Michal Osyda Power Plenums, Brass Barrel Inlets, & Adjustable Pin Probe

[Guest]

My Polish friend's name is Michal Osyda, and his website is called "http://www.airguntuning.pl/". He does not speak English very well but I think the pictures of his work shown below will speak for him very well indeed. His gun stocks are truly works of art! And here is what his plenums and some of the other projects he made for me look like...these are just raw aluminum because I told Michal not to worry about painting them because I am a painter and would give them a couple coats of primer and epoxy paint. Many people seem to like them in bright aluminum but regardless of the finish or lack thereof, they perform flawlessly and installation is a breeze because you can use most of your existing hardware. But here you can all see for yourself some "pictures of his work" that he has done for me. 

And here are some pictures of a dual ported brass barrel inlet I asked him to make for me to test out...this was the first prototype...

This photo of dual ported inlets shows Michal's first prototype on the left, and a friend in the Netherlands first prototype on the right...both in .30 cal. for Helga to try out.

The next pictures below are of an experimental "pin probe" I asked Michal to make for me to experiment with. As you can see he went past just making a probe with a pin for me, he made it with a threaded pin that can be adjusted to whatever depth is required....a drop of Loctite holds the pin in place but I wonder if a set screw would be better? A pin hitting the flat bottom of a slug would push it in further than it would if it were hitting the bottom inside a pellet skirt, so having the length of the pin adjustable to suit whatever ammo is an idea that may have some merit...time will tell. This idea is Michal's not mine, I am just thrilled to have a friend like this that will take time out of his busy life to make up things like this for me to experiment with.

I must conclude by saying that Michal Osyda has been a very dear friend to me, and everything he has made for me has performed flawlessly. He is truly an artist in wood and metal. If he has time to make some more plenums, I am hoping the new price will be $200.00 + shipping by Priority Mail...time will tell.

All the best, Chuck

 

[heavy-impact]

I agree that he does nice work but his price for a plenum is $150 (100+ 50 shipping) or 3 for $350. This has been his price all along and I recently confirmed this with him.

 

[Guest]

I will just have to wait and see what the new pricing will be...I guess he likes you very much to give you such good prices though! But hopefully the price will be in line with the new price of $199.95 + shipping that Joe Brancato says he will be selling the FX Power Plenum Kits for very soon. I don't know if all the dealers will be selling them directly to the public for that price or if Joe Brancato will be the only one doing so? Time will tell. And by the way, I am sure Michal will appreciate the way you stood up for him and his beautiful workmanship on gunstocks earlier this evening James. Its a shame that guy couldn't resolve his private dispute with Michal privately though...you know with swords or dueling pistols at 10 paces? 

Best regards, Chuck

 

[IraLite]

I recently purchased a polish plenum from Michal, It would not seal and kept leaking air. I initially thought it was a manufacturing error and contacted Michal, he promptly responded with recommended fixes, none of which worked. HE EVEN OFFERED TO HAVE IT INSTALLED BY SOMEONE HE KNEW IN FLORIDA... FREE OF CHARGE. I declined, suspecting the issue was something i messed up because even the factory plenum leaked. It WAS my fault, I got lazy and careless, using locking grip pliers to hold the valve rod while unscrewing the tip, multiple times during previous dissembles (installing huma reg, installing hammer weight/c3).

Don't forget to use leather or something to protect the valve rod!!!

Even after I resolved the issue, I forgot to tell Michal I got it working, he took the initiative and gave his friend my email and he recently reached out offering to help. He went out of his way to resolve the issue and stood behind his product and offered to pay for it to be installed.

 

[IraLite]

As a matter of Fact, his friend's name was CHUCK... Was you that CHUCK from MIA? Your name just clicked lol. I think you recently sent me a email.

 

[harrymoreland]

disputes aside,

it amazes me the skill some folk have, craftsmanship indeed.

Is it all/only FX parts he makes?.

 

[smithfan4152]

His workmanship looks excellent, and his idea making the threaded pin to adjust is very ingenious. A set screw could damage threads on the rod, and once the threads are deformed, they won't clean up when you try to turn the rod. So possibly just light duty lock tight, or if he could counter bore the face of the brass for a small nut to sit just below flush. This way a Jam nut could help. Or if there is no issue with clearance, no counter bore is needed. And just in case I didn't understand about the set screw, I see you could put a set screw in the tapped hole, for the rod to bottom out against, when it is tightened down. Snug, not torque tight. 

