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Airbalete 110

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
foxfish said:
I thought all air guns were measured by their total length?
How long is your gun Don?
Click to expand...

117.5 cm total over length. (to the lower rear edge of handle) 110.5cm barrel.
Don

From the web;
 

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Strangelove, i think you are getting your guns mixed up1

the reel mont on a Cobra is independent of the trigger.

the gun you are thinking of is the Old wooden master america which has a t20 handle with a teak barrel.

the cobra is all one piece CNC'd teak with a T10 trigger housing dropped into the wooden body. the reel mount is diecast stainless steel and mounted into the wood so would be a perfect choice for your needs.

DD
 
Reactions: strangelove
Thanks for the tip, I never held that gun I was just judging by the pictures.

I email mark lets see what he has. I also bought a merou reel, I will try that one too.
 
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Dear Don ,
Please advice your trigger sensitivity of airbalete at 30 bars .
I have airbalete 100 at 23 bars and think that the trigger is little bit harder than at 20 bars .
Did you make some adjustment with screw on the back of the handle and please tell me if this works or not ?

B/Rgds,
Martin
 

Hi Martin, My gun came to me slightly used so I do not know if the sensitivity was in a stock bench setting. When I shot the gun in the sea @ 30 bar, the feel was very close to my game gun so I left it as is.
I'll be be back in the sea with the gun the first week in June and I will measure the trigger pull force needed on my gun with a scale. Sorry I could not be of more help.
Maybe Mark Laboccetta ( US Omer rep) can chime in before my back-yard
test.
Cheers, Don Paul
 
Don, i saw on the other forum that you added dynamat to the barrel, have you fitted a dry barrel system yet, if so, any details? thanks.
 
Jonny250 said:
Don, i saw on the other forum that you added dynamat to the barrel, have you fitted a dry barrel system yet, if so, any details? thanks.
Click to expand...

No dry barrel yet.This winter when the season ends I plan on a tear down and inspection of all parts. I have porting and some other mods to test
before I go dry barrel, all the mods will be shared here for better or worse.
I lost access to by test pool 2 years ago so I will be gauging performance
only on big fish penetration.

Cheers, Don
 
Recently Tromic and son have fabricated a hand made dry barrel kit for my Nitrobalete and shipped it from his fine homeland.
The parts arrived yesterday and are very finely crafted and designed (my soft images do not do it justice).

Some images of the Tomba parts for Airbalete and the stock piston assembly
as removed from my Airbalete.

My first step was to wash the gun in fresh water to remove any trace of sand or salt deposits. The handle was then removed to take a pressure reading and depressurize the barrel assembly by releasing the fill valve pin. I am happy to report the Nitrogen I filled the gun with many months ago still held at 30 Bar at the same temp.

After using a short rod to press the piston 6'' back into the inner barrel I
carefully unscrewed the end fitting with a thin rod. The piston was removed
and the inner barrel was inspected with a borescope I have had kicking around many years.The inner barrel was found to be un-scored and water free.
After several sandy beach surf entry's.

The next image shows the piston assemble with very small droplets of water from the wash down process on the scraper ring.

I washed the affected parts in rubbing alcohol and followed with a canned air blow down. After a application of Omer Airgun grease to the piston assembly and the O-rings the Tomba parts were installed.
I plan on pressurizing the gun tonight followed by a tub submersion to check for any leaks.



Cheers, Don Paul
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The Tomba parts assembled very nicely with no binding on hand assembly.
Only requiring me to me to metal finish the height of the two dimples on the
sleeve under the unused power reducer plastic port sleeve as seen n image 4 of my previous post. More later....
I have put off the porting until after the game fish season ends and dicided to shoot the gun dry barrel while the weather in still good.

Cheer Don Paul Attached Thumbnails


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Don Paul said:
The inner barrel was inspected with a borescope I have had kicking around many years.
Click to expand...

Wow, you have all the toys don't you! Awesome gun, and awesome thread with great info. Thanks so much for posting details of your experiments and experience, and I look forward to reading more about how the gun performs with the dry barrel system.

BTW, your thread here has helped to really turn me on to pneumatic guns, and I really wanted to buy an airbalete for myself. I've been doing some research lately about speargun design and how they have evolved over the last half century or so. I've come to the conclusion that inch for inch, a decent pneumatic is my favorite all around design for its compactness, simplicity, efficiency in energy storage and loading, and clean lines for low drag in the water.

I couldn't quite get myself to drop the $$$ on a new airbalete, and used ones certainly aren't easy to come by around here. After some more research, I found that the Mares Spark has earned itself a nice reputation, and could be had for a lot less money. So you have helped to inspire me to become a new owner of a mares spark 970, which just arrived a few days ago. I look forward to trying it out pronto!

Thanks for your info, and I look forward to reading more,
Brian
 
Thanks for your info, and I look forward to reading more, Quote:
Brian

Welcome mate... air is a gas.

Cheers, Don Paul
 

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Omer 17/4 patened flopper shaft mod

The patented flopper ring is said to help to quickly remove the spear from the fish by securing the flopper to the shaft on removal. I have shot a few fish with it at this point and do not find this to be the case. If one looks at the
small fast Bonito in the first image you will see the retainer ring has ended up on the opposite side of the fish. Try sliding the ring through the tight entry wound and broken sharp bones if you want proof. On skinny fish thinner than the length of the flopper this may not be a issue. I usually use the twist and pull system anyway.

