How close to the edge of the piston should the button be placed? I've only seen 1 photo of a buttoned piston and they were right along the edge, but I'd like to be sure.

if it was me i would set two buttons one fore and one aft at 12, 4 and 8 o'clock.
as far as your q i would say as long as your buttons are within the last half inch of the piston skirt you should be good as the buttons are going to avoid metal to metal contact reguardless if their right at the edge or if their 1/2 inch or 3/8 up.

I intend to do this to mine as well and I was thinking of placing them where the piston shows signs of contact..

I intend to do this to mine as well and I was thinking of placing them where the piston shows signs of contact..


sounds good Moe,
i notice wear on the top rear and the bottom front of the piston, how bout you?
also someone told me never to polish the whole piston just two spots on the piston, what's your take on this?
thanks Moe.
BTW how are your lube trials working out?
anyone else care to comment? go for it.

I haven't read about not polishing the entire piston, but if it's buttoned wouldn't polishing the whole thing not matter? I did somewhat polish up my pistons, but only to smooth out any rough spots. I didn't fully polish up the whole thing, but the areas that the buttons will go on will defnitely need a little roughing up. I'm still waiting for my stuff from JM, but it should be in today. I'm going to start by buttoning the Raven's piston since that one has so much slop.

I've noticed wear only to the top rear on both my guns. Looks like the piston seal has been keeping the front pretty tight. I can see how the front would start to rub though if the rear has lots of slop since the piston seal would wear down on the bottom, allowing the piston to make contact up front.

i'm probably noticing wear in the front because i run a loose (small sized) seal.
i'm thinkin those buttons would help.
my buttons will be made from a plastic coke bottle.
yes i think with buttons polishing the piston pobably would not matter.

It would be best to put the buttons, where the piston shows signs of wear. Also you need to be sure that your cylinder is honed even. No need to polish the middle of the piston, it's a smaller OD and doesn't make contact with anything.

Plastic coke bottle? Please elaborate...

take an empty 2 liter bottle cut some buttons glue on the piston fit with your favorite abrasive.
off you go.

Cool - I would never have thought those would hold up but I'm willing to give them a try. I've got tons of empty 2 liter bottles I use for targets. Maybe I'll stick those in the Raven and use the JM buttons for my G1...

i suspect the JM buttons are a better material.
i got the coke bottle button idea from another site.
the guy says he's got a bunch of rounds on them and they hold up, so i'll think i'll try it.

Speaking of material - anyone know of other easy to find material that can possibly be used for buttoning? Now you mention the bottle, I was thinking of using a partial strip (instead of 3 pieces) on the Raven since there's so much movement (kinda like how Fix machines that piece of brass around the piston). You guys think this may work? I figure with this cheap gun I can experiment a little...

my thoughts on that would be a strip fore to aft in three or four places.

Craigg I don't know about plastic. I will use teflon or delrin or like material for buttons. They have to deaL with a lot of heat and friction..

i understand the friction but i thought the heat only happened at the other side of the seal?
i can not seem to feel any heat externally even after repeated firing as fast as i can, like when i'm just burning thru 500 rounds for break in.

Heat is generated by any movement between two objects. Especially rapid movement. How much in this case? Don't know. Give it a try and if no damage that would be a cheap and easy source for buttoning material. I'm willing to try new things even though I'm old.. One thing that pisses me off instantly is when I hear that's the way it's always been done.

Wishing you success with the plastic.

Same here - I'm willing to try out new ideas at my expense and I'm not doing anything life-threatening to anyone. Worst case scenario I see is the button(s) may fall off and jam up somewhere in there. I'll know for sure once I try it...

i'm with you guys on that, trying new things is very self rewarding IMO.

I plan to get back on my quest for a suitable readily available lube for the guns..

I'm fixing to glue some onto the G1 tonight. The thing is, with just one button it already needs to be sanded quite a bit to even get into the compression tube. Do I still have to do 3 buttons, or would just 1 at 12 o'clock work in this case?

