SMLE No1 MkV Restoration (Part's 1 thru 7)

[tbonesmith]

Beautiful job you've done. You mentioned that you were going to use a 7.62 barrel for it, will this be chambered in 7.62 Nato or other?

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[bigduke6]

Beautiful job you've done. You mentioned that you were going to use a 7.62 barrel for it, will this be chambered in 7.62 Nato or other?

Thanks tbonesmith,

Will Rechamber to .30 M1 carbine, then re contour to suit. Would of loved to put it back to .303 but as bubba had gone a bit mad with the file , originaly going rebarrel to .22, but did some tests a while back using old Target barrels, and rechambered them to .30 M1 carbine, worked out quite well so thought reducing it to this would be acceptable plus can still use it in an indoor range.

[fergs]

a very nice peice of work and will be a very nice rifle when youve finished by the looks of it.
Just a few questions on it though?, how did you go with the clips off the old rear hand gaurd to hold it onto the barrel, did you transplant them across or not worry. If you didnt worry with the clip it makes the new rear gaurd appear to sit up a bit high. Or the no4 timber would that have been long enough to chop it so most of the splice was hidden under the front band?. Either way youve done a nice peice of carpentry that would make many a stock maker jealous.
food for thought
Regards
Fergs.
PS. oops my bad saw in later pics you had put the clip in.
Keep up the good work am waiting with envy for the final installment.

[bigduke6]

a very nice peice of work and will be a very nice rifle when youve finished by the looks of it.
Just a few questions on it though?, how did you go with the clips off the old rear hand gaurd to hold it onto the barrel, did you transplant them across or not worry. If you didnt worry with the clip it makes the new rear gaurd appear to sit up a bit high. Or the no4 timber would that have been long enough to chop it so most of the splice was hidden under the front band?. Either way youve done a nice peice of carpentry that would make many a stock maker jealous.
food for thought
Regards
Fergs.
PS. oops my bad saw in later pics you had put the clip in.
Keep up the good work am waiting with envy for the final installment.

Thanks Fergs,

Regarding the clip and handgaurd, the pic you seen was without the clip it was just to see what all the wood looked like together, didnt want it looking like a patch work blanket (its not far off), in fact that gap is caused by the fore-end being warped, (thats why i chose it for this project, no good for much else, plus was a pain to bed the action and barrel)

The hangaurd (No4) wasnt long enough, so this was the reason for the join, more of an experiment and to test my skills for another project, the original had seperate hand gaurds, but I wanted to keep this one together just to see how accurate I could get it, again its regarding my next project.

its not that far off completion, but wanted to do a range test and post this on the final thread, also the rear sight to complete but will soon have an original one to copy.

Problem I face at present is getting free time in the workshop , plus once I,m in there the cold soon starts to bite, after more than 20 yrs working in a Hot Engine room, I start to feel the cold a lot more than than I used to.

[tbonesmith]

Nice one.

[bigduke6]

After a long wait for the barrel band and still no sign after 5 months, I began to look elsewere I new Roger Payne had one (repro) as it popped up in conversation when we were at the Birmingham International. Band arrived last week (from Roger) so made a start, still a delay on finishing the barrel as the lathe is set up with a job. saying that this post alone has around 20 pics so think part 5 should be the Final.

After a quick look on the EFD website for info on fitting the Band i made start, First up was the band needed some meat taken off from the inside to follow the same contour as the nose cap,




After this the top of the oval need to be adjusted (shaped) I used the handle of the action wrench as a dolly and shaped it with a wooden mallet.



This next part was to inlet the fore end, this needs time and patience as it could end in tears.
I used a stanley knife blade to do the marking out and to remove the wood.




It was then a case of making a deep cut with the blade and then start the inlet, this in the begining i went from the edge to the centre and the same on the other side.




I used the nose cap as a guide rather than sliding the band on and off, as you can see still a bit to remove.



After this it was time to fit the handgaurd to mark out, must point out here its vital the middle band is fitted and with the nose cap in place you can see the holes dont line up due to the hangaurd which requires inleting.




As before using the stanley knife blade to mark out and inlet the hangaurd




next pic shows what i was looking for as when the holes line up gives an idication your there



pics of the final fitting







The final part of the woodwork was the barrel clip i removed from an old hangaurd and will reuse the rivots, pics show the clip removed (rust needs to be removed) I marked it out to drill and rivot but didnt have the drills on hand so will box this up in part 5.