 

[jps2486]

Dobry!

 

[DanielL]

As someone else mentioned in the other thread, I wonder if something is going on with Michal? His website was down several times when I tried going there. I tried to order a stock from him and sent several emails. I got late responses that made no sense...something about purchasing from someone in the U.S. I have learned the hard way, serious communication delays and miscommunications are a precursor to serious delivery delays and not a good indication of support should there be a problem later on. I hope everything is OK with Michal. P.S. I see the website is working this morning.

 

[Guest]

Iralite: Hi TM...yes I am the person that sent you an email offering to fix your problem. Michal sent me an email agonizing over how to help you solve your problem, so I told him to give me your email address. He offered to pay for all the shipping fees and for my time to get your gun fixed for you, but I told him I would take care of you at no charge to him or you. Your reply to me was, "Thank you, the problem has been resolved. I replaced the valve stem, Thanks" 

So yes in my experience Michal bends over backwards to solve any problems someone may have with one of his plenums. As a matter of fact, when I got my first plenum and valve house from Michal I had a problem in that the valve seat would not seal and the air kept leaking out. He sent me not one but two new valve houses and some new spire seals to try to make sure one of them would work for me...it turned out that the first spire seal was bad and wasn't making a seal! So when the new valve houses and seals arrived I tried a new seal first to see if it would cure the problem and it did! As a matter of fact my Impact .30 - Helga - is still using that original valve house and second spire seal.

In subsequent installations for other people I have had problems...but each problem was caused by me making a mistake, there has never been a problem with Michal's parts. I caused some problems like bending the tip of the valve rod so that it wouldn't line up correctly, or several times I wasn't careful enough and cut an o-ring that caused a leak. There have been times where I had to put a gun together and take it back apart and put it back together several times because I just kept cutting o-rings. Talk about a pain in the ass...but the reason for that is the tolerances on Michal's parts are very tight and require extra caution during assembly. My wonderful friend of many years, Ernest Rowe, talks about how to be extra careful not to hurt an o-ring during assembly many, many times. 

I know Michal would offer any help necessary to help someone solve a problem with one of his parts, up to and including just refunding their money.This man has proved to me to be a gentleman and a man of his word...and a huge asset to this air gun community of ours. If anyone has a problem with him I think they should take it up with him personally and privately, instead of joining an airgun forum as a way to attack him. As a matter of fact I do not think that topic belongs in "PCP AIRGUNS" at all! I wish a Moderator would move it somewhere else, like "Member Feedback" and lock it against further reply's because I think the guy has slandered Michal Osyda enough for God's sake!

All the best, Chuck

 

[2fast2furious]

My experience with him is he takes a month or more to reply to emails. I was able to get a reply from him like a month after I emailed him. He said he can send me a plenum for $150. I paid it. 2 months later, no plenum. I email him. No reply. I contact PayPal and they were able to refund my money back. so I have no experience on how good is product is. But his customer service is not great. Shouldn't take over a month to get a reply. And doesn't take over 2 months for shipping. If someone buys anything from me, I would ship it the same day or next day. I wouldn't wait over 2 months to ship it. You said he is now charging $200 plus shipping for the plenum? Good luck selling them. Cause fx plenum is $175. And also guys from Europe can buy from Huma for cheaper.

 

[Guest]

2fast2furious: Well I am sorry you had such a disappointing experience with him...I will not try to make excuses for that behavior other than to wonder what might have been going on in his personal life at the time that may have influenced that situation. But I do agree that I would be very disappointed also if that happened to me.

It may be better for Michal to consider selling his plenums and valve houses and other item on his own website, or possibly on Ebay...that may solve some of these issues but I really don't know. The only thing I can say for sure is that he has been reliable and forthright with me and fairly prompt in his reply's to my emails.

I am thinking one sure way to end all this would be for FXUSA to allow all their dealers to sell the FX Power Plenum directly to the public for a fair price. FX started out saying, "Any MKII Impact can be upgraded to the FX Power Plenum for a flat fee of $300 This is what FX USA will be charging. Contact [email protected]. This covers parts, service, and shipping back to the customer." - copied from Trenier Outdoors website - This also meant the customer had to pay for shipping the Impact to North Carolina.

