Keeping a journal on gunsmithing

[Clark]

1) I measured the hieghth of a steel #45 Weaver mount as .400".

That is wrong. It is .390", if I do no let the flat part of the calipers touch the inside radius.

That explains why my scopes have been off.

The rear mount needs .023" removed, not .033"

 

2) The Wheeler drill and tap fixture needs to be modified for the 1903 Turk, and one of the bolts that hold the fixture need to be modified too. That front bolt cannot be tight as the cleance cut in just in front. Only the rear bolt can be tight.

 

 

If I don't write this stuff down, I forget it.[attachmentid=20]

[MorgansBoss]

"If I don't write this stuff down I forget it."

 

Excellent point! I have notes and drawings of all sorts of stuff I've done. Particularly when disassembling a firearm you've never worked on or have drawings / instructions for. Sketch EVERYTHING, note the relation to other parts, what has to come out first, etc... Also when I have to make a part such as an obsolete firing pin, and sketch the part and note dimensions, I keep that sketch. Next time ones needed you've already saved a big chunk of time. Get a 3-hole punch and a loose-leaf binder at the local office supply store to keep it all in and the investment will pay off quickly. I also like to photo copy owner's manuals and squirrel them away for future reference.

[Clark]

When your memory gets bad enough, you can hide your own Easter eggs

 

Here are my notes from the past 5 days:

1) Cut off rear of Rem 721 30-06 barrel and cut small Mauser threads. The barrel is to short for my big lathe's headstock, so the steady rest must be used. I put a .301 pin gauge with ways oil in the bore and in the tailstock chuck. Then I trued the rear sight dovetail bulge on the barrel. That took the runout from +/- .005" down to +/- .002". I then mounted the barrel in the steady rest and 1/4" of muzzle in the 6 jaw on the headstock.

2) True receiver face [remove fore stock gripping lip], move barrel shoulders until sight dovetail on barrel lines up with top of receiver when screwed in tight. There must also be a relief at the breech. The Turks did .877" dia and .044" deep. I did .877" and .025" deep.

3) Notch out receiver for bolt handle that Paul welded on, and grind on bolt handle until it goes in notch.

4) Peen shoulders until they grow back .001" so sight dovetail will line up and not overshoot. Mill off rear charging hump of receiver. My mill only tilts right and left, so the receiver must be mounted in line pointed at the knee. File rear charging hump Grind off sharp edges.. Put valve grinding compound on bolt and fit it to the receiver where stiff. And I milled off .023" from the Weaver S#45 [rear mount] so that it is the right height when dealing with the extra large front ring of a Turk 03

Putting a S#46 on the front ring of a Turk 03, one gets 1.172" height from the flat bottom of the receiver.

Putting a S#45 on the rear ring of a Turk 03, one gets .023" more.

Measuring the thickness of a .390" if on only uses the blade end of the calipers. The error caused by the flat part of the calipers will be to look like .400".

Using a 1" end mill for .5" radius to approx. the shape of the rear ring of the 03 Turk...

Cutting .023 off the S#45 and only measuring the first 1/8" of the top, so that only the blade of the calipers is used, will give the correct mod for the S#45 for Turk 03s.

This explains all the trouble I had with the 7mm Mauser scope mounts last month on a Turk 03. Mount tops are now within .001" relative to the receiver bottom.

5) I drilled and tapped. It seems that someone has modified the drill and tap fixture for 1903 Turks with the charging hump removed. This makes it possible to not alter the rear mount for bolt handle swing clearance, and the front mount goes all the way to the trued face. The bushing and bolt are cut away, and the bolt can only be tightened so far to have the right orientation. I polished and blued the charging hump, bolt handle slot, and trued face. I cleaned the valve grinding compound out of the receiver and bolt. I re cut the sight area for the steady rest by putting the .301" pin gauge in the tip of the jaws in the tailstock chuck where it would be more compliant to match the bore of the barrel. This got run out on the pin, when the barrel was located by the steady rest, at +/- .001".. I got the chamber cut. I vacuumed out the chamber at each ~.050" of chamber cutting, swabbed it out with a Q tip, washed the reamer off in motor oil mixed with used paint thinner, and re coated the reamer with Sulfured cutting oil. I stoned off the end of the reamer and stoned off the end of the #3 Morse /Jacob's taper that I used to push the reamer. The tap T handle that I held the reamer with was handmade and found at a garage sale. I calculated that the case should stick out of the breech by .107", and at .114" I quit. That makes the bolt close on a cartridge, but not on a cartridge with a layer of .005" masking tape. I had to cut a new .900" inside diameter collet of 1.5" round Aluminum for the barrel vice to hold the Remington barrel at the sight bulge. The boring bar could not get in, and I had to make a .935" collet. After I milled a slot with a saw like cutter on one side of the collet making a "C" shape, the inside diameter closed up and held the barrel well, but was hard to get off past the front sight.