I'm fixing to glue some onto the G1 tonight. The thing is, with just one button it already needs to be sanded quite a bit to even get into the compression tube. Do I still have to do 3 buttons, or would just 1 at 12 o'clock work in this case?



Is that where you notice contact? If you need to reduce to .010 or less IMHO you don't need a button. Just good lube on piston.

There's only slight contact I noticed at the 12 position of the piston. It wasn't damaged or anything, just polished up to a shine when I pulled it apart to inspect. There's not much movement at all. The very little movement still resulted in the piston seal wearing a little, but it was too little to even worry about. I may just stick 1 button up top. You think that would be fine or am I just better off leaving them out altogether?

Jon it can't hurt. If you have only one small contact point one button at that place would be sufficient.. I would feather the leading edges of the buttton..

Thanks for the input. I'm going with 1 button. I did try 3 but after fitting them there was almost no button left. I took 'em off and reattached just one at 12 and will go with that. Plus, that's the only contact/wear point I really noticed when I pulled her apart.

What are these buttons you folks talking about, and what are they supossed to do.
As for polishig a piston, I did a tune on both a GAMO Whisper & CFX, when I got the piston's out I removed the seals and tried to put the pistons back in w/o the seals on them, they went in with a little force behind them and would only move with some force via a dole and screw driver to get them back out. What look to be black color on the pistons was in fact rust. I sanded them both down first with 220 grt paper, washed them off with alcohol, and then resanded them in the other direction with 400 grt paper to try to cross hatch them, and again washed them off with alcohol, and yes they looked polished. I then took my long doles and did the same thing to the power tube where the cocking cut out is, first the 220grt, then the 400 grt, cleaning the power tube out several times between sandings, I rand the 220grt spinning it to the right, and the 400 grt spinning it to the left. What a mess of rust that came out. I then honed the upper power chamber and washed it out with alcohol each time before switching to the 400 grt stones, and did the same thing to the small area to the rear where the pistoin and sear meet to give it a nice clean, smoth, kuick release. Washed the whole power chamber again, used my compressor to dry it out, and this was done to both the Whisper & the CFX, and later to my RWS Diana 34. This time again w/o any seals on the pistons, and every thing clean and dry, the pistons FELL right into place w/o much if any side way slop, but they slid back and forth with no effort when I rocked the rifles from front to rear, free flowing with no lubracation yet and no hang ups the way the should have right from the factory. Free flow front to back ment NO DRAG at least on the Pistons when all was cleaned. Where they polished you could say yes but all the rust that was causing added drag was gone. Sanded clean and cross hatched absolutly, they when I whiped them down one more time, I spraied all sanded and honed parts with a fast dry Synthetic Silacone to help prevent rust from building back up again. Let it all dry then reasembled the Air Guns and using Gamo match 7.71 grm pellets I ended up with 969.3 on my chrony after throwing out the high and low shots on 12 shot rounds. I learned in Live Fire Weapons that every part must be clean or you have issues and jams, why should a Spring Powared Air Gun be any diffrent, parts have got to move smothly or they are going to drag and reduce power. So I called my pistons sanded and removed of all rust, others called them polished, all I no is they fire quit well with no effort to even cock them, all drag is gone, and lubracation except for the seal is at a niamum, so no dirt build up where there is to much oil. That part is from live weapons training in the Milatery, and as a Correction Officer an Police Officer. Princibles are all the same parts have to move smothly and to gether, now shooting that is a whole diffrent world I had to relear to do with springers. In fact if you learn how to shot first with a springer, then carry that over to live weapons, you will be a much better over all shooter.
So again I ask what are these buttons every one talks about from time to time. Brian

What are these buttons you folks talking about, and what are they supossed to do.

Here's a picture of a buttoned piston. They help minimize the metal to metal friction and movement inside the compression tube and allows for smoother cocking as well.

You'll have to let us know how those soda bottle buttons hold up. I've been contemplating buttons on my B26, I just can't bring myself to tear it down again.

I'll definitely post an update as well as some pictures after some testing. So far they're gliding along pretty smooth right now...