Modifying Mk1 Sten barrel nut into Mk2 lookalike

[Vincent]

…………. but try as I might I cannot find a Mk2 barrel nut for sale that isn't in the USA.

What’s wrong with the ones over here? Are the vendors not willing to repatriate them?

[philb]

hi, nope, wont send overseas......gun part you know

[peregrinvs]

Remember that when drilling on a round surface to use a good hard centre pop mark, a centre drill of if not a centre drill, a small pilot hole first with very little load on the drill.

Thanks. I've never done precise drilling into a thick tube like this before, so all tips gratefully accepted.

I've also been doing some work on the repro grip = reaming out some of the wood so that the ring can move down enough to compress the nut against the grip. Geoff / bigduke6 very kindly added a spacer ring to it last year, but I've now discovered the nut is slightly too big to fit.

So my next interesting challenge is how to shave half a millimeter or so of metal off the outside of the nut without access to a lathe.

[stencollector]

I have done a number of the barrel nut conversion from the Mk2 barrel nut over to the mkV nut. The 3 existing holes are easily filled by oxy acetylene welding. Ideally, inserting a 1-3/8 dowel inside will minimize the cleanup afterwards. It does not have to be brass or bronze...steel works fine. The heat required to weld the tube will have no effect on the dowel inside. In the absence of a dowel, the gun's bolt till do.

I like to use a lathe for locating the holes. I find center of a hole, and scratch all the way around the tube to help locate the holes by turning the lathe by hand. Then, using a digital caliper, I find the distance between the two holes, and divide it in half. I set the caliper to that distance, and then use it to scratch the location of the hole between the two existing holes. I like to scratch from both directions, then use the mean of the two scratches to center punch for the hole. You will want to measure each pair of holes, as they are not perfectly distanced.

It is tempting to merely drill from an existing hole through to the other side, but it rarely comes out perfect. and when you are out even by a fraction of an inch, it does stand out. Maybe not to the casual observer, but to you it will, and that should be your harshest critic.

[peregrinvs]

Update: a forum member who is highly knowledgeable about Stens took pity on me and very kindly added the six holes to make the Mk1 nut into a Mk2 lookalike. The very helpful individual concerned also tweaked the spacer ring previously added by Geoff / bigduke6 to make it neatly fit the nut. Thank you to you both.

My own more modest contributions were reaming some wood out of the wooden grip to make it functional, staining and oiling it to make it look closer to the original rear grip and painting the grip ring and nut after it had been returned to me. I also took the opportunity to stain and oil the butt which was unissued and a very pale colour.

It's now back to something like it's original 1944 appearance, so I've included a suitable picture of some gentlemen enjoying the successful first half of an airborne adventure in September 1944. I suspect they weren't looking quite so cheerful a few days later...
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[browningautorifle]

It's looking mighty fine now...

[Vincent]

Very nice!

[peregrinvs]

It's looking mighty fine now...

Very nice!

Thank you. And thank you again to the forum members who helped make it possible.

The icing on the cake now would be a dummy bolt that correctly held the return spring and cocking handle + wrapped around the piece of original bolt welded across the ejection port. But that's relatively serious metalworking and will have to remain a hypothetical for the time being. I may however have a go at making a dummy bolt for my Mk4 Sterling SMG that has been deactivated in the same way. That would be a more simple task of adding some slots and holes to a suitably sized piece of metal pipe.

[mrclark303]

Cracking job, looks absolutely superb, I wish I bought a Mk5 before old spec sales were banned.