Renovating and Modifying a Mares Mirage

[Diving Gecko]

So, to answer the density question somewhat....:

Below 1g/cm3;-)
I did almost go out on a limb in yesterday's post and wanted to say that by feel, the putty seemed like it could almost be slightly positive in water and it is. As I have pointed out plenty of times, I like my guns very neutral in the water, so that's really cool.

Now, I will work on it with a dremel tool and then have a second go with the putty. I already put quite a bit of load on the handle and it didn't flex, creak nor break. So, I think I will skip the carbon covering process, wouldn't mind that.

BTW, it's really hard to shoot pics of this putty. Yesterday, under the LED light, it came up looking too black. It is more like a battleship grey, maybe slightly darker, somewhere between gun metal and battleship grey. It actually looks pretty darn awesome in real life.
I had a feeling this DIY putty could be just the thing I needed, but that I would really like the look of it, is just an added bonus:

PS: I had mentioned earlier that I wanted to do the trigger before the grip but that made no sense as I need the grip before I can figure out where to put the bend in the trigger - so that I can reach it perfectly when holding the final grip. So, grip first then trigger and trigger guard - we are getting there;-)

 

[Diving Gecko]

Trigger News
The grip itself sits a bit further back than on the Predathor - though still more forward than my last custom grip. I can't use the original Mirage trigger since it is lacking the forward protruding tab which engages with the line release and it is borderline using the Salvimar trigger as I would have to remove quite a bit of material to reach it.

Just for the fun of it, I shot a few pics of how it would have looked with a "Race Kit" mounted:

I have also put a bit more thought into the trigger guard. In the pic above I have bent some acrylic to get a sense of the shape and I might fine tune that and then use the acrylic as a mold for a carbon fiber guard. I actually have some really nice, thin wood veneer, so that could be a possibility, too. I always loved the look of carbon and wood mixed, but if it is only a wooden trigger guard it might just look out of place.

I would like the trigger to be about 5-10mm more to the rear, but as said, I can't cut this trigger down that much. For now, the plan is to make one from scratch. I could probably call in a favor and have a stainless one laser cut, but I think I will save that favor and make one by hand in carbon fiber.
So far, I have glued up four layers of 2mm CF plate but I am not looking forward to dremeling this down and all the resulting carbon dust...:

 

[Diving Gecko]

Man, I hate, hate, hate carbon fiber dust but I think we are there on the trigger:

It has an adjustable screw for the trigger pin and engages nicely with the line release (which is now sitting on my preferred right side opposite from where Salvimar put theirs). The reach is between 65-67mm which is pretty sweet for my hand.
It will take a bit of time getting this dialed in correctly in terms of a smooth, repeatable and precise release. I intend to a few bar in the gun, rig some rubber bands to the line release and start shooting it (sans spear) and basically trial and error my way there but I don't expect major problems.

Next up is making a trigger guard and then last round of putty on the handle.
The trigger guard may be a bigger task than I initially thought. Thing is, I pushed my hand up high as much as I could on this grip. So now, my trigger finger is pointing downwards at an angle and my middle finger is almost placed where the trigger finger would normally be on the grip. This means, it is a bit tricky figuring out where to have the end of the trigger guard blend in with the grip. It will either be much higher up than normally or a bit lower so that the middle finger actually ends up inside the guard. We will see...

 

[Diving Gecko]

Oh, I need something else before I am done - an attachment point for a float line on the bottom of the handle (I don't know if there is a proper term for that;-)).

Looking at a left over piece of the same 8mm carbon fiber plate that I used for the trigger above, I realized I could use that. The plan is to mill out a slot in the bottom of the handle and then insert and glue a strip of the CF plate in there. Perhaps drill a transverse hole through the handle and CF plate and insert a rod, too.

Also, the laminate is plenty strong. If I can glue it in place, I am sure it won't break...:
I took another scrap piece, drilled two holes in it and mounted it on my test bench to see if I could pull it apart. I broke the dyneema at 300kg but the CF survived. That's without much wall thickess below the holes, as you can tell from the pics.

 

[foxfish]

waste not want not

 

[Diving Gecko]

It's been quite on the Mirage modding front lately as I modded an old Cayman for a friend instead.

But I just got some nice new parts from Dima/UBL. I asked him how short he felt comfortable about making my new pistons and this is what I received (UBL piston is second from the top):

The top one is an old metal Mirage piston and a bit of an outlier. While it is the shortest, it is also more than twice as heavy as the lighter ones.
Dima did a great job on my new piston. Shortest and lightest overall. If it holds up to being slammed repeatedly from a high pressure gun, I will be very happy.

