Just somethin I been working on ~ Yes, I am still alive!!
- Thread starter sean69
- Start date
Took a break from the paying projects for a learning night 
started working on some checkering and carving skills.... results are kinda "meh" but neither is the sort of thing you pick up over night.
is ~ok~ but not great, easy to miss a line or run over another line - the secret is to keep the tool perpendicular to the work as you follow the curves ... need sharper tools too, these one suck.
I surprised myself with this bit - expected some real crap but it's only 'meh' think here practicing a few basic shapes rather than jumping right in would help. that and designing something that I actually have the tools for. (all my chisels are too large to get into the tight areas)
Now I need some small hand gouges and a better chip carving knife... my "German Steel" knives are not up to the task here!
started working on some checkering and carving skills.... results are kinda "meh" but neither is the sort of thing you pick up over night.
is ~ok~ but not great, easy to miss a line or run over another line - the secret is to keep the tool perpendicular to the work as you follow the curves ... need sharper tools too, these one suck.
I surprised myself with this bit - expected some real crap but it's only 'meh' think here practicing a few basic shapes rather than jumping right in would help. that and designing something that I actually have the tools for. (all my chisels are too large to get into the tight areas)
Now I need some small hand gouges and a better chip carving knife... my "German Steel" knives are not up to the task here!
Kayser Sose
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Southern Van Isle
Damn good looking work there sir
The perfect dovetail - step by step.
Had a bootload (7) dovetails to cut for the Jaeger project last night, I already knew I was pretty good at it so I set a timer. Found out I can cut a perfect dovetail, including layout, in 18 minutes! pretty impressed with myself!!
Not sure if I have outlined the process before, this is probably old hat to a lot of you, but for anyone not familiar ~ here is a step by step (including a secret!)
Figure out how thick your barrel wall is at the dovetail - (outside width or diameter - bore max diameter in the grooves / 2) in the case of this swamped barrel the smallest wall thickness it 0.125" - for barrel lugs you do not need a lot of meat for the dovetail 1/16" is plenty so I set my depth gauge to 0.060"
Use some prussian blue (great stuff) and a scribe to layout the locations & depths of the dovetails. I laid out the depths here at 1/16" on the side flats. The actual depth will be deeper because of the angle of the flats, but that is good as it gives me a bit of wiggle room to finesse things coming closer to the bottom of the cut.
Make sure you mark your depth on BOTH sides of the barrel.
Use a 3 sided file (use a quality file.... Princess auto won't cut it!) to start/mark where you are going to cut with a hacksaw.
Use a fine toothed hacksaw blade to cut ~almost~ down to your layout lines, on both sides of the barrel. This will help ensure that your dovetail bottom will be level.
Use the edge of a mill file to remove all the material that the hacksaw left do not file the sides yet. You should still be able to see the layout lines for the width of the dovetail.
Use the depth gauge in all 4 corners and the center to check your depth. STOP short of your final depth by 0.030" 1/32" or so ... you are going to switch to a finer file.
More prussian blue, you should have something looking like this - switch to a narrow (less than your 3/8 width) finer file - I'm using a 5/16 triangular file.
The prussian blue is gonna help you see where the high spots are and keep the bottom even, if you are anything like me, you have a slight hump in the middle and deeper on the exit side of your cuts.
Keep (lightly) filing, using the depth gauge & blue to get a perfectly flat bottomed channel. Do not cut the sides of the channel yet - you should be able to still see your with layout lines.
So here is the secret - it's common practice to use a triangular file with a "safe" edge (one side has the teeth ground off it) but that will still be very difficult to do the undercuts without the bottoms tipping up towards the outside of the barrel....
THIS is a triangular file with a safe edge, BUT the safe edge is hollow ground. That lets you maintain a perfectly flat bottom in the undercuts, it also seems to cut faster and more accurately.
now start cutting the undercuts....
More prussian blue here - keep an eye on the thickness of the line at the top of the undercut
Keep that line the same thickness across the width of the dovetail - this is what is telling you if the undercut is square to the barrel axis or not (assuming your layout line was square)
file right up to withing 1/64" 0.010"ish of your layout line so you have some room to finesse whatever you are going to jam in there.
You should have something like this........ note you can still see the layout lines for the 3/8 width on both sides of the top of the cut.
Do the other side just the same...
End result (the blue is just for pic clarity - it also keeps things from rusting while barrels sit around waiting to get blued )
Now for the ugly part ... making the under lugs & sling lug - something I'm not so great at
Had a bootload (7) dovetails to cut for the Jaeger project last night, I already knew I was pretty good at it so I set a timer. Found out I can cut a perfect dovetail, including layout, in 18 minutes! pretty impressed with myself!!
Not sure if I have outlined the process before, this is probably old hat to a lot of you, but for anyone not familiar ~ here is a step by step (including a secret!)
