Here are a few pictures of a Mk2 Bren (UK de-ac) of mine which required extensive butt repairs because it had split in 4 or 5 places. I have tried to follow Peter's advice on Butt repairs slightly adapted for this application.
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Here are a few pictures of a Mk2 Bren (UK de-ac) of mine which required extensive butt repairs because it had split in 4 or 5 places. I have tried to follow Peter's advice on Butt repairs slightly adapted for this application.
Looks like lots of work, don't know if I could make a good job of that. That looks good though.
Nice job.............pain staking but worth it when you want to keep a piece all together as original.;)
:clap::clap: Bravo! It looks great! Well done. :thup::thup:
That is most outstanding work!
I note that the butt is split longitudinally along the line of the return spring tube (photos 2 and 3). Don't forget that the butt plate will assist in strengthening the repaired crack especially if you have a Mk3 butt plate, the one without the looped overhang. Go easy when you're sanding down. It's easy to run into and loose sharp distinct edges (photo 4, top where butt bracket sits. Are they your hardwood reinforcing pegs (photo 4) to the rear of the butt bracket recess?
Always good to see nice wood patches. Brings a warm glow to an Armourers heart........
Always good to see nice wood patches. Brings a warm glow to an Armourers heart........[/QUOTE]
Because an Armourer KNOWS the amount of work that has gone into executing the job!....;)
You guys did your magic quietly in the background, and I often marvelled at the wood repairs on weapons that the armourers did, that had succumbed to falling from "great heights" from personal containers whilst parachuting.:lol::lol:
Yet more tales for the future and I am sure Tanky and Peter know of several.............bloody PARA's !
Yes the wood pegs are custom made by self out of oak. The other patches are made from hardwood offcuts that I have saved thinking that they "may come in useful one day". I am intending to retain the horrible overhung butt plate as a good example of poor design but I will try to be careful not to drop the Bren heavily on the butt. My whole working life has been spent in the metal working/engineering industry and so I'm interested to see how metal objects are designed and made and also the differences between manufacturers. Even poor designs such as the overhung butt plate are of interest to me and worth saving.
In BAOR, where the Mk2 gun was the norm with UK and Cdn forces, those overhung butt plates were virtually banned! There was a local EMER/BAOR modification where they were simply modified by heating to cherry red, flattened and chopped off at the top with the guillotine. Another hole was drilled at the top and the resulting flat plate was screwed onto the butt. Pretty much as per the Mk3 gun butt plate. Saved hours of work patching butts thereafter......
I am the same way. I like to see the design evolution of guns, what worked and what didn’t. The overhung Mk2 butt plate is a good example of one of those things that didn’t work out.Quote:
Originally Posted by Flying10uk
I am guessing the overhang was intended to be a simplified replacement for the troublesome Mk1 folding shoulder plate?
Yes, it was Vince. But it's also an example of 'the bigger picture'. When it was sanctioned nobody thought to ask whether the new Mk2 Bren would fit into the chest. And the overhang meant that it didn't. Well, it did, after a fashion. The end of the chest had to be modified to create a shallow cam so that the gun body compressed the butt slide buffer in order that the gun would fit. If you have a chest without the chamfer to allow the overhanging butt plate to slide in, then it's probably a pre Mk2 gun chest.
I bet there's hundreds of Mk1 Bren nerds/fiends secretly checking to see whether their Bren chest is the correct one now. LISTEN...... THEY'RE ALL CORRECT.........!
One more thing you needed to be doing in the shop...Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Laidler
[QUOTE=Yet more tales for the future and I am sure Tanky and Peter know of several.............bloody PARA's ![/QUOTE]
Gil, Mine come under the heading of 'Horror Stories'!......;) I made many good Friends with Airborne Collegues, & thanks to Facebook. I am still able to keep in touch with most of them! :thup::thup:
One of my chests has the felt lining hacked out at each end I would guess as an "improvised modification" to accept a MK2 Bren. I haven't actually got round to trying it yet but it makes the interior of the chest look a bit of an eyesore.
There was a miscellaneous instruction for this but I wouldn't imaging anyone bothered too much with the niceties of it all. As a rule, stuff that came in a chest was usually put into the armoury and the chests were stored somewhere, out of sight in case they were ever needed again - which was usually never!! At Tidworth, the whole miniature 25 yard range firing point was raised up on all sorts of chests of one sort or another. Bren, Browning, No4T........ If a, say, Bren had to be back-loaded to Ordnance for some reason or another then the operation was usually preceded by a phone call between RQMS's and thereafter, instead of returning the whole CES, just the gun would go back and a new one would come in return. So long as the paperwork/trail all tied up everyone was happy