Nemrod Mid-Handle Classic Layout Pneumatic Spearguns

[popgun pete]

The rear seal takes all the pressure, which I think I mentioned earlier, while the front seal has an easier life. If you are careful then you may be able to exchange front and rear provided the seals can be worked free by lubricating where they sit. To do that you can submerge the entire piston in warm oil for a day or so as then oil can go places where it would never go before. On a multi-piece piston they can be disassembled around the seals, however if the seals have "reverted", i.e. the rubber softens and loses its mechanical strength, then the seal is kaput! The Metzeler company (http://www.metzeler.com/site/com/) are still in business and were associated with Nemrod as both companies names are listed on the patents for the later pneumatic guns such as the big tank Nemrod "Mariner", so may be worth asking them for a lead.

 

[poildeq]

Have a new adaptor machined and threaded out and a valve to attach a air hose. as for original pumps have a new spacer machined out to fit new O rings and piston .

I have given up on the nemrod the piston is totally rusted and all the seal nead replacement it will also need a shaft..so if anyone wants it I'll be glad to sell it

 

[popgun pete]

There is an on-line "speargun museum" ran by a Croatian, or European, guy who might like it for his collection for public photographic display purposes. I have not looked at his web-site in years, but I don't remember a "Mariner" being there. Not to be confused with the US "Skindiving history" web-site that has all the photos, and yet nothing else to see! I actually wrote up a lot of backing material for the various old guns seen there, it was submitted to the site, but has never been used!

 

[picatoste]

ON THIS PAGE YES ALL PRODUCTS APPEARING NEMROD ALONG THE HISTORY OF THE BRAND nemrod77.jimdo.com

 

[Fibonacci]

The Metzeler company (http://www.metzeler.com/site/com/) are still in business and were associated with Nemrod as both companies names are listed on the patents for the later pneumatic guns such as the big tank Nemrod "Mariner", so may be worth asking them for a lead.

Hi Pete

Just updating after my return from a SCUBA diving trip to Flores, Indonesia... amazing place, teeming with fish!

ANYWAY... back to pneumatics!

I did contact Metzeler regarding Nemrod seals but haven't heard back yet...

I've since bought another Nemrod pneumatic... a Galeon II this time in great condition!
Only missing the yellow plastic butt cap and swivel... if anyone has one in their spares bin or a lead on where to get one for my Clippers too I'd be very grateful!

It was really interesting when pulling it apart for cleaning just how well made these early Nemrods were... the composite pistons are made from Stainless Steel, with a plated hardened steel piston riveted in place.
VERY expensive, and not serviceable... but completely unmarked after all this time in storage vs the Clippers which are usually very rusted.

 

[Fibonacci]

Aaargh... multiple image posts for some reason!
How can I delete them?

 

[Stephan Whelan]

Which ones do you want to keep? As a new member you don't have the ability to edit posts (yet).

 

[Fibonacci]

Which ones do you want to keep? As a new member you don't have the ability to edit posts (yet).

Just one of each please... 4 in total

 

[popgun pete]

That stainless steel piston will be from the later Nemrod production, in fact the "Galeon" appears to have been re-issued as the "Dragon", only in that form it lacked the ribbed rubber sleeve and line hook moulding located just behind the muzzle. Those metal pistons can be disassembled by machining away the the "headed up" rear end of the piston spine, then the mushroom head unscrews and the other parts are pulled rearwards off the spine. To reassemble the piston the mushroom head has to be put back on with Loctite "stud lock", or equivalent, with the screw threads "clean as a whistle" or the Loctite will not bond properly.

You can see a "Dragon" here: http://nemrod77.jimdo.com/

 

[Markusfugit]

I'm rather pleased with myself. I bought three Clippers of different sizes, one came with a non-functioning pump, one came with two spears, another with none, and none of them would hold air due to the seals having disintegrated. I now have three fully functioning Clippers. It was a lot of head-scratching and searching online. Was it worth it? That depends on what one finds valuable. I had fun. And I will have fun with them until I give them each away to some Costa Rican kid.

 

[Diving Gecko]

I'm rather pleased with myself. I bought three Clippers of different sizes, one came with a non-functioning pump, one came with two spears, another with none, and none of them would hold air due to the seals having disintegrated. I now have three fully functioning Clippers. It was a lot of head-scratching and searching online. Was it worth it? That depends on what one finds valuable. I had fun. And I will have fun with them until I give them each away to some Costa Rican kid.

Love it, well done. Coulnd't agree more with your statement on whether it was worth it or not. If it was for you, then sure it was! Oftentimes overcoming the challenge is where the most fun and satisfaction comes from.

 

[Markusfugit]

Love it, well done. Coulnd't agree more with your statement on whether it was worth it or not. If it was for you, then sure it was! Oftentimes overcoming the challenge is where the most fun and satisfaction comes from.

If anyone has need of piston seals or other seals to follow suit, I now have spares.

 

[Fibonacci]

If anyone has need of piston seals or other seals to follow suit, I now have spares.

Great project... the Three Amigos look good together!
Very interested in some spare Clipper piston seals, please let me know details...

 

[Markusfugit]

Great project... the Three Amigos look good together!
Very interested in some spare Clipper piston seals, please let me know details...

