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If I'm not mistaken, Chad filled the tube with a wood dowl, and had to add the bun later to get the balance right. The whole point of a euro is to keep the profile small, yes?

Quote from fuzz

Looks like a quick simple solution. It'd probably work better with just straight CF tubing .

I would agree, IF you could find CF tubing that would fit typical RA or other existing handles and muzzles. If you go with standard sized tubing, then you have to custom make everthing else. I guess you could just flip a RA barrel upside down, and leave the rail on the bottom.

Quote from fuzz

If you don't mind me asking, where do you source your G10 from?

There are a couple of possibilities. K-mac Plastics has lots of pre-cut strips and bars, but their prices are high. http://k-mac-plastics.net/g10-fr4.htm

Richard (3D Pro on SB) hooked me up with a piece to play with on my hybrid, so he might sell you some. There are some other places like Jamestown Distributors that have sheets, but then you have to cut it up, and that is not a trivial exercise with this material.

Quote from fuzz

As I mentioned above, I don't see why the wooden barrel route wouldn't work well.

I think that as a stick of wood gets ever longer and skinnier, it gets harder to keep it straight, both during manufacturing, and from later warping. For a long skinny tube that may get abused on small boat dives, I think that carbon fiber is about as bullet proof a material as you can get.

I think that I overlooked the simplest solution.

Take a stick of G10 epoxy laminate like I used on my hybrid, and cut a track through it. Then concave the bottom to the right radius, and stick it to your CF barrel of choice after grinding off the molded in rail. Round the top edges to suit your taste. Done.

Eh?

Your atention to detain is obvious Bretto. Would you mind posting how you polish up all your stainless pieces? Are you just using a buffing wheel, or something else?

I don't think that an epoxy track will stay attached to an aluminum barrel because aluminum grows a lot with temperature, and epoxy almost nothing.

So we need to stick our track to a CF tube. If we want to use standard components, like handles and muzzles, then we need a CF tube with the proper ID. I think that you will find that you almost have to start out with an RA barrel, as the tube dimensions are not standard for typical CF tubes.

Something built around a typical euro barrel size of 28 mm might work, but I don't know what metric sizes the CF tubes are easily available in.

"IF" a long section of CF / Epoxy track could be cast, then it would probably be easy to grind the track down on an RA tube, stick on the rough cut track, and then make a final pass to cut the track to the proper diameter and height.

I was thinking about something like this. Two sleeves around a delrin core. Set that on top of the existing track, and wrap two sleeves around the whole thing. Put heat shrink tubing around the outside to snug it all down, and then fill the void space with epoxy / fiber. It will add some weight, but Hau says his gun floats now, so maybe it would end up alright.

When cured, cut off the top and cut the track to suit either 5/16" 0r 9/32" shaft.

Edit - The shaft groove would have to be cut a little lower, to match the barrel's original track height.

See the pic below. I did not insert the wood. The wood section for the rear of the gun was attached to the wax forward section before I laid up the carbon fiber. The carbon fiber was wrapped around the wood from the beginning.

Alvin - The handle will be a tight fit, with each of the vertical legs or "tenons", extending into one of the square mortise pockets. I will then pin it in place with a small 1/8" stainless pin in each tenon, just to make sure that it can't work loose. I'll take some pics when I mount it.

I have the modified Neptonics Reef mech mounted now. The line release slot is cut, but I haven't yet completed the lever or spring resetting mechanism. The aluminum handle is ready for Shapelock, and the forward and rear mortises are cut to fit.

I started working on the Shapelock last night, but that part always takes me a while. Not because it's hard, but because it is so easy to shape that you get addicted to trying to get the fit "perfect"

Good to have you here Bretto!

I'm certainly not suggesting that a drill press is a proper replacement for a hydraulic press. But it doesn't generally take tons of force to insert or remove trigger mech pins either.

As I was fitting up the trigger mech in my carbon fiber gun, I was getting frustrated because the awkwardly rounded shape of the gun at that location made it difficult to set it down on a table and drive the pins out with a hammer and punch as I usually do. Come to think of it, I usually screw things up that way when the punch slips and gouges the wood. So I clamped it in my mill vise to hold it securely, but I don't like to hammer on my mill table. I realized that the punch is hexagonally shaped, so I chucked it up like a drill bit.

I found that it took very little pressure to push the pin out, and it works great for controllably pushing them in as well. In retrospect, it doesn't need to be a punch. Any round rod of a diameter slightly smaller than the pin would work, and it is equally effective in a drill press if you clamp down the vise. Just something to keep in your bag of tricks.

Here's what I meant by the muzzle bungie attachment. I wasn't sure if the loop would go through the RA anchor, but maybe that's not how it is intended? I want to keep my options open with this gun, as I might use it with a reel, a floatline, or on scu . . . Uh, not freediving.

Maybe someone can find some additional pictures online, but here's one that Hau took.

Thanks Hau, I got the pictures. I hadn't seen those before. They look like they would work pretty well, except that the hole looks awfully small. I don't know if I could get the loop of my muzzle bungie through there unless I drop down to smaller cord.

Hau,

Yes, please. Send me a picture of the RA line retainer you referred to.

As for easier, faster, and cheaper . . . You may be rigt. But this gun wasn't designed for mass production.

There are no stupid questions. From the mech to the tip of the muzzle is 40".

A standard Riffe shaft, with shark fins, and a square notch where it engages the trigger mech.

Hau - For this gun, I am using a standard Riffe notch shark fin shaft in either a 5/16" or 9/32" diameter. I'm not as partial to the RA shafts as some.

You just watch out for yourself Alvin. We'll kill some fish when you get back.

I see where my post may have been misleading. The round bore for the muzzle does not go all the way through the 2" of epoxy that I poured to seal the end of the barrel. So it is watertight.