1946 Purchase Order

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chet15
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Re: 1946 Purchase Order

Post by chet15 »

Bill Ruger's first prototype pistol had obviously been made by at least 1945.
Production of hand drills at the Ruger Corp business didn't occur until at least October 1946, maybe late September at the earliest.
Ruger's personal letterhead for the Ruger Corp also said something that also included the words "automatic pistols".
Yes, the grip drill design for the hand drill was Ruger's improvement in grip style from his first prototype.
At the bottom of the right side of the grip on the drill is a protruding lump which is the relief for a magazine button. The earliest drills had a rectangular arbor in the top portion of the grip which the wheel axis went into. This was later changed to a type where the grip now had round indents on both sides of the upper portion of the grip frame. The top of these round indents was the stop for a magazine button and the indents themselves served as a guide for the magazine.
The rectangular arbor also moved to the top rear of Ruger's pistol grip frame (above the web) and serves as a keep for the bolt stop that goes through the rear end of the receiver.
All evolution to Ruger's first pistol in 1949.
The grip frame for Ruger's drill cannot be modified into a grip frame for a Ruger pistol. For one, the frame is too short at the bottom. The grip frame of the drill would need to be significantly longer to incorporate the rounded shape at the front bottom corner of the grip frame. Perhaps Ruger Corp made a simple milling operation at the bottom of the drill grip frames to turn them into drill frames? But why do that when they could have just put the hinged floorplate on the end of those for the drill?
Chet15
Last edited by chet15 on Wed Mar 30, 2022 4:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Watertender
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Re: 1946 Purchase Order

Post by Watertender »

I just did some measuring on a Ruger drill and an A100 frame RST4... The backstrap on the drill is 4.125" long while the RST4 is 4.5" long. The frontstraps are 4.5" and 5.0" respectively. The frame widths are .625" for the drill and .675" for the RST4. The top of the frame where it cradles the receiver tube is .975" on the drill and .950" on the RST4. The tubes are 1.050" on the drill and 1.00" on the RST4.

I was just curious so I got out some vernier calipers and a machinist's ruler to check the dimensions. The dies to make the frame halves could have been altered fairly easy according to my friends that are tool and die makers. I wonder if they were single strike or progressive dies? Farming the dies and pressing of the frame halves out to a die shop would have been the cheapest way to make the frames. Bill Ruger certainly knew how to make the most pistol for the least money!!
Some people sit on $.05 of knowledge like it is the treasure of Egypt. I will teach anyone $.10 worth just to prove a point...
chet15
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Re: 1946 Purchase Order

Post by chet15 »

d findley wrote: Wed May 28, 2014 8:25 am The Ruger Corporation, Inc.
Left click on picture for a stable image.
This invoice brings up an interesting point... You would think that this invoice would be for the original type of grip shell, without the later improvement round indent (used as Ruger's pistol magazine button stop). Is there another later invoice with another batch of grip frame shells, revised pattern? The round indent grip drills are by far the most common.
Chet15
d findley
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Re: 1946 Purchase Order

Post by d findley »

There is a later invoice pictured in my book, THE RUGER PAPERS, chapter one.
chet15
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Re: 1946 Purchase Order

Post by chet15 »

Looks like the same invoice without the stamps on it.
Working on ideas for a Ruger Corp drill article in the future.
Looks like 9/4/46 a representative from Worcester Pressed Steel Co. visited the Ruger Corp.
9/10/46 letter says Worcester would hope to have the drill shell samples ready on 9/13/1946.
9/25/46 the purchase order was made for 15,000 left hand shells and 15,000 right hand shells, with shipment to occur approximately the 2nd quarter of 1947.
9/30/1946 The order was entered by Worcester.
The credit memo of 3/24/48 was for the return of 21 right hand shells and 17 left hand shells. That credit memo also says "received 6/30/47" which sounds like that is when the initial order of 15K shells of each side was received by the Ruger Corp. from Worcester.
Maybe there was a change order sometime during the production of these 15,000 sets of shells sent to Worcester from WBR for the revision of the shells to have the round indent in the grip frame? I wouldn't think so because most of the drills with the rectangular arbor have early parts and all the later drills with round indent in the grip frame have late parts, suggesting there were two different orders.
I thought 15,000 was a huge number for the Ruger drill with pistol grip frame, but could there have been a later (larger) order for the revised indent shell?
Chet15
chet15
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Re: 1946 Purchase Order

