doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DIY Gunsmithing @ doublegunshop.com Baker Gun Batavia, Leader help

I am resurrecting a Baker Leader #89127. This is my cold weather project. 12g 30" Laminate barrels. Choke +0.035 both tubes. Good case colors and very good barrels inside and out. Very little checkering wear shows the gun was not carried or used much. My project includes a full strip and clean metal parts. Light clean and refinish reoil on wood. Original BG stock heel plate is excellent. I will add a couple of photos.

Now to my need of your assistance. The forend wood hanger J spring is weak and the small flat spring is broken. Any chance one of you might have an orphan set? The J spring looks like it was heated and bent. Perhaps to lessen the tension required to snap on and off. I have not put this Baker to use but I will at my shooting club's vintage SxS outings. I am concerned that there is not enough tension on the hanger lump to hold the forend wood in place on recoil. Any advice or assistance much appreciated.

The J Spring may well have been heated and bent by someone in an attempt to effect the tension.
Replacements might show up on Ebay and such. There's always a chance someone has some parts around.

If they didn't heat it past approx 750F,,it still will most likely have it's spring tension.
Much past that temp and the spring temper is drawn and the part will be too soft to operate as a spring.
They can be rehardened and tempered back to life though.

If you want to experiment a little with the J Spring in it's current condition, you can add a small amt of metal to the notch in the FE extension that is in the bbl now.
That will increase the amt the J Spring has to bend in order to snap into position. That extra 'snap' is usually enough to make the FE tight when placed in position.

One common Field Expedient is to simply lay a lead shot/BB in that notch. Then carefully replace the FE assembly on the gun. The tip of the J-Spring bears against that notch and the
extra space taken up by the lead shot will make the spring bend a bit more.

Once the FE is snapped into place, taking it back off will usually leave the imbedded & mashed piece of shot right there in that notch for you.
I've seen a number of old SxS's with single piece of shot wedged into place to keep the FE tight.

If you don't want to go with the above as a permanent repair (and it certainly is not),,then at least it shows you what you need to do.

You can straighten out the arc in the J Spring. That will increase it's length a bit and tighten it up.

Springs are not that brittle that you can't bend them ' a small amt'.
You can't over do it,,they will fracture at that point. But taking a slight amt of the arc out of it is easily done by placing that section onto a lead block and a couple careful hammer swats to the back side of the spring will bend it enough.

You can extend the tip of the spring a small amt by a simple thin piece of sheet metal folded over the tip. Even brass works ok.
That can be soft soldered into place so it doesn't slip off everytime you remove the FE.
Soft Solder is around 400F and won't effect the spring temper (if it's still there).
The spring was tempered/drawn back at around 700 to 775F.

The lightweight leaf spring that holds the J Spring in place so it doesn't disappear down into the FE can be made from light weight flat spring stock.
It usually doesn't even have to be softened to do the slight bends in it.

Metal packaging banding works well for lightweight springs. Some dumpster diving can get a lifetime supply at Home depot stores and the like.
Hack saw blades can work as well but need softening/draw back or they will usually crack or fracture at the bends.
The hole already in each end of a blade can be used for the screw hole needed on the spring.
Heat to red,,allow to cool.
Cut to length and width with a shears.
Polish the metal lengthwise.
Heat again to bright red and oil quench.
Then draw it back to 'Spring Temper'
Either by eye balling it (the colors change very fast on thin pieces like this.
A lead pot and a themometer is the better/accurate way.

Here's a couple ofpics of the J Spring and the helper spring on a Baker.
This J spring was a replacement that was too long and the lower portion of the arc where the pin hole is was too thick.
It worked on the gun but needed 2 hands and a pry stick to get the FE back off.
Plus the overly thick spring when the FE was on the gun pushed on the wood down in the inlet and popped a piece right off of the FE.

JSpring was reground and thinned so it didn't poke thru the wood. (Checkering was patched up and the pattern redone.)
I bent the arc of the spring as above to get a bit more tension on it since the regrind lightened the tension of the spring.

Hope this all helps in some way.

Kutter, you are a treasure trove of knowledge.

Thank you!

Kutter, you have provided a wealth of info and ideas to work with. Much appreciated. Upon closer inspection after removing the J spring from the FE iron it is clear to see that this spring was broken and then welded back to one piece. The break being just above the deep bend, the J, in the spring. Only visible after removing it from the FE iron. This accounts for the bluing of the metal. My doubt, given the hack of the repair is that there is any spring tension remaining. I will cut a small lead insert to get a small amount of tension to test if there is any "spring" left in the J spring. I will clean up the weld joint and try to get a bit more length. Also I will be off to HD for strapping. Thank you.

Kutter gave great advice, as usual.

Baker forends show up often on Ebay, and I've bought two at very reasonable cost because the seller had no idea what they were.

Another great source for flat spring stock is lawnmower or small engine recoil starter springs. I also watch at flea markets, etc. for old key wind clocks, alarm clocks, etc. Broken electricians fishtapes, handsaws, plumbers snakes, and even old tape measures are sources of good quality flat spring stock of different widths and thicknesses.

I save spring stock whenever I find it so I don't have to search when I need it. It helps immensely to have a piece close to the correct width and thickness when you need to fabricate a spring. Simple spark testing with a grinder is a good way to tell high carbon spring steel from some alloys that are harder to heat treat.

I don't know the carbon content of flat steel banding, or how well it would temper into a spring. It takes a set very easily as is. So I'd guess it is probably no higher than 1050 to 1060.