The Strength of the Titanium Airtube

[AdminMASTER]

Credit: ChipSmith (USA)

Great read: http://www.airgunadvice.net/viewtopic.php?t=16452

[spartan]

I fitted one of Chips titanium cylinders to david alsups airstream 1"1/2 diameter by approx 90 thous thick, i was a bit dubious at first but after testing it myself then seeing Chips data, i had no worries at all.

I now make all my Airstreams cylinders out of titanium 1"5/16 od by approx 3mm wall, i have tried to destroy it but failed miserably, its phenomenally strong, i experimented with the amount of thread required on the end plugs, started of with 25mm then kept facing the threads away until i had approx 7mm thread left and still did not fail at 550 bar,the plugs where threaded 29 od x 1mm pitch.

Personally i think titanium is the way to go for air cylinders, only problem i have found is you can't black it, not that i know of anyway, other than powder coating, which i'm not to keen on. the other is the price of it, but if it put £100 on a rifle i dont think thats to bad a price to pay for peace of mind.

[Jon]

Confirm that Shaun and end plug was in aluminium.

Nice machining on that Chips tube and one of literally a handful that has ever tested tubes.

[spartan]

Yes Jon i can confirm the end plugs where alloy and they still held no probs with approx 7mm of thread length , make my 25mm that i use in the guns look a bit OTT, i tried making the plugs from titanium but being a fine thread they galled themselves together. maybe better with a coarser looser fitting thread thread

[hddriver1]

Actually one cylinder was aluminum ends and one cylinder was stainless steel ends, interestingly enough they both failed relatively close in pressure to each other.
Pat