SMLE Tool

[XL39E1]

Any ideas???

Attachment 63987Attachment 63988

Information

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[mrclark303]

Ah, its a thingy for gauging the whats'im'acallit ....no idea, where's Peter when you need him!

[Vincent]

Looks like a front sight alignment tool.

[Badger]

I don't see it in this MKL article ..

Milsurps Knowledge Library - Fore Sight Adjusting Cramps (by Graeme Barber)

Regards,
Doug

[303tom]

It sure looks like a rifle sight adjustment tool, but I have never seen one with a handle on it................

[Peter Laidler]

We need to see if the round arms are threaded into each other. It's probably the tool used to hold the backsight slide when replacing the pin that locks the threaded deflection knob to the threaded part.

Armourers were issued with plenty of these tools - think of the various tools for removing the L1A1 extractor or the forked screwdriver 'supposedly' used for replacing the stem nut on the Bren carrying handle or the so called alignment tool for the....... - anyway, you get my drift...... I mean, has anyone ever seen the totally useless, complicated, expensive and OTT tool, said to have been devised and issued for the removal of the M1919 driving spring?

It was probably one of those sorts of tools that you used during your apprenticeship, saw again once when you were out in the REAL world, saw how the job was REALLY done by an old, wise Armourer using his own home made and FAR simpler too. Then you made something similar and simpler which you still have. The issue tool stayed where it was in the 'A in U' cupboard forever or until the workshop closed down.

Other very similar tools were the foresight adjusters...........

[Beerhunter]

Isn't it a humgrumit for adjusting the floggle-toggle. (Thanks to the Navy Lark.)

[Peter Laidler]

There was another of these these special tools called a GAUGE, Inspectors, protrusion - or something like that - kept in the inspectors oil soaked cloth lined gauge box. It was about 4" long, .1" wide and 1" deep with two 1/2" wide recesses cut out. Each GO or NO-GO recess was accurately machined to a set depth, to within about .010" of each other. This gauge was to measure the length of the protruding square of the No1 rifle stock bolt, where it intruded out of the front of the butt socket no less.

Why in heavens name there was a gauge for this was quite beyond my understanding of schoolboy basic geometrical whatever-it-is! After all, so long as the stock-bolt gripped the thread and held the butt tight and secure - as it did on the No4 rifle - that was all that mattered in the great scheme of things. And if the squared shank protruded a tad too FAR through the butt socked, then the bloody fore-end wouldn't fit back against the butt socket or even fit on the rifle. It really was as simple as that!

No need for a gauge to tell the Armourers the bleedin' obvious was there?

Without doubt, the best tool supplied was the tough as old boots, old fashioned, square drive; BRACE, Armourers together with the various screwdriver bits and other odd attachments. Still got one that was in use this morning! Are they still in the Armouirers tool kits Skippy, Tankie, Son?

[Vincent]

Do you have a picture of the square drive Brace, Peter?

Same as this more or less? Military Surplus Collectors Forums ARMOURER'S TOOLS - Page 2

[Peter Laidler]

That's the one Vince. The square drive is in the end! You could put some leverage on that.......... And if a bolt was really rusted in, as in No5 rifles, then you could almost stop the earth from rotating unscrewing it!

The stock bolt screwdriver was also used to unscrew the internally hidden NUT, buffer on the Bren Guns. This was one of the few spec change in the original Bren drawings, to incorporate oversize slots this to allow the use of this tool