FX Cyclone project

[PolarWolf]

few weeks ago I bought a secondhand Cyclone. It's a bit rough around the edges so I'm going to rebuild it into a target/HFT gun.

The first step is already completed: gathering parts.

On the picture are:
1) An FX Cyclone without its reservoir
2) A "spare" reservoir with an FX regulator in it which I formerly used for the regulated .20 Typhoon (which is a .22 ST barreled unregulated Typhoon now )
3) A 24" Lothar Walther choked polygon .177 barrel
4) A Revolution breech
5) A pepper laminate Boyd Gunstocks blank

I picked up the breech from FXOC forum member MG7, thanks for that! I need it because it gives me more clearance for single shot loading (added benefit: It'll fit the 16 shot .177 FX self indexing magazine too!)

The To Do list is obvious:
1) Port the barrel
2) Make a Single Shot tray
3) Fit the stock (which might turn into a headache as the trigger ends up too far from the pistol grip to be comfortable...I need to work on that. Maybe a setback trigger, or else I need to move it further back).
4) Make it shoot 11.5ft/lbs for HFT work. Remove the power selector.
5) Pretty it up

Work In Progress[TM]

[PolarWolf]

Actually, step 1 isn't to port the barrel, step one is to pull everything apart and sort out the parts I need from the parts I don't.

Piccy 1, parts I need are on the left, parts I don't need to the right

Next up, porting the barrel. An FX barrel has a brass sleeve, so I took it off the original barrel. Next up is to fit it, which means turning the breech end down a tad..well...more than a tad. The 16mm barrel has to be turned down to 7.75mm for the first 10.4mm, then to 10mm for the next few cm and lastly to 11.75 for the remainder of the breech end. What that looks like is in piccy 2.

After doing that it's time to test fit, see piccy 3. Looks cool already!

Okay, it fits, lets do the other end...crowning the barrel. I've read a lot about it, but never really mastered the art. I need like three of four tries for the crown to finally pass the Q-Tip test. Anyway, what I do is face off the end, and then remove the burrs with a very sharp, brandnew drill bit. I hold it at an angle (by hand, so it follows the bore in case it's not truly centered) against the slow turning barrel and carefully grind off the burrs. After passing the Q-Tip test, I polish the muzzle. Is it the best method? Surely not. We'll see how the accuracy turns out to be

Lastly the barrel gets a quick polish and then it's time to glue on the brass FX sleeve with some loctite 638 as shown in piccy 5. The loctite is setting as I write this, basically the barrel is finished.

Next up will be to make a pellet tray. I actually need two of those, one for this gun and one for my FX Biathlon. One will be made from aluminium, the other out of brass. We'll see how that goes.

I also need to add a step. To fit the Boyd stock and still be ergonomically usefull I need to move the trigger blade back about an inch. That means I need to design and make an entire trigger blade assembly. That'll be the biggest challenge in this project!

[PolarWolf]

Made a single shot tray I'm not quite happy with yet but it works.

I also broke the regulator I intended to use so I'll have to replace that. I rebuilt the rifle into shooting state for some quick tests (it works!) with a long airtube. Looks pretty too, I must say. The intended stock is a no go as I won't be able to make it fit. I have my eye on another stock now. So..this is a project with ups and downs but I'll get there