On another note, Salvi's new Race piston doesn't seem that racy...

Now, I should get back on the handle build!

 

[Diving Gecko]

So... I made it! Dang! Yihaa!
Can't believe this actually worked out, but I know how a Mirage handle with a line release... It works, syncs nicely with the sear letting go off the piston on land, at least.
The trigger guard is so, so, but not sure I will make a better one. It is very thin wood veneer with three layers of carbon fiber in between.
Also, redid the custom grip and is very satisfied with the shape now. I only need to coat it with a bit of carbide powder for added friction.

Before and after:

The new handle:

And the line release which is a big deal for me:

Off to the Philippines in a few days, I left my long Mirage 125 there but might bring this handle to swap out for the one on that gun...

 

[popgun pete]

How do you find that vertical ridge on the butt rear for foot loading, or is it not that noticeable? Often pneumatic gun grip handles are made for ambidextrous use and loading against the foot rather than attempting anything more ambitious in terms of a better fit. As far as I know only Omer/Sporasub offer an alternative grip and that is mainly directed at left handed users. Mares use a column mounted separate grip on their later models, affixed by a plastic transverse pin at the top, but don't seem to have offered alternative grips that would fit on that hollow column.

 

[popgun pete]

On another note, Salvi's new Race piston doesn't seem that racy...

It appears that Salvimar have fattened up their piston, probably to minimize breaking it at the reduced mid-body section seen on this earlier version.

This is the original three seal metal piston used in the "Mirage", note the small hole in the head section to allow trapped water to escape.

 

[Diving Gecko]

Well spotted on the Race piston, Pete. I didn't notice that myself.

I found my original Salvi piston and a snap of it, too. Forgot to write down the measurement, though. From memory it was about 57mm long and 15g, which is very similar to the Seac pistons. Looks the same, too, except for the black nylon.
Still, that is 50% heavier than the Mares standards ones and I have not had any issues with those. Seems like a lot of the Italian spearos, with pimped guns still swear by that Mares piston, too. Supposedly, the closest you'll get to a bullet proof piston. Not too extreme and lightweight but not too heavy either.

From top down:
Salvimar (standard)
Salvimar Race
Mares
UBL (my shortened V2)

 

[popgun pete]

If you have ever wondered why some pistons have a metal cylinder extension on the rear end of the mushroom head then it is a travel limiter. Some users can push the spear down the barrel so hard that they ram the piston right back onto the curved hump that contains the pivot hole in the sear lever. That will drive the front end of the sear tooth, which has already latched, into the rear body of the piston which is plastic. Some pistons have a curving metal shoulder at the front of the shank (which can also be longer) of the mushroom head, so the sear tooth can cause no damage as it cannot contact the plastic piston body, thus they do not have that cylindrical extension at the rear.

 

[Diving Gecko]

How do you find that vertical ridge on the butt rear for foot loading, or is it not that noticeable? Often pneumatic gun grip handles are made for ambidextrous use and loading against the foot rather than attempting anything more ambitious in terms of a better fit. As far as I know only Omer/Sporasub offer an alternative grip and that is mainly directed at left handed users. Mares use a column mounted separate grip on their later models, affixed by a plastic transverse pin at the top, but don't seem to have offered alternative grips that would fit on that hollow column.

Just dived with the new handle for the first time today and it's definitely not as bad as it may look, it's actually better for foot loading than the custom grip it replaced, but less comfortable than the stock Mirage. Maybe I got lucky with the shape of it in terms of how it sits on the foot bridge.
The line release works perfectly well, too and the grip itself is very comfortable. I pulled off the rear fiber optic sights for now as they are quite far from being "calibrated" and it's just too hard to disregard them when aiming.

 

[Diving Gecko]

I just returned from another trip to the Philippines. I was hoping to catch some nice spanish macks but it wasn't meant to be but as always I learned some lessons and hopefully next time will be better.
Also, though I was gone for weeks, I ended up freedive training way more than I speared.

I did bring the latest Mirage handle with me and mounted it on my custom Mirage 120. Forgot to take some swank pics of it on pretty beaches and all that jazz, but it kinda worked most of the time.
I pinched two o-rings on two different occasions and I think in both instances it was because the edges of the o-rings grooves hadn't been probably chamfered - so upon assembly, I actually nicked or cut the ring. They held up surprising well until they decided to finally give up and leak badly.
But once I wet-sanded and smoothed out the hard edges on the o-ring seats (shooting barrel and pumping barrel), I didn't run into trouble with leaks again.

