Al_Steel
08-04-2006, 10:12 PM
Hi all,
I'm new to mags and just picked up my first mag off eBay. Luckily for this mag it looks like I may have saved it from a slow death. It was in much worse shape than the seller advertised and it looks like a 12 year old with channel locks and a hatchet worked on it. In addition to a poorly fitting machine screw (which allowed the entire valve to float 1/16" of an inch!!) taking place of the field strip screw, all the macro line fittings are chewed up and almost every hex bolt has been nearly stripped.
I am now in the process of bringing this poor marker back to life and noticed something while examining the valve. There are two, what appear to be, alignment marks etched into the outside of the valve assembly where the two halves meet. Are those marks supposed to be aligned because mine are about 1/8" mis-aligned? What happens if they are off by a bit?
Also, it's painfully clear, from the amount of gunk in this gun, that the previous owner had no clue how to properly clean or lubricate the marker. There is a brown shelac of old lubricant, possibly from a petroleum based lube (gun oil, 3-in-1, etc) coating the outside of the power tube, the spring, etc. I am in the process of stripping this off but am VERY concerned that the inside of the valve may have been lubed with petro oil also. Will this trash the valve and should I just rebuild the entire valve before I even consider using this marker as a reliable field gun?
Thanks!
I'm new to mags and just picked up my first mag off eBay. Luckily for this mag it looks like I may have saved it from a slow death. It was in much worse shape than the seller advertised and it looks like a 12 year old with channel locks and a hatchet worked on it. In addition to a poorly fitting machine screw (which allowed the entire valve to float 1/16" of an inch!!) taking place of the field strip screw, all the macro line fittings are chewed up and almost every hex bolt has been nearly stripped.
I am now in the process of bringing this poor marker back to life and noticed something while examining the valve. There are two, what appear to be, alignment marks etched into the outside of the valve assembly where the two halves meet. Are those marks supposed to be aligned because mine are about 1/8" mis-aligned? What happens if they are off by a bit?
Also, it's painfully clear, from the amount of gunk in this gun, that the previous owner had no clue how to properly clean or lubricate the marker. There is a brown shelac of old lubricant, possibly from a petroleum based lube (gun oil, 3-in-1, etc) coating the outside of the power tube, the spring, etc. I am in the process of stripping this off but am VERY concerned that the inside of the valve may have been lubed with petro oil also. Will this trash the valve and should I just rebuild the entire valve before I even consider using this marker as a reliable field gun?
Thanks!