Ishapore Screw - Peter Laidler

[Peter Laidler]

What tools do we/did we use? Just razor sharp different sized and types of chisels, small saws, wood rasps and normal hand files....

I remember the first 'plastic' wood we were charged with repairing were the plastic butts and handguards from the first AR15's and M16's. At first we used some epoxy material that we'd used previously on the Paxolin (?) Owen gun grips. It wasn't successful. We tried to get info from the US Forces in Vietnam and from those that came down from Thailand but there wasn't a repair procedure there as it was a direct replacement of the broken/smashed part. Later we used a reinforced glass fibre. It wasn't very good/successful. There were all manner of ideas but in reality, we just had to move with the times and repair by replacement.

When the plastic material came in for the L1A1/SLR, we were told that we could get 18 sets of plastic handguards for the price of a wood set and about 22 butts per wood butt.

[John Sukey (Deceased)]

Wasn't the L84A1 initialy called the "airfix rifle" because bits kept falling off the stock and they used glue to put them back on?

[mort r]

Hello out there , I shot my 2A Ishy and when I loaded the mag the rounds would not feed, the problem was the mag kept on slipping down. Can I fix this? Next is there a front sight adjusting tool and where can I find one.
Thanks
Martin

[PeterN]

The Swiss do a neat wood repair. This is on my K31.
Regards
peter

[burgie]

I saved a few photos as I like the look of them, but did not save the owners names.

[terryinvictoria]

I have never ever replaced a foreend or butt stock due to having patches here or there.

After all - as has been said before me-- they are a great sign of the history of each and every rifle's service. Some more severe than others.

I have rifles with patches in the following places.
a) foreend- ahead of the magazine "king screw area"

b) foreend sides -- one or the other but not both on the same foreend.

c) foreend- top sides -to repair a chipped off secton I suppose.

d) foreend- tip area or near the front of the foreend.

e) butt- top near the butt plate

f) butt-near the bottom of the butt plate

That about covers all the patches I have.
Then there are all the other rifles waiting to be treated so rough that they will require patching--ya right!

Cheers
Terry in Victoria BC

[Bert]

In the late 1960' or early 1970's there was a supplement issued for an M16A1 Technical Manual (roughly the equivalent of your EMER's, Peter) that was directed at the repair of stocks and handguards. It contained a criteria for repair and instructions and illustrations of the method of repair. The reference section of the manual listed the materials to be used. I no longer have the manual but I'm certain someone in CSP world does. I do recall that after repairing the item was to be sprayed with flat black paint. I don't believe the repair process was utilized very long. It soon became a better option to just replace the damaged item. Those early M16A1 buttstocks are now a collector's item.

[RJW NZ]

A life long bug bear for me has been one of my best mates who was/is a cabinet maker on sail boats. My best, most focused, dam the hours make it perfect wood work always looked clumsy beside anything Graeme did while he was just coasting through what he'd term his casual wood work. Some people must have resin and wood chips in their veins.

[Peter Laidler]

RJWT....., there's a saying among cabinet makers that '...there's nowt (nothing) as good as wood' and it's true. I'm no cabinet maker or even good woodworker but my dad was reasonably good. After he died, I was a young soldier in Malaya and my mum sent me a piece of an old gnarled plum tree that was in our garden that my dad used to cherish and prune etc every year. My friend, another Armourer from Castlemaine made a set of new wood grips for my issue revolver out of the wood..., just for sentiment really, as a reminder of home. I wonder where No2 revolver Y-628 is now!

Yep, there's nowt as good as wood............... And the old plum tree is still in her garden and she still sits under it in the summer

[goo]

i thought the ishapore screw was something you got in one of the red light districts just outside the indian arsnel.