Look out! It's a newbie with carbine problems!

[shadycon]

Question; If it is soldered on , can it be warmed up and remove? Then replaced?

[vintage hunter]

No, not warmed up, heated up and yes they could be but you really don't want to do that. They were silver soldered on, different process to lead based soldering, this would require heating the barrel/cylinder cherry red to attach or remove it. Not something you'd want to do under normal circumstances as it would likely require the whole barrel to be heat treated to remove stress. I've seen some replacement gas cylinders that were said to have made by Iver Johnson and were leftover when they ceased producing the .30 carbines. They were'nt the band type like seen on USGI barrels and on the IJ carbine I had they were silver soldered in place.

[feets]

Vintage is right. There is no removing the gas block and saving the barrel. It would have to be cut off using a very slow and tedious process. I enjoy fiddling with metal but there's no way I'd go put that kind of effort into saving a barrel that is likely beyond saving as it is. Slamming through it with a cutoff wheel on a die grinder would cook the steel and leave you with a potentially explosive barrel. The uneven heating caused by that is worse than welding because of the duration of the heat generated.
If the gas block has to come off, the barrel is going in the scrap pile.

I'm just fiddling with it now. Think of it as goofing off in a mechanical way.
The welding I did was on the bottom of the gas tube. I did not weld on the barrel itself. The previous owner did some nasty welding and no doubt did nothing for the barrels precision (or lack thereof). I am very aware of what welding does to metal. I weld and machine all kinds of stuff. Sheet metal, steel structures, automotive stuff, tools for my guys at work, etc. I have a good understanding of physics and what temperature does to metals. I bet my life on my welding and machine skills, as evidenced by this photo:



How many 1965 Plymouth Belvederes do you see running around with twin turbocharged fuel injected big blocks and 14" AMG disc brakes from a 2005 Mercedes S55?

Back to the topic at hand...

The interesting part is that the little carbine punches relatively tight groups. This barrel has had a bad day but shows no signs of fatigue, inside or out. A bore scope shows the inside to be free of hot spots, visible cracks (no witnessing from gas residue), or other bad signs. There appear to be no tight spots.
The piston and nut in this thing are trashed. I can hack away at it and do whatever I like. Replacement parts are on the way to me as we speak. When they arrive, I will weld a stick to the piston to help me hold it rearward. Then, I'll cut it off as close as I can to the nut. Once that's out of the way, I'll try a broken bolt extractor on the nut. Should that fail to remove it, I'll tack weld a piece of bar stock to the remains of the piston nut and use it to twist the nut. Once it moves it'll be easy to remove from the barrel. I'll stuff the new parts in there and see what happens. If the carbine still won't run properly, I'll rebarrel it using one of the Criterion pieces. The new barrels don't have any hardware so I need that new nut and piston anyway.

Welding and machining don't cost me anything. All I do is step from my living room into the garage and turn on the lights. I might even turn on the radio and fan if I'm going to be out there for a while. You see, I enjoy doing stuff like this. While I don't normally machine gun stuff I have made a few parts in the past. As a matter of fact, I got rid of the scary piece of brass that someone stuffed in the carbine as a trigger group pin and turned my own pin out of 306 stainless steel rod I had in the garage. I did not have a GI pin to measure at the time so I made it .005" undersize for a slip fit.

In short, I'm playing with the barrel to see if it will run well and group tight. If it doesn't straighten out, I'm really not out anything. I have learned quite a bit about the carbines and will learn more as I go.
If I simply threw this thing in the trash and bought something else I'd be out more money and would have learned very little.

Some people take their car to the mechanic when they have a problem. I'm the guy that studies the problem, does a little research on the subject, and gets my hands dirty fixing it. Guns are very simple mechanical devices. There's no voodoo or black magic going on. If you have an eye for detail and can comprehend what other things can happen throughout the system when one little change is made these things are easy to figure out.

[feets]

I was thinking about it. If I have to scrap the barrel I might have to build another little monster and give him a cannon to play with.

