One of my hobbies is the restoration of old Lee Enfield service rifles that have been customised by Bubba. Usualy I pick up a rifle that has been sporterised without having the barrel length reduced, the restoration then becomes a matter of replacing the wood and some furnature, maybe refinishing. However, I do have several candidates for resto work that have had the barrels bobbed at different lengths. The remedy for this is to change the barrel for an uncut full length unit.
There are still brand new barrels out there kicking around. Probably the armouries pumping out arms during the wars produced just as many rifles in the form of parts as they produced complete ones. Still lots of Lee Enfield parts around. My questions are about removing and recovering a barrel from the reciever.
Let me begin by establishing that I had several donor barreled receivers which have been stripped of parts to resurrect other rifles. I don't feel bad about damaging the metalwork, they were beat before I began. These were pieces for me to practice with, I pretty well destroyed them by the time I was finished.
The first problem I encountered is how to get a good hold of the barrel and the reciever? The SMLE barrel has one flat on the knox form, hardly good purchase for an adjustable wrench. Even with with my BFW, I couldn't get a good grip, the knox form has a slight taper, the wrench just chews and rounds the corners off. So obviously there is a special armourer's wrench for grabbing hold of this. Maybe something that slips over and has internal contours to match the surface of the barrel. I have seen the ghost of marks on existing rifles that have had the barrels changed during their service life. I'm sure that it is something that can be done at the work bench.
Yes, I did think about using a pipe wrench, but that was going to be a last ditch effort if nothing else worked.
Next problem is how to hold the receiver without the torque required to unscrew the barrel, screwing up the receiver and twisting it. By torquing only on the reciever ring. Needed another special wrench maybe? A special clamp?
Well, I'll be damned if I was going to let these two pieces of metal get the better of me. I mounted the barrel in a large bench vice, muzzle pointing down. The flat of the knoxform against one of the vice jaws. I slipped a piece of brass shim in between to protect the finish (???? wot finish?) and cranked the vice jaws closed. I put a pipe on the vice's handle to get it cinched up really tight. Barrel was now held firmly. Now to turn the receiver. A large adjustable wrench fit over the receiver ring and one jaw got purchase on the king screw boss. I screwed a king screw into place to prevent distortion of the threaded hole and to lend support. Then I started to pull on the wrench, and pull, and pull. One foot on the vice, pull tug, yank. Holy uckfe! I was dragging the bench around the garage. That sucker was on tight, probably never been budged in over a hundred years.
Heat always defeats rusted and siezed bolts and nuts, so...... But this was a heat treated receiver, I didn't want to wreck it. I went at her gently with my Cambodia Tire propane torch, and applied as much heat as I could. Still no go.
Coleman stove time with the barreled receiver laying over a burner. I heated just the knoxform and receiver ring to a dull cherry, then, and only then could I get any movement. I had to fight with the damn thing right out to the last thread!!!!
So how should this be done? What secret form of tooling is required? My research has found reference to special armourer's clamps shaped to fit for holding in a vice. But where to find such specialist tools?
The answer may be that I will have to fabricate something that will work. Something that will grab a hold of the barrel and the receiver without damaging either. The amount of force required to seperate them is amazing.
So now I have the two apart. Heat treatment all shot to hell. Totaly useless for use, but I can put together a dewat rifle for display. Take something apart and put it back together enough times and you will have parts enough to build two of them. I got em apart, but this obviously isn't the way to do it. I wrecked them. Bubba woulda been proud (and probably would use the parts as is).
But I was in need of a good barrel, so as an alternative method, I sent two barreled receivers over to the local machine shop. I had them cut the barrel off one unit at the receiver ring and then mill two slots inside, through the chamber walls, deep enough to just touch the threads. This released enough pressure to spin the stub of the barrel out without any trauma to the reciever. I got them to machine the other unit, by cutting the receiver ring off the receiver and then turning the ring off of the barrel threads. I now have a good reciever and a good barrel from the two donor rifles. Took two donors to make one good one.
Does anybody have much experience doing this? How much force is required to tighten a new barrel onto a receiver? Boy it is going to be interesting trying to index the barrel. The correct tools for the job would make all the difference.
