I break these things all of the time. For a while Butler Creek would send me free replacements, but they would break too, so I just had a lot of broken caps and still nothing to guard the glass. While a few guys decided to build better caps, I decided to take a whack at repairing the weak link of the Butler Creek design. It is not pretty, but I haven't broken a repaired cap yet! Any one can do this. I used a hot air rework station, but you could probably pull it off with a cheapo soldering iron.
Here are the tools and materials:
That is an Atten Hot Air Rework station. $75 on eBay.
Stainless steel mesh.
I forget what kind of plastic I use, but it is the same thing car bumpers are made of these days.
You can buy the mesh and strips of plastic together on eBay for just a few dollars.
So I snap the cap together and drill a small hole through the center of the hinge. Then I feed a small piece of wire through the hole. I use this wire to pull the hinge into the correct position for welding.
I simply pull the wire across the cylinder and snap the cap down over it to hold the wire in place.
I tack weld the hinge to the cap and let it cool.
Next I lay the mesh over the hinge and burn it into the plastic.
While it is still warm, I begin laying the "band-aid" over the mesh. I stand the plastic stick at about a 45 degree angle about 3/4 of the way across the cap. I heat underneath the stick and slowly press it into the cap as it melts. Since the cap is much thinner than the stick, you want to concentrate the majority of the heat on the stick. The only way you can really screw this up is, if you get the hinge too hot and upset the manner in which the spring is situated OR get the cap too hot and warp the edge where it seats onto the cylinder.
As I said, I've yet to break one and have 4 of them on rifles that have been handled quite frequently over the last 6 months. This modified cap is extremely strong compared to a new BC. I'm sure it has a weakness somewhere, but I've yet to find it. If you do a lot of soldering or use a lot of shrink tube, the hot air station is definitely worth the small investment! I use mine all of the time. Mine is a European model that is designed to be used in a 220v Euro outlet. I cut the plug off and soldered the wires to the inside of that power strip that you see behind it. I MIGHT have rewired the transformer (don't remember if I did or not). Anyway, it works just fine on 110v. When I bought it, the American model was $25 more than the Euro.... I'm a cheapskate.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Here are the tools and materials:
That is an Atten Hot Air Rework station. $75 on eBay.
Stainless steel mesh.
I forget what kind of plastic I use, but it is the same thing car bumpers are made of these days.
You can buy the mesh and strips of plastic together on eBay for just a few dollars.
So I snap the cap together and drill a small hole through the center of the hinge. Then I feed a small piece of wire through the hole. I use this wire to pull the hinge into the correct position for welding.
I simply pull the wire across the cylinder and snap the cap down over it to hold the wire in place.
I tack weld the hinge to the cap and let it cool.
Next I lay the mesh over the hinge and burn it into the plastic.
While it is still warm, I begin laying the "band-aid" over the mesh. I stand the plastic stick at about a 45 degree angle about 3/4 of the way across the cap. I heat underneath the stick and slowly press it into the cap as it melts. Since the cap is much thinner than the stick, you want to concentrate the majority of the heat on the stick. The only way you can really screw this up is, if you get the hinge too hot and upset the manner in which the spring is situated OR get the cap too hot and warp the edge where it seats onto the cylinder.
As I said, I've yet to break one and have 4 of them on rifles that have been handled quite frequently over the last 6 months. This modified cap is extremely strong compared to a new BC. I'm sure it has a weakness somewhere, but I've yet to find it. If you do a lot of soldering or use a lot of shrink tube, the hot air station is definitely worth the small investment! I use mine all of the time. Mine is a European model that is designed to be used in a 220v Euro outlet. I cut the plug off and soldered the wires to the inside of that power strip that you see behind it. I MIGHT have rewired the transformer (don't remember if I did or not). Anyway, it works just fine on 110v. When I bought it, the American model was $25 more than the Euro.... I'm a cheapskate.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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