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 Bolt Fault

the inside of the action of a browning bl22 rifle.
The inside of the action of a browning bl22 rifle. The insert can be seen in the “roof” of the action.

It is the second time that I have to fix this issue where the trigger fails to release the hammer.

Symptom: The lever is not closing completely and then you cannot pull the trigger.
Cause: There is a small piece of steel in the “roof” of the action that has come loose and slides forward.
Fix: Fix the steel insert in its place, now with a much stronger adhesive. I used Loctite 648 this time.

Okay, first you need to make everything super clean and free of grease. Then you sand the slot with some fine sanding paper first as another cleaning step and then you use a coarser sanding paper to roughen up the surface.

looking inside the action housing of the browning, you can now see a thoroughly cleaned out slot where the insert goes into.
Look at how nice and clean that has become 🙂

Next, clean the insert thoroughly and use fine sanding paper first, then coarser paper.

this is the insert of the browning rifle that has come loose. when it does this, the lever will not close and you cannot pull the trigger.
The cleaned insert.

I chose for a stronger loctite this time, because I want to wait with more intrusive ways to affix this part. Have I noted that this part should never have come out in the first place? It’s not even noted in any parts list…

one can now see two green drops of loctite in the roof of the action housing.
Maybe this grade of Loctite is good enough. If not, then we go back to the drawing board.

There, all fitted together and now I will give it plenty time to dry and cure. Was briefly pondering about heating it up, but that’s a bit of a weird thing to do with glue as you can also often use heat to undo glued together parts.

and everything is now assembled again. the insert is now back in its place and will hopefully stay there
Will it stick?

I’ll go try it out tomorrow with some beefy ammo. I bought CCI EX Stingers that will yeet the nope with 1640 feet per second. If that breaks the glue bond, I’ll have to figure out another way to affix the insert.

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Making a test photo with the DIY Dashcam

Today I learned that the following command creates a test capture with the raspberry pi camera:

libcamera-still -o test.jpg
A screencapture of the output of the camera test command
The output from the command
A dark image with a window visible. Some daylight shines through the window.
We have an image!

And by golly, it works! So yet again some progress has been made. Somewhat worry that it is blurred, so let me make another one with the lights on:

The same as the previous picture, but this time with the lights on and the room is now visible. But it is terribly blurry
Oh no, this is way too blurry

Well heck. That’s not good. I have still not been ably to install python3-picamera3. Would that be the issue? Weird though. Let’s do another test with a mug at 10 cm distance:

a blurry mug can be seen in the center of the image
Well, that doesn’t look good…

One more test then at 20 cm:

Another attempt at 20 cm distance makes yet another blurry photo
20 cm has failed too.

Sooo. Not sure what’s going on here, but at least the camera works. 😀

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Loctite 242 and 222, what’s the difference?

Loctite 222 and 242

In regards to strength, I stick to this rule of thumb:

For something you tighten with a ratchet wrench that is 1/4″ or smaller, you can use Loctite 222.

If the wrench is 1/4″ or 3/4″, Loctite 242 is suitable.

To add to the confusion; If your ratchet wrench is 1/4″, either 222 or 242 will work.

Enjoy getting things intentionally stuck! 🙂

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