As promised in the post about my Mosin, here’s how I made the bent bolt:
Step 1:find 3/8″ steel rod and bend.
Bent 3/8" steel rod
I used a stainless steel rod (don’t do that if you are planning to blue the bolt, as the bluing properties of stainless steel vs. regular steel are VERY different), and heated and bent it with an oxygen-acetylene torch.
Step 2: cut the bolt. I used a Dremel with a cutoff wheel, and cut the knob off as close to the bolt as possible.
Step 3: mock up, and trim the bent rod as necessary.
Mocking up the Cut Bolt. Click to Enlarge.
In the picture, I have already trimmed half of the stainless rod, and you can see a scribe mark where the other half of the trimming will occur. Again, I used a Dremel. NOTE: the closer to a right angle you can make the bolt, the better, especially if you’re bending the bolt to fit a PU-style scope.
Welded Mosin Bolt
Step 4: Weld. Do yourself a favor and take the bolt apart first. I destroyed my firing pin spring by welding the bolt while it was still assembled, and had to buy a new one (Mosin parts sold here). I TIGged mine, as I am most proficient with a TIG welder.
Step 5: Grind away weld fillets until smooth and pretty. It’s worth spending time on this. I know it sounds scary to grind away your weld, but if you did it right, the weld bead should have penetrated into the steel just as far as it sticks out. If you did it wrong, better to find out now than later…
Step 5a: While you’re grinding and polishing, you may as well do some smoothing of the action of the Mosin. These two videos will help you make your Mosin a TON nicer to shoot, and only take a few minutes and $2 worth of sandpaper:
Finished Bent Bolt
Step 6: Blue. Since I used stainless steel, chemical gun blue solution wouldn’t work, I heated the oven up to 550 F and put all the parts in until they turned a nice blue.
Step 7: Reassemble the bolt. Buy a new firing pin spring if you were dumb enough to heat the spring up and warp it, like I was. Put the bolt back together, and enjoy!
