Posts by JimCuda

  • My Rollergun Mistakes and Lessons Learned

    The pieces were 316, but I sometimes like to drill 17-4 (shafts) and the misc 304. I took a look at the article, but I'll definitely take a second look. I did sharpen some of my trash drillbits from Harbor freight (super cheap) before on my disc sander.


    I am quite familiar with steel/hardening/austenite from Materials Science courses I've taken and it was occurring to me that I was doing some hardening, but I just wanted that hole drilled!


    Thanks for the guidance, I always welcome it.

  • My Rollergun Mistakes and Lessons Learned

    Quote from Linghunt

    Looks good, you have been putting some time into that project.


    Cobalt drill do work better and last longer, but you can get away with high speed, just remember to think about your speeds and feeds for proper cutting. I only use the cobalt drills when I have a big product order.


    Lots of info on web, if you need a link let me know.


    Please post a good guide for drilling, that'd be great. I burned through two Ti-Nitride bits trying to drill a 1/4" hole in the SS plate. I went slow and oiled the surface; when I used the cobalt, they ate through it like butter.

  • My Rollergun Mistakes and Lessons Learned

    I wanted to post this, perhaps to help others. I made a lot of mistakes doing this gunbuild that helped me with my subsequent and most recent Abellan Midhandle that I think came out great. Whereas this was complicated, the new one was simple. I learned that I had a lot to learn/relearn about the basics.


    Intended Gun Specs:
    Abellan Euro trigger
    Tin Man Handle (easiest for me to use as I've already made the jig for it)
    Shoots a 130 or low overhang 120 cm shaft
    I don't remember the length; I just cut it for the shaft desired (I had 3 of these shafts lying around)
    Abellan Reel (I have 6 of them)



    What I did right:
    1.) I used some scrap wood. It's leftover padauk and sapele (both cheap) and I just did 3 laminates.
    2.) The shape is good for a roller.
    3.) Mostly everything, except what I detail below.
    4.) I cut the old muzzle off and restarted.



    Mistakes:
    1.) I tried to remove too much wood with the router bit at once. As I was removing the wood for the roller area, the bit grabbed and messed up the wood. Additionally, the router chips the wood in certain directions, which is difficult for me to predict. It would be much less of an issue if there was much less wood to remove. So I had to lengthen the slot forward. It grabbed again, so I had to lengthen it forward. This caused a cascade of problems.

    I should have made a jig and removed a lot of excess wood by drilling it with a forstner bit out or taking many more passes. I ended up making a jig or guide for the router to follow, but I used a piece of pine that got messed up. I had to make the router guide with MDF, which is a good choice.


    2.) The above problem made me lose excess muzzle space and made it really hard to install the lineguide and the wishbone retainers.


    3.) I drilled the holes for the wishbone retainers (the 1/8" rod that goes over the roller) before trying to bend them to the right length. Do it opposite, it's a lot easier to drill the holes exactly where they line up rather than trying to bend to an exact dimension. I ended up scrapping the first set I made and making a longer set. I had to fill holes with epoxy, which you can barely see.



    4.) I initially had the SS roller holder a little too tight, so I had to add a washer here and there to make it right. I shaped them using a belt sander. Don't try drilling SS with anything less than cobalt bits. It's pointless, I found out.


    5.) Because I had to lengthen the roller slot, I basically had to install everything as shown. I was originally going to just oil this gun because it's the easiest way, but because I got epoxy everywhere when putting in the stainless bits, I ended up putting two coats on the gun.



    6.) The above happened after a day of diving with it. The screws took more loading than I expected, and I bet some water got in there due to carelessness and caused expansion. The same crack happened on both sides, this one is more pronounced. The lesson here is to spread the load better and to move the screws much further back or otherwise eliminate them.


    7.) Linerouting is important. I hope you can see in the photo below that the shooting line (yellow) crosses over the bands. During field testing, they got hung up on the tied wishbone, rendering the reel useless. I can foresee that it could get caught on the bands also. In this case, it needs to be routed directly in the middle or even along the side of the gun. I was just going to install a guide (like the gun below) to route the lines down the middle and stay in between the bands.




    8.) Bending things perfectly is difficult. I put the 1/2" SS flat stock on a vise and tried bending it perfectly. There are some weird angles that you might be able to see in the photo, but are obvious in real life. I should have just kept it flat and added a wood spacer. Not pictured are the pins for loading the gun at 3, 3.25, and 3.5 x stretch (which I calculated).



