Neophyte needs wisdom re: 25 pounder gun refurb

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by Dan Johnston

Quick question - I want to get that grisly green paint off the entire breech end of things. Any suggestions re: paint stripper that's kind to steel and brass?

Brake fluid. Saturate a rag or paper towel and hold it in place with twine or even elastic bands. Come back tomorrow and the paint will fall off with no scrubbing required.

[Dan Johnston]

Thanks, bud. I'll give that a try.

Update from last Wednesday. Stripped off the breech ring:

Before:



After:



Internals are in pretty decent shape. Dried grease, very minor corrosion, and about a cup of coarse sand.





Here, my son channels his inner Khyber Pass Child Labourer/Apprentice Gunsmith and gently returns the bits to an acceptable state. Dental tools were key to the operation.



I note that each extractor is clearly labelled in 20-point font:



No screwing that up.

With the breech ring gutted and as light as it could get, time to spin it off. Sorry, no pix of the operation. We were pretty busy watching the Padre wrassle with the thing. But here's the back end of the barrel.



Buck naked and covered in a thin layer of grease. Nothing Freudian about that. Note the complete absence of corrosion. Whoever tucked her in for her nap read and followed the manual, God bless 'em.

And off to the front of the gun, where the Padre again channelled the Power of the Spirits and spun the muzzle brake off.



Note the hint of rust at the muzzle. That's indicative of the best of it. The floor of the chamber area looks like the bottom of a gravel pit. She's soaking in CLP right now awaiting this Wednesday's labours. I fear she'll need something stronger, perhaps a 90mm wide ball of steel wool on a drill. Poor old thing. We'll get her running, and soon.

Onward,

Dan

[Ed Landstrom]

Where did you find the pdf of the manual? That might be a good place to start looking for the ones I need (17 pounder and Bofors 37 mm)

[Dan Johnston]

Hey, Ed.

I got the manual from an online source in England. Not the best way to do it - buddy sent it to me as an unprintable .pdf, then ignored three separate emails asking if I might have my newly acquired property in a form that I could actually use.

I ended up paying another twenty bucks for a downloadable program that removed the print protection. The manual ended up being pretty pricey.

That being said, I'll dig around and see if I can find his address. If you choose to go that route, send me the print protected version and I'll "unscrew" it here and send it back.

Cheers,

Dan