Winchester 1876 SRC Barrel Band

 Here's another of those parts that just can't be bought: a barrel band for a Winchester 76 SRC (saddle ring carbine).  How did the original become missing?  I don't have a clue, nor does it really matter because, just as knowing the motive behind a crime doesn't change the fact that it happened, knowing how it got missing doesn't change the fact that it's missing.  It might be an interesting story but it doesn't change the facts on the ground.  Now, on to it...

The first step is to determine the needed dimensions.  

They are:  

- barrel radius (easily calculated by dividing the diameter in half)

- forend radius (measured using a radius gauge)

- the center-to-center distance of the barrel and forend (done by finding the distance from the top of the barrel to the bottom of the forend, then subtracting the barrel and forend radius from that)

- and lastly, the location of the internal step (found by measuring from the bottom of the forend to the top edge of same).

These numbers are then used to mark the raw material (1020) using a height gauge and surface plate.  With the material marked, the next step is to chuck it in the lathe with the barrel CL indicated and then bore the barrel hole.

Once the barrel hole is bored to a sufficient depth, the forend CL is indicated and its hole is bored.

 With both holes bored, the material that will become the part is sawed from the parent material, leaving enough thickness to clean up the front and rear faces.

The front and rear faces are fly cut on the mill to the finished width (sorry, no photo, not enough hands).  After this, it's all hand work.

I made a template of the forend's curvature along the sides and filed the internal contours to match, checking the fit on the rifle as I went.  Once the fit was satisfactory, the exterior contours are filed and all surfaces are polished.

 

The band installed on the rifle.

 

 

A New Bolt for a Winchester 1873 in .22 Short

 Apparently, the bolt for a .22 rimfire 73 is an item that is very difficult to find.  When a part cannot be found, the only choice is to make one, which is what, through photos, I will describe in this post.  The original bolt and extractor were "modified" beyond salvage but, luckily, the customer had another rifle that could supply a bolt to use as a model.

The bolt itself was machined from a bar of 1018, while the extractor was made from 1095 and heat treated as any other spring.

The new bolt installed.

Un-!@#$%^^&^-ing a Beautiful Lebeau-Courally BLE

 Here is a Lebeau-Courally BLE in 16 gauge that suffered more than a few problems.  Both hammers had failed, one completely and the other cracked completely through the pivot hole.  All of the screw slots had suffered at the hands of the last individual who had attempted repairs on the gun.  They also beat the snot out of the sear and hammer pivot pins, which originally had polished, concave ends.  After disassembly and a thorough inspection of the damage, the lengthy journey of correctly repairing everything began.  

It started with the creation of new left and right hammers made from O1.  It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to determine why either hammer failed at the points that they did.  The left hammer cracked through the pivot, the crack originating at a tool mark near the sear notch.  The right hammer failed exactly where it was (apparently) designed to, at the sharp inside corner, situated right at the point where the hammer would flex the most.  When making the new hammers, I replaced that sharp inside corner with a radius, so as to prevent a replay of previous events.

The broken right hammer was temporarily glued together so that I could trace its outline.

The "nose" (firing pin) portion of the hammers was cut on the milling machine, using a shop-made profile cutter.

The finished parts...

Obviously, fitting new hammers entails addressing things like: sear engagement, firing pin protrusion, cocking timing, overdraw, ejector function, etc. but these things aren't the most photogenic processes, which is why they are not shown.

Before the new screws can be made, there are internal repairs to the head of the stock which must be completed.

After:

Now, on to the screws (of which there are many)...

Making the screws from 1020 (they are case hardened after engraving)

The new screws, ready for engraving.  Note the toplever lockscrew is screwed into an aluminum extension.  This is so that it can be held in my engraving vise.

All finished:

A Checkered Butt Extension for a Guerini

 A checkered but for a gun with a drawbolt-retained buttstock presents a bit of a challenge because of the need to access to that very bolt.  

The way the big manufacturers do it is, typically, to simply use a buttplate of conventional design but made of the same type of wood as the stock.  They are however, never made from the same piece, nor is the grain orientation in the same direction, which would compromise the strength of the buttplate.  Needless to say, this, combined with the presence of the buttplate screws doesn't make for a very convincing representation of a checkered butt.  It just looks like a wooden buttplate.

The other common method is to use an oval (usually more of a rectangle with rounded corners) plug of wood, also retained by two screws, inlet into the sole of the butt.  In some instances, this doesn't look too bad but the screws still spoil the look.

The drawbolt in a Guerini over/under is of the Allen (or socket) head type and is held captive by an aluminum plug pressed into the bolt bore, which not only prevents the bolt from being lost, it also acts as a guide for the Allen key, thanks to the "funnel" machined into the rear end.  The captive bolt means that the only access necessary is a 6mm hole (to comfortably accept the 5mm key).  Figuring that a single, small hole in the butt would probably look a whole lot better than two screw heads and an obvious seam, that is the direction that I took.

Since this was to be a considerable extension, the weight of the added piece had to be considered.  The gun's balance was preserved by boring multiple holes completely through the extension, which were then plugged with shallow plugs.  The plugs were turned from the same piece of walnut with the same grain orientation as the extension.

The plugs are epoxied in place, making sure that the grain followed that of the surrounding wood.  The access hole also got an aluminum "bezel" to prevent the checkering from getting beat up around the hole during future maintenance.

After the epoxy cured, the but was shaped in preparation for finishing and checkering. 

All finished.  The plugs are all but invisible.