ppgcowboy Posted November 17, 2019 Report Share Posted November 17, 2019 Now that Merle is done, can anyone share how and what is needed to get and keep drums functioning. Are there jigs involved. Has anyone seen it done? Anyone able to pick Merles brain. Seems this knowledge needs to be shared. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anjong-ni Posted November 17, 2019 Report Share Posted November 17, 2019 (edited) A Thompson drum is the mechanical equivalent of a can-opener in its beautiful simplicity. The problem is getting ANYONE to work on a firearm...especially a machine-gun part...in this litigious society...Phil Edited November 17, 2019 by anjong-ni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ppgcowboy Posted November 17, 2019 Author Report Share Posted November 17, 2019 If that were the case, gunsmith would be obsolete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anjong-ni Posted November 17, 2019 Report Share Posted November 17, 2019 (edited) Doug R. had crates of drums and tooling he was trying to get rid of. The tooling to make and assemble drum components would be a good start. Phil From one of his last blogs... Drum Manufacturing (24 Apr 2016) If anyone is interested in manufacturing drum magazines, I am willing to accept a deposit to guarantee the return of all drum manufacturing items I have which I would provide. I would partner in return for a royalty on each drum manufactured. I can no longer afford to store all the parts made with the tooling. I will hang on to the tooling but I will have to scrap all the parts, particularly the drum bodies which take up a lot of space. I am doing everything I can to prevent the loss to us all of all this Thompson stuff I am sitting on. Edited November 17, 2019 by anjong-ni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnsonlmg41 Posted November 17, 2019 Report Share Posted November 17, 2019 That's either going to be an interesting estate sale or a complete forfeiture to local officals. Him selling it at this point is never going to happen. Every time his name pops up I can't get out of my head Jim C's post, you rob one bank and forever after they refer to you as a bank robber. Still makes me LOL. If you have a specific drum problem, post it and I'm sure plenty of folks will chime in as to how to help fix it. I have a bunch of WWII drums and older colts (many tested, some not) that all run 100% and I've done nothing to them, but I inspected all of them before purchase and they are all major dent free. I've never greased any of them, but I do make sure they are clean. I've not tried the new WH C drum, but my original runs fine. I've tinkered with MP18 snail drums and they have their own set of issues and are more complicated. HTH 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bug Posted November 17, 2019 Report Share Posted November 17, 2019 Yeah, it hurts to have lost Merle as a resource. Has anyone here had experience opening the mainspring compartment? I have a Taiwan drum that I believe has a detached spring. I'd like to get inside, make a repair then reassemble. At $100 a pop, it doesn't make sense investing too much $$ into it but if I could do it myself I'd be happy. TIA Bob D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ppgcowboy Posted November 17, 2019 Author Report Share Posted November 17, 2019 I have a New York 3rd model that needs a dent fixed. Would love to know how to deal with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bridgeport28A1 Posted November 17, 2019 Report Share Posted November 17, 2019 I have a New York 3rd model that needs a dent fixed. Would love to know how to deal with it.You could take that dent out with a Colt Chopper dent removal tool. I watched Jack take some dents out of a Colt era drum at TATA. Worked like magic. Only problem is Colt Chopper production run of tools was fairly small and I believe are sold out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ppgcowboy Posted November 18, 2019 Author Report Share Posted November 18, 2019 Would love to learn more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bridgeport28A1 Posted November 18, 2019 Report Share Posted November 18, 2019 Would love to learn more.http://www.machinegunboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17167&hl=%2Bdent+%2Btool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ppgcowboy Posted November 18, 2019 Author Report Share Posted November 18, 2019 Sent him a pm, fingers crossed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
full auto 45 Posted November 18, 2019 Report Share Posted November 18, 2019 I bet CC could bring it to the SAR show if you are going to be there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deerslayer Posted November 20, 2019 Report Share Posted November 20, 2019 Bug..I can help you.. But easier to talk about it by phone 641-390-0878 call if you wish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colt Chopper Posted November 20, 2019 Report Share Posted November 20, 2019 Sent him a pm, fingers crossed.PM Sent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldFalGuy Posted November 24, 2019 Report Share Posted November 24, 2019 I feel lucky to have only been in the TSMG game a few decades and thus have never encountered a dented drum-knock on wood. Thank goodness we have this site as such a great resource. However, we have lost a lot of collective knowledge with Merle out of the picture (hopefully to return) which should not happen in this community. Doug, Paul et al need to download their brains here in video (for us lesser peoples) Merle was a hoot to chat with and I am fortunate to have spoken to him on a few occasions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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