DIY - Do It Yourself, Home Repair

Add A Pool Ionizer to Save Money on Chlorine, Clarifier and Your Time!

We live in Southwest Michigan, have an older 40,000 gallon in-ground pool surrounded by trees and all kinds of vegetation. It seemed like trying to keep the pool clean was a never ending job. In July 2022 a friend recommeded that I buy a pool ionizer to clarify our pool and cut down on algae. The results are promising so let me explain.

Background

On Amazon there are a ton of companies selling solar power pool ionizers. They basically look like a mushroom with solar cells on a flat top and then a 10-12″ cylinder that goes down in the water. In that cylinder is a mesh basket filter, a steel spring and a copper-silver anode.

The solar cells generate direct current (DC) voltage with the negative going to the copper cylinder-silver anode. The postive voltage goes to the metal spring that is the cathode and it encircles the anode with a slight gap in between. The slight current causes positively charged copper-silver “cat-ions” to come off the anode and then they float in the water until they bond with negatively charged microorganisms, such as bacteria and algae, and cause them to break down and due. Your filter then removes them.

Is this dangerous? No, the voltage and current are really low. The use of silver and copper to clean/purify surfaces has been known for hundreds of years. So, it’s definitely proven.

What did I buy?

Well, I read reviews on Amazon plus the friend recommended the model I bought. I went sith the EAAZPOOL Solar Ionizer for a 45,000 gallon pool. They make one for smaller pools but I needed this larger one.

The unit arrived nicely packed. I have not needed to use their customer support so far.

Assembly is super easy – turn the solar cell covered main unit upside down, screw in the anode on the bottom, put the spring in place, put the basket on and then use the plastic thumb screw to hold everything in place. It also comes with a big rubber band that you put around the outside of the main body to further seal the seam where the top and bottom halves of the case come together. You then place it in the water and it runs when the sunlights hits it.

Put the rubber band arund the “equator” or outside midde of the unit to further seal it. Note, you need to set the unit in the pool. I tossed it in once and the rubber band popped off. No harm done – I just fished it out and put the band on – no more tossing it in either.

If you disassemble the unit in a few days and check you will notice the surface of the copper-silver rod will be getting discolored and over time it will even become pitted.

About once a week you take the unit part and wire brush the anode and the wire cathode, plus rinse out the basket.

To take the unit apart, turn the plastic butterful screw counter-clockwise until it pulls out.
The basket and the spring cathode lift right off the unit. You can see the green corrosion. That’s after about 1-2 weeks.
The corrosion brushes right off – not hard to do at all. I just clean it right on the unit and the spring also. I then rinse it all off.
This is what the bottom looks like – the copper-silver anode screws onto the screw stud you see. The cathode wire sits on the silver metal contacts you see. The basket sits in the al perimeter.

Results

For us, the most striking difference was the clarity of the water improved. While algae formation decreased some, I had hoped for more. This season I am putting a new anode and cathode in the existing unit and adding a second unit. Our pool only gets direct sun from about 11am until about 3pm because trees block the light so I don’t think enough ionization is happening. I’ll use the test strips they supply to make sure I don’t add too much.

The following are both the unit and the refill kit if you need it – my anode and cathode lasted from July to October just FYI.

Summary

Yes, they do work. Everybody I know with one likes it. My results with the definitely clearer water are promising and I think the second one in my case, with both a big pool and limited direct sun light, will cut back the algae they way I want.

I hope this helps you out. I’ll post an update this summer once I see how using two units works.

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

DIY - Do It Yourself, Home Repair

Use A Pool Leveller To Keep Your In-Ground Pool Full This Year: Fill-O-Matic Brand Worked Great For Me

We have an in-ground pool that was built in the 1970s. Every year when I open it, I wonder what all will be wrong. Starting some years ago we developed a small leak – most likely in a line somewhere. Between that and evaporation, it used to be a challenge to keep the water level correct. This was a big deal because if the water dropped below the skimmer then the pump would run dry and nothing got filtered. Notice how I put that in past tense? It’s not a problem any longer.

In October 2021, I bought a Fill-O-Matic automatic pool leveller. The brand sounds like a gimmick but it really works – I bought mine based on a referral actually but ran out of time before the season ended. However, right at the start of the 2022 pool season in Michigan I installed it and it couldn’t be more simple – you basically adjust the height to where you want the water, connect a host, turn on the water and away it goes.