Here's a pic of a trophy I made for my car club. Junior is unfinished in this pic. I made a trophy to put in his hand after I shot this pic. Anyway, I could build his twin brother and have him playing with a piece of the barrel.

[Harlan (Deceased)]

You do some great work, feets!

I understand the challenge of making something work. It's a battle of man against machine, and I appreciate that challenge more than most, and won't give up until it's a lost cause. I'd do as you just described to try to fight the battle and try everything to get it running, just for the challenge of it but I would not spend the money for a new barrel.
If it was a USGI carbine I would do so just to keep a part of history alive, but not a commercial clone.

You have the carbine bug already whether you know it or not, and you're hooked by the history of it's design.

Keep your project and please consider saving for a USGI carbine. You have love for machinery and when you have a vintage M1 carbine in your hands everything changes -
There is nothing like a vintage WWII firearm that comes alive as they do. It's 'living history' like nothing else in the world to possess a well made firearm from WWII that functions better than most guns made today.

After 65 years, nobody manufactured a carbine replica that touches an original mechanically and they didn't make one after WWII ended. An original USGI M1 carbine is worth spending a few dollars more for on mechanical merits alone.

When you have a piece of history in your hands that's most likely fought through two and possibly three wars because nothing else could replace it, you become to hold it in reverend as not only a tool but something with a life of it's own.

[Rustship]

Feets,

You must have good sense if you replaced that MOPAR engine with a Chevy.....LOL

[frankderrico]

Rusty, your funny.....Frank

[feets]

Feets,

You must have good sense if you replaced that MOPAR engine with a Chevy.....LOL

I like a challenge but I'm not interested in throwing away good parts in exchange for lower performing items.

The hot rod is powered by an Edelbrock headed 440 wedge. It's got a custom port injection intake of my own design, 1700 cfm throttle body, and 120 lb injectors. The ignition is distributorless and controlled by the EFI system.
It's street manners are so nice that I drove it from DFW to Green Bay, WI on the Hot Rod Power Tour.


Back to the carbine....

I went to the range today with my friend. We had a good time sighting in his new Remington 308 bolt gun. I also ran the 1954 Marlin Model 88 until the firing pin broke. I put all 30+ rounds inside the 9 ring at 50 yards. I'll have to scrounge up more parts to make dad's old rifle run again.
When I pulled out the carbine, tragedy struck. I left it's ammo at the house.

No biggie. The new parts will be here in a couple days. I'll have to put it together with the new stuff and try again.

[feets]

hmmm.... Midway USA has Criterion carbine barrels on closeout for $147.

[feets]

***update***

The new parts arrived today. I took the carbine down and locked the barrel into my shop vise. The piston nut refused to budge. I ended up welding the piston to the nut which is a real trick considering the wall of the nut is tiny and you don't want it welded to the receiver. Once that was done I welded a 1/4 x 20 nut to the end of the piston. A 7/16" wrench spun it off but it didn't come easy.
I stuck the bore scope down the pipe and shot some brake cleaner into the gas port. There was a slight dribble into the chamber. I pulled out a .0625" drill bit and started cleaning the port. I was pulling out all kinds of nasty stuff. I was watching through the bore scope while turning the bit. I didn't want to hit the far side of the bore with the bit. That's when I broke through into the bore. Oopsie! I now have two gas ports. I guess it's a good thing the Criterion barrel is on it's way. the two holes are about 20 degrees apart. the new port is straight. The old port is off to the side.
I went ahead and cleaned up the gas cylinder. It was ugly in there. various bore cleaners were not doing the trick. I ended up using a foaming bore gel on a low speed Dremel buffing wheel. The piston now fits in the hole but it is tight. It will not pass the tilt test. Sometimes it's hard to pull rearward with my fingers. I'll keep working with it.

So, now that the gas port is officially too large, what's going to happen? Will it slam the bolt through the back of the receiver and into my forehead?
Who wants to pull the trigger first and find out what happens?