doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Problem putting a LC Smith (remake back together!

Your need to go to the Photo Trail- under L.C. Smith specific- Your tour guide with first rate photos and details as to what you are faced with is much like the storied Duncan Phyfe- a "Sharp Dresser"- Maurice Chevalier boater hat-- c'est magnifique!!

A pin punch and a large blade screw driver w/a V groove in the blade.

Tighten the trigger plate screws down so there's a little pressure on the lever spindle as already pointed out.
You should be able to feel the safety engaged correctly at this point.

Take a shop rag/cloth w/a small hole in it and place it over the spindle hole to avoid any marring of the frame and trigger plate.

Place a pin punch in (I see allen wrenches seem to be popular now),,lay the screwdriver against the punch and push on the screwdriver handle with your stomach.

That leaves both hands free to push the trigger plate down into position as soon as the spindle lines up.

There's no need to panic doing this, you can push and hold the spindle in position very easily while you use your hands and eyes to line everything up.

Use the thumb of either hand to hold the screwdriver blade down flat against the frame if you like.
Many people that first try this method have a feeling the driver is going to come flying upwards and off the punch. Keep it horizontal, and keep a thumb latched over it and you'll be and feel very secure.

After doing this a few times you'll find it's not necessary to hold it there if you use a pin punch as the punch tapers outwards/gets bigger above the driver and keeps it in position down on the frame.

Keep a finger of one hand below the action on the top surface of the lever. That'll keep from pushing the lever back out position and off of the heavy spring.
The linkage keeps it from coming right out of the frame, but there's enough movement usually to allow it to skip off the spring if pushed far enough.

The trigger plate will snap into place. Remove the punch and cloth.
Place the small spindle screw into place and tighten most of the way to avoid the spindle creeping away and allowing the spindle to snap out of the recess where upon you'll have to do this all over again.

Tighten the trigger plate screws,,relax.

Takes much longer to type out or even to read than to do.
This was the method used at the factory and shown to me while working at Marlin to reassemble LC Smiths.

If there was anything special about the tools used, some 'smiths made up their own special 'slotted screw driver tool'.
They used an old worn flat file for the bit (annealing and shortening/shaping as needed) and used a small bit-brace type handle instead of the normal small diameter screwdriver handle.
Made for a more comfortable time of it!
But it isn't really necessary to do the job.

I use a small brass wedge with a piece of fishing line attached to it. Compress the spring, insert wedge, depress the post in the rib extension area with a screwdriver, which allows the top lever to return to center. Then assemble, pull the lever to the right, and pull out the wedge with the fishing line. Pretty simple. I got this idea from Fishnfowler (he gave me a couple wedges that he uses on his Smiths), and it works really great.

I read an interview (early DG Journal I think) with English gunsmith John "Jack" Rowe in which he was asked what guns he worked on. After listing numerous English, European & American guns & rifles he commented: "L.C. Smith guns I don't want to know".

I don't say this to offend any L.C. Smith fans but along with their charm they do have their idiosyncrasies & it sounds like Jack's dry humor.

I wouldn't drill holes in the stock to reassemble a LC. It's too easy to slide a nice pin punch in the threaded hole of the shaft on the toplever and simply push the shaft into alignment. If a gunsmith did this to my priceless Deluxe grade, I'd keelhaul him. Since I don't have a priceless Deluxe grade, I'm not so worried, but I still wouldn't be happy about it.

If you're not happy with the pin punch idea, you can use a long, hardened, screw.

I'd much rather have an internal unseen small hole on the non-load bearing thin divider, than bone and charcoal case colors on a graded Fox or Sterlingworth which shows on the outside when it was and is supposed to be cyanide colors, worth a "keelhaul" as well ya think...?..........Hypocritical maybe...?.....To each his own maybe....?......

Well, you got me there, but the colors will wear off. I didn't make the choice on the casehardening on that gun, it was Doug Turnbull Restorations that did it.

I have a cordless drill and can fix up your LC's for "easy assembly" for you Doug.

Sounds like the little choo-choo, "I think I can, I think I can".....you crack me up Chuck.......and the new millenium answer, "I didn't do it, honestly it's not my fault"........

Some folks just do things different ways, see page one of this thread.......Some folks like the ol' use your stomach, hold your tongue right, don't sneeze method........and some folks like a real simple, easy, no rub mark, don't need the vise, no slipped screw driver, safety slide in place easily, answer the phone or use the bathroom with a no rush type approach to this re-assembly.......

I prefer the method I show on page one, using the tool I made....no pressure on the stock anywhere, no outside tool rubs or marks etc.....makes for a super clean, trouble free installation every time......

BTW, small holes-notches can be filled and completely invisible with matching saw dust and epoxy and stain if the internal hole-notch becomes a mental issue......

I tried various tools inserted in the threaded hole at the bottom of the shaft but nothing of the size that would fit could handle the force required to move the shaft into alignment - all of them bent, including pin punches, hex keys and hardened screws. All before the shaft was anywhere near where it needed to be. I believe I will make a threaded insert to fit the shaft that I can screw completely into the shaft with a shoulder that bear tightly against the shaft. It will have a larger diameter portion that I can push against with the modified screwdriver - close enough to the shaft that it should not bend. As far as drilling a hole in the wood goes, it is so thin there it really is not providing any strength to the stock and the hole will not affect anything and will not be seen when the gun is reassembled.
Thanks again for all your help!

Jack Rowe is right- but remember that our LC Smiths were not designed like the London bests he knows like Rosie O'Donnell knows the "Lezzie" Handbook-- the Smiths are back actioned sidelocks without an intercepting sear design, and the mating of the sidelock plates to the stock is a critical issue-- a bevel of the metal surface would have been better. I have at present 5 pre-1913 LC Smiths- two with Damascus Barrels, 3 with Nitro Steel (or Crown, London, all the same basically) all are 12 gauge, have double triggers, and two have ejectors, 3 have extractors- I always shoot RST 2.5" light target loads in them, nothing else, I have reinforced the stocks in the head areas with a skin coating of acra-glas, and I shoot them frequently- No cracks (yet) but another thing to possibly consider- as mine were all made before WW1- we had a better supply of good black walnut (or in the higher grades, English, French, Turkish- what have you may) the War to End All Wars used up a ton of walnut for gun stocks and aircraft- mainly propellers- so there you have it, just my opinion. LC Smith American made sidelock shotguns are like British: Boss, Purdey, Woodward, Churchill, Powell, Holland & Holland, Lang, etc as the German VW is to the Porsche- in that the air cooled engines used in each were designed by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche- after that, waaaaay different. But I can afford lower graded older Smiths in 12 gauge, as there were so many made, and I am an easy "fit" as far as stock dims are concerned- if it fits like a field grade Model 12, it fits me, and suits me right on down to the ground. And by rotating the guns I use almost year around, no one single shotgun gets over-heavy useage- Just my viewpoint of course--