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I started working on my Mech-Tech CCU again

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Big Frank:
After stripping down about as far as it goes and cleaning it really well, I left the parts and everything setting around. I finally worked up enough motivation to do something with it. A few days ago I started planing down the hand guard with a small block plane. The blade depth and angle adjustment is... just eyeball it as you slide the blade around with your hands, and tighten the wheel to hold it in place. Getting the depth adjusted between to shallow to shave any material off, and too deep to get started was nearly impossible, but I whittled down close to 1/3 of the thickness. It smells like epoxy and it's really hard to work compared to wood. Then I got smart and put an 80 grit wheel on the angle grinder. Much better! It didn't take long to take off another 1/3 of the thickness of the handguard and smooth it out. It's a hair thicker on one end but good enough for government work.

I had a tube of rubber cement and tried using it to glue an M203 grenade launcher hand guard over the remaining piece of the original, but it didn't work. I bought a tube of Amazing Goop and used that yesterday to glue it together. Then today I rubbed the excess off with my fingers and drilled the 8 holes where the barrel block screws to the housing. Tonight I'll use more Goop to glue the hand guard to the housing and have a one of a kind CCU. I had a hard time counter sinking the holes to get rid of the ragged edges because every hole is partly on at least one rib. I got carried away with a knife that was too big for the job when I tried to use that instead.

Big Frank:
Here's the last pic of my hand guard, one of the new style hand guards Mech-Tech makes, and a picture of a CCU with a cropped image of my handguard below theirs. Mine wraps around a lot farther. It goes all the way up to the rail. In a few days (?) when I get everything cleaned up again and put it together, I'll post some pics.

Big Frank:
I got just enough Goop in the housing to glue the barrel block in. Maybe 1/2 a drop, but it doesn't take much when the parts fit closely. Two whacks to the muzzle with a plastic mallet and I knocked the barrel assembly down into the housing. Then I clamped the barrel in my bench vise and twisted the housing back and forth a few times to make sure nothing else was sticking in there, and the housing slid right off. I wasn't worried about damaging the muzzle because the barrel has a recessed crown, and the stainless steel is a lot harder than the plastic mallet, which serves the same purpose as a rawhide mallet.

When I took a closer look at the muzzle I saw some carbon buildup, or something, at the muzzle and cleaned it up. When I put on my reading glasses it was easier to see that there was some damage to the muzzle. I don't have the proper tools to repair that kind of damage, but I do have a ceramic stick for honing knives. It has 4" of rod sticking out of a 2 1/4" wooden handle. So I poked it in on an angle and worked it in and out about an inch all the way around, being careful not to hit the bore on the opposite side. I kept going until it looked like a uniform chamfer, but I need to check it with a magnifying glass.

I'll be buying a .578"x28 die and die stock, and putting on an A2 flash hider I bought last year. Nothing will hit the muzzle after that, unless it's a cleaning rod. Other than the little speck of carbon, the barrel looked pretty clean when I swabbed the swarf out with a wet patch. I ran a brass or bronze brush though it anyway, then a wet patch came out really dirty. I don't know if I ever cleaned the brush, but I need to. Then I'll have to clean the bathroom sink. :(  I think the brush was putting crap in the barrel instead of taking it out. 

I noticed that half of the screws for the housing looked like the heads had been hammered on. Then I remembered I did that to try to tighten up the opening of the sockets. They're 9/64" hex screws but a 9/64" hex wrench is a sloppy fit. Nothing else I have, SAE, metric, or Torx, fits any better either. So I put all 8 screws in the barrel clamp and hammered the other 4 down until they matched, then filed them down flat, 4 at a time. I'm going to run each one through a die to clean up the threads, then degrease, and paint them. And make sure the holes in the housing are all bored out to the same diameter, 5/16" I think, with no Goop or plastic handguard over the edges of the holes, and the bit goes straight through both sides. 


Trivia time! I had to open a new package of patches to clean the bore. They're made by Southern Bloomer Mfg. Co. of Bristol, TN. If anyone isn't already aware, they started out making cotton knit panties and night shirts for state/federal mental institutions and prisons. Five years later they found that the scrap from this business made excellent gun cleaning patches.  Their cotton knit products leave no strings or threads and are virtually lint free.

From prisoners' panties to patches. https://southernbloomer.com/

Big Frank:
I painted the 8 housing screws Sunday morning. I was thinking to myself, how do I paint all the way around the heads of the screws? I need to stand them up! So I poked small holes in the piece of cardboard with an awl and screwed them halfway in. Two coats of paint with a little break in between and they looked good.

I straightened out and used Goop to re-glue the aluminum and rubber parts of the buffer that were stuck together crooked. That one little number 10 screw is the only stock attachment. If it ever breaks off, I'm reaming out the holes and running a 1/4" bolt from the stock into the housing. I don't think I have enough Goop left for what I actually bought it for.

Big Frank:
I don't remember what the rivet in the right side of the M203 grenade launcher grip is for. My barrel was off an M2037 flare gun I bought a long time ago. The two rivets at the rear, one on each side, are the rivets that hold the shell holders on. They keep the grenade from falling on the ground before you pull the barrel back. Wouldn't that be embarrassing? I had to drill those rivets out and take the shell holders out before I could fit the grip over the remaining part of my original handguard. The semi-circular notch at the bottom rear is a clearance cut for the extractor that's located on the receiver of the grenade launcher. The M203 has a spring loaded plunger ejector at the top of the breech face, and with the extractor at the bottom, the ejected shells go straight down. If it doesn't eject you have to poke the empty out with a stick. Then visit your friendly neighborhood small arms repairman. ;)

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