No.32 MKI & MKIIs

[GeeRam]

I'm a new member to the forum and quite new to historic/vintage rifles having mainly been involved in UK NRA TR and MR disciplines. I'm awaiting the arrival of a No.4 MK2 built by Fultons with a new Criterion Barrel

Crikey.....buying a No.4 from Fultons, you're brave!!

[Musgrave]

Why do you say that?

[Peter Laidler]

The segment you have is made from sintered (or compressed powder) alloy - although some are made from brass. There';s two ways you can remove it when it's started to disintegrate as yours has. Gently apply more heat than you'd like to and using a steel rod in the centre hole, just wiggle it about and it'll either come out slowly or probably just disintegrate completely. OR you can heat it and then GENTLY tap the erector cell at both ends using a specially shaped drift and the matching teeth on the erector cell might just cause the segment to lift. But don't necessarily bet on it. If you haven't got the special drift, DON'T go any further because you'll knacker the erector. You will need an old no 42 or 53 to salvage the replacement segment. It's all hand fitting after a looooooong apprenticeship and....... and.......... and..........

Then, when you have gone past the point of no return and beyond your ability - and it's in pieces you put it all into a bag and take it to Fultons or one of the other 'fixers' to get it fixed. How do I know this................

Added a bit later. If your turning skills are up to internally cutting teeth (not a thread incidentally) to enable half segment adjustments to the erector cell then I'd suggest making 50 segments because the original sintered ones are easily broken and hard to obtain. They had been no longer available for several years before the L42/No32 scope was obsolescent

[Musgrave]

Peter,

Thanks for your reply, I purchased a copy of your book, are the dimensions for the drift tool contained within it?

I'll keep you posted with my progress.

R

[Peter Laidler]

Drift..... Not sure but pictorially it's pretty well self explanatory. Must be recessed to clear the ocular end stop-down cone

[Strangely Brown]

Crikey.....buying a No.4 from Fultons, you're brave!!

Au contraire.
I asked Fultons to build me a No.4 for SR"b" and they did a stunning job, in fact I was so pleased with the service/quality etc I posted pictures of it on here for everybody to see.

[Musgrave]

Well the segment was picked out bit by bit and the erector cell is out. I made a simple drift on the lathe and gave it one light tap to dislodge. I'm going to make a cast of the segment and a dental technician friend of mine will make some new ones in his autoclave, zinc seems suitable.

[GeeRam]

Why do you say that?

Given what they charge for stuff........for one thing.

And 3 of our club members have had poor experience with Fultons, they even left an obstruction in the chamber of one club members Marlin after trying to fix it (which they couldn't)
Another gunsmith fixed for him on recommendation.

They store and look after our club rifles, and our old club No.4 (7.62 conv) was never right and they seemed unable to sort it.

Granted one of our club members has a lovely No.4 that was re-barreled, prepped and regulated by Fultons, and it certainly shoots very well indeed......but that was built by Fultons almost 20 years ago as he used his pistol compo to buy it.

[Musgrave]

Just thought I'd post a few pics of the No.32 MKII I've been working on. The work included a full strip down (inc getting the erector cell out / stuck segment problem) inc optic cleaning, new horizontal reticle wire. Clean up of many layers of non original paint and some rust. The scope body was then hot dipped blacked (the original finish it would appear). Turrets were brass blacked again and the numbers painted back in. One of the clicker plungers was broken to I made a new one annealed tool steel, it has a similar hardness to the original. The replacement segment is made from Devcon Steel Putty A for the moment, a dental technician will cast me some new ones once he's back from holiday. If PeterL is looking in, what do you think about the alloy for the segments? I was thinking 70/30 Zinc/Tin. Overall it was quite a straight forward process and very enjoyable.

[Warren]

The Devcon aluminum or steel putty is more than sufficient.
The originals were mazak or Zamak depending where you live and would just self destruct over time.
Just make sure you use a good separating medium. Liquid detergent works well but if you have a dental lab in town beg, borrow or steal a 1/4 oz of DIESEP and you are good for a lifetime.
Before the Devcon sets, pop in a matchstick into the centre and then remove when hard and use a sheet metal screw to remove the segment.
I've made several this way. In a scratch test, the aluminum appears harder than the original ZAMAK