Home Made Tooling for your Lee Enfield.

[Rusty.303]

G'Day All

Sort of a new guy and this is slightly off topic however,
I am trying to put together a collection of tools for SMLE's,No4's and P14's/M1917's.
If anyone is in possession of any original tools, machinists drawings of these or machinists drawings of the part of rifle that the tool fits, can you please post the drawings and or pictures.
If I can get the machinists drawings I can make the tools on CNC.

Next project, I might try to make a common receiver wrench that will accept a removable brass insert to suit both SMLE and No4 actions.
Has anyone had a go before or am I wasting my time?

Thanks

Information

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[Son]

Rusty.303, My posting in the middle of page one shows a receiver wrench that fits both. The main difference is the radius leading down to the front trigger guard screw lug.

[Surpmil]

G'Day All

Sort of a new guy and this is slightly off topic however,
I am trying to put together a collection of tools for SMLE's,No4's and P14's/M1917's.
If anyone is in possession of any original tools, machinists drawings of these or machinists drawings of the part of rifle that the tool fits, can you please post the drawings and or pictures.
If I can get the machinists drawings I can make the tools on CNC.

Next project, I might try to make a common receiver wrench that will accept a removable brass insert to suit both SMLE and No4 actions.
Has anyone had a go before or am I wasting my time?

Thanks

No, I don't think you're wasting your time. If you can cut out the wrench and a stack of inserts on a wire EDM machine you'll be away to the races, as they say.

Of course if you have access to EDM, you could cut some proper jaws to grip the Nock's form. Made to true dimenions, they could then be slit into two lengthwise and the two halves fitted into a suitable "hollow square" vise block with a massive compression screw. It is the proper place to grip barrels and the greater diameter gives greater mechanical advantage and no chance of twisting barrels, which can happen with the SMLE barrels especially.

Some rosin on wood blocks would help them grip by the way.

[tbonesmith]

Every time I stock up a No4 I have to put the front trigger guard screw in and out about 100 times. And after that long I inevitably wish I had one of these (and often bruise the screw head!).
So tonight I turned one up, a 1/4 BSF on a shank with a handle. I tested it out and I might mothball this one and make another with a very slightly longer shank before the handle.
All good fun and should make work easier on these beasts.
I intend making one similar but on a knurled short shank for the rear trigger guard screw, but I'll have to cut that with a die as I can't single point cut BA threads.

[mil-surp60]

impressive work my friend ,seems you are the MAN on tooling for these great old rifles , thanx i will be building a few of those tools.

[Peter Laidler]

One day when I'm in the mood, I'll draw-up/sketch a breeching up clamp and wrench that we used that would slide on and off the action and barrel very quickly, without having to unscrew anything. It also incorporated a 17 degree underurn mark that we could use to initially hand tighten. Being quick to remove, it was simple to slip it off or move it round a tad, go over to the breeching up sheet, do the rock test and back to do the final adjustments, back to the breeching up sheet........... No rock on the sheet, iinspectors check, tick the work sheet and that was it. Slide the barrel wrench off, body clamp and that was it. All done.

[tbonesmith]

One day when I'm in the mood, I'll draw-up/sketch a breeching up clamp and wrench that we used that would slide on and off the action and barrel very quickly, without having to unscrew anything. It also incorporated a 17 degree underurn mark that we could use to initially hand tighten. Being quick to remove, it was simple to slip it off or move it round a tad, go over to the breeching up sheet, do the rock test and back to do the final adjustments, back to the breeching up sheet...........

I'd like to make one of those, mine works fine but it's a PITA having to undo and do it up again repeatedly to fine tune the location.

[Peter Laidler]

Be warned anyone out there who is contemplating making their own breeching and unbreeching kit that you can sooooooooo easily crush the front trigger guard threaded spigot and thread unless you make sure that the body clamp if fully clear of it. Once you put the unbreeching load on it instead of the shoulders and it's crushed, that's it, body is finished.

I've even seen one with a scxrew inserted into the hole to protect the thread. It was so tight after the botched unbreeching that it was impossible to even remove the slave screw. So just be advised

Can I also suggest that you make sure that the lever part, whether it's the barrel or body clamp, that you make sure it is TWO handled to spread the load and balance.

Every major Base workshop had a couple of breeching up kits, usually made on site (the official kits relegated to some dark and dusty store.......) but they always followed a very similar pattern, based on years and years of experience.

Oh yes, just one other thing too............. The body and barrel clamps must be 1" wide to spread the torque loading and prevent damage when you get a REALLY tight basxxxd

[Old Lancer]

Made the allen key lead screw wrench as per Capt Laidler's instructions and made the lockring spanner from a pressed steel throwaway found in an IKEA flatpack, used a bench grinder to get it to the right dimentions then bent it to 90' in a vice. Works brilliantly.
See my range report in my thread "WOT I GOT FOR MY BIRTHDAY"

[jmoore]

If you set the clamping pressure just right you won't need the spanner for range work, just the modded Allen wrench. You can hold the turret in place with your fingers. A little less fiddle-y. But to get to that point the spanner surely IS useful!