Dent raised and lock repaired

[impala59]

I bought an old Brandon Hammer gun at auction for very little, less than 3 boxes of cartridges. checking it over (I bought it blind) I found a dangerous left lock and a dent in the left barrel. As this was a project I was not too disheartened. I prepared some turnscrew bits by grinding them to the required thinness and took the thing apart. The left lock would fire by itself if the right lock fired or the gun was shaken. It was apparent that the sear had some corrosion and after a difficult stripdown (those blade springs have some serious force!!) I cleaned the mechanism, checked and very slightly reprofiled the sear edge for positive engagement across its full width and then reassembled (worse than disassembly!) I am sure that there must be a device for holding the hammer back so as to be able to assemble without trying to hold against the aforementioned springs. I am thinking of some sort of hardwood, shaped block that could work in my vice. Maybe someone has addressed this already (I hope) as I am not looking forward to that job again! I discovered during this repair that there was an old crack in the stock that has held its repair but I may well pin it in due course. after reassembly the lock functions well and is safe when cocked. I also replaced the firing pin return coil springs as they were dragging

I then looked at the dent in the left barrel. Never having done this before I revisited a repair that I had done on a pump action magazine tube and made my dent removal tool by scaling that tool down to suit the 12g barrels. Basically, it is an M10 expanding wall fixing (16mm OD) a length of 16 mm tube, a length of M10 threaded rod, a piece of hard stainless steel sheet curved to fit the bore, a couple of nuts and washers and some tape. The way it works is by measuring the distance of the dent from the muzzle (or breech) and marking with tape so as to insert to the correct depth. The stainless steel is taped to the expanding fixing so as to provide an internal, spread anvil under the dent. Turning the outer nut draws the cone in to expand the fixing, pressing the anvil to the dent. gentle tapping with a light hammer begins to raise the dent. Tightening the nut periodically keeps the anvil in hard contact with the underside of the dent. After the dent was raised, I honed the area with an oily 10g Phosphor Bronze brush on the power drill. As can be seen there is a little finish damage from the hammer, but I can live with that on a sub £20 gun! Refinish will be my last job anyway.

The initial assembly

The anvil, taped in place and the depth marker ring of tape(could do with a lock ring with grub screw to set depth, as an afterthought!)

Before

and after. A little finish to recover in due course.

Next is to load up some light cartridges, 65mm, 21g, No5 probably, try it out in the field and move forward then

 

 

Edited February 25, 2022 by impala59

[boo]

Class , are you going to brown the barrels ? 

[impala59]

That's sort of the plan at the moment! never done browning before (other than gravy) so will consult the PW oracles for advice, or maybe just jump both feet into the abyss!

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Looks good so far.  

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, nice work 👍

Edited February 26, 2022 by oldypigeonpopper

[amateur]

Good solution 👍

[harrycatcat1]

Very well done 👏 

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, photos when finished would be good 👍

[Diver One]

That dent raising tool is well thought out, very well thought out indeed. As the late great Prof. Heinz Wolfe would say "a veery elegant solution to a vewwy  twicky pwoblem "

[gamekeeper1960]

Nice work mate...love it when a plan comes together...👍

[enfieldspares]

I had a friend who made similar some thirty years ago. He was able to machine two half round shells to do, as you have, make the thing that gets pressed against the barrel walls. 

[wisdom]

Ingenious using stuff available anywhere.

[JohnfromUK]

You used to be able to buy a hydraulic one.  My concern (and I'm absolutely no expert and have zero experience of raising dents) would be a latent weakness in that area as the metal will have been stretched.

[impala59]

4 hours ago, JohnfromUK said:

You used to be able to buy a hydraulic one.  My concern (and I'm absolutely no expert and have zero experience of raising dents) would be a latent weakness in that area as the metal will have been stretched.

I share your concern and will test with ultra low loads initially, and never with full power loads. I believe that the gentle process of gradually raising the dent with the support of a shaped “anvil” is conducive to protecting the fabric of the metal. Indeed, a few years ago I had a nasty crease/dent raised on a gun that was often used by me and still is by a pal of mine much more than this old hammer ever will be. I do take safety seriously and will constantly check and observe while I test

[boo]

When the old man passed , he used to brown his own barrels , in one cupboard full of his stuff , quite a lot of paperwork on brownig solutions & brews , havnt gotten round to seriously having a look ! Probably be on the dangerous hazard lists these days ...