jackieschmidt
Gold $$ Contributor
A fellow contributor to our Forum sent me his early Farley Action that had the lugs completely sheared away. He wanted me to anylize it.
As many might know, this is not the first instance of this happening. About twenty years ago the exact same thing happened, and from what I can gather, there have been a couple of more.
When this happened way back when, Farley issued a recall. It seems the heat treating was off, by a lot. He offered to re draw the temper on any bolts found to be too hard.
These bolts were made from S-7 Tool Steel. S-7 will make a very strong bolt with good wear ability except for one major problem. To achieve the desired combination of Tensile and Yield strength combined with a high ductility, the heat treating protocol must be followed at a level of expertise that was not followed.
I took my three bolts, three Gene Bukys had, and two that Pat Byrne had over to Lone Star Heat Treating to have them all tested for RC Hardness.
They were all over the scale. One was as soft as 43 RC, and one clear up to 51 RC. The others averaged out somewhere in between at around 46.
My favorite bolt was the 51.iI had it magnafluxed and there were no cracks. After reading up on everything I could find concerning S-7, I decided to leave it alone. Since then, I have put literally thousands of rounds through it.
Anyway, here is the bolt and action parts Bill sent me. Aside from a few small gouge marks, I determined the action body its self was not hurt.
How ever you can see in the pictures that the lugs completely “cracked” off of the bolt body. I say cracked, because there is no evidence of a ragged break as being torn off. And as you can see, there is also a crack progressing around the circular part of the bolt head.
I took the lug Bill sent me over to a Lab we use to have it tested for RC hardness. From the scratch test I have done, I will bet it tops 53 RC.
Since getting a new bolt made by someone else did not seem practical. I offered to buy the remaining good parts and see what I can do with it. Bill agrred, so I have a project.
What I plan on doing is to cut a sufficient amount of length off of the head end of the bolt and see about attaching a bolt head much like a Savage has. Pacific Tool sells their version of the removable bolt head, I will try to get the dimensions to see if can be modified to fit the Farley raceways.
If not, I suppose I could make one.
After I attach the bolt head in the correct position, I can reattach the bolt handle to get the best primary extraction and timing.
This afternoon, I trued the action body up in my lathe and just slightly faced the lug abutments, (about .001 inch), then took a light chase on the threads and took A slight face cut on the action face. Everything looked really straight, but I figured I since I was making sure the lug abutments were perfect, go on ahead and chase the threads and action face so everything is trued on the same set up.
Anyway, I need to figure out exactly how I will do the bolt head. I think Bat makes an action now with a removable bolt head, maybe that’s an optio,
here are some pictures of the action truing. I machined the truing mandrel out of a piece of StressProof.
As many might know, this is not the first instance of this happening. About twenty years ago the exact same thing happened, and from what I can gather, there have been a couple of more.
When this happened way back when, Farley issued a recall. It seems the heat treating was off, by a lot. He offered to re draw the temper on any bolts found to be too hard.
These bolts were made from S-7 Tool Steel. S-7 will make a very strong bolt with good wear ability except for one major problem. To achieve the desired combination of Tensile and Yield strength combined with a high ductility, the heat treating protocol must be followed at a level of expertise that was not followed.
I took my three bolts, three Gene Bukys had, and two that Pat Byrne had over to Lone Star Heat Treating to have them all tested for RC Hardness.
They were all over the scale. One was as soft as 43 RC, and one clear up to 51 RC. The others averaged out somewhere in between at around 46.
My favorite bolt was the 51.iI had it magnafluxed and there were no cracks. After reading up on everything I could find concerning S-7, I decided to leave it alone. Since then, I have put literally thousands of rounds through it.
Anyway, here is the bolt and action parts Bill sent me. Aside from a few small gouge marks, I determined the action body its self was not hurt.
How ever you can see in the pictures that the lugs completely “cracked” off of the bolt body. I say cracked, because there is no evidence of a ragged break as being torn off. And as you can see, there is also a crack progressing around the circular part of the bolt head.
I took the lug Bill sent me over to a Lab we use to have it tested for RC hardness. From the scratch test I have done, I will bet it tops 53 RC.
Since getting a new bolt made by someone else did not seem practical. I offered to buy the remaining good parts and see what I can do with it. Bill agrred, so I have a project.
What I plan on doing is to cut a sufficient amount of length off of the head end of the bolt and see about attaching a bolt head much like a Savage has. Pacific Tool sells their version of the removable bolt head, I will try to get the dimensions to see if can be modified to fit the Farley raceways.
If not, I suppose I could make one.
After I attach the bolt head in the correct position, I can reattach the bolt handle to get the best primary extraction and timing.
This afternoon, I trued the action body up in my lathe and just slightly faced the lug abutments, (about .001 inch), then took a light chase on the threads and took A slight face cut on the action face. Everything looked really straight, but I figured I since I was making sure the lug abutments were perfect, go on ahead and chase the threads and action face so everything is trued on the same set up.
Anyway, I need to figure out exactly how I will do the bolt head. I think Bat makes an action now with a removable bolt head, maybe that’s an optio,
here are some pictures of the action truing. I machined the truing mandrel out of a piece of StressProof.
Last edited:
