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Long story short, I had to detail strip my Browning 53 32-20 WCF and snapped the left side rail screw and if that wasn't enough, the one broken end is still stuck in the rail.
So does anyone know where I can get replacement screws for the ol' Browning 53?
Well I pecked away at the left side cartridge guide that had the remaining part of the broken screw in it most of this afternoon. It broke off flush with the one side and the other end was about flush and a nice rounded radius to the original tip of the screw. Started off with a 1/16" left hand twist drill and it just wanted to keep walking a cross the surface. I needed a slight dimple to stop that so I look in my Dremel bit box and see a fine pointed abrasive hone. I place the side cartridge guide in the vise and carefully try to keep the hone centered in the screw and start a small dimple. Once that is done I go back to the 1/16" left handed drill and attempt the extraction again. This time the drill caught and for about two threads it backed it out. Then it got hung up again and the drill started drilling into the screw. So I take it slow and reset the piece a several times to keep the hole as centered as possible. I drill a bit further so the hole is now about 1/16" deep or a tad more. Then I go looking for a screw extractor kit I have somewhere to try that and hoping that I have a bit small enough and that's not broken. I finally find it and look inside at the smallest one. A 1/4" bit but it's very pointed and not broken! Go back to the bench and put the screw extractor in the machine and slowly touch the bit into the hole I had drilled and by golly if that broken screw just didn't back right out! Made my afternoon! Now just to get a replacement one and I'll be back in business.
abcollector wrote:Well I pecked away at the left side cartridge guide that had the remaining part of the broken screw in it most of this afternoon. It broke off flush with the one side and the other end was about flush and a nice rounded radius to the original tip of the screw. Started off with a 1/16" left hand twist drill and it just wanted to keep walking a cross the surface. I needed a slight dimple to stop that so I look in my Dremel bit box and see a fine pointed abrasive hone. I place the side cartridge guide in the vise and carefully try to keep the hone centered in the screw and start a small dimple. Once that is done I go back to the 1/16" left handed drill and attempt the extraction again. This time the drill caught and for about two threads it backed it out. Then it got hung up again and the drill started drilling into the screw. So I take it slow and reset the piece a several times to keep the hole as centered as possible. I drill a bit further so the hole is now about 1/16" deep or a tad more. Then I go looking for a screw extractor kit I have somewhere to try that and hoping that I have a bit small enough and that's not broken. I finally find it and look inside at the smallest one. A 1/4" bit but it's very pointed and not broken! Go back to the bench and put the screw extractor in the machine and slowly touch the bit into the hole I had drilled and by golly if that broken screw just didn't back right out! Made my afternoon! Now just to get a replacement one and I'll be back in business.
Good job. That's a job that requires patience and control...
Griff,
SASS/CMSA #93
NRA Patron
GUSA #93
There is a fine line between hobby & obsession! AND... I'm over it!!
No I ain't ready, but let's do it anyway!
I bought a Browning 53 of of a former forum member a few years back, and one day I got it out of the safe and that screw was broken
I found the smallest ez-out I had, and when I went to drill it, the screw simply screwed in the rest of the way and fell loose inside the receiver. I had a replacement screw from Numrich and it fit perfect.
I was dreading that job, but for once, something was easy.
"Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure that there is one less scoundrel in the world." - Thomas Carlyle
I see you got it out but in the future.....you say "rail screw". I assume you mean "cartridge guide screw". First, never take it that screw. The only time that needs to come out for changing the cartridge guide is if your making a caliber change or a refinish/reblue. Rarely does this part break....although I did have one break in an 1892 made in 1893.....5,000 rounds later....that I shot out of it.
You want to clean the innards of any levergun about 99%? Take off the wood and without taking anything else apart, spray the heck out of it with PB blaster, Kroil, whatever. Toothbrush the heck out of it. Spray it some more and leave it sit overnight.
Next day spray it all again but this time with ZEP or Simple Green UNDILUTED. Let that sit for a half hour or so......then get a hose that has hot running water and spray the living Griff out of it. Blow it out with compressed air.
Reoil
This works on hundred year old rifles and I can't see that much accumulation of dirt in any rifle made in the last 40 years or so
As far as that screw is concerned and if you can't get the original metric, just run a 6-48 tap in the hole and use an original Winchester screw. There will be so little difference you probably won't even cut metal.-----6