New member has a Ithaca Lewis project

[alcaviglia]

...oh, and I meant to ask you earlier, does your shotgun have steel or pattern-welded (Damascus) barrels?

[DMason]

Oh, that was a Lewis receiver in the photos? My eye's could use a tune up! There was a time when I probably would have seen the strain screw in the photo... Love getting older.
Yes, the Brownell screw blanks are not the prettiest things in the world. As I recall, I have been cutting with 6-40 and 10-32 'fine' dies. I don't really want to touch the receiver with a tap. One can replace screw blanks but not receivers! I'll just play around with the adjuster on my dies till they turn into the receiver more smoothly. Thanks for the web sites.
I'll keep you posted on my progress.

[alcaviglia]

No problem. gunpartscorp does have the hammer pins (though they call them screws). They are listed in the parts list for the Crass model. Should be the same pins. Regardless, Numrich has a great return policy if they don't fit. Part #1007650. Good luck, and please do keep me posted.

[DMason]

On the barrel question, they are fluid steel. I am preparing them for a new rust bluing. They are polishing up quite nicely, I'm down to about 400 grit so far. I will go down to about 2000 grit, I get a very pretty finish when I really polish my barrels up. I know many people stop at about 400, but I just can't agree. I was going to leave the gun original but it just seemed a good candidate for a full restoration.

[DMason]

Well, where did that month go? Boring details took me away from my guns!

Al, I din't know if you are logging in lately, but I just got back to my Ithaca Lewis project and have decided to put the cleaned out action back together again just to do a function test. The refinishing of the steel and furniture will be continued shortly. I have some time back on my side for this project. I already have run into a reassembly challenge. I have the barrel locking bolt with the spring, the bolt straddle , the cam, the retaining screw and the top lever, all in place. However, I don't think I know how and where to position the straddle block and it's holding screw to the barrel bolt. I tightened the straddle screw where I thought it should be and the top lever works but is quite left of center in the closed position and seems to have too much distance to travel before I see the lever's barrel latch clear the gap.

Is there a procedure to aligning and fixing the straddle block in place?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

By the way, cleaned and sanded parts (all internals of the receiver and the barrel) did very well in transmission fluid. Not even a hint of rusting and the oil is so light, I could get right too work on all parts with just a little wipe...

Hope all reader's Ithacas are in tip top shape.

Dan

[alcaviglia]

Dan,

I haven't been logging in as much lately, inclement weather here did some damage to my house that has kept me quite busy (30" snow + weeks of sub-zero temps at night = ice dam, leaking facia/roof/walls, sagging beams, and lots of FUN).

The part of the reassembly procedure to which you are referring is the timing of the locking bolt. I'll try to get that to you tomorrow in its entirety, but until then:

the first thing you want to do is loosen the straddle block retaining screw so the bolt can move freely. Then, remove the locking bolt spring retaining pin to relieve the compression on the spring. At that point, you'll want to move the locking bolt toward the rear so that the surface that contacts the bite in the barrel lug (or lump, if you prefer) is barely visable through the receiver - if the bolt is not moving freely: 1) check that the straddle block screw is loose enough; 2) tap the bolt rearward with a brass or nylon punch (a section of dowel rod will also do...about 3/8" in diam.).

*note: the contact surfaces on the bite and the bolt are tapered to account for wear over time. Inspecting the bolt surface should show you at what position it engages the bite (assuming you didn't polish that off in the cleaning process). That reminds me of another tip regarding the lockup of a double gun. All contact surfaces providing the lockup should be left alone unless there is already a problem with them - no sense in creating looseness where there wasn't any before...fixing that would be a bit more involved than just reassembly.

Okay, now you want to move the toplever to the right and join the barrel set to the reciever. Close the toplever and tap the locking bolt forward until everything is locked up snug. If you'd like to see the taper on the locking bolt and bite, you can "paint" with layout ink, smoke the bite with a candle or lighter, or even a dry-erase marker will do, and check the amount of contact surface.

At that point the rest should be pretty self-explanatory. It's really a game of give and take, getting the timing right.

As for toplever position, check the top side of the straddle block and you should find a dovetailed piece in which the hole that receives the tooth on the cam is located. That piece can be moved left or right on the straddle block to change how far forward or rearward the straddle block must be to engage the cam. That can also make available a bit more linear travel for the locking bolt, if you find yourself running out before the straddle block hits the inside of the receiver (which it should not have to do in order to release the barrels - if it does, make an adjustment to prevent it. That will eventually move the straddle block and you will have to perform a half-disassembly just to open the shotgun again.).

[DMason]

Al,
That was a great reponce. I am not at my workbench at the moment but wanted to get back to you. I will fuddle around with it in the morning but I'm not exactly sure what you were saying that I should mark (as a referrance to what, the amount of barrel contact on the bite at the front of the lug?) and also, I will slide the dovetailed cam tit holder but am reluctant to do that since the lever was once (before I took the receiver apart) lined up nicely to the right of center.
Anyways thanks so much and I hope we can corespond tomorrow.

[DMason]

One should proofread: that should have been 'response' and 'correspond', I believe...
Dan

[alcaviglia]

The following photos should help a bit:

#1 shows tapered surface on locking bolt
#2 shows both tapered surfaces
#3 shows contact between the two
#4 shows the marks left on locking bolt from bite on lug

*note: the marks on photo #4 are difficult to see, but looking for discolorations along a straight line makes them a bit apparent. I added arrows to point them out.

[alcaviglia]

***in case you can't read the undersized text on photo #4 (sorry about that), they say:

"final position of locking bolt on bite of lug"

"first contact with bite on lug"