The $100 challenge.....

Great stuff. Making things work is half the fun of home engineering.

I too had tried taking that pin out and found the process getting too violent, so gave up.

Very very promising, that's still using the air chief flat tips and haven't started pellet picking

Interesting setup there. Does the taped down cocking arm miss the carriage when spinning? What if you take the barrel out of the block like BillB did?

I did notice on mine that the slot cut in the main body where the breech block rotates into had a bad edge, and removing it with a file was fine for that, but I am weary of changing the mating surfaces that could cause the barrel to aim up, so to speak. The main thing would be that it's a reliable lock up and that the breech seal seals against comp tube.

But that's what has been great about this thread is that everyone is just doing what they want to do and enjoying it.

I'd love to know what it actually costs air chief to make these, and when I look at them, it's really only a matter of tightening up clearances and slightly more accurate machining that will make these much better quality. It's almost as if they used worn out machinery and tooling to get the last bit of revenue from them before overhaul.