Browning BL22 – Test plates to check the bolt closure (misfires)

three plates next to each other, with the number 20, 21, 22 indicating the length of each plate.

The misfires in the Browning BL-22 were caused by a locking plate that was no longer within the correct dimensions. This issue is well documented on this website.

At one point, I 3D printed a few test plates, which made it easy to measure and determine the proper dimensions needed to eliminate the excess play in the bolt.

You can print these plates yourself and fine-tune their size until the gap between the barrel and the bolt is completely eliminated.

https://www.tinkercad.com/things/hz5vcwNLIIX-browning-bl22-misfire-tests

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One bolt, the size of 1/2158th of a standard double-door fridge’s width.

That makes total sense, doesn’t it? Apparently, for one nation and some other small country on this boulder we live on, it does.

So I needed a small mounting bolt for my american made, weapon. Silly me assumed that this was standard thread that everyone is using, but no. Eventually, after a lot of measuring, I figured out that the cut of the thread was Whitworth G40-1/8 and the estimated width of the bolt was 4,20mm and the length was 3,18mm. After a long search, I now know that i need to search for the following bolt:

#8-40 x 1/8

  • #8 means that the gauge is 0.164 in. or 4.17 mm
  • 40 stands for the threads per inch, in this case classified as “fine”.
    TPI 40 = 0,025″ Pitch in Inches or 0,635 Pitch in Millimeter.
  • 1/8 stands for the length of the bolt. (Actual size 0.1255″ or 3.1877mm)

So I just ordered #8-40 x 1/4 because I need longer bolts. And I was unable to find them here in The Netherlands. So AliExpress came to the rescue!


Self Tapping Screw Gauge (g) Size (mm)
4 2.9
6 3.5
8 4.2
10 4.8
12 5.5
14 6.3
18 8.0

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[FIXED?] Browning BL-22 misfires

Next to some other issues that I have with my Browning BL22 is that it very often misfires. And after a lot of thinking, trial and error, I think I have found the issue.

Remember the post about the little plate that came loose? The misfires are related to this as far as I have been able to figure out. There is a locking block that locks itself via this little plate. (I think i see wear on that block as well). Since it looks like the original plate is hand-made, I think somewhere in the process, someone did a very sloppy job.

OBSERVATION: The bolt is not sitting snug in its place when a cartridge is loaded. This cause the hammer to push through the play first and with the little energy that is remaining, the firing pin is being hit. This is causing the rimfire cartridge not being struck hard enough and thus causes a misfire.

The original plate is 20mm long, 10mm wide and 2mm thick.

I decided to print a few plates in two different lengths, 21 and 22mm. I know the prints are not exact, but this is close enough. 22 mm was way too long and the lever would not close. 21 mm was too long as well, so I decided to sand it down, little by little. If your lever does not FULLY close, do not force it shut and fire a live round! Your bolt may NOT be locked!

Ignore the 20mm one, not sure why I printed that one!

Eventually, with A LOT of assembling and disassembling, trial and error, I found out that the plate should be 20.15mm long. The size may vary per rifle, so keep that in mind.

A rough cut of the new plate

I colored the piece of metal to make the scribe lines better visible, started measuring and scribing. I then used my desktop belt sander to gradually sand it so size. It is not hard to do but do wear gloves as the plate will be hot.

Look how nice the new plate fits snugly into its place. I temporarily glued it in place and went to the range to see how the rifle behaved.

The first 5 shots went without any problem. The next 5 produced 1 misfire and the next 5 were almost all misfires. What the heck happened??

Well, what happened is that I underestimated how much force is put onto the bolt and I had not harden the new plate.

The dent is clearly visible.

Look at that dent! I did not expect that to happen, but this also points out to never underestimate the force that is put on the bolt.

So what to do now? Well, make an exact new one and harden it! The latter will have to be done later. Enjoy the photos and once I have hardened the plate and tested everything, I will post a follow-up.

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Window position fix – Unraid/NoVNC/Krusader

My krusader windows was creeping upwards and I could not see the controls any more, nor could I move the window back into view.

APPLE: OPTION + COMMAND + Mouse Left = Drag
APPLE WITH WINDOWS KEYBOARD: WINDOWS KEY + Mouse Left = Drag

WINDOWS: ALT + Mouse Left = Drag

Enjoy!

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Spiced Fox Cakes

I am currently experimenting with a new cookie/cake. Let’s just stick to cake, because they are not crunchy.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup of eggs (or two medium sized eggs)
  • 1/2 cup of sugar
  • 1/4 cup of sunflower oil
  • 1 cup of flour
  • 1 tablespoon of spice mix

Spice mix:

  • A 1-1-1 blend of ground Ginger, Cardamom and Mace.

Preparation:

  • Oil up two mini-muffin(?) forms. My forms can fit 12 mini-muffins.
  • Heat up oven to 180C or 365F and depending how good your oven is, let it warm through for a bit. After my oven beeps at the supposedly right temperature, I wait at least 15 minutes before opening the door.

Making the cakes:

  • Beat the eggs and sugar until smooth
  • Add the oil
  • Add the flour
  • Add the spice mix
  • Fill the mini-muffin forms with a piping bag up to the rim. (optional: If you chose to add baking powder, just fill them half-way.)
  • Put the forms in the oven
  • Remove them after 15 minutes
  • Store in a tin

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A Lebkuchen recipe.

Ingredients for the dough

  • 2 beaten eggs
  • 65 grams of sugar
  • 1 sachet vanilla sugar
  • 5 grams of lebkuchen spices
  • 100 gram flour
  • half a teaspoon of cinnamon
  • 8 grams baking powder, sieved
  • 1 teaspoon cocoa powder

Ingredients for different glazes

* Sugar glaze: 130 g powdered sugar, 2 tbsp rum, 2 tbsp red wine.
* Chocolate glaze: bitter, white or whole milk chocolate.

* Lebkuchen spices mix yourself:
35 gr cinnamon
5 gr cloves
1 gr nutmeg
2 gr coriander
2 gr ginger
2 gr ground mace

Preparation Nurnberger Lebkuchen

Preheat the oven to 180 gr. Stir the sugar, eggs and vanilla sugar with an electric hand mixer until the mixture has doubled in size and the sugar has dissolved.

I am using a disposable piping bag, because the dough has the viscosity of batter.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 ° C for 12 – 15 minutes until lightly browned.
Let the lekbuchen cool on a wire rack.

Preparation of the Lebkuchen topping

Glazing: Make a nice batch, deep enough to dunk the cookies in with a thin fork. Then, dunk the cookies in the glazing, whisk off the excess carefully and let it dry.

Chocolate, ditto with glazing. Please to read up how to properly melt and cure chocolate. Will publish this myself once I have perfected it.

You can also dunk the dried glazed version into the chocolate for an extra layer of yum.

Storage

You can eat them right away but if not, keep them in a box. They get better in flavour after a day or two.

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Adminer Installation

Super light DataBase managing thingy:

INSTALL:

sudo mkdir /usr/share/adminer
sudo wget -O /usr/share/adminer/adminer.php https://www.adminer.org/latest.php

SYMLINK NGINX

sudo ln -s /usr/share/adminer/adminer.php /usr/share/nginx/html/adminer.php

SYMLINK APACHE:

sudo ln -s /usr/share/adminer/adminer.php /var/www/html/adminer.php

Sidenote: If you have your web root anwhere else, you need to link it to that specific point. Also, this has been a install for Debian 11.

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