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I seem to recall that the bolt is case hardened quite deep, in the order of .014" seems to ring a bell somewhere
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05-11-2014 05:39 PM
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I had to cut one once. I used a cutoff wheel on my circular saw and had it in a vice on the floor. I sat for a few minutes with a bright orange shower of sparks before it gave in. Yes Peter, they're hard. Hat's off to Sterling on that one.
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Legacy Member
I think the rear part of the bolt, where it's thin, must be through hardened. It was hard to cut with carbide. Look at the picture. The bolt almost won the battle. It's extremely hard!
Last edited by Vincent; 05-11-2014 at 09:57 PM.
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Those 'lands' on the bolt........ Patchett wanted to use a series of ball bearings inset into the front and rear of the bolt body to reduce the reciprocating friction and keep the bolt slightly clear of the inside of the gun body. It worked but would wear a trackway into the gun body. Then one evening while working away on his SMG project he had the idea of reverse 'lands. It worked. Reduced friction, kept the bolt away (?) from the body casing and shovelled the grit and sand away.
Quite where it shovelled the grit and sdand away to is quite another matter. He said that it was gradually pushed forwards until it was forced/pushed/pressed into the front of the casing through the gap under the flat on the bottom of the rear barrel support. There might be a flat, but it wasn't for that!!!!! It was because he cut that flat to remove the small locating/locking recess or notch that was at the TOP of the old redundant Lanchester barrels that he was using up. Sliced section off, machined off/modified the front flange, rotated barrel through 180 degrees and used them as Sterling barrels!
Where did the crud and crap go......... Easy, through the cocking handle slot or through the large elongated slot in the bottom of the casing, straight into the trigger mech! But it worked
Have I gone off at a wild enough tangent yet?
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The Following 2 Members Say Thank You to Peter Laidler For This Useful Post:
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Those tangents are fascinating to me. They are full of wonderful information, like how to make a Lanchester barrel into a Sterling barrel. I wouldn’t have thought to turn the barrel 180 degrees because it would put the feed ramp on the opposite side.
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There's no feed ramp as such Vince. Ho just machined the Lanchester one to suit and you now see that it's just an all-round chamfer that directs the nose of the round into the 'hole'. The 'feed ramps' are in the front of the magazine. There's only a slot in the barrel face for the extractor.
Patchetts TRUE masterpiece was his magazines. They made them for £3 a piece and sold them for £11. And £11 was STILL cheaper that other SMG magazines of the time/era. Even the Fazakerley, RL, Mettoy and Rolls Razor L2 magazines cost more
Last edited by Peter Laidler; 05-13-2014 at 04:53 AM.
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This Mk3 butt stock is the closest I have found to a Patchett so far.
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Legacy Member
Attachment 53433
Does anyone have or know where I can get the full set of these?
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I think that the butt you show was the general butt for the whole range (apart from the early prototypes and trials stuff) right up until the introp of the L2A3/Mk4 gun. The Mk4 gun butt was a strengthened design at the insistence of the Ministry of Supply at the suggestion of the Army
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Legacy Member
That's good news. Thank you.
It's a bit wobbly. Looks like the strut axis pin is worn and loose. Can it be tightened or should I make a new one?
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