So how much heat is too much? What temp will destroy the heat treatment? And if temper is lost, what can be done to heat treat back to spec?
There are still brand new barrels out there kicking around. Probably the armouries pumping out arms during the wars produced just as many rifles in the form of parts as they produced complete ones. Still lots of Lee Enfield parts around. My questions are about removing and recovering a barrel from the reciever.
Let me begin by establishing that I had several donor barreled receivers which have been stripped of parts to resurrect other rifles. I don't feel bad about damaging the metalwork, they were beat before I began. These were pieces for me to practice with, I pretty well destroyed them by the time I was finished.
The first problem I encountered is how to get a good hold of the barrel and the reciever? The SMLE barrel has one flat on the knox form, hardly good purchase for an adjustable wrench. Even with with my BFW, I couldn't get a good grip, the knox form has a slight taper, the wrench just chews and rounds the corners off. So obviously there is a special armourer's wrench for grabbing hold of this. Maybe something that slips over and has internal contours to match the surface of the barrel. I have seen the ghost of marks on existing rifles that have had the barrels changed during their service life. I'm sure that it is something that can be done at the work bench.
Yes, I did think about using a pipe wrench, but that was going to be a last ditch effort if nothing else worked.
Next problem is how to hold the receiver without the torque required to unscrew the barrel, screwing up the receiver and twisting it. By torquing only on the reciever ring. Needed another special wrench maybe? A special clamp?
Well, I'll be damned if I was going to let these two pieces of metal get the better of me. I mounted the barrel in a large bench vice, muzzle pointing down. The flat of the knoxform against one of the vice jaws. I slipped a piece of brass shim in between to protect the finish (???? wot finish?) and cranked the vice jaws closed. I put a pipe on the vice's handle to get it cinched up really tight. Barrel was now held firmly. Now to turn the receiver. A large adjustable wrench fit over the receiver ring and one jaw got purchase on the king screw boss. I screwed a king screw into place to prevent distortion of the threaded hole and to lend support. Then I started to pull on the wrench, and pull, and pull. One foot on the vice, pull tug, yank. Holy uckfe! I was dragging the bench around the garage. That sucker was on tight, probably never been budged in over a hundred years.
Heat always defeats rusted and siezed bolts and nuts, so...... But this was a heat treated receiver, I didn't want to wreck it. I went at her gently with my Cambodia Tire propane torch, and applied as much heat as I could. Still no go.
Coleman stove time with the barreled receiver laying over a burner. I heated just the knoxform and receiver ring to a dull cherry, then, and only then could I get any movement. I had to fight with the damn thing right out to the last thread!!!!
So how should this be done? What secret form of tooling is required? My research has found reference to special armourer's clamps shaped to fit for holding in a vice. But where to find such specialist tools?
The answer may be that I will have to fabricate something that will work. Something that will grab a hold of the barrel and the receiver without damaging either. The amount of force required to seperate them is amazing.
So now I have the two apart. Heat treatment all shot to hell. Totaly useless for use, but I can put together a dewat rifle for display. Take something apart and put it back together enough times and you will have parts enough to build two of them. I got em apart, but this obviously isn't the way to do it. I wrecked them. Bubba woulda been proud (and probably would use the parts as is).
But I was in need of a good barrel, so as an alternative method, I sent two barreled receivers over to the local machine shop. I had them cut the barrel off one unit at the receiver ring and then mill two slots inside, through the chamber walls, deep enough to just touch the threads. This released enough pressure to spin the stub of the barrel out without any trauma to the reciever. I got them to machine the other unit, by cutting the receiver ring off the receiver and then turning the ring off of the barrel threads. I now have a good reciever and a good barrel from the two donor rifles. Took two donors to make one good one.
Does anybody have much experience doing this? How much force is required to tighten a new barrel onto a receiver? Boy it is going to be interesting trying to index the barrel. The correct tools for the job would make all the difference.
So how much heat is too much? What temp will destroy the heat treatment? And if temper is lost, what can be done to heat treat back to spec?
Last edited:
