Here's a little piece of scrap metal I managed to pick up recently.........
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...j1g5lipl-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...wmeohfnu-1.jpg
:madsmile:
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Here's a little piece of scrap metal I managed to pick up recently.........
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...j1g5lipl-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...wmeohfnu-1.jpg
:madsmile:
The FN magazine well goes onto the piece with the Allan screws in the bottom picture...and the receiver goes between the two thumb screws...
Then that horizontal bar drops down from the top, into the slots that drop vertically just ahead of the rearmost horizontal thumbscrews.
But what does that horizontal bar do?
And is it clamped downwards by the two vertical thumbscrews that might engage into the blocks on the horizontal bar?
What's the significance of the tethered allen key
It cannot be a slave jig for firing because the recoil would simply rotate the body away!
Alignment jig for holding body rigid whilke collimating SUIT sights? What a palava when you can do the same using an old No4 type aiming rest.
And then.....................
The thumb screws look like they came from a L7 GPMG bipod.
Will it be a milling jig for reshaping the locking lug after it has been built up with weld.
The jig looks like it would not take a full rifle ( the angle of the magazine) and would this angle be correct for the body lug.
Yep....., I think that you've sort of, nearly, almost, could, might have hit the nail on the head Skippy. But where would that horizontal bar go and do? It's far too far to the rear to be anything to do with the body/TMH axis pin. Could it locate through the change lever hole?
It's been rumoured that Kev the Kiwi is offering an all expenses paid holiday to NZ for the winner
I could do with a trip down under......
I think the bar would just pull down on the top of the receiver. And the two thumb screws would secure the receiver at the rear. With the allen key and plate pulling the receiver down onto the magazine
As the locking lug would be rebuilt with utectic weld I think it would have to be ground to size on a surface grinder, so less cutting force to try and rip the receiver from the jig.
You are correct Skiprat, its a Jig for building up the Body Locking Lug.
The bar seems to just push against the underside of the Body and lateral play is stopped by the use of the side locking screws...... made from GPMG Bipod screws
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...sidfa9jl-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...cqtxbutx-1.jpg
Brilliant........ great detective work. Enjoy your holiday Skippy and send us all a card. I have a funny feeling in my bones (unless Skippy and Tankie can confirm differently...) that in UK service this repair was carried out as an outside contract basis as opposed to in-house at our Base workshops. All the details were in the latter EMER's.
Worn body locking lugs were becoming an increasing problem towards the end of its life and I know that previous to that plenty were ZF'd and scrapped because of it. That was OK when there were still vast stockpiles but towards the end, when even production of spares had ceased at EFD and the 'new' rifle was still years away it became important to salvage/rebuild worn bodies.
Great brain teasing last couple of threads chaps!
One can only conclude that it was for use with an automatic welder of some sort so that the position of the lug is constant to the path of the welding rod, and used on a production basis. On those that I have done I have just held the body in a pair of aluminium jaws in the vise and TIG welded the lug. They were only ever done on a one-at-a-time basis, and hand fitted. This jig could also be used to position the bodies for a milling operation to provide a constant dimension in the refurb process.
Thinking about it, we had a similar jig for rebuilding the top cover latch area of the M1919 Brownings. Mind you, like Woodsies method, the actual fitting was done on the bench by hand using a file and the Browning that you were working on.
Come on KtK..... lets see a few more of these special fixtures. It's strange how these gadgets were devised and presumably sent out to the workshops. But, alas, the Armourers on the ground had already encountered the problems years earlier and had devised other much simpler methods of fixing stuff.
One I remember was a special tool for tightening up the bush on the L1A1 TMH that positioned the pistol grip. Except that it didn't! The only thing that did the job was a hard steel tapered rod or drift that entered the top of the bush. Then you knocked sxxxe out of it. Others prefer to use the phrase '.....gently swage....' but to do THIS job, you knocked the living xxxx out of it! By doing so, the tapered drift opened up the internal diameter and spread the whole diameter of the top part of the bush out to grip the whole diameter of the TMH. Problem solved and the special jig stayed in the A in U cupboard along with the other useless stuff - like the extractor removal tool!
Happy days
Ahh yes Pete, but the bean counters kept a good eye on all those special jigs and tools, just getting one out of stores to look at was more drama , so much easier and less hassle to revert to the hammer/punch technique.
Nice to know some, Military 'Traditions' never change! :madsmile: I SWEAR, Storemen go on a course. To learn a Hundred Different ways to say: 'No we haven't got it'. When you can see for yourself, the item concerned. Is sitting on the shelf in the background!!....:mad:
........ or, when you see it, they reply '....but it's the only one we've got.....!'. They have no concept of '......well get some more then or you'll only EVER have one left.......
The good ones learned that being a good storsie meant having nothing on the shelves and a pile of paper that proved all was on order...the rest was on issue...
Others will be having a chuckle about this attack on dopey storemen......, but it's true! I went in to exchange some worn and tatty overalls/coveralls, and I mean old and well used. He just asked me what was wrong with them so I put them on. Still no change in attitude. except to comment that a good laundry would sort them out. I went back and grizzled to the Tech QM (under whom we operated) and he made a phone call......, a phone call with some authority I should add. 10 minutes later I was back with a new pair, just as the Tech QM had suggested the previous day!
But the same storemen wouldn't hesitate to call into us if there was some technical problem or if they were, say 8 BFA's or magazines or scabbards etc etc short for a check the next week. Could we help? They soon learned about back scratching.
We had a RQ at my last came while we trained reserves. He commented one day about having to sit down all ranks of the Adm Corp in his unit and explain that "Your hatbadge says SERVICE...that means YOU!" He lived that motto. He and I worked together well during that short 4 months...