Frustrating (Amusing) Moments

Working on old broken guns, I’ve had several moments of frustration, but every once in a while I have to take a step back and bust out laughing at the silliness of the situation. One of those moments happened today, and I thought I’d share, and that others can relate. Perhaps others will share their own face-palm moments performing repair, maintenance, or whatever?

Putting this in the tips and tricks section as it could prove to be educational. So, for my first, here is what happens when you use exactly the right-sized punch to knock the pin out of the sight blade on a Krag. Neither the Krag nor the punch were harmed (much).
Attachment 324775

I'd have to get some sort of custom designed safety equipment, otherwise--
the punch would end up going all the way through my finger.

Actually, I'd punch it through my finger first. Thennnn,,,, figure out how to not do it again.

At least you know where you can source the replacement for the pin that will now be loose in the base. �� Edit: the smiley I picked did not display properly.

One of my embarrassing moments was when I was not really working on a gun but simply mounting a scope. I don't even recall which rifle it was. I put the mounts on, followed by the rings. Torqued everything nicely, had scope adjusted for proper eye relief, etc. Went out to sight it in. It was on paper to start with but when I started making adjustments everything was going haywire. I was starting to think Rod Serling was getting ready to start talking about me in a Twighlight Zone episode!
Then I took a look at what I had done. I had the scope rotated 90 degrees so that the Elevations and Windage adjustments were in the wrong place. But I was turning the adjustments according to the marks on the scope. No wonder the darned bullet holes were not going in the correct direction! :) Sometimes you do something so nutty you can't believe you did it.

I was working on a movie as an armorer and after a day of filming in the snow and cold it came time to clean weapons to prepare for the next day. We brought the weapons in from the -15 degree temps and let them warm up. After cleaning all the other weapons (with help) the only two left were original FG42's. I'd never taken one apart before and the owner wasn't immediately available. After getting them apart and cleaned and oiled (a bit of a tense project as they were running about $250,000. apiece at that time) we got them together with no spare parts left over. The next day filming continued but the FG's wouldn't fire blanks as they had the day before. The owner pulled one apart and quickly determined that the firing pin was slightly mispositioned, corrected it and all was fine thereafter. Was a definite pucker factor moment...

the guy in the unit next to me used to fit out fibreglas hulls with inboard V8s ..........just about every day he would drill into his hand ,or cut a finger with his bandsaw..........one time he drilled into his thigh quite deep ......the drill bit wound up in the flesh and wouldnt come out ......reversing the drill made it worse...........he d jammed up the chuck by using pipe wrenches to get it tight ,and had to go to hospital with the electric drill hanging out of his leg,cord and all.

One Ive seen and is somewhat common.
almost always when someone hits a thumb or finger with a hammer and the nail is holding pressure. The suggestion / advice is to drill a hole in the nail. I have a .020 drill with a knurled shank to do this by HAND. but the first timer almost always heads to the drill press and when the drill touches the skin under the nail its a thread and thru the meat. I even gave on apprentice my drill and he put it in the drill press chucking on the knurl.

The hole thru the nail relieves pressure and does make it feel much better. the small .020 hole is easy to roll thru by hand, and normally trims off the first clipping keeping it from snagging .

The other is working in brass and the drills grabbing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TheAbe

Working on old broken guns, I’ve had several moments of frustration, but every once in a while I have to take a step back and bust out laughing at the silliness of the situation. One of those moments happened today, and I thought I’d share, and that others can relate. Perhaps others will share their own face-palm moments performing repair, maintenance, or whatever?

Putting this in the tips and tricks section as it could prove to be educational. So, for my first, here is what happens when you use exactly the right-sized punch to knock the pin out of the sight blade on a Krag. Neither the Krag nor the punch were harmed (much).
Attachment 324775

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I've done that in the past. After that lesson, punches got chucked up in the drill press, and polished to remove all machining evidence, and remove a couple thousandths of material.

Got in a lined barrel that the novice guy installed a liner in without knowing that you must chamber the liner and not the barrel, so he cut a chamber in the bedding compound and burred the edge of the liner to boot. So, with no gurantee of success, unless I replaced the barrel. He decided to try, try again, all by himself. Learned long ago not to guarantee my job based on a buggered up prior job.

Then there are the shopping bag guns. All the parts here? Oh yes, I was very careful, I just ask to see what they will say and how they look, doing so. Every once in a while I get, I do not know. That is the truth.

Turkey hunters with old 870s, steel barrel guns, rain, etc....my gun will not chamber, extract, etc. Hone, oil, works fine, keep it oiled, I think, I will see you next year, again.

A good story, a friend that did me a good deed called 12 days before Christmas, I need a 270 Rem 700, for my 16 year old 6'4" son, you know where I can find one. I just happen to have a new take off 270 barrel and a 700 BDL 06. I can switch the barrels, re-headspace, rechamber, glass bed, re-blue and get it to you by Christmas. I do like a challenge. 10 days later sub 1/2" 270 Win rifle with Win factory 270 ammo was in his hands.
When I was building my house, I needed a 12' long 4x12 fireplace mantle. We walked he yard, he found the log, agreed, I pulled up in the driveway, phone rang, your mantle is ready. A 20 minute log to finished mantle order. So....

A customer sent me four 1877 Colt revolvers in a paper bag. They were all disassembled and the frames had been color cased. Mixing and matching parts I got two together that worked. The other two I worked on in my spare time and took several months before I got them working. One of the frames was cracked from the color case and was replace with a blued frame. The 1877 is one of the most difficult revolvers to get working properly. Several years later another smith sent one to me that didn't work. Could not pull the hammer back. After looking it over I found the cylinder would not move. This gun had no blue at all and other than that it looked to be in good condition. I had to take it apart to be able to drive the cylinder pin out which was held in by dried oil as near as I could tell. There was no ware to any of the parts and it looked like the gun had never been fired.

I agree that the 1877s are a PITA to try to fix. Finding parts is an issue in itself but just trying to get the necessary moving parts to work together is a challenge. I've been able to get a couple back to working condition and am still working on others. The 1878 is a better design but still is just an evolutionary step...