OT - Who repairs vintage Marbles tang sights?

[jdad]

I picked up a vintage Marbles flexible tang sight that had been reblued. When they reassembled it they did not put or could not put the tension back on the spring.

Does anyone know of a gunsmith that can reload the spring? I called Marbles and spoke with Troy, but he had no leads.

Thanks

[Dewight]

Cotact Shasta. He's not a gunsmith but I know he fools around with Marbles tang sights. He rebuilt one for my.

[1886]

Vall, marlinman, may be able to help. You can find him on marlinowners.com. 1886.

[Shasta]

While I have quite a bit of experience working on current production Marble's tang sights, I have no experience with the old flexible joint sight. My "Old Gunsights" book states there is "a strong coiled spring in the hinge joint that automatically brings the sight into shooting position". I've seen a few of these on older rifles and they do indeed have a pretty stiff spring tension.
Given the tiny size of the hinge joint, that spring has to be very small and very stout. It would probably take some sort of special tool to load such a spring.
If a call to Marble's produced no leads, I don't know who else you could turn to.
It's not a job I know how to do.

[jdad]

Thanks,
The "new" sights are a piece of cake, to work on. The "old" flexibles are a nightmare. Troy, at Marbles, said just to use it manually. I've tried all my resources and no-one seems to know how that little spring was loaded.

[Duff L Bagg]

Call Marbles back and see if they have a drawing of the old sight (so that you can disassemble the sight and make sure that all of the parts are there) and maybe they could give you the dimensions of the spring. Then you could go down to your local nut and bolt supply and look through their spring assortment. Most nut and bolt supply houses have a very good selection of small springs and small ball bearings (used as a detent in a lot of applications).

[HEAD0001]

Call that fellow at Skinner sights. I do not know if he is able to fix it. But he made a sight from scratch for me. You never know, and he is a good guy to talk to anyway. Tom.

[John in MS]

Several years ago I had cause to disassemble a Marble's sight and ran into the exact
problem you are experiencing. As I recall, there is a little leg that sticks off one end of
the spring and engages a hole ( or something) and then you wind the spring around before
replacing it. The key was to keep it together while replacing the tension bar that goes on
the end of the main screw through the sight. After a couple of unsuccessful tries. I figured
it out and got it back together. I am NOT mechanically inclined, so if I can do it, anyone probably can. The main thing will be to ensure you have all the parts.

Sorry I can't be more specific, but I did it once about 8 years ago... can't remember much
more in details.

Hope this helps,
John

[jdad]

Duff L Bag,
All the parts are there. I just can't load the tension on the spring.

John in MS,
There is a leg on both ends of the spring. I tried for about an hour, to get the tension loaded, and finally just gave up.

[BenT]

Jdad, Have the same problem with one my father in law gave me that he took off his WIN 1892. I haven't been able to get to load the spring correctly.Can't get it to spring to it's upright position. I haven't look at it for over a year.

[TooTech]

Had the exact same problem with a Marbles tang sight on my Savage 99. The gentleman who fixed it for me is named Mike Maraccini. He even has a bunch of spare parts. I was referred to him by Marbles themselves when I called their customer service number.

Contact him via email at:


marblesfix AT chartermi.net


(Put the @ sign in at the appropriate spot in the above address. I don't want to be the cause of Mike getting a bunch of spam).

[jdad]

Thank you!

[BenT]

I just got my marbles sight fixed by Mike Maraccini and got it back in less than 2 weeks.He replaced the screw ,cap and inside sleeve. Works great.

[jdad]

My turnaround was also less than 2 weeks. I asked Mike to email me the cost, but he just sent it back, with an invoice, and I sent him a check. Surprised me. You don't see too many people that trusting anymore.