Post by chet15 »

Watertender wrote: Tue Sep 24, 2019 7:46 pm I just did some measuring on a Ruger drill and an A100 frame RST4... The backstrap on the drill is 4.125" long while the RST4 is 4.5" long. The frontstraps are 4.5" and 5.0" respectively. The frame widths are .625" for the drill and .675" for the RST4. The top of the frame where it cradles the receiver tube is .975" on the drill and .950" on the RST4. The tubes are 1.050" on the drill and 1.00" on the RST4.

I was just curious so I got out some vernier calipers and a machinist's ruler to check the dimensions. The dies to make the frame halves could have been altered fairly easy according to my friends that are tool and die makers. I wonder if they were single strike or progressive dies? Farming the dies and pressing of the frame halves out to a die shop would have been the cheapest way to make the frames. Bill Ruger certainly knew how to make the most pistol for the least money!!
Was the drill you measured the type with the rectangular arbor in the grip frame or the round indentations?
They might both be the same, but ???
Chet15
Watertender
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Re: 1946 Purchase Order

Post by Watertender »

chet15 wrote: Sun Sep 27, 2020 1:42 pm
Watertender wrote: Tue Sep 24, 2019 7:46 pm I just did some measuring on a Ruger drill and an A100 frame RST4... The backstrap on the drill is 4.125" long while the RST4 is 4.5" long. The frontstraps are 4.5" and 5.0" respectively. The frame widths are .625" for the drill and .675" for the RST4. The top of the frame where it cradles the receiver tube is .975" on the drill and .950" on the RST4. The tubes are 1.050" on the drill and 1.00" on the RST4.

I was just curious so I got out some vernier calipers and a machinist's ruler to check the dimensions. The dies to make the frame halves could have been altered fairly easy according to my friends that are tool and die makers. I wonder if they were single strike or progressive dies? Farming the dies and pressing of the frame halves out to a die shop would have been the cheapest way to make the frames. Bill Ruger certainly knew how to make the most pistol for the least money!!
Was the drill you measured the type with the rectangular arbor in the grip frame or the round indentations?
They might both be the same, but ???
Chet15
The drill I have has the round indentations. It is marked with the name of the original owner who used it to build airplanes and gliders. From what I have found out he was a B26 bomber flight instructor during WW2 and flew gliders into his late 80's. He died in 2012 at 91 years of age. There are still drill bits inside the handle that came with it when I came into possession of it
Some people sit on $.05 of knowledge like it is the treasure of Egypt. I will teach anyone $.10 worth just to prove a point...
chet15
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Re: 1946 Purchase Order

Post by chet15 »

Just revisited this post after a thought.
The 15,000 sets of left hand and right hand housings look like they were the probably the first order for Ruger's grip drill models. They would have all looked the same.
But later on while developing his .22 pistol, the round indents came into being on each side of that grip frame... which would seem to mean that there must have been an additional order for the later style grip frame shells, which also happen to be the most common (at least 2 times more common than the square arbor type grip drill).
Or, might the Ruger Corp have found a way to press the round indents into the shells for later production?
Chet15
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T.A. Workman
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Re: 1946 Purchase Order

Post by T.A. Workman »

Chad,
That is an interesting train of thought and would make perfect sense considering Bill was working on the pistols design while making tools. I sure wish the bulk of The Ruger Corp paper work and records would have survived the company's closure. There is a lot sadly we will never know.

Terry
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chet15
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Re: 1946 Purchase Order

Post by chet15 »

Sorry... double tap.
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