www.MG42.us

well its together and can fire single shot all day, still having all kinds of cycling problems and it needs a good deal of cosmetic work that im not to good at, but least it sorta runs right. i posted the reenactment photo a while back but i was working on it some more today and i went to test it with live fire and i got 10 shots off. still needs a good deal on work.




bob says the top cover may be to tight so i need to explore that and i need to get the right spring length, those seem to be the two main problems, then i need to figure out how i am going to make it look nice because the black paint aint doin it for me and the ruff edges are getting on my nerves.

Looks good-congratulations!! ---bil

Fritz,

At least it is getting there, good luck getting the fine tuning sorted out.

I am pretty green on the '42 but unless you are going to hot-blue it, why not consider the duracoat (SP?) option?

www.Prussia.us wrote:Fritz,

At least it is getting there, good luck getting the fine tuning sorted out.

I am pretty green on the '42 but unless you are going to hot-blue it, why not consider the duracoat (SP?) option?

is that easy to do?

I practiced on an old Gew98 that would never be collectable that some guy-(idiot)sporterized.

The duracoat needs to be sprayed on like airbrushing, in the hands of an expert it could probably look pretty good and of course there is prep that needs to be done to the surface. I did not bead-blast or anything just scrubbed it down to the metal with Birchwood Casey blue removal, and proceeded from there.

It is better than cold blue (I have used Blue Wonder, Oxpho (SP?), Birchwood Casey, etc.), moreover the duracoat is reputed to be more durable but to be honest as I type this it makes me realize these 42’s are quite valuable, if you know a local guy that will hot-dip it for $100, why not? Of course replicating the German wartime bluing of the 42 may be a sticky wicket. I am not at that point just yet with mine, but I have been thinking about it for a while.

Would a hot reblue get that very dark finish of the original '42? cold blues IMO tend not to be the deep dark finish of the originals

make sure to check your booster hole size. i was short cycling about an inch. i had a 11.6 mm hole in my booster. i went down to a 10.1 mm booster and it runs like a top.

Orion Arms wrote:make sure to check your booster hole size. i was short cycling about an inch. i had a 11.6 mm hole in my booster. i went down to a 10.1 mm booster and it runs like a top.

never even thought of that, my issue has been not ejecting shells so like you said short cycling and when it does, not loading new ones. now i got it pretty good with blanks but the top cover blows off after 8 or 9 shots in a row so i think the cover is locking down to tight wich is easy to fix. i was useing the lighter spring with the blanks and it was cycling pretty good. i have now lost that spring so i need to make a new one. the BRP one i have is deffently a bit to strong since it wont work with blanks or live. ill do that tomorrow, i just got my ppsh41 done so i can get the 42 running good now. then ill take them over to my gunsmith and see if he wants to quote me on finishing them both. i have a filling im not far off, its covered in a coat of paint i had to spray on so i could get in reenactment shape fast, so taking that off and then polishing the ruff spots will take awhile it lookes like, i think i have a good 36 hours more to put into it before its perfectly finished.

Orion that is a great point, I wish we had a troubleshooting flowchart for these things.

Fritz, perhaps if you take a piece of an old 42 receiver that still has the original bluing and show it to your gunsmith he can better advise as to matching. I agree with your assessment with cold blue, of course in the hands of a very skilled user I am sure it can look top rate.

Also is that your Sherman PPSH you have or did you procure another?

[quote="www.Prussia.us"]Orion that is a great point, I wish we had a troubleshooting flowchart for these things.

quote]

A troubleshooting flow chart! -- now, there is a great idea, and one that would really cap off the world of information that this site already offers. How would we undertake such a project? This needs to be done. I assume that such a beast already exists for the full-auto MG42s, most likely in John's various manuals.

GeeDeeEmm

www.Prussia.us wrote:
Also is that your Sherman PPSH you have or did you procure another?

ya ive had it for 4 days now, been doing alot of receiver work. have yet to get it to shoot off more than one round.

ill be going be antique and modern firearms of lexington ky thursday or friday they should be able to do something with it, if it doesnt eat my wallet away that is.

as of right now though i losened up the top cover now its not tight anymore but im sick of careing if things are tight on this gun since nothing ever seems to be and when it is i find ways to screw it up. tomorrow im taking it in to do cosmetic work, needs a ton of polishing and im going to braze some things on permantly on such as the rail screws, grip stick parts, and etc. as of right now the top rear of the receiver is ruff and i cant seem to get it to look un-homemade, and the very front looks the same. any sugjestions...

ya heres photos how do i fix this.....
ruffness


front looks simmilar very uneven weld and grinding lines

you can see the front in this picture... along with the whole thing

Fritz, she may be moody, but man she looks sweeeeeeeeeeeeet.

Sherman's PPsh only firing single shot too, ach that blows. What type of receiver did you go with: WLA, IO, or Allied Armament?

I was hoping they would at least be a drop-in

I presume I should get my dremel as well as dentist tools handy and expect the worst when mine arrives.

Keep us posted.

www.Prussia.us wrote:
I presume I should get my dremel as well as dentist tools handy and expect the worst when mine arrives.

Keep us posted.

if you have a wise lite arms one, your going to need them. so far ive had to modify the internal block to get the bolt to function ok. then, since im a perfectionist, i had to replace the gap that was created on the left side of the receiver from removing parts of the block with metal. i decided to tac the rear sights on so they don't come off like they have been. but to add to that i welded the front sights on and made a mess of things so i completely remade the front sights. so now the front sight base and hood are literaly part of the receiver. doesnt look origanal if you look close enough, but it will do. i would post photos but i broke my camera at the last reenactment.

as for the mg42 im still trying to come up with hoe i'm going to get this professional looking........

Don't use a dremel to clean it up, you won't get a clean surface. Go to Harbor Freight and buy a $10 die grinder, it'll give a much better surface. Just be careful, they can eat up a lot of material real fast.

www.Prussia.us wrote:Orion that is a great point,

i cant take credit fot it. the great one pirate suggested it to me when i had issues.

Hey Abominog,

"Die Grinder" that is brilliant, thanks...........

Is that German??Shouldn't it be Das Grinder? ---bil

That is exactly what I was thinking. Of course plural would have to be Die Grinderen, or make it masculine with Der Grinder; funny how English is a Germanic language but our form is of course newer and lazy enough not to have that ridiculous masculine/feminine/neuter article preceding every noun. Then to complicate matters those SOB articles change with nouns taking the dative, or nominative, so easy to confuse and forget……

How the heck does Jbaum do it?