Then FX began shipping them out to their dealers to install the kits on all their remaining Impacts in their inventory. Then I heard a rumor that some people paid FX $250 for a plenum and it was shipped directly to them? Then Joe Brancato told me on the phone that he would soon be selling the FX Power Plenum Kits directly to the public on his website for $200 + shipping. Now 2fast2furious is saying the price is $175? 

The reason many of people here in the U.S. even started looking at plenums from Ernest Rowe at FXUSA, or Michal Osyda in Poland, or Panisd in Romania, or Stu Wycroft in the U.K., was because they could not just go to a dealers' website and purchase one of the new FX Power Plenums and have it shipped directly to themselves here in the U.S. But, anyone living outside the United States was able to purchase an FX Power Plenum Kit directly from dealers like Krale Schietsport or Huma in the Netherlands, or another dealer in Spain? That right there has caused a lot of hurt feelings for us here in the U.S.A...but hopefully very soon FXUSA will rectify that situation by allowing their dealers to sell them directly to the public, like Joe Brancato says they will. That would restore the joy in our hearts and the love we have for FXUSA, and pretty much relegate these plenums from other countries as a mere footnote in the FX story. 

We can only hope for the best and wait for Time to Tell! 

All the best, Chuck

 

[Glem.Chally]

Yeah I think Heavy and myself were part of the 10 Michal originally made, they were 140 shipped. Was Sept last year and still running strong!

 

[hussn32]

I also talked to michal and he said chuck was his USA distributor. He gave me chucks email and I contacted chuck. Chuck told me the power plenum kit was $400. I ended up getting a fx power plenum kit from precision air for $175.

 

[2fast2furious]

Hey Chuck. I know your his friend. I'm not saying anything bad, but he offered others and also me in the past that he charges $150. This also includes the shipping to the USA. So imo, he shouldn't raise the price to $200 plus shipping. That isn't right imo but I guess supply and demand. 

As for fx selling the kit for $175. This is coming from fx USA. If you buy the kit to install yourself, it is $175 plus $8 shipping. So idk why anyone would say they paid fx USA $250 to have it ship to them. And idk why Joe would try to sell it for $200 plus shipping when fx USA ship it directly to the customer for $175 + $8 shipping.

 

[Glem.Chally]

And to be fair, fx power plenum kits include plenum, valve rod, new hammer, hammerweight, new valve house, springs for 183 shipped. When i bought the plenum from Michal it was only the plenum and a few orings.

 

[Guest]

Wow! What an eye opener! First let me say that I seem to be responsible for a lot of this pricing conundrum, but I did not have the benefit of your pricing information at the time. When I got my Impact .30 I obtained one of the 14mm Ernest plenum cans and soon got some more in 1/8th BSP to install on guns for friends. At that time you had to ship your gun to Spaw or Ernest to have one installed and I was told the going rate for the plenum can, installation & tuning was $400. I had installed several at that price when I heard about the Michal Osyda plenums.

So I ordered one from Michal to try out because I like the looks of the inline plenum much more than that plenum can hanging down from the rear block. I received my plenum from Michal in good order, loved its performance and looks, and it is still on my gun today. In talking to others at the time they said they would prefer one of the inline plenums for their guns instead of the plenum cans for the same reasons as mine. So I placed an order for some of the plenums and also some brass inlets in .22, .25, and .30 caliber. I was happy to buy them for $200 each thinking I could still charge $400 for these plenum kits and installation fee as I had been doing with the Ernest plenum cans... which are now selling for $65 apiece on Ebay now by the way.

So when I first got the order I started out telling people they had to ship their gun to me and I would install the inline plenum for them at the same $400 price that Ernest and Spaw and I had been charging for installing the cans. I only installed one at that price and then began telling guys that for the $400 price I would ship it directly to them to do themselves, or if they wanted to they could just ship their gun to me and I would install it for them at that price either way. But there wasn't much interest at that price...

So then I decided that I would just sell the remaining ones for the same $300 price as FX was charging...and lo and behold when I dropped the price to $300 I sold them all! I sold the last one here on the classifieds for that $300 price. (https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/wts-polish-plenum-for-sale/). And now come to find out while I was buying them a half dozen at a time for $200 he was selling them on the side to you guys for $150?  Remember the cartoon where the guy runs off the edge of a cliff and turns into a sucker? 