    Final thoughts:


    1.) I started fixing it and making a better gun. This one was too long anyway and the lack of shaft overhang made aiming more difficult. If you notice, I cut it much better the second time, but I still chipped the wood. I've put in epoxy there, so it's ready to continue.
    2.) The roller system is pretty nice as it makes for a very pleasant shooting gun that is easy to load. Most of the time for bad vis or small fish, I didn't even increase the band stretch, just loaded it. This light loading and the smooth Abellan trigger made it good, despite all the difficulties.
    4.) Thanks to Wood Guy for the roller, they'll be used in an even more ambitious roller experiment coming up. What can I say, I like tinkering.
    5.) I got all the SS bits from onlinemetals.com and the specialty hardware, the threaded standoff that the roller rides on (thanks Tin Man).

  • Speargun with safety or without

    The only reason I don't have a safety is that I've lost lots of fish to them. Also, I think safeties generally don't work properly, at least on my Riffes. When I pulled the trigger with the safety on and miss the fish, it would fire the next time I switched the safety off.



    I consciously practice gun safety by never pointing it at anyone and I like to dive with my index finger behind the trigger, only moving it to the front when I'm near fish.

  • First Gun Build

    Ok, first off I have lots of ideas all the time, but not the skill (quite yet). I NEED that machine!


    Constructive criticism:


    1. You'll need something to keep the wishbones from pinching the shaft and shooting line when as it exits the track. Look at this site, if you haven't thought of this yet. Turbid "Alemanni - spearguns, rollers and articles divers for sport fishing in the ocean or Mediterranean Sea


    2. You'll want to maximize the band stretch, so I'd move the reel back and move the 350% stretch back as well. A rollergun doesn't apply the same amount of "work" onto the shaft as a dual banded gun, it's something on the order of 1.5-1.75 bands, depending on band length & stretch. (I did some calcs that I might ask you to verify)


    3. Line routing is going to be a concern. The shooting line will cross over the bandsgoing from the muzzle to the mech line release. When you fire the gun, it can get hung up on the rubber as it flops around or get pinched on the band retainer (happened to me). if you route the shooting line underneath the gun, that should help.


    Have fun, I built a roller that i hated throughout the build, because I made so so so many mistakes. I learned a lot about gun building in the process, though. It shot really nicely and softly, which was the best part, but then wood by the roller split a bit because I screwed too close to the end of the wood. I have pics, but haven't gotten around to posting my errors as I've been busy and traveling for work. I'm starting on iteration 2 of the roller this weekend, though: 110cm gun w/ 1 20mm band.

  • Abellan Robalo 98 review

    I really liked the ballast system as I've found that I like my guns a little muzzle heavy. After I felt good about it the lead amount, I just poured them in a bowl and put some silicone sealant with the shot, dumped it back into the storage area. I topped it with a little more silicone and it hasn't moved, plus it's easily reversible. You can even set it up to barely float on the surface with shaft in so there's less risk of losing it.


    The shafts should be more "finished" from the factory absolutely and I prefer a full trigger guard.

  • Abellan Denton - Partner in Crime


    Yes, but be careful and remove little wood at a time.

  • Abellan Denton - Partner in Crime

    Quote from makelymyday

    Those shafts are 10 cm longer than the ones that come with that gun right? I have been looking at that gun for a while but can't justify it till I relocate somewhere by the ocean.


    Yes, I have an Abellan shaft, but it takes getting used to to aim, as the is almost no overhang. That shaft also works in both guns.

  • Abellan Denton - Partner in Crime

    Three screws, one in the back, but the total width is only about 1.25" or so. The biggest disadvantage is that the trigger is short, best seen on the actual Abellan Denton, I don't think the stock can be more than 1.25" thick there. Also, the trigger itself is really wide, about 1/2", I had to shave it down on another build; to be detailed tomorrow in another thread. However, it is a sweeeeeet shooting trigger and I'm able to fit mono in the back and a 7.5mm shaft (main reason I picked it).

  • Abellan Denton - Partner in Crime

    On occasion, a speargun emerges while I create sawdust. 54"/137cm LOA, band stretch of a 120cm gun, but shorter due to the reverse trigger and shaft pins. Abellan Mechanism, Tin Man handle, titanium pushrod (lightness for the trigger return). It's a 3 vertical laminate Sapele Mahogany blank with a teak oil finish.



    This gun is a partner to my Abellan Denton 120, pictured alongside. It uses the same shaft, same mech, and bands. The only difference is that it's a midhandle. Because the bands and shaft are interchangeable, you'll always have a spare on the boat! If the vis worsens, use the mid, better use the rear. The distance from the handle to the tip is equivalent to a 80cm euro.






    This is the 5th gun I've made and the first one where I really think I did it right. Its tapered on both sides and on the bottom to make the muzzle thinner; I was trying to make the gun less bulky. The only mistake I made was during the shaping with the 1/2" roundover bit on the sides. I didn't realize that the roller for the routerbit went through the band slot. Fortunately, I had the router fence about 1/8th" off the bit, so little damage. I sanded the area smooth and it looks intentional. It still needs ballasting, but the metal plate opens up to a cavity to add little lead weights (I cut open a lead weight pouch).