Send me your mailing address and I'll send you a couple. I found them through AliBaba: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/UN-...b58f-445d-9c37-7917268c44f3&priceBeautifyAB=0

They're not expensive; the space that the seal needs to fill is 6mm wide, and these are only 3mm, so I cut the lip off two and used them as backers for the seals. I suppose you could also cut the old ones down to 3mm thick. They were $15.88 for a bag of 20. If you're on their website, search "8X13X3 U cup seals" if the above link doesn't work. I have yet to use the guns underwater, but all seems well so far.

The other seals I needed were the 36mm o-rings that seal the barrel. they are 3mm in diameter rather than the standard 3.5mm, and that half-a-mm just won't fit. I found those through McMaster- Carr.

 

[popgun pete]

This info is now going to be useful for anyone with the same problem. Note that once you have the seals a new composite piston could be machined up by a competent workshop if you can afford the cost. Nemrod inner barrel bores are 0.5 inch or 13 mm, so a gun could use a "Sten" piston with a new mushroom head tail or have a Delrin or nylon piston made with a custom machined mushroom tail and spine that screws into the piston body. At the same time the gun could be converted to using more common spears, however Nemrod guns usually shoot 9 mm diameter spears whereas most common spears are 8 mm diameter.

 

[popgun pete]

Unless the production tooling has been thrown out I am surprised no one has restarted "Clipper" production, the plastic handle molds being the most difficult part to replicate in terms of the expense in creating new injection molding dies. Metal parts are relatively easy, although the muzzles need careful manufacture as the gun's safety is dependent on how well they are made. You don't want pistons escaping under pressure from the gun!

 

[popgun pete]

Here is a Nemrod "Dragon" which was mentioned earlier. It appears to be a revamp of the "Galeon".

 

[popgun pete]

Some years back I got into an argument of sorts here about the "Comando" and that being its name and not “Fusil” as the guy thought it was, the name sticker having disappeared from his gun, as it did rapidly on all of them and he was reading the lettering molded into the black plastic handgrip. Now to absolutely dispel any doubt here is a "Comando" virtually new out of the box.

Originally the rear clip was yellow plastic instead of the black shown here, however it was not for wrapping the shooting line as that went around the laterally disposed two rubber horns on the front sight molding just behind the muzzle and the passive rubber line hook at the front of the mid handle. I used the rear clip for attaching the yellow plastic loader which was connected to a doughnut size cork float by a blue cord when one day to my dismay I found that it had silently un-clipped itself and simply floated away. My exclamation at this discovery is unprintable here, but it could be summed up as a WTF moment!

 

[Fibonacci]

Unless the production tooling has been thrown out I am surprised no one has restarted "Clipper" production, the plastic handle molds being the most difficult part to replicate in terms of the expense in creating new injection molding dies. Metal parts are relatively easy, although the muzzles need careful manufacture as the gun's safety is dependent on how well they are made. You don't want pistons escaping under pressure from the gun!

Yes the mid-handled Clipper has a great handle with excellent balance underwater, however they have a number of weird design decisions that adds cost or complexity from a manufacturing point of view.

The barrels were co-moulded with the handles, then the moulding draft angle was machined off the main bulkhead using a cutter piloted on the outside of the barrel and two dowel pins added to ensure precise alignment and allow the o-ring to seal.

If the Clipper was to be remanufactured, it would need redesigning to allow the barrel to be replaceable (similar to modern Mares Sten etc) and o-ring sealed to the expensive ABS handle. CNC machining the metal parts would be straightforward.

The biggest problem is that they sink after firing... fine if your are spearfishing on SCUBA but this has been outlawed in Australia for many decades.

 

[popgun pete]

Molding the plastic mid-handle onto the inner barrel tubing, which was only "inner" in the sense that at the rear it was enclosed by the tank,. was a widespread practice. The Technisub mid-handle guns were exactly the same and even the Russian "Pirometer" (Seabear) which has a cast alloy handle mid-section is bonded onto the inner barrel with resin and embedded wire circlips so that there is no easy way to remove or change the inner barrel. My guess is the idea is to stop leaks along the barrel to handle join and to prevent the barrel sliding through the handle during the shot. If you think of rear handle guns the inner barrel there is butted against the rear handle molding where the inlet valve body housing screws in. For the inner barrel to move the rear of the handle molding has to break in which case the barrel could be blown backwards, but that is extremely unlikely.

As for sinking after the shot that is not a show-stopper, such guns were used for decades even by freedivers, including myself, but it is much easier with the shorter mid-handle models as they can be tucked under your arm or temporarily clipped to a lanyard on your belt. Most of these guns had a swivelling ring at the rear for just that purpose.

You can see the stainless steel loop or ring on this "Galeon" model which was produced after the SILVER series guns (Comando, Bucanero, Corsario and Filibustero). They all used the exact same rear valve cap and metal ring, except they were black plastic in the former and yellow plastic in the latter. In order to reduce costs the later "Clipper" models, which followed these guns, had one piece molded handles which replaced the use of multiple components such as a separate hand grip (grey plastic) and mid-handle mounting section (black plastic).