Figure out how thick your barrel wall is at the dovetail - (outside width or diameter - bore max diameter in the grooves / 2) in the case of this swamped barrel the smallest wall thickness it 0.125" - for barrel lugs you do not need a lot of meat for the dovetail 1/16" is plenty so I set my depth gauge to 0.060"
Use some prussian blue (great stuff) and a scribe to layout the locations & depths of the dovetails. I laid out the depths here at 1/16" on the side flats. The actual depth will be deeper because of the angle of the flats, but that is good as it gives me a bit of wiggle room to finesse things coming closer to the bottom of the cut.
Make sure you mark your depth on BOTH sides of the barrel.
Use a 3 sided file (use a quality file.... Princess auto won't cut it!) to start/mark where you are going to cut with a hacksaw.
Use a fine toothed hacksaw blade to cut ~almost~ down to your layout lines, on both sides of the barrel. This will help ensure that your dovetail bottom will be level.
Use the edge of a mill file to remove all the material that the hacksaw left do not file the sides yet. You should still be able to see the layout lines for the width of the dovetail.
Use the depth gauge in all 4 corners and the center to check your depth. STOP short of your final depth by 0.030" 1/32" or so ... you are going to switch to a finer file.
More prussian blue, you should have something looking like this - switch to a narrow (less than your 3/8 width) finer file - I'm using a 5/16 triangular file.
The prussian blue is gonna help you see where the high spots are and keep the bottom even, if you are anything like me, you have a slight hump in the middle and deeper on the exit side of your cuts.
Keep (lightly) filing, using the depth gauge & blue to get a perfectly flat bottomed channel. Do not cut the sides of the channel yet - you should be able to still see your with layout lines.
So here is the secret - it's common practice to use a triangular file with a "safe" edge (one side has the teeth ground off it) but that will still be very difficult to do the undercuts without the bottoms tipping up towards the outside of the barrel....
THIS is a triangular file with a safe edge, BUT the safe edge is hollow ground. That lets you maintain a perfectly flat bottom in the undercuts, it also seems to cut faster and more accurately.
now start cutting the undercuts....
More prussian blue here - keep an eye on the thickness of the line at the top of the undercut
Keep that line the same thickness across the width of the dovetail - this is what is telling you if the undercut is square to the barrel axis or not (assuming your layout line was square)
file right up to withing 1/64" 0.010"ish of your layout line so you have some room to finesse whatever you are going to jam in there.
You should have something like this........ note you can still see the layout lines for the 3/8 width on both sides of the top of the cut.
Do the other side just the same...
End result (the blue is just for pic clarity - it also keeps things from rusting while barrels sit around waiting to get blued
)
Now for the ugly part ... making the under lugs & sling lug - something I'm not so great at
Took like 4 hours last night to make & install the 4 under lugs & sling lug ... think I will buy them from now on, making them by hand really adds nothing to the gun
Rought lugs cut from bar stock - life woulda ben easier if I had grabbed a bar of hot rolled or something, but this stuff was much tougher - suspecting it was 4140
rough lugs all installed - time to file them to the profile.
can't complain about the fit.
coming along ... will get there soon!
Rought lugs cut from bar stock - life woulda ben easier if I had grabbed a bar of hot rolled or something, but this stuff was much tougher - suspecting it was 4140
rough lugs all installed - time to file them to the profile.
can't complain about the fit.
coming along ... will get there soon!
The Sharps Borchardt is complete, in a box and waiting to go home! Had to do a few little extras on this one - the stock bolt was bent & I had to make a new one as you can't buy a 8" long by 9/16" with a 13tpi thread pitch any more HA! .. added a key to the fore end and signed this one....
You can see the new and old bolts on the bench here.
Probably the best fit I have done to date!
HA! .. added a key to the fore end and signed this one....
You can see the new and old bolts on the bench here.
Probably the best fit I have done to date!
Whats next???? A Springfield trapdoor -> Hawken/Gemmer conversion. Actually 5 of them, yes, FIVE are being sent, that and my own Jaeger, Kentucky long rifle, Win 92 SRC & a nice Remington Rolling Block oh, yes and a couple customer's Miroku Shotgun & a Remington 700 .... looks like I'm gonna be busy for a while yet!
The grunt work, laying out the parts, making a plan, recording some dimensions, Since I have 5 to do I make a plywood pattern & cut a couple of blanks.
The trapdoor action is actually almost rectangular with a curved bottom, the lock has a lug on it that positively locates itself so this should be a breeze! (famous last words?)
Tinkering with a couple ideas here - we are using almost all the original parts except the butt plate (new cast plate from track, needs a bit of work to clean it up!),
but I was thinking weld an extension onto the tang to give it a better look. the trigger guard will have to be bent - I discovered that I can bend it by hand, no heat required!! But I am thinking weld up/modify the trigger guard to more closely resemble a Hawken style grip...
I think I'm supposed to do some checkering on this one as well?
Oh I forgot .... this is happening too! (absolutely stoked about this one!)
