I might as well say that the washers used should be hardened washers like grade 8. Sometimes you can find stock washers that will work, and sometimes you have to modify them to fit. If you can't find hardened washers, then at least use stainless steel. The idea about this is that the washers take a beating from the spring, so you want them to be able to stand up to that beating. But...its not like if you use regular washers that the washers are gonna break on ya after a few shots...they'll stand upwhile you find some hardened ones. Just don't leave em in there to wear out and let pieces of em get all over the place and ruin everything. Moly is important too. Now before I start into my lecture about making a "bearing", let me just say this: everyone has their own way of doing stuff. This is my way. Embrace it, modify it, totally ignore it...do whatever you want...do whatmakes sense to you.Some folks use 1 washer and some use 2 washers to make abearing...here's how I do it: I put 2 washers at each end of the spring, so there is 2 on the spring guide rod and 2 inside of the piston, and I apply moly to thewashers and ends of the spring. I use some fine sandpaper, like 1200 grit to get a finish on the washers so that the moly has microscopic grooves to get into and do its job...making your bearing nice and slick. You can even have the surface of the washerthat meets the spring ends be finely polished to a mirror shine if you want, but the "sandwich" between the 2 washers should have some fine grooves for the moly to get into. These washers act like a thrust bearing, without any needle bearings or anything like that. The spring is free to twist,turn, and torqueall it wants...but very little of the torqueis actually transmitted into the rest of the airgun. I don't feel any twisting or torque in my B3 that I've tuned and experimentedwith. Sometimes 4 washers total is too much because that spaces up the spring to where it won't cock...if thats the case then use 3, or 2 washers. I've even used more washers than that, and a tophat, just so I can space up the spring to its maximum, which can give you a little more power...YMMV(your mileage may vary).But then we canget into too much weight/too many washers inside of the piston, which makes the piston really heavy, and can add to the recoil, and in really bad cases...cause the piston to "slam".So there's a balance, a tradeoff, but my 4 washershaven't hurt my B3 yet...and literally thousands of pellets have gone out of it. Now, granted, there is a whole lot more to tuning an airgun...but thats what I do with thewashers.