And now I learn that FX is actually selling them for $175 to the public? At this point there just isn't enough money in this for me to fool around with it any longer...I make more for painting a bathroom in a couple hours than I did for all the hours of emailing and labeling and trips to the post office and fooling around with all this bullpoop! Anyone here want to take over my coveted position as Michal's "U.S. Distributor"? 

All the best, Chuck

P.S. The very best news I heard all day is that regular guys can just buy the FX Power Plenum now direct from FX for $175 and install it themselves if they like! Thanks for telling me that! Michal is going to have to go back to selling his for $150 now though...which it turns out was his price all along until I convinced him they were worth more! What a dummy I am sometimes...I guess this is why they say there's no fool like an old fool! 

 

[cfs916]

I have 2x of Michals plenum. They work well and quality is good. I also like the gen1 valve housing with the removable valve seat (being able to change bore size). I had to wait and bug him for a few months but was able to get both for $250 shipped. Didn’t ask me for payment until he was ready to ship. Great plenum overall at a good price. 

 

[Glem.Chally]

Wow! What an eye opener! First let me say that I seem to be responsible for a lot of this pricing conundrum, but I did not have the benefit of your pricing information at the time. When I got my Impact .30 I obtained one of the 14mm Ernest plenum cans and soon got some more in 1/8th BSP to install on guns for friends. At that time you had to ship your gun to Spaw or Ernest to have one installed and I was told the going rate for the plenum can, installation & tuning was $400. I had installed several at that price when I heard about the Michal Osyda plenums.

So I ordered one from Michal to try out because I like the looks of the inline plenum much more than that plenum can hanging down from the rear block. I received my plenum from Michal in good order, loved its performance and looks, and it is still on my gun today. In talking to others at the time they said they would prefer one of the inline plenums for their guns instead of the plenum cans for the same reasons as mine. So I placed an order for some of the plenums and also some brass inlets in .22, .25, and .30 caliber. I was happy to buy them for $200 each thinking I could still charge $400 for these plenum kits and installation fee as I had been doing with the Ernest plenum cans... which are now selling for $65 apiece on Ebay now by the way.

So when I first got the order I started out telling people they had to ship their gun to me and I would install the inline plenum for them at the same $400 price that Ernest and Spaw and I had been charging for installing the cans. I only installed one at that price and then began telling guys that for the $400 price I would ship it directly to them to do themselves, or if they wanted to they could just ship their gun to me and I would install it for them at that price either way. But there wasn't much interest at that price...

So then I decided that I would just sell the remaining ones for the same $300 price as FX was charging...and lo and behold when I dropped the price to $300 I sold them all! I sold the last one here on the classifieds for that $300 price. (https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/wts-polish-plenum-for-sale/). And now come to find out while I was buying them a half dozen at a time for $200 he was selling them on the side to you guys for $150? 

Remember the cartoon where the guy runs off the edge of a cliff and turns into a sucker? 

And now I learn that FX is actually selling them for $175 to the public? At this point there just isn't enough money in this for me to fool around with it any longer...I make more for painting a bathroom in a couple hours than I did for all the hours of emailing and labeling and trips to the post office and fooling around with all this bullpoop! Anyone here want to take over my coveted position as Michal's "U.S. Distributor"? 

All the best, Chuck

P.S. The very best news I heard all day is that regular guys can just buy the FX Power Plenum now direct from FX for $175 and install it themselves if they like! Thanks for telling me that! Michal is going to have to go back to selling his for $150 now though...which it turns out was his price all along until I convinced him they were worth more! What a dummy I am sometimes...I guess this is why they say there's no fool like an old fool!

140-150 for the plenum alone. Asking 200 or more later on for the valvehouse and other parts also. 150 was not the price for everything he only made those parts later on.

So if he was charging you 200 for the plenum, valvehouse, hammer weight. Theres nothing wrong with that, but 400 installed seems a bit steep IMO. Thats charging more than fx for labour and with fx you keep the warranty. 

 

[Guest]

Well Nathan I just sent him an email which said in part: "I found out tonight that FXUSA is now selling their FX Power Plenum to guys for $175 and shipping to them to guys to install themselves...

Your friend, Chuck