NoT Front pad has come loose

[tbonesmith]

Hi all, after putting a couple of hundred rounds through my rebuild No4T I noticed that on the front pad, the solder has released from the body/pad and now it's loose. Becuse it is probably contaminated with oil/grease in there I guess I can't just heat it up and do the screws up, so it will have to come off, and get cleaned, fluxed...
Anyhow with the staked screws, do I just used a small chisel or punch and knock them out of the screw heads? Then put new ones in with a centre punch when done?
Also is the anything to look out for in this seemingly simple little job? And is it worthwhile doing the front and rear while I'm at it, even though the rear loosks fine

Information

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[jmoore]

Peter Laidler can clue you in for the finer points, but I've done two front pads on my own rifles (with some major assistance from Brian Dick who had new screws and Burrell Sullivan who does much better solder work than I.)

Rear pad is likely fine!

You will need new screws, as the old ones fail under shear after the solder fails.

Usually, breaking the screw haed loose from the stake mark just requires a little extra torque on the driver bit, but it's possible a little reverse staking or micro "Dremel" work could be needed.

You may be able to use the old stake with the new screw, but if the pad hasn't been staked too many times before, just align it with the new screw slot.

Some l42a1 repair photos coming- "hold, please..."

---------- Post added at 02:59 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:52 AM ----------







Note the joggled shank of the screws on the right-NFG- No farging good! New ones are a must, even if they don't look this bad.

---------- Post added at 03:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:59 AM ----------

Be sure to thoroughly clean the old solder from the pad and body- and check for a close fit between the two. The better the fit and the cleaner the surfaces, the less likely your drama will recur.

(I have also dowel pinned one, but only because it wears a huge Gen 1 night vision device fairly regularly.)

[tbonesmith]

"Joggled", sounds ammusing. Hey, does any one else know what a "Joggle stick" is? I'll post phots of mine later

[Peter Laidler]

I remember doing an article on this subject so ain't going to repeat it except for just a few important notes.
NEVER but NEVER, ever, ever ever use the old screws again
Tin the screw threads and screw holes
Keep the pad and screws solder melting point hot while screwing the screws down.
DO NOT STAKE MATERIAL FROM THE PAD INTO THE SCREWDRIVER SLOT. It is pixx-poor engineering practice. Only STAKE THE EDGE OF THE SCREW HEAD INTO AN EXISTING STAKE MARK IN THE PAD. But if you have tinned the threads too, there's little or no chance of a screw actually coming loose.

And lastly, PLEASE, PLEASE, do not use locktite. Keep it original

I think I mentioned all of this in the article about making up a repro No4T too.

[jmoore]

Posted by Peter Laidler: "DO NOT STAKE MATERIAL FROM THE PAD INTO THE SCREWDRIVER SLOT. It is pixx-poor engineering practice. Only STAKE THE EDGE OF THE SCREW HEAD INTO AN EXISTING STAKE MARK IN THE PAD."

Works for me, but, not that it's pertinent to this repair- I don't believe I've ever seen a staked screw head! Anywhere! No reason why it wouldn't work... Nope, nothing springs to mind...how odd!

[Peter Laidler]

You are absolutely correct there JM and the official line was that material from the pad was to be staked into the screwdriver sloit. That was fine until you'd run out of material to stake as seen on many well used L42's. Then, the instruction came out that the process was to be reversed. And I agree whole heartedly. Screws are cheap and easily replaceable, butchered pads are not.

The same originally applied to the locking cam nut on the .300" M1919 Brownings. These got a bit of a battering at 10 times per second and frequently needed replacing. Very soon, there was no material left on the body to lock the nut so a big repair programme was launched to re-weld, machine etc etc. How much easier it'd have been if basic engineering principles had applied in the first place, whereby you staked metarial from the nut into the body instead of vice verca

But if it's by the book and on a No4T, stake material from the pad into the screw slot.
If it's on an L42, then either way
For longevity, on the basis that they ain't makin' no more, the latter way

[jmoore]

It's an over-used term in SOME places, but still- Brilliant!