Typewriter gun parts?

Rob

Rob

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A major gun collector once told me that he never sold any parts because "you never know when you might need them." He also told me that he tore down old typewriters as a good source for all sorts of small bolts, nuts, springs, etc. useful in gun repair. (By "major gun collector", I mean that when he said this to me, we were comfortably sitting in his free-standing outdoor concrete gun vault, surrounded by several hundred firearms.) I have never mined an old typewriter for small gun parts, but I guess it might work.
 
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Small salvaged mechanical parts are often useful. Springs, pins, etc. May never need one, but if one is needed, it was worth keeping the whole cache.
 
Remington was one of the major typewriter manufacturers. It would be quite easy for the gun part of the company to use the same source for gun screws and use the same threads to save on machine tools.
 
I would bet there is nothing in a Remington firearm that is a duplicate of anything they ever used in a typewriter.

A typewriter may be a source for small parts to alter when having to manufacture a repair of some sort... but nuts and bolts and springs in a firearm are most often a unique size and thread... it's about the last place I would look to...
 
WobblyHead said:
Remington was one of the major typewriter manufacturers. It would be quite easy for the gun part of the company to use the same source for gun screws and use the same threads to save on machine tools.
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Remington sold its typewriter division in the late 19th century. There was no typewriter business at Remington for well over a century of gunmaking, so it's extremely unlikely that any parts of the Remington and Remington-Rand typewriters ever made it into Remington Arms.
 
Pontiac built Oerlikon 20mm cannons, but I don't think you will be able to fix one using parts from a Silver Streak coupe...
 
guntech said:
I would bet there is nothing in a Remington firearm that is a duplicate of anything they ever used in a typewriter.

A typewriter may be a source for small parts to alter when having to manufacture a repair of some sort... but nuts and bolts and springs in a firearm are most often a unique size and thread... it's about the last place I would look to...
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I would bet $5, yes I am cheap having a wife will do that for you. Small fine machinery like typewriters, sewing machines and sighting equipment needs small fine threads because of the same reason as firearms to prevent vibration from loosening them. Even historically the trade that fixed them in the British Army the Instrument technicians were a arms trade that did most of the same trade training as the Armourers but diversified into optics and fine machinery like typewriters. Needing these fine threads it would be very expensive just to set up production lines for small fine threaded bolts, springs and other small parts. It would be cheaper and easier to use a ready source that would also be supplying the firearm business.
 
WobblyHead said:
I would bet $5, yes I am cheap having a wife will do that for you. Small fine machinery like typewriters, sewing machines and sighting equipment needs small fine threads because of the same reason as firearms to prevent vibration from loosening them. Even historically the trade that fixed them in the British Army the Instrument technicians were a arms trade that did most of the same trade training as the Armourers but diversified into optics and fine machinery like typewriters. Needing these fine threads it would be very expensive just to set up production lines for small fine threaded bolts, springs and other small parts. It would be cheaper and easier to use a ready source that would also be supplying the firearm business.
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Well dig out that typewriter part, measure and photograph it...
...................Then dig out the corresponding firearm part, measure and photograph it...
................................And post it all here...

Let me know when you are sending the $5...
 
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Generally speaking, the parts in a firearm are specific to the firearm.
Odds and ends can certainly be adapted, but the likelihood of a part from another mechanical device being identical is slim.

Consider the Mk. II Sten, for example. There are three round head screws in the design. Two secure the trigger mechanism cover, the third secures the magazine catch retainer. Those could well have been stock hardware items. The cotter pin that secures the selector might be a standard hardware item as well.
I cannot think of any part in, say, a No. 4 rifle that isn't unique to the rifle.
How about a Remington 870? Maybe the buttplate screws.
 
tiriaq said:
Generally speaking, the parts in a firearm are specific to the firearm.
Odds and ends can certainly be adapted, but the likelihood of a part from another mechanical device being identical is slim.

Consider the Mk. II Sten, for example. There are three round head screws in the design. Two secure the trigger mechanism cover, the third secures the magazine catch retainer. Those could well have been stock hardware items. The cotter pin that secures the selector might be a standard hardware item as well.
I cannot think of any part in, say, a No. 4 rifle that isn't unique to the rifle.
How about a Remington 870? Maybe the buttplate screws.
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Pretty sure the recoil pad screws on new 870s are just drywall screws...
 
Iv used a spring from a pen as a Sg552 extractor spring and a coat hanger as the pin. Springs, pins, screws etc from typewriters would probably be perfect for a quick fix
 
screws and bolts are one of the items that are common made items used in many different firearms and other equipment they are quite detailed and specialist when you have to get into them but they are very seldom made as one off items only by specific firearms or companies even the Lee Enfields used BA screws that were common as long as you were in Britain. here is a page from a typewriter parts manual listing the screws although most screws are 6-40 there is 8-40 and 3-56 screws which i'm pretty sure are going to fit somewhere.

SCN_0171.jpg
 
B said:
Pretty sure the recoil pad screws on new 870s are just drywall screws...
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I don't know much about old typewriters (are there any new typewriters?), except that they can still be bought cheaply.



Are there European made typewriters with metric thread screws?
 
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