top hat ajustment
I am deathly afaid to ajust my top hat because my rifle is just a fucking tackdriver.
However , just for shits and giggles could i ajust my top hat to get a lower amount of air flow for a .177, or to bring my rifle down to 20 footpounds?
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I’ll try I had to laugh when I looked at it! if you tried to do that it probably wouldn’t turn out so well 😯 ghost are everywhere!!!
Dang it Eddie, that’s my thumb and fingers on the left and that handsome figure just might be a close relative.
Sleep well and don’t be thinking about gargoyles in your dreams.
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Jesus Lurker I thought the pry bars were possesed but it is just you in the shinny box!
Gyno tools 😆
I got them at Harbor Freight. Package of 4 different shapes.
hm
Great idea on the auto trim bars Lurker, where can you buy them Auto store right 😯
WHO WANTS SOME BABY???
Walt is considered experienced in these matters 😉
Lurker, real men bite down on the tophat with their teeth and yank it out. After that you are required by the Real Man Code to glare at anyone around and yell out, WHO WANTS SOME BABY????? DADDYS GOT PLENTY TO GO AROUND.
aloha,
walt
RiffRaff,Â
Great idea of the rubber fender washer 💡Â
That may be better than the breech O-Ring that I measured at about 0.072″. I like the more uniform surface area.
I use a couple autotrim pry bars to remove the Valve Stem/Top Hat so I don’t bend it any. That’s a good time to put a slight smear of silicone greese on the stem.
I used flat rubber fender washers, got em at ACE.
The measured anywhere from .06-.07 depending on how much pressure I used on the calipers.
I got the ones with a .25″ hole in the middle, then trimmed around the outside diamter to make it roughly the same size as the tophat, but I left a tag on it so I could grab it easily.
In reality, trimming it wasnt necessary, the OD of the washer didnt matter to the function of the gun.
Anyway stretch one over the tophat and let it sit between the tophat and the brass valve face. When I did this I got excellent results with the .22 barrel. Never tried it with the .25.
This one iis a smaller diameter than the ones I trimmed. Had to use a pick to get it out of there.
Can use allen wrenches as a gap gauge, convert fractions to thousandths or measure wrench with caliper. Mark wrench and use to reset tophat should it move or you decide reset to where you started from.
After searching my wrenches found one that fits, measures 2.4mm/.095inches, of all things it’s a metric allen wrench.
My caliper only measures ID above .4 inch
Airforce had my tophat set to a 1/8 allen wrench gap or .125 thousandths. when I got it back. Then it started to move, tried several times to set and lock, wound up using blue loctite. Final gap set to 2.4mm/.095 tophat.
Sam 😎
If you do want to adjust your top hat… be sure to have some blue loctite, and a 0.050 allen wrench (standard not metric).
Loosen the top hat bolt. This will allow the top hat to screw and unscrew on the valve stem. Screwing increases or decreases the distance on the valve stem.
You will hear a lot of adjustment advise… in the end, just make sure its snug against your breach when your breach is cocked. This means, with no hammer pressure, the breach is pressing against your top hat. Any gap and you may not get a full strike.
Here’s the most important advise: DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN THE TOP HAT SET SCREW. Just screw it in, drop some blue loctite on it, then unscrew and rescrew to feed the loctite into the bolt threads. When you feel resistance – STOP. That’s all you need. Now let the loctite set for about 6-12 hours. Steel<->Steel takes less than 24 hours.
As for top hat settings… if your gun shoots reliably then don’t change it. I have two tanks and they perform great. They have two different top hat settings and both snug against the breach when cocked. I cannot tell the difference in POI out to 40-50 yards. I only adjusted them because one was not snug.
To measure top hat, get a feeler gauge and measure the gap between TH and tank. If you have digital calipers you can use them to measure the feeler gauge “stack” rather than adding them up by hand. I cannot get my calipers to measure the gap directly.
If you have an extra breech O-Ring it will do.
It’ll probably reduce the velocity a little but improve the number of shots for a given amount of air.
If the lower velocity is a problem then you could adjust the Top Hat forward some. That’s why o suggested getting the extra valve set-up first. That would be a good time to order a few extra breech O-Rings. Hint…hint
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Let me preface my comments by saying that “I aint touched it since Tony did”. But my .02 is to measure the gap first, then use a tight fitting drill bit on the inside of the stem to keep from denting it. Adjust it all you want using the drill bit to keep from damaging it. Then, when you’re all done, THEN loc-tite it. EDIT: I didn’t come up with the drill bit idea, just passing it along.