The Phoenix Patchett - No 2627

[Peter Laidler]

Strut axis pins on the gun body were always worn and we had a special ring punch that was meant to fix the butt frame holes by decreasing the diamer a tad to fit. A waste of time as it only worked once! What about bushing the holes in the butt frame, insert brass bushes that'll wear faster than the steel axis pin on the body and soft solder them into the butt frame. Perfect fix! Great project.

I was going to suggest making a new axis pin (easy to do) and position it geometrically on the gun body, slightly further forwards, so that you can fit the later stronger Mk4 gun butt (see book).

[Vincent]

I never would have thought of brass bushes. Great idea! The local hardware store stocks an assortment of "self-lubricating" bushes. Not sure if those can be soldered, but I am sure they will have something that will work.

[Peter Laidler]

In New Zealand we used to ream oversize and bush the holes in the butt frames. Worked a treat. But if you're not into originality and you're making a new main tube then the way to go is use a later Mk4 gun butt with a slightly repositioned axis shaft. Easy to make as it is a stock size shaft, machined down at each end, bored out for the retainer and drilled for the retaining cross-pin. Then milled for the radius of the main tube.

[Vincent]

Attachment 53532

Think I will go with the Mk3 butt. I was hard to find, not cheap and I like big butts.

I am not normally hung up on originality. But in this case I would like it to look close to a Patchett. A Mk3 trigger, un-bobbed pistol grip, endcap and a rear sight selector are on my shopping list. Can't even find a picture of a disassembled rear sight with the selector or any plans.

[Peter Laidler]

Surely they are pictured in the book...no? Tell me what you need and I'll see what they have in the 'special' store next time I go back. Remind me....., are the end caps the same?

There's actually a story why the Mk4 gun WITHOUT the sight change lever has a sight block MADE for the Mk3 flip-lever backsight.

[Vincent]

I should have known there were some pictures. You covered every detail. I looked again and I found two pictures in the book of the disassembled backsight with the flipover lever (page 71 & 122). I can see there is a pin, and a hole for it in the lever axis pin. Just can’t see where the hole is on the sight for the pin. It must be very small.

The Patchett end caps are not the same. There are good pictures on page 64 and 102 of the Mk2 Patchett end cap with the vertical sling loop.

What’s the story on the Mk4 having a Mk3 flipover sight block?

[Vincent]

Attachment 53574Attachment 53575

Finally got the bolt insert brazed in. I didn't want to put a lot of heat into the bolt, so I used silicon bronze and the TIG welder.

[Peter Laidler]

Ah, the Mk4 guns with a lever flip-over backsight. A couple of nations insisted on retaining the lever instead of the simplt flip-over-with-the-thumb later and simpler affair. So Sterling designed the Mk4/L2A3 guns with a COLLAR at each side of the backsight ears instead of a much simpler simple pin. That way Mk4/L2A3 buyers could use the older lever backsights if they wanted or just the simple thum. Most Mk2/L2A2 owners just upgraded to the later thumb backsight.

Easy! Sterling were eager to please. PM sent too

[Vincent]

Attachment 54079Attachment 54080Attachment 54081Attachment 54082

The 4-jaw chuck on my 1953 Logan lathe gave up and I had to order a new one. The backplate is from Poland. It finally arrived yesterday and I was able turn it to fit it to the new chuck today. Hopefully have the bolt holes tapped tomorrow and get back to working on the Patchett.

[Vincent]

Attachment 54165

The helix on the bolt makes it difficult to grip in the mill vice and lathe chuck. No matter what I did it kept tipping. Then, after muttering something about its dubious parentage, I had an idea. I made two "collets" of sorts from some of the extra casing tube. Half of the bolt is still unsupported in the mill vice, but the first cut for the denial bar slot went well.