I have a very simple cure that takes only seconds to rig that also helps to open and limit closing of the flopper and a lost fish.

Image #2 and 3 show the the 1000 grit wet paper I use to polish the shaft and the sharp edges of the flopper. After a acetone wash I apply 2 wraps of 3m weather proof electrical tape with the front edge 7.0 mm rearward of the closed rear edge of the flopper. this prevents the flopper retainer from sliding through the fish.
image #4. shows the retainer ring slide forward after applying slight pressure to secure the flopper and withdraw the shaft from the fish.
Image # 5. demonstrates how the retainer wedges the wing from closing no even if the fish shakes and unseats a tuned flopper or a slack shooting line. This mod has held up for a couple of Bonita, 2 27# White Sea Bass, and a few calico Bass.
Very simple but effective. At first I was going to lay down a small TIG weld dimple, but this had the same result.
Image #5 also shows the Omer 6.5 mm cone I split and Gflex epoxy I bond filling the small gap and polishing smooth,
I could not find 7 mm cones in the US catalog although this is a popular shaft in the US with it's increased mass and stiffer
spline cycle. When I strip the handle down next I'll show the softer SS spring I fab'ed in exchanged for the stiff stock one.
After the dry barrel hunts I plan on stripping the gun down for elongation of the air tank to inner barrel orifices at the rear of the barrel.along with piston snubber exchange.
Cheers, Don Paul

Cheers, Don Paul
 

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Here are some images of the rigged gun for a local hunt in poor 12' Vis.

Image# 1.non leaking barrel hand pumped to 20 Bar @ 70 degrees
# 2. shaft tail with 400# outrigger mono.
#3 Tomba Muzzel with protective film to quite line crimp rattles while tracking.
#4.Gun rigged for shaft storage on surf entry. Point is positioned into top of reel line with slide ring loom securing shaft tail at muzzle In Image # 5.

Sorry on dead fish pictures as I had no one to wait for me at the beach,
but happy to report the gun is just deadly even at 20 bar on 2 kg bass
12 feet from the tip.

Cheers, Don Attached Thumbnails
 
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Re: Airbalete 110 With Tomba Kit

I am very pleased with the balance of the gun with the Tomba system and 7mm shaft..With one finger in the trigger hole the tip of the gun just hovers out there without any effort. The spot I chose to dive Sunday had Vis in the 10 to 12' range on the outside reef. Conditions inside were too surgey near the beach for target shooting so I kicked out to a reef 1/8 off shore with deep wary Calico bass in the 2 kg range. These fish are very smart in this are as they are targeted weekly by the locals. Many times the fish will face a stealthy diver head on as long as they feel they are just out of range. Several times I have pulled the trigger on fish that have dogged the shaft or hit the departing fish in the side as they bolted to the sound of the gun.

That was not the case with the Tomba Airbalete @ just 20Bar. I aimed at the head of the first dinner sized bass on the edge of visibility(12' from the tip) before he could respond to the slight clink of the shaft,was impaled through the head, flopper toggling a pectoral fin. After loading the gun this summer @ 30Bar I had the feeling I was cocking a beefed up pole spear and not a spear gun. This gun would make a nice camera gun for the complete lack of felt recoil even with unlocked elbow.

Two more 3 to 5lb Calico bass were taken, one broadside at 10' off the tip and another right at the end of the 13' outstretched 400# Mono. I do have the line latch spring removed from this gun, and shots were spot on at distance. The hydrodynamic slide ring assembly did not steer the tail in any way. I am confident this gun will brake the spines of 40 lb White Sea Bass at 28Bar when I seek them out next year. I have a new underwater camera coming for Xmas to record the harvest when I seek them out.
Rain has moved into the So Cal area for the next few days looking forward for some tests when I have some better Vis. Outstanding job on the kit Tomislaiv, it is a winner .:friday

Cheers, Don Paul
 
Reactions: Claudio
I've been out of the sea until a head cold clears up, so I went forward with a wooden handle project on the list from the start. The wood I chose is a old scrap of Mango I saved for 25 years.
Here is a poor image of a piece of G10 I milled to except the Airbalete
handle frame, It will be bonded/ sandwiched between the 2 Mango wood blocks which I will shape to my hand.
Only 1 half shown.
Cheers, Don Paul Attached Images


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Here are some handle development shots of the left side rough blank. final shaping is needed after the right is milled for the G10 core box sleeve. The white edge at the top is Liquid paper which help be find high/contact spots on the frame handle interface easily removed in finial prep.

Cheers, Don Paul

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I just love shaping wood with a chain saw...I mean belt sander and a careful hand. Just put it on the barrel so I could get a idea of the flow. These are like a surfboard blank at this early stage, lots of shaping and fitting to the hand before the the core and 2 sides are bonded with G-Flex epoxy and Phil Herranen system resin. I may burnish the finger recess's to add contrast before sealing. A 5/16's thin Titanium sleeve cored with shell from my first abalone will pin the handle to the frame. I have used this method in three of my guns and a hand forged fillet knife I crafted 30 years ago.(Last image) The pin area in the frame will be reinforced and reamed to except a interference fit. The handle top edge will be softly fared in and overlaps 5/16's of the handle, while removing a possible fatigue vector axis point.
( Dust from ab shell in hazardous to you health) :crutch

Cheers, Don Attached Images
 

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Beautiful wood Don!
That is going to be a spectacular handle..
 
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