Heh. This one came with a second one in better shape. Looks like the barrel is frozen into the receiver, and so far penetrating oil hasn't loosened it up.
The barrel itself isn't much, corroded inside to the point where it would need relined to salvage it. I am a rank amateur at this sort of thing...

Might try soaking in a bucket diesel fuel for a few days. Used to do the same with frozen oilfield valves and always worked.

However, this is the 21st century and they have invented PB Blaster, and it works at loosening frozen joints somewhat better.

With an octagon barrel like the favorites usually have, this is an easy problem to solve.

Take off the forend, place the barrel in a vise with a block of wood on each side to protect the barrel from the vise jaws.

Put a Large (18" or so, or bigger) crescent wrench on the receiver at the ring area, protected on each side by a shim of thin wood or cereal box pressboard. Turn the action backwards and forwards to free it from the frozen/rusted barrel, and work it off. Add oil as you do it if it makes you feel better.

If you weren't a rank amateur, you could substitute a barrel vise and a flat action wrench for the wood blocks, vise and crescent.

Please remember to remove the breech block and lever before trying to remove the barrel.

Also do not use a metal hammer to beat on the face of the receiver, like so many other nobodies have done in the past.

J Wisner

Interesting PB blaster. Looked it up and lo and behold there is a picture of an old rusty line and valve. Does it degrade rust to the point of loosening? Looks like good stuff.

It's also posible that the frame and bbl have been attached with soft solder, loctite or epoxy to fix a loose TD.

Cranking on the frame with the bbl solidly attached usually won't break these bonds if they were done even half way decently.

Check carefully for signs of any of the substances being used. Solder usually leaves some heat discoloration from a garage mechanic.

They will all take around 450F to break their bond. Even if the loctite was the green stuffit'll likely take some heat to loosen with that large of a surface.

Check carefully for an added cross pin holding the bbl in place in addition to the factory set screw. If things are corroded, it may be hard to see.

PB is not just a solvent; it is some sort of enzyme that eats rust. Eat is probably not the chemical term.
If someone soldered your barrel on you would be able to see that.

The rifle is upside down in a padded vise, with PB Blaster poured into the takedown screw hole. Now we wait...

None of these fit that tight that they would rust solid in place, I bet someone used some loctite or similar, in which case heat is the answer

Let one sit in the basement for 75 years and I guarantee they will rust in place. As I have seen.
But heat will also change rust to ferrous oxide and it is another way to remove rusted bolts, etc.

All of the above. Breech block out, PB Blaster poured in takedown screw hole, left like that with the octagon clamped upside down in a padded vise for a few days. Tonight it came loose with a reasonable amount of grunt. It's a tight fit anyway, much more so than the other one, a 1915 model with a nicer bore. A little time with Hoppe's #9 cleaned up the inside enough to see that it's corroded beyond use unless it's relined, which is a maybe. Odd, the outside isn't especially rusted, maybe its early life was with corrosive ammunition?

Another temptation would be to turn the tenon on a different barrel to fit; there is a Winchester 75 barrel in the closet and a Remington 40X, both a little high-class for a Favorite. The Remington 5-teens have tenons smaller than the Favorite, not really on the table unless shortened and rechambered. Or sleeved...

ruger 10-22 barrel works like a charm on these. Cheap as there are tons of takeoffs out there. Turn the tenon a tad, ignore the Ruger extractor cutout, cut new extractor groove at 6 o clock, deepen chamber til rim is flush. Get one with the sights intact.

Just install a Redman liner in the barrel you have. Done properly you will have to look hard to even see it's been lined. They shoot fairly well too.

Now eyeing up a Marlin 70 barrel on ebay, cheaper than 10-22 and just needs a little turning on the barrel tenon.
A Favorite doesn't warrant a benchrest barrel, I'm interested in getting it to shooting condition first and then see about enhancements.

Interesting, a Favorite has a 6 o'clock firing pin, just like a Baity Falcon...

Good Grief, #10-23 screws? For $4 each from Wisners, I'm not going to make them with the Heavy 10. I did make a new firing pin.

No...

Correct thread pitch is 26 TPI on the 1894 breech bolt screw and lever screw

That's what makes CNC lathes thrive for.

JW

quote:

Originally posted by J Wisner:
Correct thread pitch is 26 TPI on the 1894 breech bolt screw and lever screw

That's what makes CNC lathes thrive for.

JW

My bad. I'm a hobby machinist, was never a pro.
Thank you.

Be sure to repin the linkage with drill rod; and if you are going to replace the actions screws (a good idea as the originals are softer than hot spaghetti), go up a size (they are some weird diameter not fractional), ream and retap, and again use some real steel. I have used Grade 8 bolts turned down on the grinding wheel and cut to length; or drill rod on the lathe and then quenched and drawn.

Russ is correct about the two pins that are on each side of the link, they are soft.
The one in the breech block and the other one in the lever.

These are easy to replace as the factory was a .152 in diameter pin.
Ream the holes out to 5/32" ( .156" ) and replace with hardened dowel pins or the shank of a drill bit cut to length.

The link is also soft, and if you can machine a new one form some pre heat treated 4140 that would be the best way to replace the link

JW

quote:

Originally posted by J Wisner:
Russ is correct about the two pins that are on each side of the link, they are soft.
The one in the breech block and the other one in the lever.

These are easy to replace as the factory was a .152 in diameter pin.
Ream the holes out to 5/32" ( .156" ) and replace with hardened dowel pins or the shank of a drill bit cut to length.

The link is also soft, and if you can machine a new one form some pre heat treated 4140 that would be the best way to replace the link

JW

Thank you, both. I do have some appropriate drill rod, and can make new pins. The breech block on the raggedy one doesn't rise high enough to clear the rim of the 22 RF, and I did wonder if the wear on the screws was the whole cause. Sounds like wear on the link and pins needs attention as well. When the screws come I'll know more about this.

There is a bushing involved too, not sure what the original diameter was or how much it might be worn. On the other side from the bushing is a plain drilled hole, same story. Reaming them bigger would be ok if it didn't weaken the parts. From what I've read, the action is strong enough for standard velocity 22 rimfire, but best not to push matters.

There is an IMS Metals store in town, they have assorted steels in assorted sizes and shapes. A fiber laser would be fun, my CO2 is an inopportune wavelength and too wimpy to cut steel.

So on Gunbroker is a Stevens Favorite with a scope attached. The description of the attachment is this:

"Stevens 15 favorite 22 L.R. falling block,bore like new,walnut stock soild no cracks,handiling marks,blueing plum color,action works as it should,hammer extension, sling studs and leather sling.Comes with a Weaver Marksman 3x9x40 scope with standard cross hairs steel,made in USA,weaver rings and base. Base is glass beaded to barrel not drilled,believe me its not comming off unless you want it to,than you take scope off base heat base with propane torch beadding will soften and can remove base and beadding doesn't mark barrel. "

I don't recognize much of the description...what is "glass beading"?

Should be Glass Bedded. I believe

Attached with fiber glass stock bedding material.

Glass beading is abrasive blasting with fiberglass particles giving a matte finish. Clearly, the ad was written by someone who can't spell.
Glass bedding is an old term for when we used to mix chopped fiberglass strands with epoxy and make stock bedding out of it, and some might still be made that way. Used to be able to buy bags of it. The term has been ingrained into gunsmithing jargon, but may or may not contain fiberglass.
In any case, heat will remove it. Not in a stock though!

So this is a case of bad spelling, and it's glued on. Hmmm...

Still waiting for the screws,now making a sleeved barrel for the raggedy one in the meantime. There was a skinny barrel from a long-ago gun show, and the sleeve is from 1" round aluminum bar stock. It's not intended for a permanent replacement, just a test piece for when the breech block lockup is corrected, and maybe I'll cut a dovetail in the sleeve for a 4X weaver scope. Onward, through the fog.

A relative had a take down Crackshot. Wobbly barrel. I think you would be better off not freeing the barrel, once it becomes loose, the mechanical connection is not secure and wears.

quote:

Originally posted by SlamFire:
A relative had a take down Crackshot. Wobbly barrel. I think you would be better off not freeing the barrel, once it becomes loose, the mechanical connection is not secure and wears.

True enough, although the bore on the raggedy one was corroded beyond further use except maybe with a CCI shot cartridge.
I accept the proposition that these will never be benchrest guns. Sleeving a smaller diameter barrel to fit will be an experiment.
I idly wonder about using a sticking taper for centering the barrel in the receiver...

So it's Saturday night and the screws are here. They do take up a lot of slack, and the raggedy receiver is just on the edge of shootable.

The lever is still kind of loose, the original hole is worn to 0.210" from what I think was originally 0.187" or so.

I'm going to ask Wisner's if they would be willing to make new screws with 0.208" shanks to take up the wear (means the extractor hole needs reamed a little).

The other option is to ream the lever holes a teensy bit bigger and make bushings to fit the nicely made new screws.

Monday morning...made a couple of brass bushings yesterday to see if taking up the slack at the lever would tighten up the breech block closure before making steel ones for the raggedy 1894 Favorite.

I drilled the bushing I.D. at 0.187", and they wouldn't slip over the new screws. They did slip over the old ones but the worst wear was near the ends of the screw where the I.D. would have had to be too small to slip over the middle of the screw, which wasn't worn as much. Back to the drawing board...

Sunday, made new brass bushings that fit both the lever and the new lever screw. Tightened up better but still some sideways movement in the lever. The breech block comes up against the original barrel ok but as the lever goes over center, backs up a few thousandths and makes a pretty light strike on the cartridge rim.

The test case is a 22 RF case with no powder or bullet, and while it lights the primer it's a very light strike.
I think I need to study the linkage some more. There is one more pin that I haven't made new, maybe that's the next step.

In the end, it will need either a larger diameter lever screw or steel bushings over the new one.

Move the bbl back in the frame a few .000 so the breechblock comes up and locks tightly against it as the lever closes.

That over center motion is going to allow the breech block to back off of the face of the bbl if the two don't make contact just as the lever/link go over center.

The same thing happens in your reloading press when you run the ram all the way to the top. The ram gets to the top of it's travel and then the press linkage goes over center and the ram drops back down a few .000.

But if the ram comes up and gently contacts the bottom of a reloading die, then the overcenter linkage just locks the ram tighter against the bottom of the die. It doesn't back off.

The bbl in the Favorite is a slip fit and held in position by the set screw on the bottom.
The front shoulder on the bbl or the front face of the frame control the depth that the bbl face protrudes through the breech.

Either one can be altered to allow the bbl breech face to protrude a few .000 more to allow the breech block to lock up against it with the existing linkage.

Then you will have to alter the set screw cut in the bottom of the bbl shank to make the set screw shaft pull the bbl tight into the frame once again.

Do this by filling the old set screw cut in and recutting it.
Welding it up and refitting is one way.
Or simply plug it with a soft steel blind plug rivited or soft soldered into place and then recut for the new position.

this is a good time to replace the action screws .. if I recall the diameter of the OEM screws is just under a standard fractional, so the next fractional is going to be a tad fatter .. with screws made of better steel. I have used a grade 8 bolt to make the action screws in some cases. The originals are very soft. Then you drill or ream the corresponding holes in the lever and the block to match. If you use a round file before drilling you can move the holes a tad, since you are making a bigger hole. You have to retap the frame on the other side, but normally you can just run the tap in without any drilling or reaming on that side.

Same with the link pins. I buy standard hardened pins, they are also a tad fatter than the soft OEM pins. Or you can use fractional drill rod. In this case, the fractional is a nice tight fit and you can just drive it in, don't have to redrill anything.

And headspace is measured to the ctg not to the breech face. So a little slop when the bolt closes on an empty chamber sometimes disappears when you chamber a ctg.

I think Stevens used soft pins and screws so that wear was mainly on the replaceable pins, not the block and linkage. But they are so soft, they bend if you use CCI ammo. And yes, if that was the intention, they do wear rather badly.