A "Boss-ish" Side Pedal, Rising Bite, Over/Under in... 22LR

 Like it says in the title, this will be a Boss-type over/under with rising bite and a side pedal.  The Boss-inspired bits are the bifurcated lumps and the external styling but that's where the similarities end.  This will be a lever-cocked, triggerplate action with the firing pins inline, rather than being set at the over/under's typical (and mechanically dis-advantageous) oblique angles.  Before you sneer at the idea of a lever-cocker, keep in mind that the world's most expensive rimfire rifle (Hofer's Hummingbird, 500K+) uses lever-cocking and, function trumps fashion.  Other departures from Boss orthodoxy are the use of fixed barrel trunnions, rather than the "live" trunnions used in the British gun and, being a rifle, extractors rather than ejectors.

As always, the entire gun is hand-made, with no computer intervention, from raw materials and at my bench.

Here is the bar stock (1018), from which the frame and forend iron will come, along with the rifled barrel blanks.

The beginning of the frame:

The barrel pivot locations are machined and recesses (draws) for the lumps are cut.   The draws were "pocketed" in using an end mill, and were finished by hand filing.

Next, the "knuckle" of the frame was filed, using hardened buttons as a file guide.

The next piece is the barrel hook/lump/semi-monobloc.  I say "semi-monobloc" because only the lower barrel is inserted in that manner.  The upper barrel is attached in shoe-lump fashion.  The lumps were rough machined and the draw faces were shaped by hand using chisels, files and scrapers.  Yes, they make full contact for their entire length.

Then, I machined the hooks and their recesses in the frame, as well as the barrel stop shoulders and the clearance in the frame floor for the lower barrel.

Here is a video of the fit.  The barrels are temporarily attached to the lumps.

The frame is machined for the underbolt, the "monobloc" shoulders are machined for the extractor shafts and some more external shaping cuts have been made.

At this point, I was a bit apprehensive about shaping the fences in the Boss style.  So, I figured I'd just "rough-in" one side.  Confident that I was able to create the needed shapes, construction continued.  This included machining the firing pin bores, machining the vertical bolt bore and pocket for the rib extension, and making the vertical and horizontal bolts.  The bolts in this design do not use a "translating link".  The bolts are themselves physically linked together, via a cam and slot arrangement and positively drive each other.  That meaning, movement of either bolt, in either direction, will operate the other bolt.

Here is a video showing the operation of the bolts.

It was now time to permanently mate the barrels.  The breeches are brazed in the usual manner.

The frame was counterbored to accept the barrel pivots, then the barrels assembly was blacked down.  The triggerplate was roughed out and fit to the frame, the top strap is welded in place and shaped, the sidelever "stub" was made and fit to the underbolt, the sidelever itself was made and welded to the stub and the rib extension is fitted.  We now have a jointed action.  Is a rising bite really necessary on a .22?  Or on a Boss action, at all?  No, not at all but I can, so I did.

Now was as good a time as any to shape the right side of the "fences".  The majority of material was removed with chisels, then files and scrapers.  Yeah, it took some time.  Also visible are the barrel "webs" that allow the inside edges of the forend iron to be straight lines.

The forend iron was machined from a single piece of bar stock.  This includes the "hoop" on the underside.  It's all one piece and was probably the single most challenging part of the project so far.

I did mention that it's in .22 long rifle, right?   Here are some photos showing the scale of the action.

On to the lockwork.  As I said, it's lever-cocked but, thanks to the wonders of geometry, that doesn't mean it has to be high-effort.  Also contributing to smooth function are the rollers that bear against the hammers during cocking, and bow-type mainsprings that are actually pivoted at their ends, the way they should be.  One might be tempted to think that I copied the idea from Dickson or DMB but the reality is that the concept of the bow predates their work by a little bit, and, neither of them use a pivot at the anchor end of the spring.  Please keep in mind that these photos show the lockwork in a rough stage of manufacture.  The finished product will have all pivots jeweled (as in bearings, not the misnamed decoration) and it will be finished to my usual standards.  Yes, it will be a single trigger, of my own design.  As always, the working parts are O1 and the springs are 1095.

Filing up the overhead sear carrier:

The right side sear:

The beginning of the right hammer:

Pocketing the triggerplate for the mainspring drums:

Making the bridles:  The support posts are machined using a shop-made hollow cutter after machining away the bulk of the material.  The rest is done by hand.

The right side lockwork, so far:

In this video,  the firing pins and retainer/anvil are removed for clarity.

