Springfield Armory M1A rebuild

[Uncle Ethan]

I finally got around to sending off my preban receiver and bolt to SA for rebuilding [it was in a house fire and rockwells out at annealed.] A year or so ago I had contacted them and got the name of their heat treater, and after heat treat it would be shipped to them for rebuild. They now won't touch it, and consider it a non-rebuildable receiver. Does anyone know of a Heat treater and source for parts? Even annealed the Rockwell reading shows quite strong. I believe the steel is the 8xxx series alloy. I would hate to junk a low serial number receiver. Any ideas?

 

[Southern Raider]

Try http://www.smithenterprise.com/. I think they used to re-heat treat the Chinese copies.

 

[Uncle Ethan]

Thanks- i will contact them immediately and see what they can do.

 

[Jim K]

Good luck, but I wouldn't count on finding anyone who will tackle that job. Doing heat treating requires knowing exactly what the steel is before starting. Your receiver was in a fire, and the nature of the steel changed in an unpredictable way. If the steel was hit by water from fire hoses while hot, things are even worse. It is not the kind of thing to take chances on with 52k psi pressure levels. The hardness of the receiver is only one factor in making a safe rifle. In fact, hard steel can be brittle and very dangerous in that situation.

So just heat treating it as if it were new steel really won't work, no matter who says otherwise, and I am not at all surprised that Springfield Armory, Inc. refused to take the gun in for rebuild. The only thing I can suggest would be to try to collect insurance, or just write the gun off. Maybe some small parts will be usable. You might be reluctant to do that but losing the money is better than having the receiver let go and lose an eye or hand.

Jim

 

[Uncle Ethan]

That is good advice, Jim. My plan was to have the receiver x-rayed or magnafluxed prior to heat treat to look for cracks. The 8000 series steel is strong, but building a safe rifle is my intent. It's just having a 6 digit serial number M1A would be nice too. I'll try to find the heat treater I originally spoke with -they are in Rockford not too far from SA. They do or did the original Heat treat on SA's receivers.

 

[Uncle Ethan]

That is good advice, Jim. My plan was to have the receiver x-rayed or magnafluxed prior to heat treat to look for cracks. The 8000 series steel is strong, but building a safe rifle is my intent. It's just having a 012xxx serial number M1A would be nice too. I'll try to find the heat treater I originally spoke with -they are in Rockford not too far from SA. They do or did the original Heat treat on SA's receivers. Thanks for the reply.