Home Made Tooling for your Lee Enfield.

[Son]

Now it's time to make a receiver wrench.
One thing to remember, the barrel was VFT to start with, and hasn't been disturbed for over sixty years. Anyone who has removed a couple will know what I am saying. The reason for stressing this point- if you don't use a well fitting wrench fitted to the receiver ring, odds are you will damage something. Worst cases- I have seen a receiver with a torque twist in it because someone stuck a pipe wrench (stiltson) on the butt socket. I have seen one with the side walls spread AND torque twisted because someone stuck a bar through the action at the mag well and tried unscrewing it. The most common one would be the metal vise marks on the receiver ring and the pipe wrench marks on the barrel knox.
The idea of a form tool is so it does not put any crush across the receiver ring which can act to hold the barrel tighter.

Here's a pic of what you will end up with.
Attachment 23691

Here's the instructions for making it.

Instructions For receiver Wrench
Material- 2"x1" (or 3/4") flat bar. (mine is 14" long)
Paint surface and edges, (easier to see scribed lines)
Mark centre line down front face
Measure 1 3/4" down from top and centre punch.
Measure down 7/8" from above point and centre punch.
Mark centre line on edge, measure down 1/2" and centre punch.
On face, drill top hole 1 5/16" NOTE if not available, scribe
a circle 1 5/16" and drill 1 1/4" (will have to be filed out
to scribed circle later)
On face, drill lower hole 1/2" if possible: may run into big hole.

On edge, drill through 5/16". Re-drill 7/16" to depth of 1 7/16".

If large hole is 1 1/4" file or use metal burr to open to scribed
line, taking care to keep edges square to face.
Hacksaw and file down from big hole to 1/2" hole, squaring bottom
so the joined holes are 1 3/4" from top to bottom, 17/32" wide
at the narrow end. Round out corners where holes join.

(NOTE; There is a slight difference in the No1 and No4 receivers where the front trigger guard screw lug joins the receiver ring. To fit both rifles, just test them both and remove the minimum amount of metal from the wrench to allow it to fit.)

Make 2 hacksaw cuts down into top of big hole, 9/16" in from each
side of bar. Remove centre and file/grind 1/16" off each cut side
Tap the 5/16" end of the transverse hole to 3/8 UNC, tapping from
other end, thru the clearance hole to help alignment.
A piece of brass shim should fit around the receiver ring, inside wrench,
to prevent damage.

The cut out end allows fitting over barrel without removing sights,
slide up onto muzzle ring, check position of brass shim, and
re-fit cut out piece with a 2"x 3/8" UNC high tensile bolt and tighten.
If not locked up on receiver, add another brass shim or file/grind
more off cut out piece to allow sides to close further.

Grip barrel in clamp/vise with wrench parrallel ground, check you are
going in the right direction and HIT THE BASTARD with something.

Here's a pic or two of it and the vise in action. I have had to use a three pound ball pein hammer and several full blooded swings on occasion to loosen a barrel. If the wrench isn't a good fit it can damage the receiver. If the barrel isn't into the vise to the knox, you can bend the barrel.
The brass shim may leave a smudge on the receiver which rubs off with some oil.
If the barrel turns in the vise, tighten it up some more.

Attachment 23692Attachment 23693

Information

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