Correcting Excess Headspace in a Parker

 The subject is a late Parker VH in 12 gauge, in very good mechanical condition but, for reasons unknown, its rim cuts were excessively deep.  This situation in a shotgun isn't as potentially dangerous as it is in a rifle thanks to the shotgun's much lower operating pressure.  It will, however, cause problems such as misfires because the shell's excess depth in the chamber effectively shortens the firing pins.  Another potential problem is, if the shell were to fire, the primers could partially back out (by the amount of the excess headspace) with gas leakage between the primer cup and the primer pocket.  In a shotgun, this gas leakage around the primer isn't really a danger but it's not going to do the face of the standing breech any favors.  Look at many older doubles and you will, at some point, notice a ring of pitting around the firing pin holes, that just happens to correspond to the diameter of the primer.  This is caused by just such gas leakage.

Here I will detail the method for correcting this situation.

The chambers, as the gun came in, with the rims cut approximately .040" too deep:

 The first operation is to cut the rims even deeper.  The reason for this will become apparent as we go on.

 

With the rim cuts deepened, the next step is to turn rings to fit snugly into the rim bores.

You'll notice the bevels on each of the rings.  They correspond to the 55 degree angle of the rim cut for 100 percent contact.

The rim bores and the outside of the rings are then tinned and all traces of acidic flux are neutralized and washed away.  The mating surfaces are then painted with rosin before final soldering in place.

I turned a third ring (which was cut in half) to correct the extractor.  These are silver brazed in place.

The new material is carefully filed to the original surfaces before cutting the new rim recesses.  Here, the right chamber is done.

Here is the finished job.

Update: The Bugatti Inspired Fox is Finally Finished

 The entire story is here: https://vicknairgunsmithing.blogspot.com/2022/04/a-bugatti-inspired-fox.html

Coming up next:  The Duesenberg Fox! (and some other cool stuff)

Another Elephant Video

 My friend Pete sent me this.  It made my day, maybe it'll do the same for you.

Un-****ing a Fox XE 20 (those four letters aren't the ones you think)

 There is always a story and this Fox XE 20 is no different, so let's start at the beginning.  

The gun letters as a Philly-made XE, 20 gauge with 26 inch barrels and full choke in both tubes, and that's just what it is, except the barrels it currently wears didn't come from Philadelphia, but from a certain shotgun manufacturing company.  I can only surmise that the original barrels were lost or damaged and the above referenced shotgun manufacturing company made a new set for the gun.

They are in fact 26 inches in length and both barrels are full choked, but it appeared that they did not start as 26 inch barrels, or at least the top rib started life as a longer part.  The lightening slot on the underside of the top rib was plainly visible (as it always is when barrels are cut), the left and right tubes weren't even in the same zip code, the triangular filler pieces were absent and the whole muzzle was simply chopped off square.  The barrel "addresses" were hand-engraved (not well) and the floral "wedges" at the breech end were clearly done with modern, powered equipment as all of the cuts are far too smooth and bright. Also missing were most of the shading lines in these wedges and the "lining" on the bright polished surfaces.  This is entirely incorrect for an XE and the correction of these issues is the subject at hand.

The first step was to disassemble the ribs and forend lug and "adjust" (via file) the spacer blocks between the barrels to correct the muzzle convergence.  Next was to adjust the top and bottom ribs (again, by smoking and filing) to properly fit the newly acquainted barrels, followed by "shutting off" the slot in the top rib and making the missing filler pieces. Then the whole works was tinned and reassembled.

After removing all of the burnt rosin and stray solder, the barrels were polished and I went about making the muzzles look like those of an XE.

Next was to chase the engraving, using a hammer and appropriate gravers, to more closely duplicate the "ratchet-ty" look of the engraving cuts that would have been done at the factory.  I then cut the shading lines in the background, which is every bit as tedious as you'd think.

 Removal of the hand engraved barrel addresses, and preparation for recutting them in the correct style, was the next item on the to-do list.  The addresses were originally (Philly and Utica, that is) roll stamped and the quality of the finished marking varied widely.  I cut them on my pantograph using patterns that were made to duplicate the original font.  After some minor touch-up to the shading lines that I'd previously cut, they were finally ready for rust bluing.

Following bluing, I detail polished all of the surfaces that would be appropriate for an XE.  These are: the breechfaces, rib extension, raised portion of the barrel flats, the lump and the muzzle bevels and face.  Reassembly and installation of two NOS Lyman beads completed the job.  The photos are below.

The muzzles, as received

The rib

The works, reassembled

Correcting the barrel address

The finished job

Side Pedal Fox (#006) Update

 The most radical redesign of an existing gun that I've yet done has reached a major milestone.  Click the link for information:

https://vicknairgunsmithing.blogspot.com/2019/10/a-side-pedal-fox-006.html