Last one was just to check everything was in line etc



Just like to say a big thanks to Roger Payne for the Barrel band, and the boys from EFD for there instructions on there website regarding fitting, i may not of followed it to the letter but was valuable info.

i hope to finish the barrel soon to post the last part.

[NMC_EXP]

A fine piece of work.

Regards

Jim

[bigduke6]

After a recent purchase that turned out to be not the real thing apart from the action, plus an other deciding factor was what a big collector had mentioned in a post. These combined with the fact bubba had been at work at some point on the action I decided to recycle an old target barrel that was chambered for 7.62, and turned the profile down, re threaded and re chambered it to .30 M1 carbine calibre. The reason for the .30 is, I like the round, can use it at my indoor club, and as I,m not here for ever, if it was a .22 or .303 someone in the future may get stung with some bull s**t story off a dodgy dealer, so if its in .30 dont think there would be anyone getting taken for a ride, also I,m using a locking ring similar to the savage system.
Although it should be in the gunsmiths part of the forum, I wanted To keep it along with the other parts.


The barrel was in a mauser action when I purchased it, the action was scrapped (long story but I wont go into it now) so I had this on hand so started the recycle process to convert it to a
.30 M1 carbine calibre, and turn the profile to suit, as I dont have a taper attachment for the lathe then it was a case of stepping it like a K98 barrel profile.

First stage was to get a rough idea where the neck of the chamber was, and to set up in the lathe to give me a datum and turn down part of the old thread for the dog (carrier) this is to enable to run between centres , plus spot the area were the thread was to be.





Next part was to turn down the tapered profile to parallel steps.This was the slow part as you have to keep moving the fixed steady. once the old taper was removed its plain sailing from there, the pics i had of the final finish between centres have been lost, but the main dimensions to adhere to are the front section for the nose cap to fit with the plunger and spring and the fore sight and also the inner band.




Finished profile ready for the scrap to be cut off before the tenon. I wasnt that far off with the rough measurment.




Next was to set up for the thread, threading is an easy process as long as you have the right tools, time and patience, am not going into a long process, am just showing the basics, with a few pointers.
First pointer is check and check again that you lathe is set for the required TPI, in this case 14 threads per inch.
set the work up and use the gauge against the work and then position the tool to suit. you can see a fine cut across the work which i have used as an example, this is just a routinecheck everything is running ok and to check with the thread gauge, also before this everything was set and also the dial was zeroed, plus the thread dial indicater was locked in on the lead screw.




Three pics show the stages from the first cut to about half way through, then the final finish during the final stages of the cutting I check regular with the action, to make sure a good tight fit is produced (using a lathe thats over 50+ years old you have to allow for a bit of backlash)





The tenon was then machined to the correct length and made ready for chambering,



Cutting the chamber is just a basic reaming operation, I use two reamers here and a throating reamer, (they are all home made from ready available reamers, I pick these up along with any other engineering bits I see when I,m at the car boot sale) I rough out using a slow speed and plenty of coolant, then I hand ream using a finish reamer and then cut the throat, if I purchase a reamer then I buy the ones with a fixed throat.

The final reaming set up is just the same as the last picture which is the throat being cut, plenty of cutting oil and a few MM at a time will produce a precision cut chamber, the process here will require two hands one turning the reamer/tap wrench, while the other is slowly turning the tail stock, (practice makes perfect). (The picture shows the handle on the cross slide this was for a pic and is normally free to turn)

I highly recomend two books one is the NRA gunsmithing guide (updated) and one which was a recent purchase from Dave Manson Precision reamers, The complete illustrated guide to precision rifle barrel fitting by John L Hinnant.





Last few pics show the action with its new barrel, here I was adjusting the barrel for the correct headspace so I could get the correct position to machine the slot in the locking ring, to allow a c spanner to be used to tighten it in place, didnt have any pics of the locking ring but I produce these from cut offs from barrel blanks, you can see the marker pen mark as an idication to where machine the slot.






Final stage was to fit the fore end to check on the lengh and machine to size and also to machine an 11 degree crown. pics of the crown and the steps in the barrel.





I must point out the barrel I recycled was used due to a heavy scratch in the chamber, so was perfect for what i needed, plus gives anyone an idea what can be done to recycle an old barrel.

Next and final part will be the assembled rifle and hopefuly with a sight, plus a few pics of it in action on the range.

[No4Mk1(T)]

Wow... Outstanding work! Keep the updates coming

[gunner]

Wow, Really amazing!!!