best source of spare parts

[Gunnie]

Gents,

this info is gold. Many thanks! If I can spare some time on Saturday I'll try these out.
The barrel doesn't appear to have any other marks from what I could see without pulling all the wood off. It is stamped with the same S/N with no other numbers visible.
Condition wise, there is still some rifling present though very worn. I'm not too sure on the bore condition until I can spend some time scrubbing and de-coppering it. I have considered re-lining the bore as an option to making it a shooter. But that is a last resort till I've done all I can to clean the bore as well as try out some cast pills as well as flat base jacketed.

Here's hoping it works and I don't have to go to extremes of re-boring / re-lining.

[Kiwi]

Flick me a PM. I've helped out a few of you guys over in Oz (as well as Canada, the States and the UK) with your long lee enfield restoration projects as I have a bunch of parts not being used or I can generally source the part for you.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

That "worn" rifling:

Are there five grooves or seven?

If five, it's "worn"; if seven, it's a Metford and "Born that Way", as they say in the song.

As I understand it, commercial suppliers were installing Metford barrels for some years after the Brit military went to Enfield rifling.

To "modern" eyes, a mint Lee Metford or Arisaka can look "flogged out" because there are NO sharp edges on the rifling.

[Gunnie]

In all honesty B-in-O, I have no idea!
I'll have a look tonight when I get home from work and let you know.

[Gunnie]

Bruce, have had a gander at the old girl and it's a Metford barrel - all 7-grooves of it!
Will have to do some research on the Metford barrels and the 7-groove rifling. Plus I'm going to have to give it a good scrub and de-copper it to see just what state it's in.
Very interesting.

[Surpmil]

Remove the woodwork and put it into a vertical container full of oil. Something like a piece of pipe with one end plugged. Then leave it there for a few months. Turpentine is a new one on me but could well be the best. Will have to try it myself.

Don't want to damp your enthusiasm, but that is serious rust and the question one has to ask is does the original finish remain underneath to a great enough extent to justify the work involved.

May seem counter-intuitive, but I would give it a soak in caustic soda first (oven cleaner) to get as much of the dirt and grime off first. Then dry with heat and straight into the tank. That will give the rust maximum exposure to the oil/turps by removing most of the existing oil & moisture from the metal and the rust scale. Heat it until no more water vapour comes off.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Just a note on parts "cleaning".

In another life involving recovery of vintage machinery and, on occasion, cars and motorbikes, I discovered molasses. See your local "farmacy" / produce merchant. Iron and steel parts immersed in this stuff seem to magically lose their rust over a period of several months. (It also strips blueing).

Once an assembly has lost its bulk rust in the molasses tank, a few weeks in diesel fuel seems to free up fasteners as well. I figure that if the thing has waited seventy years or more, six months is nothing.

I made up several "tanks" for our sort of jobs out of heavy-duty 6" PVC storm-water/drain pipe. Simply cut to length (eg3 or 4 ft), glue an "end cap" on one end and an "Inspection port" with a screw-on lid on the other, and you have a very robust "gun-tub" or storage tube as required. The raw materials are fairly inexpensive, so make several; one for each process. Being waterproof and generally vermin-proof, such tubes also make great storage for large documents etc.

[Son]

I have used a plastic scrapper fashioned from a toothbrush handle... along with a bit of light oil it's slow work but doesn't harm any finish left under the rust. I'm going to try the turpentine too... also saw a suggestion that ultrasonic cleaning will remove rust as well.... gonna try that too!

---------- Post added at 09:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:31 PM ----------

Just a note on parts "cleaning".

In another life involving recovery of vintage machinery and, on occasion, cars and motorbikes, I discovered molasses. See your local "farmacy" / produce merchant. Iron and steel parts immersed in this stuff seem to magically lose their rust over a period of several months. (It also strips blueing).

Once an assembly has lost its bulk rust in the molasses tank, a few weeks in diesel fuel seems to free up fasteners as well. I figure that if the thing has waited seventy years or more, six months is nothing.

I made up several "tanks" for our sort of jobs out of heavy-duty 6" PVC storm-water/drain pipe. Simply cut to length (eg3 or 4 ft), glue an "end cap" on one end and an "Inspection port" with a screw-on lid on the other, and you have a very robust "gun-tub" or storage tube as required. The raw materials are fairly inexpensive, so make several; one for each process. Being waterproof and generally vermin-proof, such tubes also make great storage for large documents etc.

Bruce, an old mate of my father's uses a fifty fifty mix of molasses and water. The maximum it takes anything is three weeks, that included major rusted bits like 90 y/o motorbike mudguards. This guy has about ten vintage bikes restored in his shed, all of them were cleaned the same way.

[muffett.2008]

If you are chasing a fast descale, use CLR, but it will remove everything back to raw metal.

[Maxwell Smart]

I suspect that the molasses bath works in part due to the presence of glucose and fructose in solution - these two mono-saccharide sugars are also known as "reducing sugars". Reduction is the opposite chemical process to oxidation, so they probably act as a rust converter.

Don't know what effect they will have on non-ferrous metals - probably best to remove any brass or mazak alloy bits before putting the parts in the molasses bath