It’s basically a float valve that moves up and down. When water is added, it moves up and eventually closes the valve. When it goes down, it reaches a point where it opens the valve and it does it in degrees – if the float goes down a bit, the valve only lets a little bit of water in.

The red plastic is the float. When it goes down, the valve gradually opens and water comes in as you can see. When the float goes up, the valve gradually closes.
This is the back of the unit – when you loosen the black finger nuts shown, you can then slide the float up and down and thus control your water level.

What I found was that the unit ran almost constantly but the amount of water it was adding in was small. It’s a very simple well made quality mechanical device and that’s good – that also means it will be reliable.

Summary

I ran it all of 2022 without a problem, rinsed it off before storing it and absolutely plan on using it this year again. By the way, it’s made in the USA and I actually corresponded with the inventor over some question I had – I recall he answered quickly and it addressed whatever it was that I asked. When I searched on Amazon for the product, I notice there are cheap import knock-offs. Be sure to the original Fill-O-Matic.

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

1911, 1911 / 2011

Improperly Adjusted Feed Lips in a Rock Island A2 HC Pistol Can Cause Failure to Eject

One of the things I enjoy about the firearm industry is meeting neat people. Dan Barnett contacted me a few weeks back. He is a certified “polymer” pistol armorer and had recently got into 1911s. As part of the journey, he purchased a used Rock Island Armory 51679 Tac Ultra FS HC 9mm and was trying to sort out why it was failing to eject way more than he cared for and he would have an empty case and a round trying to be fed in the slide at the same time. He and I hit it off because we both like the soft shooting Rocks.

Dan’s 51679 Tac Ultra

Because of my past experiences with RIA Tac Ultra 9mm extractors failing, I asked him how his looked and he told me that it looked nice and sharp – no broken parts. I send him my blog post on extractors and recommended he switch his to a Wilson Combat if he ever runs into a problem or wants to make the upgrade anyways.

There was a possibility the extractor tension was too light but I figured we’d assume it was okay for the moment. Note, if you open a slide slowly and watch the cartridge or casing being extracted, the extractor should maintain control all the way to the ejector. If it doesn’t and the extractor looks ok then it is most likely the tension and there are specialty gauges out there for testing and setting them.

With the extractor tentatively ruled out, what I told him was that not many people understand how critical the magazine feed lips are to proper feeding and ejection of a 1911 and that his Tac Ultra was just that – an oversize 1911.

What can happen is that the front feed lip gap can be set too wide allowing the front of the cartridge to tilt up in the air too far. Then, as the newly extracted case comes backwards, the riding too high bullet pushes the spent case up just enough to miss the ejector. Honestly, there is a really delicate brilliant dance going on inside a 1911 and all it takes is something to be off just enough and things go wrong.

Dan took his calipers to the four mags he had and the front of the feed lips that can be adjusted were all over 0.320″ and I recommend starting somewhere between 0.308 to 0.312″. There isn’t a magic number due to all of the variables one can encounter. Too wide and it can cause a failure to eject or stove piping. You can even have rounds falling out of the mag. Too narrow and you have the cartridge moving straight ahead, smashing nose first into the feedramp and stopping / jamming right then and there.

You can see the ejector is just above the rear rim of the dummy round and the round is angled up slightly. If that nose is up too much, it will nudge the extracting case high enough to miss or intermittently miss the extractor.
This is looking down at the face of the slide – what I want you to see is that there is nothing there to limit the round from working its way towards the top of the slide. The extractor has a firm grip on the rim of the case but that’s it.

Dan asked what he should do, I told him to disassemble the magazine and then carefully hold the magazine budy (the “tube”) on a table or better yet a piece of wood that lets the bottom lips dangle but supports the magazine all the upwards. Then lightly tap on each front side of the magazine to close the gap. Light tap left, light tap right, and measure. Repeat until it gets to the right gap – either via measurement or testing the mag with some dummy rounds.

This is a Steelworx machined stainless steel 9mm dummy round and what I prefer to use these days for testing. I no longer use the blue A-Zoom snap caps as they are not dimensionally identical to a true 115 9mm FMJ round. To adjust the lips, disassemble the mag and then tap on the front of the feed lips only – in the case you can see they are tapered in and are closest to the red. You do not need to hit on the other parts. By tapping on the front the steel lip will gracefully bend in the direction you are tapping it.
Dan adjusted his gap to be around around 0.3095 by looking at where the bullet would hit the ramp/enter the chamber and testing . Your gap could be different from his.

