[soulreaper]

i got the boster off pretty east but the tip of the boster wont budge even after map gas and a day in oil also the bottom peice of the shroud is a pain any advice
im sure this is the 10,000th time this question has been asked im just to lazy to go back and look for it my self

 

[HuecoDoc]

Warning, this won't be very helpful. If you are talking about removing the shroud from the trunnion, I was not able to and gave up. I got the set screw out and found that a 1/2 inch breaker bar fits perfectly through the holes, snug enough that it won't damage, but I beat and pried and it didn't budge. Would have been nice to have it out of the way when I was doing press work.

 

[Mouse]

Warning, this won't be very helpful. If you are talking about removing the shroud from the trunnion, I was not able to and gave up. I got the set screw out and found that a 1/2 inch breaker bar fits perfectly through the holes, snug enough that it won't damage, but I beat and pried and it didn't budge. Would have been nice to have it out of the way when I was doing press work.

It's soldered on, you need to heat it until the solder melts then it will spin off.

 

[Mouse]

i got the boster off pretty east but the tip of the boster wont budge even after map gas and a day in oil also the bottom peice of the shroud is a pain any advice
im sure this is the 10,000th time this question has been asked im just to lazy to go back and look for it my self

If you have a 2 piece pooster it's likely locked up with carbon. If so I use some carbon cutter and just soak it and eventually it will spin off. You may really have to want to get it apart if it hasn't been disassembled in a while.

 

[HuecoDoc]

It's soldered on, you need to heat it until the solder melts then it will spin off.

$hit I wish I had known that. Then why the staked set screw? Would these heat up enough in use to melt solder?

 

[Lucky#13]

$hit I wish I had known that. Then why the staked set screw? Would these heat up enough in use to melt solder?

This may not be a 100% rule, but the only ones I have seen that were soldered were Izzy kits. Maybe it was done on some U.S. inventory, but I have not seen it. It seems to be mainly another one of those Izzy things.

As to soulreaper's issue, these are always a pain. There is an available surplus socket that is designed for the booster removal, but the issue remains how to get a solid grip on the bearing without mangling it too much. Many of us have found the marks of vise teeth on our bearings, and it's no wonder. One member here told me of making a vise jaw adapter, out of wood as I recall. That enabled him to hold that bearing solidly without damage, while turning the booster cap off. An air powered impact driver has been suggested, but again the booster needs to be secured from rotating.

I would go with Mouse's suggestion and soak it to minimize the carbon issue, and then use a vise with toothy jaws. Unless you are going to do a lot of these, it is probably not worth making special tooling. Besides, a few teeth marks will look authentic.

 

[Rory]

$hit I wish I had known that. Then why the staked set screw? Would these heat up enough in use to melt solder?

better to have one person heating while one person is trying to unscrew it.

 

[L999here]

...amen.....

better to have one person heating while one person is trying to unscrew it.

You can say that again. Just finished taking apart (17) shrouds/trunions and had to deal with soldered ones too...about (10) of them. Made the mistake of heating and not finishing the removal on the last one. The soldered HARDENED and it took two people,breaker bar and a torch to get it off. Rory is absolutely correct....use two people and DON'T let it cool down or you will have major problems.

 

[loboslanding]

Why take the booster apart? Why not clean out the carbon and reinstall?

 

[42rocker]

update on soldering

Listed in the 7 August 1944 Tm 9-1205 BMG .30 Cal Tec Manual
In a listing under modifications

"(a) The casing assembly has been modified so that the barrel jacket is now soldered to the casing. Note : since this modifcation, barrel jackets are not to be disassembled in field stripping."

I guess that this might mean that any of the 1919 weapons that were put together after 1944 (from date of manual) are going to be soldered together. Which might help with time dating a weapon.

Not looking forward to stripping apart the bearing booster area apart, I think I'll clean and skip if possible.

Later 42rocker