Phil,
What the hell are you talking about? You said:
"I'm getting the feeling that none of you guys who are discussing the easily removable front grip have ever had one of these grip bars off...or have tried to do so, even after the barrel has been removed. It is probably REALLY ON THERE. As in tons of pressure."
"even after the barrel is removed" Uhhhh this is the only way you can take off a gripmount no? "tons of pressure" not quite so. Best to have a competent gunsmith do the install though if you are having so much trouble.
You also said:
"I had to devise a way to hold the receiver VERY tightly in a HEAVY vise...so tight as to almost risk destroying it. That is after the barrel is off. The bar should slide right out. It doesn't."
First of all why are you holding your reciever in a vise? Once one has seen Doug Richardson's setup a vise is back to the stone age. Why not just hold the gripmount in the vise and beat on the nose of the reciever with a hammer and block of wood. Either way is just as dangerous. And as far as the bar should just slide out...is that why Doug R. also used a slide hammer to remove them? In fact I had a conversation with Doug several months ago about removing the gripmount with the slide hammer and we both agreed that they come right off with the setup. Some take more work with others but they come right off.
We have removed many barrels and gripmounts and have never had such a problem.
Then you said:
"The last part of it, which slides into the receiver groove, is bent a couple degrees, to give it a springy force fit. But that springiness is like that of the springs on a locomotive chassis. This is thick metal. To make it so you can remove it with your hands, you have to heat that bar very hot and bend out most of the bend. "
Sounds like a pretty good way to ruin the gripmount to me. You could take a little off the piece that rests on the barrel. Or if you wanted to save the original gripmount use one of the Kahr 1/2in MILLED gripmounts to be modified. I have one in my hands right now and can't believe the quality...beautiful! And of course they left the bend out of it so it is ready to go! Save your orginal parts.
Then you blurted:
"Next problem. If you have it loose enough so so can get it in and out with your hand, it will probably be too loose when the gun is assembled and you are shooting it. I don't think there is any way to eliminate this problem without resorting to a carefully thought out threaded locking screw arrangement. No spring loaded pin setup will do it right."
Did you ever think that there may be a different way to do this other than a removable gripmount?
On the quick change barrel setup you said:
"With either method, you can replace the drilled grip bar with a standard one, without the hole, anytime. Your gun is then strictly stock, except for the threaded hole in the bottom of the grip bar channel, which is now hidden by the bar. I keep one of PK's undrilled grip bars on hand (a work of art in itself), in case I want to dispense with the quick change mod. But that isn't likely. I'm having a ball with it."
Now it is such a piece of cake to change out a gripmount? And when you "dispense" with the quick change mod does your barrel turn down to headspace, sight line up and hold everything together tightly with the same whitness marks?...???!!! There are several ways to go about the quick change barrel setup. It depends on what you are doing. It would be easy enough to add this feature to the detachable foregrip and the two mods would compliment each other nicely. Additionally you made modifications to the reciever that cannot be undone. That is not always neccissary. As much as you modify your gun it really seem that you would hate to see anyone else do it. Funny Phil.
"Once again, please don't carve up your Thompsons just because of a movie, where they probably used a wooden prop gun anyway. Even a West Hurley doesn't deserve that. They are decent guns, once they are debugged and tuned. And look at what they cost now. A full auto WH is around $14K, right?"
Can't figure you out Phil...what are you really up to...something for sure. Who said that what I am planning would modify your original equiptment in any way? What we have planned will not require any modifications to your gun...just to swap out some equiptment is all. Keep making things up when you have no idea what we are planning. I would think one would want this kind of BS to be kept from infecting the board. So tell us all Phil. What REALLY gives here. I think it is as plain as that big giant screw head hanging below your reciever to anyone who reads this thread.
Best,
Damon
