J B Kuchenreuter in Regensburg

J B Kuchenreuter in Regensburg 

With thanks to Matt.

Repairs continue:

I did a water test and identified some leaks, and after several fixings, re- testings and further fixings with E6000 adhesive I stopped the couple of leaks

I also treated the bellows parchment with Polyethylene Glycol 400 which is what museums use to preserve and renew parchment to stop it drying out and getting too brittle. (thanks to ccdjg for excellent advice and info on the treatment & adhesive)

I also needed to insure a good breech seal and as you can slide the bellows in and out on their own I used little plasticene blocks to give me a depth gauge when pushed in against the breech end of the barrel, and this gave me what I needed to make a leather seal of the perfect thickness.

So, happy that the Bellows were restored as best I could and the barrel seal was working correctly I set about re-fitting the v-springs, and to be honest I didn't know if it would work.

I fitted some mini G-clamps to act as stops to prevent the sash clamp from sliding down and compressed them until I could locate the little prongs on the end of the v-springs into the holes in the mechanism frame.

Once done I could slack off the Sash clamp and hey presto, they were in. I removed the rubber bands after fitting.

 

I had to do a few other procedures to re-fit the cocking bar in the top bellows plate, and also open up some indents in the stock made by the prongs protruding through the mechanism plate (I think that shock waves through the tips of these prongs may have cracked the back of the stock in the first place, so I didn't want them in contact for future use)
Then it could all be slid back in the stock and secured by a big pin through the stock and a block on the front of the bellows.

Then some repairs to the woodwork, some of which was already cracked when I took those butt plates off, and the piece I removed to get the mechanism out. All went together well and is all hidden under the rear stock plates. (I put some non-stick backing paper between the stock & Mechanism during gluing so as not to glue them to each other)

Then refitted the plates and trigger etc. and finally a test fire with a home made 8.5mm dart, and Bingo! it works! the dart is much faster than before and the shot cycle although loud in the hollowed out stock, is much quieter than before. Hopefully it'll last another 170 years!