By the way, the back of the magazine is fixed due to the folded metal ears that form the back of the lips. You can’t adjust them much at all or they will buckle or break. I leave them alone.

This tapping doesn’t take a ton of effort so use a light hammer and light taps – this is not a “mongo smash” moment because if you crush the neck of the mag, it’s game over unless you have a mandrel to open it back up. These days I use a light body hammer to do the work.

If you go too far and need to open the lips, use malleable chain pliers also known as chandelier or lamp chain pliers to open the lips back up. External snap ring pliers can also work but are not my first choice. The chain pliers distribute the pressure along a larger area of the lips vs. the relative point pressure of the snap ring pliers’ pins.

Feed lip gaps will change with use – this is not a one time exercise and why it is a good idea to number your mags. This way you can write down the setting for each magazine or know that when you get back front the range which magazine you need to take a look at.

How did the adjustments work out for Dan? He finished a 1,000 round tactical range session with zero malfunctions. I told him to have fun because there is always something to adjust or tinker with on a 1911 and I mean that in a good way.

So, I hope this post helps you out!

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

DIY - Do It Yourself, Uncategorized

Latex-ite UltraShield Driveway Sealer Has Limits – It Seals But Does Not Repair

My wife and I wanted to seal our 160 foot long x 12 foot wide driveway in 2022. My first thought was to use a service but they were sold out for the season by the time we asked so we decided to try and do it ourselves.

What I found out is that the old days of buying some liquid tar / oil based product are gone. You have to buy all these different products that are based on latex of some other chemical. You need one thing to seal holes, another for big cracks and the sealant. Okay, we have a big driveway and it is beat to hell, falling apart and really ought to be replace but we couldn’t afford it. So, what did we do? We took a gamble and the results are so-so but I learned a lot and want to share them because I bet they will help you regardless of brand or product you are using.

Getting Started

I did the math and bought a bunch of pails of Latex-ite UltraShield. What I did was I took the length of the asphalt portion of my driveway x the average width in feet. I then divided this by their average coverage ratio: 160×12/200=9.6 pails. I think I actually bought 10 pails at my local Home Depot but ecause my driveway was in such tough shape, I wound up actually using 14.25 pails for two coats.

There were areas where the old asphalt had crumbled and disappeared. I bought bags of Quickrete asphalt patch to fill in these places. I first broke out the old material into rough rectangles and dug down another inch.
This is the result – I used a tamper to beat it down as best I could and then sprinkled the top with sand so it wasn’t so sticky.
Our driveway was in tough shape – we knew that but were hoping to extend the life a few years. After we filled in the big holes – one of which you can see part way down.
My friend John had a good suggestion – heat up old pieces of asphalt with a ground torch and beat them into holes. So I did that in some places where missing asphalt caused a gap.
I read the Late-Ite Ultra Shield directions, watched several videos and new surface prep would be key. I burned off grasses and moss with the ground torch, sholved the grass back off the edge, blew it clear with a blower and then washed it – literally. That is my pressure washer – I went down the whole driveway and first applied Purple Power to clean and degrease it and then another pass with just water in the pressure washer to get rid of the cleaner. It was so clean you could eat off it … time would tell me I got it that clean in most places but not all.
The day before I flipped them so the solids would break free of the bottom and go towards the lid.
The recommend applying the sealer by going left and right with a squeegee – overlapping the last pass and pressing it into the asphalt.
When I got done it looked amazing. You can see all the still wet sealant in the cracks.
I then applied a second coat. The first coat used up each pail real fast due to the cracks. The second coat went much faster and each pail went further. By the time I was done, I had used 14-1/4 pails of sealant and the coverage comes out to about 134 sq ft/gallon if I am doing the math right.

The Results Six Months Later After Winter

I had a really bad experience once with a wood deck repair chemical that claimed to fix anything that looked awesome in the summer but then the wind literally blew it off in sheets during the winter. The deck sealer had glowing reviews that first summer and then got absolutely smalled with one and two star reviews at Lowest after the first Winter. My point is that I have been sitting on a ton of photos and stuff since last fall to see how it would actually hold up before I wrote this post.

The first thing I want to be clear about in fairness to Latex-ite is that they tell you over and over it is a sealant and will not fill big cracks. Well, even though I searched a ton, I ignored that. I shouldn’t have.

Latex-ite is basically a glorified black paint that dries and hardens on clean solid asphalt to seal it. Well, it looks brownish as you are applying it but it turns a nice rich black as it dries and cures.

