trigger guard slightly bent any solution

[kurusu]

Originally Posted by John Sabato

...after relooking at the drawing, and my instructions, I think you should make the radius of the curved pieces perhaps a bit smaller than the radius of the trigger guard so you can "target" the damaged portion with the apogee of the curve and push out only the dent.

You can also probably use aluminum for everything except the threaded rod and the nuts... less chance of marring the inside of the trigger guard. I also recommend you use a fine thread on the rod (perhaps 28 TPI or more) to make it easier to use...

Good luck and please take photos as you go along. I am sure many will find the process and the results interesting to watch.

-John S.

I was already thinking of documenting the process. It may take a while though. The work will mostly be done by my shooting buddy and we don't live in the same town.

[ithacaartist]

One might take John's approach one step further. You will indeed need to reduce the radius of the business end of of this little stretcher/jack.. In order to persuade the material to adopt the proper radius, one must bend it slightly beyond its intended profile--this allows for a certain amount of "spring-back" which will occur. However, leave the other half of the jack at a radius that will fit as closely as possible the radius of the undamaged portion of the guard. The jack will obviously push against two opposing portions of the curve inside, and an exact radius will guarantee no deformation on the opposing side as the operation is carried out. You may also need to adjust the radius of the working end to achieve the desired round profile smoothly.

[kurusu]

I would first like to thank everybody that came in to help me in my predicament.

And now for the report.

As I have said it was my shooting fellow who did all the work and preparations. We finally got together this weekend to sort things out.

We ended up selecting 3 possibilities to cope with the problem.

1 A jacking device similar in concept to John Sabato’s proposal.
2 the mandrel and soft hammer option as Ithacaartist and Ron Wood sugested.
3 A lever system of the midle resistence type.

We ended up opting for the lever as first choice for the following reasons:

1 The mandrel and hammer solution required a level of skill that none of us was really confortable with. So we left that option as a last ditch attempt if nothing else worked. Nevertheless a small anvil was slightly modified to serve as the mandrel and the hammer was close by.


2 A jacking device was made and tried out for size in a Luger in good condition, and then we realized that the area opposite to the damage was to near to the hole in the frame for the trigger axis for us to be very confortable with.


The lever was a made from a 1 inch diameter steel rod with 27 inches in length, the fulcrum was fixed to a board and so was the resistance point. From the fulcrum to the resistance point we left a distance of 2,5 inches. The fulcrum was set at a higher level than the resistance point so that the lever would work in a downward angle. The resistance point was made from a block of wood with the contour of the triggerguard and the frame (later as the work progressed a relief was filed in the contour of the triggerguard to allow the metal to go beyond and spring back to the correct position





And I think it all went quite well:

Before

After

[Neil Young]

Very nice. Job well done.

[ithacaartist]

Success! Compliments on the method used--very controllable.

[DavidJayUden]

Congratulations on a job very well done. Thanks for sharing!
dju

[rhuff]

That looks like everything worked out very nicely....Congrats!!

[sheepherder]

I do have a question, in case I ever have this challenge...Did you just use one good push on the steel bar, or a series of small ones??? Didn't have to actually jump on it...did you???

[Olle]

That's a very neat fix, and another trick to keep in mind when looking for cheap project guns! "The trigger guard is beyond repair, so I can't pay you much.... Only good for parts you know..."

[Ron Wood]

That is a very elegant and effective method...I wish I had thought of it when I was hammer and mandrel repairing mine. My congratulations to the innovative minds that came up with it. I really am impressed.

[kurusu]

Originally Posted by sheepherder

I do have a question, in case I ever have this challenge...Did you just use one good push on the steel bar, or a series of small ones??? Didn't have to actually jump on it...did you???

First of all this was a two men operation, I had the job of holding firmly the frame in position and watch carefuly what was happening while my partner worked the lever. It was done in small steady pushes with controled increment in force. The frame was removed from it's bed and examined several times to evaluate the progress. While we were at it I could clearly see the triggerguard adjust itself to the bed and then spring back a little, in the end we filed a small portion from the support bed to allow the trigger guard to pass beyond and spring back to the right position, this filing operation was done little by little to keep things in control. Maximum force used was an estimated 100 pounds.

[alanint]

Keep that set-up around in case another member needs to send you a frame!

[kubel]

Now that's some ingenuity right there!