:( My Agfa fell apart !!

[John Bartley]

As I was carrying it into the house, I heard a little "click". Figuring that the latch that holds the rear rail had come undone, I looked down to find the front standard sitting at about a 30' angle - HORRORS !!. It's now in the basement, on the workbench, all glued back together and clamped tight for a day or so. All that had happened is that the glue that holds the front slide rails into place had dried up and come apart - NO DAMAGE !! I guess while I'm at it, I'm going to drill and dowel all the screw holes with 1/4" hardwood dowels so that the wood screws go back into fresh tight wood. Should be good for another 1/2 century.

cheers

[John Kasaian]

Rugged little things, aren't they? I collected a passel for an adult class I've been planning---most are fixer uppers---but darn they were so well designed and built I figure they can stand the abuse better than anyhting else at the price. Since AA routinely emperiled his by balancing it atop his caddy's roof, thats a good enough endorsement for me.

[noseoil]

John, sounds like a good tune-up is all that's needed. Glad to hear it wasn't anything requiring major surgery. Sounds like the right way to go with the plugs. Are you going to use cross-grain or end-grain? When we made plugs for cross bolts in the recoil lug area for model '98 & '96 Mausers, we would use a plug cutter to make rosewood plugs to finish off the holes. Don't need rosewood, but cross grain plugs will hold threads a bit better (maple, oak, etc). Best, tim

[John Bartley]

"Rugged" is definitely a good word to describe these with. As I took it apart I inspected it very carefully and I'm pretty sure that I'm only the second repairman. The first one just glued a break back together and did a nice job at that.

Tim, I never thought about the idea of "cross" grain and the increase in strength. As a result, tonight my sweetheart and I are off to buy a 1/4" plug cutter (something my woodworking arsenal has never had) and it's all your fault !!

Just as an aside, many years ago, I bought a K98? 8mm Mauser from Alberts Army Surplus in Timmins, Ont. It was a bloody cannon!! IIRC, the original barrel date was 1912? and rebarrelled in 192? in Danzig. It had a nifty sort of a sight on it that would both flip over for different distance scales and would flip up so that you could sight thru' a little pinhole. I sold it years ago - haven't seen one since.

[noseoil]

Dave, I enjoyed working on the Swedish Mausers. They were very well made, great metallurgy and never fought in a war, plus they were cheap to buy. Sweden was always very careful about that and still is. The '96 was said to be among the most accurate versions built, and I would have to agree. I turned a few of them into sporters for deer hunting and target shooting. It was the last interation before the venerable '98, but did not have the third locking lug as was the case in the '98 and all later variants. It was made in 6.5 x 55mm (.264 caliber) and with handloads was good from an 85 grain hollow point up to the 160 round nose (issue round in Sweden at the time).

Here's a picture of one I still have. The stock blank was turned here by the Harry Lawson company. I brought them a nice hunk of American Walnut which was a find here in Tucson (it came from Missouri originally) and the roughed out a blank was returned to me. Did the inletting, glass bedding, reshaped some metal and had a couple of other tweaks done by a local gunsmith. It still shoots very well. Since I'm not very tall, I like the short rifle concept and this one fits the bill. The issue barrel was 29.1" long and it weighed a ton. The wood really is beautiful on this stock. Best, tim

[mgb74]

I'm scanning the new posts on APUG and all of the sudden I see a reference to Swedish Mausers. Boy, now I'm confused.

But since YOU brought up Swedish Mausers, I'll offer up the Swiss Schmidt-Rubin K31. Incredible workmanship that is hard to duplicate today.

A bit like the Swiss-made Alpa SLRs, in the sense of basic functionality with extremely high fit and finish.

[noseoil]

Hope we don't get punished or banned for hijacking this thread. Think we should report ourselves or will John save us from ourselves? tim

[John Bartley]

Aahhh - deze gyze - I'm telling ya' - give 'em half a chance to chew da rag about guns or trucks and y'll nevver get 'em back on track eh? :rolleyes:

Punishment for thread hijacking = ya' each gotta post one new photo in your gallery by the end of the month - (and that includes me ) how's that

cheers eh?

[noseoil]

John, I raise my stout to thee, bye! A photo will be posted. tim

[John Bartley]

So, I now have the necessary equipment in hand or more accurately in the basement, as it would be turrible hard to type holding a drill press. I have started to repair the screw holes in the bed of the Agfa with hardwood plugs and it's going just peachy well . I do have a question though.

The front board of the camera is 6.5" long. The first section of tailboard, the board which hinges, is 13.5" long. I know that if I don't preload the hinge during assembly, the tailboard will suffer from "droop".

I'm guessing that if I elevate the furthest end of the tailboard (from the hinge) approx 1/8" to 3/16" I should be able to pilot drill the hinge screw holes, fasten them tight and have the tailboard come down snug on the joint with no "droop" because of a bit of interference fit at the joint itself.

Does anyone have any experience with this operation? How high would you lift the tailboard for the "preload"?

cheers eh?