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Military Firearm Restoration Corner

Rebarreling A Turk - Preparing The Receiver


Clemson

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As previously announced, here is a start on a Series on rebarreling a Turk. The Turk in question is a 1938 Ankara K Kale. It is a large-ring receiver with small-ring threads. There are some small-ring pre-threaded and chambered barrels out there, but my customer wanted one in .25-06 for this project. He bought a contoured .257 caliber blank from Adams & Bennet to use.

 

The Turks have a lip around the front of the receiver ring that was used to hold the handguard in place. I suppose we have all seen "sporterized" Turks that have not had that lip removed. Those fall into the Bubba Butt Ugly classification. It is not difficult to machine that ring off, so let's start there.

 

I had to make a new mandrell to do small ring Model 98's. It was made from a piece of 1" 12L14 round rod 14 3/8" long. The end that extends back through the receiver is .700" in diameter. The threads are .980-12, and the front end is .750". This shot shows the Turk action screwed onto the receiver facing mandrell.

TurkProject001.jpg

 

The lathe setup for facing off the receiver is not particularly difficult. Do it between centers to keep everything square. The mandrell is driven with a lathe dog. Direction of rotation is such that you must take a light cut or you will unscrew the receiver from the mandrell.

TurkProjectd.jpg

 

You can see here that there is sufficient space around the mandrell to face off the front ring. After cutting the ring square, I take a 45 degree chamfer cut on the outer circumference.

TurkProjectc.jpg

 

The customer wants to use two-piece Leupold FN mounts for this project. They require removing the charging hump. This can be done entirely with files, but I set this one up in the mill.

TurkProjectf.jpg

 

The actual milling process is straight forward. I am using a 1" HSS endmill.

TurkProjectg.jpg

 

The final finish work is still done with files in the vise. A receiver holding fixture is handy for this step.

TurkProjectk.jpg

 

 

I use a D&T jig to keep holes straight. This one is from Midway.

TurkProjectm.jpg

 

This shots shows the Leupold FN bases fitted to the receiver.

TurkProjectn.jpg

 

That finishes the receiver work for now. Next we will attack the new barrel.

 

Clemson

 

 

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As previously announced, here is a start on a Series on rebarreling a Turk. The Turk in question is a 1938 Ankara K Kale. It is a large-ring receiver with small-ring threads. There are some small-ring pre-threaded and chambered barrels out there, but my customer wanted one in .25-06 for this project. He bought a contoured .257 caliber blank from Adams & Bennet to use.

 

The Turks have a lip around the front of the receiver ring that was used to hold the handguard in place. I suppose we have all seen "sporterized" Turks that have not had that lip removed. Those fall into the Bubba Butt Ugly classification. It is not difficult to machine that ring off, so let's start there.

 

I had to make a new mandrell to do small ring Model 98's. It was made from a piece of 1" 12L14 round rod 14 3/8" long. The end that extends back through the receiver is .700" in diameter. The threads are .980-12, and the front end is .750". This shot shows the Turk action screwed onto the receiver facing mandrell.

TurkProject001.jpg

 

The lathe setup for facing off the receiver is not particularly difficult. Do it between centers to keep everything square. The mandrell is driven with a lathe dog. Direction of rotation is such that you must take a light cut or you will unscrew the receiver from the mandrell.

TurkProjectd.jpg

 

You can see here that there is sufficient space around the mandrell to face off the front ring. After cutting the ring square, I take a 45 degree chamfer cut on the outer circumference.

TurkProjectc.jpg

 

The customer wants to use two-piece Leupold FN mounts for this project. They require removing the charging hump. This can be done entirely with files, but I set this one up in the mill.

TurkProjectf.jpg

 

The actual milling process is straight forward. I am using a 1" HSS endmill.

TurkProjectg.jpg

 

The final finish work is still done with files in the vise. A receiver holding fixture is handy for this step.

TurkProjectk.jpg

 

 

I use a D&T jig to keep holes straight. This one is from Midway.

TurkProjectm.jpg

 

This shots shows the Leupold FN bases fitted to the receiver.

TurkProjectn.jpg

 

That finishes the receiver work for now. Next we will attack the new barrel.

 

Clemson

 

Clemson, I was wondering why you use the lathe dog, doesn't the three jaw hold the mandrel tight enough? I am new to this and was wondering because I have done the same thing minus the dog with no problems....yet. Thanks for posting this tutorial, pictures are worth a thousand words...Scott

 

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I'm going to guess that since Clemson said he was truing between centers what you can'tt see is a center held in the jaws of the 3-jaw. It was very common in Gunsmithing school because of the number of people trying to use the machines to keep a piece of bar stock that you'd cut a 60 degree point on in your tool kit. To save time mounting & dismounting the chucks, you chuck up your barstock center, set the compound at 60 degrees where most were already for threading Rems & such, and take a quick pass or two to true it up. then attach a dog on yuor mandrel and proceed to screw, I mean true things up. Another plus is that if your dog has a long enough tail, can can slide the dog up far enough so it hold the tang of the receiver & keeps it from unscrewing.

 

I still use that trick often whenI don't want to unmount the chuck. Also handy if you don't have a #5 MT center to mount in your headstock.

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Thanks, Mike. That is exactly correct.

 

You learn something every day, and I learned something from z1r's reply. I had never thought of scotching the receiver on the mandrel using the lathe dog! Great tip, Mike.

 

 

Scott, to amplify on what Mike said, use a piece of round stock with a 60 degree point chucked up in the 3-jaw. A very important part of the operation is that you MUST cut a new point on that stock EVERY TIME you mount it in the chuck. That insures that you have the point dead nuts on center. You swing the compound around to cut 30 degrees so that you end up with a 60 degree center.

SofaGarageSaleCenteringBoyds034.jpg

 

When you mount the receiver on the mandrel and put the mandrel "between centers," you have effectively taken out all the extraneous runnout from your settup.

Receiverfacing016.jpg

 

Clemson :)

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Clemson, thanks for emphasizing recutting the tip of the center each time you rechuck it. Also, in my post I said set the compound at 60 degrees, well on my lathe it does say 60 but that is really 30. And you get an included angle of 60 degrees. For the newbies out there, some lathes are marked differently than others. My Southbend was marked differently than my Enco and I can't honestly remember how my Clausing is marked. Pay attention, and verify your markings so you don't get caught.

 

And again I commend you on taking the time to document this. As they say, a picture is worth ten thousnad words (infalation don't ya know). This will be a big help to all those wanting to get started but not knowing where.

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