One thing I learned is that where it can’t get a good grip, it peels up so a oily, dusty or dirty surface will not work. I tried to do my mother-in-law’s little short driveway in a rush and didn’t get it pristinely clean in all places so I can tell you it doesn’t stick plus I had a few on our driveway as well.

You also need to squeegee it in place to force it into cracks, crevices and pores but if applied too thick, such as in the tons of larger cracks on my driveway, it will crack, break down and otherwise slowly disappear.

In short, it is just a sealer and gives you a good looking new black coloring on your asphalt. It really is not a filler, glue or anything else in terms of fixing things.

The following photos show the difference between mid-September 2022 and March 2023:

Most cracks over 1/4″ do not have any visible selant in them. The black sealant is on most of the larger pieces – the brown tracks are where we drive and yes, the area is very wet every spring.
This view is bakc towards our house. The family who had the home built in the 70s had a concrete driveway poured closer to the house and asphalt from a certain point to the road. It was probably a cost savings move and the asphalt is neither very thick nor sitting on a very well prepared bed.
You can see how the sealant is breaking down into flakess and separating.
This is by one edge – it tells you that I didn’t get the drive way as clean as I thought in all places. Again, the sealer can’t bond to dirt so it will curl or float there and rapidly break down as you drive over it.

Summary

What I want to take from the blog post are some key lessons learned:

These new drive way finishes – all of them that no longer have oil/petroleum products in them – have limits so carefully read their instructions, application notes and reviews by others. If they say they can’t do something then respect that. My biggest regret in hindsight was trying to use the sealer to fill the cracks – it can’t and the maker said so.

Surface prep is key followed by applying two good coats with a squeegee. The Quickrete patch held up fairly well. The sealer helped keep it from falling apart during freeze-thaw cycles, something I have experienced multiple times in the past.

John’s idea of heating up asphalt pieces and beating them in place worked just fine – no surprises there.

What are my thoughts on Latex-ite UltraShield? Well, to be completely fair to them, the product performed as they said it would. If my driveway wasn’t in such tough shape, I bet it would have held up better. In places where it could get a firm grip on the asphalt it still looks good.

Am I going to use it again if I try to reseal the whole drive again? Maybe not. I would really like to find something that is more flexible given my driveway’s shifting nature but first I need to apply crack filler before doing anything else.

Does it look better than before I started all this? Yes, I think it does. Not as good as I would like but it is better. At best, I am playing a delaying game. We will need to replace that driveway at some point but if I can get another 5-10 years out of it then great.

Let me stress this one more time – regardless of brand or product, unless your driveway sealer or finish says it can fill cracks and gaps the sizes your driveway has, you will need to take care of them first.

I hope this gives you some food for thought.

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

Air & C02 Rifles and Pistols

You must run a filter between your compressor and your airgun

If you are into precharged pneumatic (PCP) airguns and have bought a compressor – you need to also make sure you have a good inline filter. The reason is pretty simple, any compressor sucks in everything that is in the air including dust and moisture. You may not have stopped and though about it, but there are also impurities the are bonded to the water as well – sulfurs, acids, minerals, etc. You really need to filter the air before you pump it into your airgun or air cylinder.

If you are wondering why this is critical it is because your airguns use precise maching and a ton of O-rings. You don’t want contaminants to be introduced that cause premature wear or corrision of the aluminum surfaces. The cleaner your air supply is, all things being equal, the more reliable your airgun will be and the less maintenance required. Please note I am not saying this will make your o-rings and what not last forever – all airguns will require maintenance at some point and the most common need is to go though and replace the seals. Clean air will help them last longer than dirty air is all I am saying.

“But isn’t the oil & water separator in my air compressor enough?” is often asked and the answer is a resounding “No, it is not”. High pressure air is hot and as it expands and cools, condensation forms and this continues after the separator. Yes, the separator is better than nothing but it is not sufficient. What you need is a long filter made up of multiple elements.

Buying a Filter

First off, and I can’t stress this enough, you need a filter with a working pressure equal to or greater than your compressor. A high-pressure air (HPA) compressor has working pressures between 4-5,000 PSI these days so your filter must as well and they are specialized – these are not shop air compressors working at 150-250 PSI. One of those would explode.

Second, you need a long filter. When you go to Amazon or other sites you will notice there are short stubby filters that are 1.5-2.0″ long. I sometimes use them from the tank to the gun but I would not recommend them as the filter immediately after the compressor. They are better than nothing but they are too short and usually just have mesh or foam filter elements inside – no dessicant or carbon.

The ones I would recommend are 11.8″ (300mm) long and outside diameter of 1.9″ (50mm) at least. These filters tend to use replaceable cartridges that contain a mesh for particulants, a dessicant for drying the air and a carbon section for neutralizing chemicals that remain.

Air enters at the dessicant end (the white section) and moves towards the black carbon and out the end. There are mesh wafers at the ends and between the dessicant and carbon to trap particulants. The end caps of the filter unscrew and this cartridge can be pushed out and replaced with a new one as it becomes more and more discolored. If airflow stops or you notice fill times taking longer and longer, a plugged filter cartridge is your most likely culprit.
This is my GX CS4 compressor and I am using the factory airline and its 8mm quick connect female fitting to connect to the filter’s male plug. The filter I am currently using and really like is sold on Amazon by “FASTTOBUY”. It’s very well made and you can buy additional filter cartridges. The brass colored nut you see on the surface of the left side’s end cap is the burst disc. A burst disc is designed to break first and let air leak vs. allowing the filter to exceed its safe operating pressure. From the filter, there is a Manloney brand air hose with an 8mm plug on one end and an extended length female fitting on the other.

If you read the captions, I really like my 300mmx50mm FASTTOBUY filter. It’s long enough for a fair amount of drying and cleaning to happen but also ins’t completely unwieldy either as I need to move my compressor around. I have toyed with running two filters in series as a first stage and a second stage and may try that some day but for now, I just run the one.

Summary

I can supply clean dry air to my PCP airguns at home with this set up. The FASTOBUY unit works and the fittings they used have worked with what I have so far. They also provide some spare parts including another filter cartridge.

Do you have to go with the one I am recommending? No, of course not. Just look for a long one that gets good reviews and you can get spare filter cartridges for.

What I am telliing you very directly is NOT to fill your airguns right off the air hose direct from the compressor. You need a filter to get rid of water and other contaminants before you fill your airgun or air cylinder.

Note, I have to buy all of my parts – nothing here was paid for by sponsors, etc. I do make a small amount if you click on an ad and buy something but that is it. You’re getting my real opinion on stuff.

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

Here are the GX compressors from the CS4 down to the CS1

Ammunition

Remington Ammunition Is Cranking Out Ammo Once Again – They Were Bought By Vista Outdoors … But Who is Vista Outdoors?

I was surfing around and dropped by Youtube to see what new videos would pop up and there was a four day old video that was a tour of the Remington Ammunition plant. Okay, the tour of an ammo plant always catches my eye but it got me to thinking also. I knew that Remington declared bankruptcy in July 2020 and was bought by Vista Outdoor. I also knew Vista Outdoor owned a number of brands including Federal but what dawned on me was that I really didn’t know much about Vista. Well, when I have a gap like that, I do some digging and a blog post emerges.

First, here’s the cool plant tour video that kicked this all off:

What happened to Remington in the first place?

Well, rather than start with their founding in 1816 by Eliphalet Remington, let’s jump ahead to 2007. Remington was an iconic firm by that time and due to a string of circumstances including declining sales and reputational damage, they were acquired by Cerebus Capital Management. Remington was already millions of dollars in debt but went ahead and bought Marlin Firearms and Advanced Armament Corporation (AAC) – the suppressor company.

Now if you look back on it, a lot of innovation had ceased and they were milking existing product designs. They were involved in litigation, still not making money and declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2020. As a result, their assets went up for sale. Remington outdoor was split up and sold off piecemeal.

Remington Arms and non-Marlin firearms were sold off to the Roundhill Group. Remington’s ammunition business was sold to Vista Outdoor. I did some quick reading and don’t know much about Roundhill but really the focus of today’s post is Vista so let’s go there.

Vista Outdoors Started As ATK Sporting Products

Well, if we wind back the clock to 1990, a defense company called Alliant Techsystems (ATK) was spun out from Honeywell. ATK had supplied products to the defense industry for close to 50 years at that point.

In 2001 they bought Hercules Aerospace who also made Hercules brand gun power. and decided to enter the ammunition business and bought Blount Industries. The move made them the largest ammunition maker in the United States.

Bear in mind ATK was a big firm and making launch systems also – we are not talking about a small organization, Also in 2001 they acquired Thiokol who made the solid rocket boosters for NASA’s space shuttle program. I’m not going to detail the defense group but they were making missles, the Bushmaster cannon and more.

In 2012 the Army selected ATK to operate the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant (LCAAP) that Remington built in 1941. Renovations were made and quality was improved.

To give you an idea of how big the Sporting Group was – here is a list of the brands they were producing: Allant Powder, Blackhawk, Bolle Bushnell, CCI, Cebe, Champion Targets, Federal Premium Ammunition, Final Approach, Gold Tip Arrows, Hoppes, Outers, Primos, RCBS, Savage Arms, Serengeti, Speer, Uncle Mike’s, and Weaver Optics. That’s quite a spectrum – everything from ammo to sunglasses.

In 2014 ATK decided to split into two companies. Aerospace and defense groups would be merged into Orbital Sciences Corporation. The sporting products group was split off to create Vista Outdoor. The creatiion of the two was completed on February 20, 2015.

Wikipedia has a decent write up of ATK’s history if you want to read more.

Vista Outdoor

Vista was a public company from the start and subject to the pressures of the market to make money, deal with debt, promote and protect the brands it held, etc.

In 2018 they sold off the eyewear brands of Bolle, Cebe and Serengeti.

In 2019 they sold off Savage and Stevens Arms to a group of investors led by the Savage management team.

In 2020 they bought the Remington ammunition and accessory assets. This included the ammunition plant in Lonoke, AR, for $81 million.

How big is Vista Outdoor (stock symbol VSTO)? Well, in terms of sales, they are at $3.04 billion USD in 2022, up 36.08% from the previous year. Net income is positive at $473,23 million up 77.9% from 2021.

Vista does plan on splitting the company into two parts – Outdoor Products and Sporting Products, both of which will be publicly traded.

Outdoor products will include the brands: Bell, Bushnell, Bushnell Golf, CamelBak, Camp Chef, Foresight Sports, Giro, Hoppes, QuietKat, Stone Glacier and others – they have a ton actually so click here for the

Sporting products will include the ammunition brands: CCI, Estate Cartrdige, Federal, Hevi-Shot, Remington, and Speer

As a quick side comment – I didn’t realize how many sporting optics brands that Vista owned until researching this post: Bushnell, Redfield, Simmons, Tasco and Weaver.

In terms of what is new, the company’s CEO, Chris Metz was asked to resign by the board on February 1, 2023, due to a loss of confidence in his leadership. They say the parting was in good terms but regardless of how you look at it, they fired him and there aren’t public details. The firm’s CFO left back in November 2022 so there is some movement going on.

Gary McArthur, a board member, has been appointed interim CEO in the meantime until a permanent CEO is found.

So, that’s Vista Outdoor in a nutshell. Another big holding company with a ton of brands. They invested in bringing the Remington ammunition factory in Lonoke, AR, back up to speed and it is producing now. That’s good.

What will happen with the planned splitting up of the company and long-term plans, it is hard to say. When you look at the the stock price over the past year, it has fallen but it didn’t plummet with Metz’s departure so time will tell. Hopefully good things will continue to happen.

[Note: All images were sourced from a media kit downloaded from the Vista Outdoor website. They own the photos.]

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

Air & C02 Rifles and Pistols

The GX CS4 Compressor Isn’t Replacing the CS3 Models – The CS4 Is For People Who Need to Fill 6.8L Tanks Or Need More Air In General

A fellow asked me that if the GX CS4 high pressure air compressor is an upgrade then why are both the CS3 models (the one with the external 12 volt power supply and the one with an internal integrated supply) still being sold on Amazon. I explained in my email back to him that the CS4 does have a longer run time and a faster fill rate but it’s not a replacement. I figured I better expand on the email because if one person is wondering then others are as well – the models are for people with different needs and budgets.

The CS3 series will work great for anyone filling either a small airtank like my 18 cu ft Omega, or an airgun directly. It’s light and portable so you can do that no problem. The limiting factor is that it is air cooled and has a 20 minute duty cycle after which it needs to cool down. I bought mine in November of 2020 and used it right up until I bought my CS4 in January 2023 and I am certain one reason it held up so well is that I would never run it for more than 20 minutes. If I was filling something that took more than that, I would run it for 20 minutes and then let it cool down. It could top off my Hatsan Gladius or FX Impact Compact Mk.II in far less time than that – it was filling/refilling the Omega bottle that took longer.

The CS4 notably has a water/fluid cooling, the ability to add grease every 4-6 hours of run time, a more powerful motor, a faster fill rate and the ability to compress air up to 400 bar (5,801 psi) and a detachable air line. Yes, it does reflect a lot of lessons learned by GX but it’s not a replacement of the CS3 – the CS3 is still there for folks who want a smaller and lighter unit that is more portable and aren’t filling bigger tanks.

