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HW100 Quick Fill Air Cylinder Ends Removal Guide
What you will need:
- MAKE SURE YOUR AIR CYLINDER IS COMPLETELY EMPTY!
- A large vice with jaw protectors (or thin slivers of wood etc.)
- A 30mm spanner
- An 8inch (200mm) length of 10mm diameter steel rod reduced to 8mm at one end (as pictured, supplied in our kit)
- A Lawrie Spanner© (as pictured, supplied in our kit)
- A bit of Molykote 111 or 33 or O-Ring specific grease (supplied in our kit)
REMOVING THE GAUGE END CAP
Place the original HW100 Cylinder in a vice with protected jaws. The first picture is the correct way - the vice is not gripping the threads of the end cap inside the cylinder - if the vice grips the threads inside the cylinder like the second picture, you are never going to get the ends off! The pictures show us using thin pieces of wood to protect the cylinder from being marked in the vice - we also recommend pieces of leather - from an old belt for example.
WHAT TO DO
Once you have gripped the tube correctly, then take the levering bar from our kit and put a thin coat of Molycote 111 or 33 or other similar O-Ring grease on the end and slip it into the filler hole. Make sure the bar goes right through. Then whilst gripping the body of the tube protruding out of the vice with your hand, push/pull down on the steel bar. If it's really tight, you may need to give the steel bar a short, sharp whack with a rubber mallet to crack the seal rather than applying slow, gradual force which will just result in you bending the rod. Note: some can be REALLY tight. The levering rod is suitable for quick fill cylinders only.
REMOVING THE BLOCK END
It is very easy to mark or damage the block end cap because the area that needs to be gripped is very narrow and the surface area that a spanner has access to is also very small and very soft in comparison to hardened steel spanners/grips/stilsons. You CAN use a standard 36mm spanner to remove the end, but as mentioned before, the surface area is so small on the flat sides that you can round the soft aluminium of the end cap. A lot of people revert to using a pair of grips or stilsons or other steel tool. You will almost certainly damage the end - steel will easly "bite" into the aluminium of the end cap and mark it. This is where the Lawrie Spanner© comes into it's own. Simply place the tube in a vice in the same way as you did for the gauge end (obviously exposing the block end to work on this time) place the Lawrie Spanner© over the end and then use a 30mm spanner to remove the end cap. Because the Lawrie Spanner© uses the six sides (surface areas) equally to exert force on the end cap, zero damage is expected but NOT guaranteed. If it's really tight, give the far end of the 30mm spanner a short, sharp whack with a rubber mallet rather than applying slow, gradual force. We have removed quite a few like this and never damaged one yet.
RE-ASSEMBLY
When re-assembling the tube we always put a small amount of Molykote 33 or our Professional Gun Oil on the o-rings. You only need to put the ends on "hand tight".
BEFORE YOU PUT AIR BACK INTO THE CYLINDER
Press the valve to make sure that it moves - you need to make sure that you have put the valve back into the end cap perfectly straight and that it moves in and out - if it doesn't move, it has been put back in lopsided and if you put air into the cylinder now you will lock the valve with no way of getting the air back out.