Stripped threads on Vulcans

[evert]

A few Vulcans/excels/victors have wound up in my collection over the years. Some of them have the threads in the action for the front trigger guard stripped.This is the threaded part of the welded on trigger cage.
As this seems to be a weak point the the design, has anyone come up with good fixes? Weld a nut in place? peen the metal plate back and re-thread it?

[ggggr]

A few Vulcans/excels/victors have wound up in my collection over the years. Some of them have the threads in the action for the front trigger guard stripped.This is the threaded part of the welded on trigger cage.
As this seems to be a weak point the the design, has anyone come up with good fixes? Weld a nut in place? peen the metal plate back and re-thread it?

I have tapped them out to 1ba (I think ) in the past , but a better fix would be to get a nut or square piece of steel that fits in the trigger cage, brazed or whatever in the inside of the cage and tapped back to original size.
Someone told me that the stock screws on Hawks etc are a special self tapping screw!
If someone has a lathe you could get a small top hat made and then fix that in the hole and tap it. I guess a bit of tube , welded and threaded would be ok if you could keep it straight.

[evert]

Thanks for the input! The tophat idea sounds like a winner to me, and there is a lathe in my basement. Guess I'll drill out the hole first, and make a tophat/nut that locks on the inside of the hole. (I thought lathes were obligatory tools for everyone interested in airguns?? )

[deejayuu]

Have used simple rectangle plate, interference fit, in the frame. Fast and simple replacement at any time.

[evert]

Have used simple rectangle plate, interference fit, in the frame. Fast and simple replacement at any time.

Thanks, that sounds like a good fix too.
I suspect the culprit (in addition to too thin plat/material in the frame threads) may be the triangular screw Webley used. Replacing them with proper screws will give more contact area.

[evert]

So measuring some vulcan/excel screws in an attempt to plan my approach, I get really confused...

The front trigger guard screw and the two front stock screws seem to measure 3/16"x24tpi, and are slightly triangular in shape, which gives some credit to the self-tapping theory...
But the rear screw is a 5mm metric?? why on earth would they mix metric and imperial????

[deejayuu]

I guess at transition period. Loads of imperial screws of one type to use up.