In all my eagerness to keep tab on and share the progress of the custom grip on this handle (see previous posts) I had kinda forgotten to elaborate on the fact that this handle is actually the one that had a completely messed up trigger bushing where the threads had stripped. I had to drill it all out, make a smooth bore and have a friend ti a custom bushing that inserted from the inside. For the longest time, inserting the bushing chewed up the outer o-rings on the bushing. I smoothed the o-ring grooves but to no avail. The culprit was the fact that I couldn't properly chamfer the bore on the upper edge, inside the handle. I tried many things such a bending scalpel but finally came across a deburring tool, that was designed for this. Once I had cut a bit of a chamfer with this tool, the bushing went in with intact o-rings.

So, I am actually happy to say that the handle which I was very close to giving up on has now been fully resurrected. And it sports a sweet and light 1.5mm trigger pin, too.

I'll try to find some pics over the next few days to spice this post up a little.

 

[Diving Gecko]

TRIGGER BUSHING REPAIR (CROSS-THREADED SEAT)
I mentioned that one of the things I managed to rectify on this latest handle was a bust trigger bushing thread. I talked about that issue extensively back in post #66 and this post will be a bit repetitive but I thought it would be OK to have the solution compiled in one post here.

Here is the crossed-threaded seat that wouldn't hold a bushing in place under pressure. (I ended up drilling this threaded seat out completely to make a smooth bore hole):

Some renderings of the tech drawings of my solution:

I ended up having two of these bushings made. The SS one was off on some measurements and didn't have the internal thread but the brass one looks like the rendering and is the one I used. They are tiny - the trigger pins themselves seen on the right are only about 18mm long. They are 1.5mm in diameter, btw:

I only have pics of when I first trialed the stainless bushing in the handle months back. But the brass one inserts in exactly the same way. Basically the bushing is inserted from the inside of the handle and the flange on the bushing is what holds it in place

I mentioned in the post above that the main challenge was actually not coming up with the design or having the bushings made. No, for the longest time, every time I inserted the bushing into the handle I would pinch and damage the outer o-rings. It was a combination of the edges of the o-ring grooves not being properly chamfered but also the top of the hole in the handle wasn't chamfered either. I tried many different ways to get to cut a chamfer in the handle but it so hard to get to that spot and nothing worked. Also, I was afraid to scratch the smooth bore of the hole.
Finally, after a lot of searching I found a deburring bit made specifically for chamfering the top inside of holes. The bit itself was cheap but the handle was not, so I just got a cheap handle from a hobby store. It is the one on the right next to a more normal deburring tool:

To try to conclude on this long and repetitive bushing saga, I will say that this approach is indeed a viable option to save a handle that would otherwise be dead.
I have had the gun up to 33 bar and have put at least 50 shots on it and once I got the bushing chamfered I have had zero issues with it. It's a bit of work to get it done but it worked out, so I am very happy about that.

 

[Diving Gecko]

There's a risk that the placing of the bushing right under the barrel might restrict the airflow to the piston during firing which already is not that "free" in the Mirage. This was one of the other issues I hoped to improve on on this gun. I mentioned my solution in post #97 already but here are some pics again:

There is one more option to improve the airflow which I might do. The hole at the pink marking on the pic above is a blind hole - meaning that it is not open on the other end. It is still quite deep, though. I think if I open the deep end and drill a hole in the shooting barrel just adjacent to the new opening that should improve the flow. I could possibly also just remove the whole side wall of the blind hole.

 

[tromic]

Nice work and pictures ...

 

[Diving Gecko]

A note on how I made the trigger guard. I was running out of time but at the same time I wanted to try to make it in some really thin veneer, that I have.
I hacked up a really rough, fast "plug" for the shape of the trigger guard in Shapelock/Polymorph. That's the white chunk of plastic on the left in this pic:

I then cut a whole bunch of veneer strips, boiled them in water and laid them up on the Shapelock plug. Wrapped the whole thing in electrician's tape overnight. Next day, the middle layers were still not fully dry. So, I stuck the plies in between some fiber plates to help them dry out while still holding their shape:

Once dry, I took about seven of them and laminated them with carbon cloth in between each layer on the same Shapelock plug and wrapped it all in tape again.
Here, the tape is just coming off after curing:

I can see I also covered the plug itself in the tape, just to aid with releasing.
I don't really have more pics of the process but after this, I cut and sanded it to shape, gave it a few epoxy surface coats and mounted it with two screws onto the handle as can be spotted in a previous posts.

