Home Made Tooling for your Lee Enfield.

[Norton1]

Is someone saying that the screws on British Enfields should not be all buggered up? I'll be darned - -

[tbonesmith]

Just stocking up the forend of a No5, which i cut down from a stuffed No4 forend, patched the draws, and the knox, and that little tool works like an absolute ripper. No need to go longer, it's pretty well perfect!

[Peter Laidler]

Talking of home made useful tools, at the massive 40 Base workshop we had hundreds of special home made tools and one I remember well was one specially designed to dolly bent and buckled RING, retaining, rear handguards into the correct shape. It fitted into the vice and the buckled ring was dollied around until it fitted and was then tapped lightly until it was perfect. Mind you, you'd need to be doing hundreds, day afrer day to warrant such a jig!

You'd occasionally find that on No5 rifles, where the barrel and retaining ring were corroded, the unit Armourers had fitted a new ring but because they couldn't unbreech and breech up or remove flash eliminators, they'd make a split at the bottom in order to replace it. The jig was also used to position the ring so that the split could be brazed across the bottom.

Happy days

[tbonesmith]

Ha, this one is brazed on the bottom for just that reason!

[Peter Laidler]

Did you do it TBone or was it already split and brazed? Could be one of ours if it is. If anyone else has one like it, that's the reason!

As you've probably guessed, we were all very ex apprentices and skilled so didn't waste much

[tbonesmith]

Already done when it came.

[Peter Laidler]

Amazing........... could be one of ours! There's a little bit of history for you

[tiriaq]

Here is a shot of the universal barrel vise that I use. It is made from 2 pieces of 1 1/2" square steel bar. Clamping bolts are 7/8" diameter. Split bushings are machined from 1 1/2" diameter aluminum stock. Bored to fit the barrel at hand, have made up a number over the years. Sprinkled with powdered rosin, kept in a salt shaker. I hold the thing in a monster 6" vise. Little bar on the bottom prevents the bolt from turning.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

A while back I acquired MOST of what appears to be an "issue" barrel vise. It has a small plate dovetailed into one of the jaws to provide correct engagement with the driving flat on the Knox form. The two jaws appear to be part of a bigger kit; probably a bench-mounted specal vise. The blocks can be used by compressing them between hardwood blocks in a 6" vise, but a serious hydraulic rig may be more appropriate.

T-Bone: your "extended" triggerguard screw gizmo looks a lot like the stockmakers screws I have used for inletting stock blanks, bedding barreled actions in "Devcon" or various other fitting jobs. Folks who work with Mausers and commercial sporters use them a lot during set-ups; they certainly save the real screws (and the stock) from screwdriver damage.

One for No4 users: Has anyone tried replacing the front TG screw of their "competition rifle" with a high-tensile cap screw, (hex or Torx drive)? 1/4" BSF versions don't exactly grow on trees here in Oz, but a long-shank 1/4 UNF could be trimmed and rethreaded (Carbide thread-cutting tip tool could be handy). Using a socket drive allows the operator to use an "inch-pound" torque wrench for consistent bearing after re-assembly.

[Surpmil]

Ha, this one is brazed on the bottom for just that reason!

Have one here that needs that service: plenty rusty.