The grunt work, laying out the parts, making a plan, recording some dimensions, Since I have 5 to do I make a plywood pattern & cut a couple of blanks.
The trapdoor action is actually almost rectangular with a curved bottom, the lock has a lug on it that positively locates itself so this should be a breeze! (famous last words?)
Tinkering with a couple ideas here - we are using almost all the original parts except the butt plate (new cast plate from track, needs a bit of work to clean it up!),
but I was thinking weld an extension onto the tang to give it a better look. the trigger guard will have to be bent - I discovered that I can bend it by hand, no heat required!! But I am thinking weld up/modify the trigger guard to more closely resemble a Hawken style grip...
I think I'm supposed to do some checkering on this one as well?
Oh I forgot .... this is happening too!
(absolutely stoked about this one!)
Last edited:
Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
Gotta say, mate - very impressive work. You have beautiful materials to work with, and you do them justice.
Well done.
Well done.
Gotta say, mate - very impressive work. You have beautiful materials to work with, and you do them justice.
Well done.
Thanks!
I've been pretty lucky with a fairly consistent supply of good material, but the Walnut is starting to dry up a little.... I have not seen much worth jumping on in several months & my stash is dwindling!
Got to work on the Springfield Trapdoor, barrel is all inlet & ready for the butt plate, time to do the lock & trigger guard. Looks like I am going to have 5 (FIVE!!) of these coming in so I thought it was worth the few hours to make a router template of the the lock plate and guts to speed that bit of work along in the future.
Stripped the plate down nice and slat, should be an easy job
hot glued it down and made a plywood template
Works damn near perfect! - it's sunk down in the test wood, because I forgot to put the bushing on the router template guide.
I wanted something a little more durable, so these $5 plastic cutting boards are just the trick!
Messy....
Now I need a way to locate the template on the stock blank, not super easy the plate only comes in contact with the action around that little cutout for the trapdoor, So I made another template to hold the actual lock plate itself.
This "locating template" also has the locating holes for the stock bolts - so it can perform some double duty...
cut that out on the bandsaw and filed/fitted it to the main lock plate template.
Here is the template for the guts ~ I used 1/4" drill bits as locating pins in each corner.
Fit is absolutely perfect!
Time to do it for real (I have a 2x4 here with about 6 lock mortises cut in it..... )
locate the lock plate on the blank with some hot glue
Place the template locating template (?!) on top of the lock plate
Hot glue the lock plate template to the blank using the locating template as a guide.... Note the "note to self" only 1 guess as to why that is there!
Pop the locating template (jig??) out of the plate template...
Ready for the router, don't forget the template bushing
For got to take a picture of that.... oh well, locate the guts template on top of the plate template with the 1/4" drills & hot glue.
Mother-F$%^er! the spiral bit backed out of the router collet & cut too deep! arrgh!
(funny story, now the bit is completely seized in the collet... & won't move at all)
Luckily, I have a template that will cut a perfect plug, all I need to do is clean up and even out the bottom of that mortise.
A little epoxy & it will be as good as new.
New shop toy
Fit is perfect, I actually need a mallet to get the plate into the mortise, I'll have to relieve the edges a little on future builds so that lock can actually be removed without a punch.
Stripped the plate down nice and slat, should be an easy job
hot glued it down and made a plywood template
Works damn near perfect! - it's sunk down in the test wood, because I forgot to put the bushing on the router template guide.
I wanted something a little more durable, so these $5 plastic cutting boards are just the trick!
Messy....
Now I need a way to locate the template on the stock blank, not super easy the plate only comes in contact with the action around that little cutout for the trapdoor, So I made another template to hold the actual lock plate itself.
This "locating template" also has the locating holes for the stock bolts - so it can perform some double duty...
cut that out on the bandsaw and filed/fitted it to the main lock plate template.
Here is the template for the guts ~ I used 1/4" drill bits as locating pins in each corner.
Fit is absolutely perfect!
Time to do it for real (I have a 2x4 here with about 6 lock mortises cut in it.....
)locate the lock plate on the blank with some hot glue
Place the template locating template (?!) on top of the lock plate
Hot glue the lock plate template to the blank using the locating template as a guide.... Note the "note to self" only 1 guess as to why that is there!
Pop the locating template (jig??) out of the plate template...
Ready for the router, don't forget the template bushing
For got to take a picture of that.... oh well, locate the guts template on top of the plate template with the 1/4" drills & hot glue.
Mother-F$%^er! the spiral bit backed out of the router collet & cut too deep! arrgh!
(funny story, now the bit is completely seized in the collet... & won't move at all)
Luckily, I have a template that will cut a perfect plug, all I need to do is clean up and even out the bottom of that mortise.
A little epoxy & it will be as good as new.
New shop toy
Fit is perfect, I actually need a mallet to get the plate into the mortise, I'll have to relieve the edges a little on future builds so that lock can actually be removed without a punch.
