Luger snubnose project
 

I found a Luger basket case a while back, and it included a spare barrel extension with a damaged .30 barrel. The muzzle had been whacked pretty good and the extension had a bent rail, so I sent it to Tinkerer Extraordinaire Gerald Tomek for straightening and barrel removal.

I hate to throw gun parts away, so once I received the parts back from GT, I started thinking about what to do with the damaged barrel. I could have welded and reshaped the sight base, lined the barrel etc, but looking at the cost for doing this I decided to simply cut the damaged section off:

http://i39.tinypic.com/2yxekj5.jpg
http://i42.tinypic.com/331hlyh.jpg

This is the method I use when I want to get something done: I paint myself into a corner, then I just have to do something to get out of there. I found a piece of round bar that was the right size for a new sight base, so I started out by turning the basic shape:

http://i43.tinypic.com/5pfwo0.jpg

After turning the blank, I chucked it in the index table. By milling in 5 degree increments (thanks for the tip, postino!), I got a surface that only took some light filing to make perfectly round:

http://i43.tinypic.com/2zhr62g.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/53jz7l.jpg

Then I chucked it in the lathe again, bored it and parted it off to the right length:

http://i40.tinypic.com/2uj4ca1.jpg

Then on to the barrel. I had to turn it down a bit for the new sight base, and I also polished out some dings on the barrel while I was at it. After some turning, filing and dry fitting, it started to look like a Luger barrel again:

http://i42.tinypic.com/i2osg8.jpg
http://i44.tinypic.com/w6qus2.jpg

I used Brownells Hi-Force 44 to solder the sight base to the barrel, and I started by tinning the barrel. Then I put some flux inside the sight base, slipped it onto the barrel and heated it until the solder melted again. I had the barrel sitting upright in a vise, and I added a few dabs of solder around the seam to make sure that it was filled. It disappeared into the seam just as intended, so this sight base shouldn’t come off anytime soon. Or as the locals here say: "That ain't going nowhere!"

http://i40.tinypic.com/wgt9jr.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/29w2suu.jpg

With the soldering done, I chucked it in the lathe again do crown it and round it off a bit. I usually make a big mess when I solder, so once I had it out of the lathe I put some cold blue on it to see how it turned out. I was actually surprised to see that there wasn’t much excess solder at all, just a few spots that were easily cleaned up with emery cloth. The seam around the muzzle shows just a little bit, but that was expected and there’s nothing much you can do about it:

http://i43.tinypic.com/2wnnrch.jpg
http://i43.tinypic.com/30ljhva.jpg

And just for fun, I mocked it up on a frame to see how it would look:

http://i44.tinypic.com/2s7jjif.jpg

The only thing left to do now is to cut the dovetail for the sight, but that will have to wait until I find a suitable end mill (or until I break down and let somebody else do it...). The sight base is not perfectly straight either, but I think it’s easier to align it after the barrel is installed on a receiver. All I need to do is to heat it so I can turn it a bit, so it’s really no biggie.

Cool!
 

That is really cool Olle! I'm happy we could save it all! Now I see what you had in mind... nice work..:thumbup: best to you, til...lat'r...GT

Yeah, I'm really glad that you got it off without relief cutting it! :thumbup:

Now I just have to figure out what to do with it. I just got wind of a Navy barrel and rear toggle, so my new "Gestapo barrel" might have to sit in the drawer until I find another project gun. Desicions, decisions...

That's some skilled, and beautiful work.

Looking at the mock-up, I'm thinking that a shortened grip frame would be kind of cool too. Shouldn't be too difficult really, just cut and weld it back, file it, shape it etc, send a mag to GT for modification, ask Hugh to make grip panels... On second thought, I might better wait until I find another frame, this one is too nice to cut up.

Nice job, Olle, but why didn't you just cut off the original sight band, ream it out for a press fit on the turned down bbl, and solder it on? Just asking???? That's what I did in making my babies.

The reason for doing all this was that the band and the sight post were damaged, you can see some of it in the picture where it's cut off. The shortie conversion was simply an attempt to do something fun with an otherwise useless barrel. :)

Olle, that worked out excellent! Congratulations .
John

Thanks, John!

My home PC is down, but I'll send you an e-mail once it's back in operation again.

Resurrecting the thread with another one I just finished up. This belongs to a forum member who has been waiting on it for several months now, but he has been kind enough not to bug me about it. :)

It started out as an artillery barrel that had been cut and fitted with some kind of muzzle device. I did this one the same way as the first one, but this time I also made a jig that makes it easier to get everything plumb and level in the mill.

And Sheepherder: I owe you one, your barrel thread has been the inspiration for this. :cheers:

For those of you who want to try, this little fixture helped a lot. I used it when I milled the dovetail and the taper in the back, and it also made it easy to get the sight post soldered on straight.

Ollie, cool, just cool

Cool fixture!!! :thumbup:

That would make it easy to spirit level the front sight base. :D

Exactly. One of the purposes of the fixture is to provide a straight and level surface to help me index the sight base correctly. I used my new Wixey digital angle finder ( http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/200...ge-wLevel.aspx ) for this, worked like a charm. I didn't even have to level the barrel, I just stuck the angle finder to the flat surface on the barrel, zeroed it and then moved it to the fixture. I might mount a steel plate to the fixture so the magnet will stick to it, that would make it even easier.

Man, Olle, you surely do seem to know some stuff.
Thanks for sharing
Jack

Impressive work Olle.

I wondered how that was done!! Eric

Ollie,

Thanks for sharing, very interesting indeed.

Olle, thanks for the work on my Artillery barrel. The line where your muzzle band joins the existing barrel is invisible. Now, I just have to figure out what kind of project this wants to be.
John

Masterful work, Ollie...!

Hi,

Nice work.
Would be interesting how it performs ....

By the way, your EMCO machine tool was produced
right here in my hometown .

best regards

Otto

Otto,

The Emco Compact 8 is a wonderful piece of equipment, and I hate that they don't sell them here in the US anymore. It really leaves the Chinese machines in the dust, I can't even get the dial indicator to read the runout in the chuck (probably less than 1/4 thousands of an inch). I just need to convert it to variable speed and reversible lead screw, then it will be perfect. Say hello to the Emco guys and tell them to keep up the good work! :thumbup:

As far as the barrels go, I have no idea if the accuracy is affected or not. It's kind of irrelevant to me though, I came up this as an attempt to save an otherwise useless barrel. I'm thinking that it could be used if someone has a numbered barrel with a damaged sight post, wants to build a shortie, or (as the artillery barrel) if a previous owner has modified a barrel. I don't know if there's a need for this kind of service, but the tinkerer in me said that I just had to try it. :)

Got a question, as I have never done a front sight job like yours, - Why not mill the front sight dovetail and ramp while the blank is in the indexing head in a known angular position? Seems like it would have saved having to making that beautifully done fixture.

The reason why I made the block in the first place was actually to index the sight. I could have done the final milling the way you suggest, but I figured that I could just as well use the block.

Good idea.

I guess I should also have mentioned that it's way easier to set up the block at an angle, rather than tilting the column or setting the index table at an angle. I used angle blocks to set it at the correct angle, so the setup for this cut was very quick and easy.