I bought the CS4 because I am getting into some airguns that use a lot of air – a Gauntlet .30 and a Leshiy 2 in .22 so I bought a 6.8L Air Marksman carbon fiber tank. You may be wondering how is a .22 an air hog – well, it gets 28 semi-auto shots and then needs to be topped back off and it’s onboard reservoir is rated at 300 bar. I can fill it one time from the big bottle and then the bottle is close to 250 bar plus I plan on buying the bigger optional air cylinder for the Leshiy.

My point is that all of these were going to require the air pump routinely running longer than the recommended 20 minute duty cycle so I really needed to make the move.

In short, the CS3 is for folks who need a compressor to fill and airgun directly or small bottles plus save a little money. The CS4 does have newer technology and is for users who want to fill airguns directly plus have a long enough duty cycle to fill up to a 6.8 liter tank. I bet it could do bigger as long as you honored the remarkably long 5 hour duty cycle of the CS4 but I’ve not used it enough to say that. The CS4 is more expensive than the CS3.

Here are posts I have written about the CS3:

Here are posts I have written about the CS4:

Here are photos of the units side by side:

The CS4 is the larger compressor
You can see how the CS3 on the left has an attached air line vs. the CS4 that has a Foster quick connect for r aremovable air line.
CS3 is air cooled. You can see the large fluid filled finned cooling jacket on the CS4 through the vent holes.
CS4 weighs 29 pounds
CS3 weighs 19.4 pounds
When I bought the CS3 they did not have the integrated power supply model. I would have gone with the external supply regardless as you can hook your compressor up to a vehicle if you need to refill something in the field or at the range. On the other hand, the integrated model is even more portable as you don’t have to move the 12 volt adapter around.

Summary

I had to buy these compressors with my own money and these posts were not paid for – I want to be clear about that. My experiences with both the CS3 and the CS4 have been very positive and I have no reservations recommending either to you.

Oh – also – a guy emailed me the other day asking me about the GX CS2 and I had to tell him that I do not have any experience with that model. Folks, I only have these two. Before the CS3 I had a Hill Mk. IV hand pump – the Hill was excellent but that’s the limit of my high pressure air compressor experience. I am a licensed SCUBA diver but always bought my air at a dive shop so I had a little knowledge from that plus many, many years of industrial and shop pneumatic work but that was only up to 175 PSI.

Here are the GX compressors from the CS4 down to the CS1

Note, I have to buy all of my parts – nothing here was paid for by sponsors, etc. I do make a small amount if you click on an ad and buy something but that is it. You’re getting my real opinion on stuff.

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

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Understanding how an automatic folding knife works – Kershaw Launch 1 Disassembly and Re-Assembly

In the last post, I showed you a bunch of photos of the Kershaw Launch models 1 and 13. In this post, I am going to take the Launch 1 apart so you can see what it looks like inside. So, let’s get into it.

Tools Required

You will need #6 and #8 Torx bits. Something to pry the blade up and tweezers might help. For me, I have a large Strebito tool kit with a ton of precision bits, handles, tweezers and pry bars designed for electronics that has worked amazingly well for me when working on stuff with small fasteners.

