Bolthead Over Rotation Update |
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Goosic
Senior Member Joined: September 12 2017 Location: Phoenix Arizona Status: Offline Points: 8792 |
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Posted: August 28 2020 at 1:49pm |
I have been in contact with Rex111 and working with him through phone call and text. He has sent me his bolt assembly which has yet to arrive. However, I did manage to assemble NOS pieces together to create a brand new and unused bolt assembly. Both lugs have been measured and are of equal length of 3.562" and the bolt body is 5.565" which is .010" longer than my other spares. Working on the threaded end of the bolthead, I stoned the back area that contacts the firing pin to produce a .014" gap between the striker and bolt body, creating a firing pin protrusion of 0.055", using an unissued #3 bolthead with a 0.6395" length. Bolt rotation is only 0.050" over center. It is a start as far as improving the overall condition of the rifle.
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Shamu
Admin Group Logo Designer / Donating Member Joined: April 25 2007 Location: MD, USA. Status: Offline Points: 17603 |
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Nicely done!
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Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)
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The Armourer
Senior Member Joined: June 23 2019 Location: Y Felinhelli Status: Offline Points: 1246 |
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Well done, I guess it now comes down to how worn his locking lugs are, or, even if the hardening has been penetrated.
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Goosic
Senior Member Joined: September 12 2017 Location: Phoenix Arizona Status: Offline Points: 8792 |
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His bolt assembly should be here by Monday. Just going off if his emails and texts, the bolt shows signs of being mushroomed at the mating surface were the bolthead contacts and there is noticable back and forth motion in the same area with a no load bearing scenario.
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britrifles
Senior Member Joined: February 03 2018 Location: Atlanta, GA Status: Online Points: 6539 |
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Let us know how it works out Goosic.
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Stumpkiller
Senior Member Joined: April 03 2020 Location: Port Crane, NY Status: Offline Points: 254 |
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Following this thread! Nicely mated up bolt. I love watching craftsmen at work.
Trying to imagine what could have crushed the bolt as you describe [that he describes]. I wonder if the threads on the head have been sheared a bit by someone trying to back the head out a turn and firing repeatedly. Then later with it back fully seated there might be enough play to cause a "floating head" that had enough play to hammer the bolt body with each shot. Be very interesting for your eventual diagnosis.
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Charlie P.
Life is not about how fast you run, or how high you climb, but how well you bounce. |
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Goosic
Senior Member Joined: September 12 2017 Location: Phoenix Arizona Status: Offline Points: 8792 |
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The owner of the rifle bought it with an unmatched bolt. The test I had him do by inking the locking lugs confirmed what I had assumed. The short lug does not contact its recess. Previous ownership probably shot it excessively, hammering the bolthead backwards into the bolt body widening the threads while at the same time creating excessive cross shearing with only one lug contacting its recess in the reciever. As soon as the original bolt gets here, I will make some additional measurements to get this new one as close to possible of making contact evenly across both lugs.
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Zed
Special Member Donating Member Joined: May 01 2012 Location: France Status: Offline Points: 5585 |
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It will be interesting to see what dimensions you get from the original bolt. Especially the length of bolt shoulder to lug surface.
However I think you'll need the rifle if you want to fit your new bolt. If the orginal bolt only shows contact on one lug; you won't know how much gap you have on the other side. Personally I would not attempt to modify a bolt lug fit without the rifle present. I've only done this once for my No1MkIII*, so I'm no expert! But it would have been impossible without the rifle to match the new bolt body to. This is only my 2 cents worth Goosic; as you have far more experience than I do with regard to building Enfields. I am interested to see how this turns out.
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It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice!
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Goosic
Senior Member Joined: September 12 2017 Location: Phoenix Arizona Status: Offline Points: 8792 |
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My intention will be for him to use my .070 gauge first while marking the contact surface on the lugs to give a definitive of where the contact points are. My though process has me making a great assumption that an unissued bolt body paired with an unissued bolthead should in theory, line up inside the lug recesses without any troubles,say for maybe .001" + or - that can be rectified with some extra fine Emory cloth and patience.
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The Armourer
Senior Member Joined: June 23 2019 Location: Y Felinhelli Status: Offline Points: 1246 |
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There was a specific inspectors bolt and volt head which was used to test an action that otherwise was difficult to head space, if it couldn't be head spaced with either an old bolt / new bolt head, or a new bolt / new bolt head the rifle was tested with the calibrated bolt - they could often still fail and would be scrapped.
An old post from 2008 GAUGE, inspectors, selected breech bolt.........
Haven't seen one of these for a few years. Yes....! Only used by the most
senior examiner, this bolt was a calibrated bolt made to the EXACT size. It was
kept in an oily drawer along with the other gauges. It's main use was as the
final arbiter as to whether a body was worn out. I seem to recall that the No1
gauges came with a matched bolt head which your are missing (oh no they're not,
I've just looked properly......!) The locking shoulders were specially hardened
so NEVER use one of these bolts as a true bolt and the distance between them
and the face of the bolt was the datum. When it was impossible to get CHS,
using the old bolt and boltheads then a new bolt, you'd use the gauge bolt do
the final check. If this failed then the rifle was scrapped as this calibrated
bolt had deemed that the body locking lugs were worn through. ----------------------------------------------- Anyway, there's a few examples of how the GAUGE, inspectors, breech bolts were used. Kept by the senior examiners, calibrated initially by the Chief Inspector of Small Arms at Woolwich (the CIA mark) and then annually or so at the calibration laboratory, |
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Zed
Special Member Donating Member Joined: May 01 2012 Location: France Status: Offline Points: 5585 |
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When I fitted the new bolt body to my rifle; I used "prussian blue" (engineers blue paste) to check the surface. The small lug had only light contact. I used a jeweller's Arkansas stone to remove probably 1 thou from the large lug to even up the contact. To prevent scratching the bolt shaft; I wrapped a bit of beer can around the shaft at the lugs to prevent the stone touching the shaft.
It was quite a long process; 2 or 3 strokes of the stone, then blue and fit to check; then repeat until correct. You can't afford to take of too much.
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It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice!
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mgmaniac45
Newbie Joined: December 21 2020 Location: CT, USA Status: Offline Points: 14 |
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I am a new owner of a No 4, Mk1, long branch from 1943. My bolt is a numbers match to the rifle. It has a #3 Samson bolt head. It does over rotate and the striker is flush with the bolt head "at rest". The rifle will not fire as of this writing. Should I send mine out to you also? I do want to make this a shooter, but especially safe to use.
Thank you. |
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Enjoying my Enfield #4 Mk 1* Long Branch 1943
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