_24
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Re: WOOD GUN: Refinishing gun for a friend

PROCESS
And now let's get to work...

Removing all crap to bare wood. Slack belt on the belt grinder works wonders for convex areas. Concave areas must be done by hand and/or Dremel with a sanding drum.

Seems like gun is laminated from three different pieces of wood (unidentified, I am not a wood expert).


Mech pocket was too loose to my liking and didn't square the ends with a chissel so the rearmost screw was almost floating. I filled it with a piece of Irocco and removed the excess.




After some carefull measuring I drilled the mech pin hole and... nailed it.


Band holes were enlarged and slanted backwards so as to provide a nicer curve for the rubber once stretched.All sharp edges were rounded so the resin does not run from it (surface tension, etc.).


And now the fiber skinning.
Some tutorials about CF skinning kits teach you to apply a base coat (black) and once is tacky, lay the CF and apply laminating resin. The idea for this initial coat is to allow you to stick the cloth to it AND prevent the color of whichever material you are skinning if the CF cloth opens up or (God forbid), you sand through it in some spots.

I don't have base coat so I have previously tried several solutions:
- Give a first coat of black pigmented lamination resin. Drawbacks: More resin is more money, it requires to pay attention to the resin to see when it reaches the tacky stage to lay the CF, is not 100% opaque, so the wood might still show up undertneath. And last but not least, it does not hold the CF cloth very well to allow you to properly soak the CF cloth with more lamination resin and prepare to vacum.
- Lay at least two layers of CF. This means more resin and more cloth, wich is more money and more time.

So this time I tried a third solution, which so far has worked well. I painted the whole thing with acrilic spray paint. Wood stays porous, so resin adheres well to it and doesn't seem to have a bad reaction with the resin.

ONce the paint is dry, I cut my CF pieces and hold them in place with 3M Super 77.


All complex or weak layers have several pieces of fabric underneath the last one to provide reinforcement and minimize the chance of sanding through in later stages.


Laminating resin (100gr of resin + 45g of accelerant for this particular product). Always mix in one pot and then transfer to a second pot to avoid unmixed material (usually stuck to pot walls and bottom)..


Make sure is well wetted and cover with a three-ply product (peelply + breather+soaking material). This one is called Vacuopeel.


Vacum is held untill the resin leftovers in the mixing pot are hard. Then vacum is released but I store it inside and I don't touch it untill the next day, just in case. Curing time in a pot is always faster than in the lamination, because there is not so much exothermic reaction accelerating the cure even more (the pot gets fairly warm to the touch, the item skinned, not so much).
[img width=600 height=270]https://i.imgur.com/TLJSEdS.jpg[/img]

Some sanding at the shop to eliminate wrinkles, clean the mech pocket, etc. Shaft track is cleaned and sanded all the way back to bare wood and painted again with acrilic.
Here is a general view with shaft, mech and mech pin (temporary, will be cut to length at the end).


And now installed in the rottisiere, ready for the first epoxy top coat.


Epoxy Top Coat (50gr of resin + 19gr of accelerant for this particular product).


Well wetted and turning


Video of the rottisiere setup: https://i.imgur.com/NXV4wcC.mp4

And now that this coat is cured, I have to waith untill my pal decides about the vinil stickers he wants on the gun, so I can get them made and give the second and last coat. This epoxy top coat goes on thick, so there is no need to give it 8 coats.

Mikel

Last edited by Mikel_24; 04-17-2021 at 08:22 AM.
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Old 04-17-2021, 07:54 AM   #3
Pankrationist
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Re: WOOD GUN: Refinishing gun for a friend

Outstanding work. So much time and effort has been invested into this gun. I have found it can be quicker to just make a new one but I commend you on a job very well done.
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Old 04-17-2021, 08:21 AM   #4
Mikel_24
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Re: WOOD GUN: Refinishing gun for a friend

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pankrationist View Post
Outstanding work. So much time and effort has been invested into this gun. I have found it can be quicker to just make a new one but I commend you on a job very well done.
Well, that is partially true... but the gun shape itself was perfectly fine. The mech was ok, so I guess it was worth saving.

Let's see how it ends, I need the owner to decide about the vinil stickers he wants to get them made and finish the gun.

Miekl
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