Disassembling the Launch 1

Safety brief: Just remember, you are working with a very sharp spring loaded knife blade. It wants to open. Handle it accordingly and play it safe.
All of these screws use a #6 Torx bit. I removed the clip first and then the three screws holding the handle halves together. Note how the axle bolt is held in place by a hex head on the left. You don’t need to do anything from the side with that bolt – I’m just pointing out it is nice and secure. If you look at the screws at the bottom – especially the one to the right, it looks like some medium strength thread locker was on them.
I missed it on first glance – this is the other half of the axle bolt – kind of like a Chicago-screw or post-screw. I saw the decorative half circles and wondered how they removed it and then I noticed the hole in the center and looked more closely with a flashlight – hidden down in there is a #8 Torx screw.
There must be some thread locker on this as it took some torque to break it free. I didn’t need to use a wrench or heat – I just had to turn more firmly and it came loose.
Looking at the white/grey stuff in the threads – there probably was just a bit of threadlocker to keep it from coming lose but I am not certain. I would tend to think there is because you can’t crank that screw down or the pressure will keep the blade from opening.
At this point, all fasteners have been removed. Notice how I have it turned over so the push button is up – you will want to do the same.
So the scale lifts straight up and off. It is a snug fit on the axle bolt so it may take some wiggling to get it off. Now I need to point something out – look how clean the machining is and the finish is consistent. So many tools and knives look like crap inside due to an “out of sight out of mind” mindset that it is refreshing to see how well this is done. Kudos to the folks in the Oregon Kershaw plant!
The top pin to the left of the push button is hand press fit in place. Pull it out first and the blade will want to rotate clockwise and then the big hole will present itself to the push button and the push button will lift out.
Yes, in the photo above I said remove the pin and then the push button. In my case I was taking pictures and wiggling the blade round – the push button came out on its own. At this point the spring tension is being taken up by the pin. It’s not a crazy amount of spring tension the blade open but it is trying to go a bit further so be careful. This photo also lets us see the removed push button assembly. Normally, the fat bottom portion is engaging one of the cut outs in the bade. Either the one at the top that is keep it closed or the one at the bottom that locks it open. When you push the button the fat piece slides out the way and the blade is released to either open or close. Note, the spring is not sitting properly in the base of the push button in this photo.
I would not have needed the little blue pry bar if I knew the stop pin simply pulls out. If I had slightly closed the blade to take the pressure off the pin, I could have easily lifted the pin out, then controlled the few more degrees of rotation the spring had left in it and the blade would have lifted right off.
The torsion spring is what provides the power to flip the blade into position. The act of the user closing the blade rotates the spring’s coils and store the energy waiting for the button to be pushed spring back into the relaxed position. One leg of the torsion spring sits in the channel of the handle and the other sits in the blade. In this photo I have laid the blade 180 degrees opposite of how it normally sits in the handle so you can see how the torsion spring sits in the two parts. It’s elegant. Notice the ample grease – I think it might be silicone grease. Anything that causes the blade to bind will slow or even stop deployment.
Here are the parts and you can see the nicely done flat torsion spring. Again, I should have removed the stop pin, then the push button and the blade would have lifted right off the axle bolt. This is it other than removing the stop pin which plays into re-assembly.

Re-Assembling the Launch 1

Putting it back together is pretty straight forward. In hindsight I would tell you if something seems complicated, you missed something. That was exactly my thoughts as I was trying to the the torsion spring oriented with one leg in the handle and the other in the blade.

I spent about 5-10 minutes trying to get spring in and had my “duh” moment. Given how the spring sits, no tool so going to fit in there. I thought to myself “I wonder if that that stop pin can pull out?” And it did.
Wow!! Removing that stop pin made it sooooo simple. Rotate the blade such that the torsion spring legs are seated and you will feel the spring working. Then put in the push button and its spring followed by the stop pin.
I wish they designed the spring to snap into the button but they didn’t. An old trick that I used here was to fill the cup of the push button with silicone grease. The grease in turn holds the spring while you install the assembly.
Rotate the blade just enough so you can install the push button in that first large semi-circular opening. You can then push the button down and rotate the blade into the next notch which is the normal lock open moment. In this photo the blade is at a funny angle because the stop pin has not been installed yet.
Notice the blade is pushed all the way down on the axle bolt. To install the stop pin, push the button, carefully close the bade and release the push button. It should engage and hold the blade in the closed position. This presents the hole for the stop pin wonderfully as you can see in the photo and you aren’t fighting the spring. Literally, the pin goes right in.
I put a light coat on silicone grease on this side of the blade as I had wiped most of it off fumbling around. I did clear the silicone out of the bolt if you are wondering. You can also see the stop pin is in its hole.
The handle half is reinstalled. I carefully held it in place and tested to make sure the blade still pivoted and the push button worked.
When you reinstall the end of the axle bolt, you will need to see how much to snug down the screw. I found that if I made it too tight that the blade would not fully deploy. After experimenting, you may want to put just a bit of medium thread locker on the screw to keep it from working loose.
Re-installed these too and with that am done.

Summary

Kershaw did an excellent job on this knife. I thought about doing the same with the Launch 13 and it looks to be the same mechanism so I didn’t bother.

If you are looking for an automatic knife, I am very impressed by the Launch 1 and 13. I suspect the whole line has similar workmanship. I’ll post links further below.

Note, I have to buy all of my parts – nothing here was paid for by sponsors, etc. I do make a small amount if you click on an ad and buy something but that is it. You’re getting my real opinion on stuff.

If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@ro*********.com. Please note that for links to other websites, I may be paid via an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay.

When Strength and Quality Matter Most