DIY tungsten weights for Pardini?

[kayakr]

Anyone tried making these? I see 8mm rod online and have an abrasive cutting wheel so I’m wondering if they will fit.

[Rover]

Before you get too involved, why not wrap a little solder around your barrel to see if you really want/need the weights.

[kayakr]

Before you get too involved, why not wrap a little solder around your barrel to see if you really want/need the weights.

The weights are used dynamically. A better comparison would be removing some of the steel weights.

[-TT-]

I don't see why you couldn't. I assume you have the steel ones now, and you'd reuse the springs? 8mm seems larger than I expected, I thought the Pardini weights were thinner. Be careful they slide freely, without trapping air which would slow them down.

You might consider playing with the configuration of the springs and weights first. Because there are six of them, you might try putting two or maybe four weights "ahead" of the springs, this will increase their moment of angle making the nose feel heavier. Additionally, it will shift the recoil dampening effect to the forward rebound, rather than the usual backward recoil. It's a subtle difference, but very interesting to experiment with.

I made a recoil damper with tungsten weights for my Benelli MP90S: https://www.targettalk.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=60199 I used inexpensive 3/8"/10mm slugs intended for "pinewood derby" cars, and I machined the carrier from Delrin.

[j danielsson]

8 mm will fit.

[kayakr]

See also http://www.targettalk.org/viewtopic.php ... ni#p137347

[spektr]

I dont think Id be comfy cutting tungsten with an abrasive wheel.... The dust is really hard on ya.....

[kayakr]

I dont think Id be comfy cutting tungsten with an abrasive wheel.... The dust is really hard on ya.....

Thanks for the warning. Apparently flammable as well.

[bking]

At one point I bought six tungsten rods on eBay, I think 3/8” - 1.5”. They were slightly too large diameter so @sakurama turned them down for me on his lathe. Machining tungsten is no picnic and the surface didn’t come out great (feed & speed wasn’t right I guess.)

Anyway it mostly made the barrel heavier, I didn’t perceive much difference in recoil absorption. I have both a “Bullseye” and an “RF” Pardini and have swapped parts back and forth. The recoil difference has much more to do with the lightened bolt than the Tungsten weights. Now I’m doing basically all of my shooting indoors at 50’ and prefer the RF.

[JamesH]

Good luck cutting tungsten, the dust is toxic, can you really lift six tungsten weights?.

[Tangohammerli]

Did just that, made them last year. It wasn't hard but did destroy a cutting wheel in the process.
I personally like the difference they make!

[kayakr]

Ok. I did it. Cutting started slow but it went better once I found the right pressure, which is when you see sparks. You swiftly want a free disks, grinding wheel and belt sander. I did it outside with a full respirator and face mask. Deburring the cuts was harder. The fit is tighter than the steel weights so in addition to the springs there may be more air compression. One of the weights was out of spec and too thick somewhere, so I ended up sanding sanding sanding. I lubed by rubbing on moly powder.

Barrel is definitely heavier and may be too much for me at this time. I’ll experiment at the range. IZH pistol might have prepared me though.

I can’t say I would advise diy given the properties of the metal. Significantly harder than I expected.