 

[Diving Gecko]

Reading back through this long thread of mine I realized I ended up making a different attachment point for the float line than what I had previously outlined.
Originally, I intended to glue a piece of carbon plate in place in the bottom of the handle (the pic is just from a breaking strength test):

But while I was working on this handle, I was also modifying a Pathos 100 Open Pro and beefing up the attachment point on that handle. I ended up using the same method on the Mirage handle but don't really have a lot of pics of that. Instead here a few of the Pathos handle.

Basically, I insert a piece of PU hose, build my custom grip with putty and later, I thread a soft shackle loop of dyneema into the hose and that becomes the attachment point. You can clip tuna clips straight onto the soft shackle or you can open the shackle and thread the dyneema through different types of hardware.

The only thing I did different on the Mirage handle wss to insert the PU hose after I molded the handle grip. So, I milled out a hole in the bottom, inserted the hose and filled up the cavity with epoxy putty mixed with chopped carbon fiber. I did make some undercuts in the hole so I don't think the PU is at risk of being pulled out of the handle. It ended up looking like this:

You can notice a change in color where I added a new batch of putty to keep the PU hose in place:

And the finalized handle with a coat of carbide powder for added grip:

 

[Diving Gecko]

It appears that Salvimar have fattened up their piston, probably to minimize breaking it at the reduced mid-body section seen on this earlier version.
View attachment 43359
This is the original three seal metal piston used in the "Mirage", note the small hole in the head section to allow trapped water to escape.
View attachment 43360

Hey Pete,
Looks like Salvimar beefed up their piston yet again for 2018:

The google translation of Edo's shop listing, with a tiny re-write, says:

The Salvimar RACE KIT 2018 differs from the previous one only for the piston. This kit, which can be mounted on all Predathor, Predathor Vuoto and Dark Side, is composed of:

-Lightened, smoothed piston, black, produced by turning and no longer by molding. In addition, the o-rings have a teflon-coated finish which increases the smoothness inside the barrel.

- Sensitive trigger with the possibility of adjusting the release sensitivity.

-Small line and Sicura acid green [?].
​

Actually, the new piston looks a whole lot like the much older ones with the cup seal(?) but two o-rings instead of one.

 

[Diving Gecko]

Back To Work - And More Leaks...
I am getting a bit lost in regards to where to put all my Mirage DIY info but I think this thread is best suited for my longer Mirage 125. Now, that the 93 version is pretty much done, I am back to working on this one. Sadly, this one has been giving me some pain, too. Three leaks sort of pain. The trigger, power regulator and nose cone leaked...

Power Regulator Fix
I am running out of time before my upcoming trip so haven't taken many pics of my work on this gun. But for the power regulator, I polished the rod and then made a shorter Delrin bushing for the handle (by about 2.2mm) so that I could fit in an extra o-ring. Then I put in two new o-rings (instead of the original one). BTW, the Mirage actually is supposed to have a Parker backup ring (8-006) on the power regulator rod. This white handle had it, but it went missing on my grey handle for the shorter gun.

New DIY Trigger
The trigger bushing thread in this handle is still in OK shape, so no need for the drastic "rescue" bushing I made for the other handle, and though I already had a modified 1.5mm threaded trigger bushing in this gun, it was leaking occasionally, too. Now, that I have been fooling around with my own trigger bushing design for a while I thought I might as well make a new trigger for this handle, too. I used the same internal bore dimensions as on my "rescue bushing" and even managed to make room for two o-rings in this much shorter bushing:

(The threaded bushing to the left is 5.6mm long. The flange on the brass "guide tube" to the right just under the green o-ring is about 0.4mm thick and the pin is 1.5mm)

Nose Cone, arghhh!
So far, the trigger is holding up well but the nose cone is leaking badly at the pumping barrel through-hole. I think this is the one place that continues to give me serious grief on these guns.
I have three Mirage nose cones and only one of them is somewhat OK. The other two are extremely prone to leaks which, of course, is a problem when trying to make two functional guns...:-(
I have tried so many different things the last few days (tons of different o-rings, various amounts of insertion of the tube into the nose cone) and it has all been in vain. I went so far as to make a well-measured dummy plug with spot on o-ring groove dimensions and that even leaked! I noticed that the hole in the nose cone is very far from concentric; the same 13mm hole has a +0.5mm difference in diameter at different spots which can't be helping either. The nose cone that seals the best is much more concentric and symmetrical.
If I had had a four jaw chuck, I would have had a go at making a simple nose cone myself right now, but I don't. I have 1-2 other ideas but not too confident I can make this work in the time I have left...