Nelspot 007

[OXX]

I jus acquired one in trade. It is really cool and I love having a piece of history. But anyway, it is really in ugly, very dirty shape. I want to take it apart and clean and polish it up but am veeeery afraid I wont be able to get it back together or will have something break or a seal go. Is there anything specific I should watch out for and any recommendations on what I should do??? It does shoot, though it certainly appears to be VERY fast, I suppose the only way to change that is with different springs??? Also, any way to find out exactly how old it is??? I couldnt find a date or serial number anywhere so didnt know. K, thanx for your help.

OXX

[kemikos]

Heh... Nel-spots are fun. One good thing is that they're almost unkillable. There is a grand total of 5 moving parts (not counting springs) on a stock 007.

The one thing to watch out for most is that you don't damage the cup seal, or the part of the valve it seals against. Any scratch on the seal can cause the gun to leak.

Springs aren't too hard to find either. Just look for a Nelson spring kit (sold for Autococker tuning). There are several places online that have them. Even though they're sold for 'Cockers, they're just standard Nelson springs.

Other parts come up fairly regularly on Ebay and other places on the net. In particular, an Ebay seller called "ron-asp" usually has a few Nelson bits up there...

If you get a spring set, you can adjust the velocity. If you can find a few different size power tubes, you can tune it fairly precisely. After that, maybe a stainless hammer and bolt can make the action a little smoother, but they're certainly not necessary.

[OXX]

so now how do I get the bolt, hammer, and spring out of the body???? The rocker arm whatever its called wont let them out the back and they cant go out the front????? Do I have to knock that pin out or what??? K, Thanx.

OXX

[bjjb99]

I'm operating from memory here since I don't have any of my gear with me at work... so bear with me. :)

Nel-spots are tough critters. There's a total of three pressure seals in the marker--one static seal where the 12-gram cartridge is punctured, one static o-ring seal inside the valve body, and one dynamic cup seal inside the valve body. There may or may not be an o-ring at the front of the bolt as well. The operating principle is very simple. It would be hard for you to get in a situation where you could not reassemble the marker.

If I understand you correctly, OXX, the hammer (the part that what you're calling the "rocker arm" is attached to) and bolt won't slide out the back of the marker, and yet they slide freely back and forth inside the marker itself.

It sounds like the slot on the bottom of your nel-spot does not go all the way to the rear of the marker; instead, the slot probably stops about 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch before the rear of the marker, leaving a solid ring of metal at the back (I hope that made sense, my brain is just waking up). If the slot on the bottom of your nel-spot does not go all the way to the rear of the marker, you have two options:

1. Tap out the pin holding the sear (what you're calling the rocker arm) in place. Be careful not to lose the little spring that is underneat the sear... it may want to shoot out across the room once the sear pin is removed. Removal of the sear pin and sear should allow everything to slide out the back of the marker. It's a pain in the butt to use this method repeatedly, such as when you want to change springs to compensate for temperature effects.

2. Get a hacksaw or a dremel with a cutting wheel. Carefully cut away the piece of metal stopping the hammer from sliding out the rear of the marker (not the sear!). You're basically extending the slot on the bottom of the marker all the way to the back. This allows for easy disassembly and cleaning. It's also makes changing springs a lot more convenient. Removing that piece of metal will slightly decrease the strength of the marker, and after a lot of disassembly/reassembly you may find that the valve body does not fit as tight anymore. Cutting away this piece of metal was very commonplace back in the 1980's. I'm somewhat surprised that it hasn't already been done to the one you own.

If you plan on using the marker regularly, you'll probably want to go with option 2. If you plan on disassembling it, cleaning it, reassembling it, and keeping it that way without much use, I'd probably go with option 1.

Hope this makes a bit of sense, and enjoy your piece of history. :)

BJJB

[OXX]

But what it is, the hammer and the sear (cant believe I didnt remember that) are stuck by the ring of metal, but theres also a screw hole in that ring??? Is it just to help hold the valve body in?? It already has the 2 other screw holes on top. I guess I will cut it (soon as I buy another Dremel cutting heads and wheels, wherever they went). Thanx for the help.

OXX

[bjjb99]

It's been so long since I've seen a non-cut nel-spot that I honestly cannot remember if they used to have a third screw hole like you've described. If it has one, it's no big deal to cut it away. My old nel-spot functioned fine without any of those tiny set screws in place; I just had to make sure the front and rear screws for the grip frame were tight. Field stripping a nel-spot would almost invariably result in the loss of one or more of those tiny set screws; an ant could come by and carry one of 'em off. I finally gave up on replacing them all the time.

BJJB