Making parts.

[locke it]

Hey guys,
I'm sure some of you have made your own parts... I also have with varying degrees of success. Lol.

I want to make a hand for a saa clone. Where would you source the material from?

Any other tips helpfull. Thanks.

 

[mooncoon]

you can either buy a piece of 3/8" drill rod and grind/ file it to dimension or use some mild steel and case harden it

cheers mooncoon

 

[BCRider]

KBC tools and other similar outfits sell flat ground 0-1 toolsteel stock. It comes in an annealed condition so it's perfect for making parts such as this. Drill rod works too. But it's round and you want flat stock. If desparate you can make small pieces of flat stock from the round rod. But it's easier to just get some annealed flat stock.

You'll want to make it a little over length so that after hardening and tempering you can stone it down the hast few thou to get it perfect.

It hardens up just fine by heating with a propane Turbo Torch to a bright red/almost orange and then quench in regular motor oil. Following that use sharpening stones or sandpaper to remove all the black scale and make it silver again. Then heat it in a low propane flame by swishing it in the flame then remove. Continue doing this until you SLOWLY see oxidation colors occuring. For a revolver hand you'll want to go to where it goes past the straw colour to dark straw/brown or to just barely blue color. At that point re-quench in the motor oil to halt any further tempering.

I've done some gun and other parts this way and it works well. Done my own tooling for metal working as well. For those I just temper to a light to medium straw colour so the tools remain hard enough to cut mild steel without any issues.