Weekend project...Now finished!

Ah manual machines, the patience required is a skill I've lost. :)

I should send you the video of how I cut the picatinny slots. We use this fancy end mill that only cuts .005" deep but feeds at 200 inches a minute.
 
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Well,

At the 18 hour stage, let's just say I'm a patient man, and don't mind slow feed rates. *shrug* I only did the first term of my apprentice machinist course before I joined the navy as an electronics tech, and that was 16 years ago now. I'm lucky I remember this much!

I got through a couple of lightening cuts on the rail and the grip, then cut in the rear of the grip to round it with a 3/4" end mill. (Patience, especially that last couple of passes at .001" to finish it up neatly.)

I chamfered the top of one side of my grip section, but alas, when I spun it around and tightened the heck out of the vise that the old guy who sold me this mill included, well, I cracked the bugger.

Bah. If it cracked, it wasn't meant to be used anyhow.

So, all in all, not a bad night. I've got some chamfering left to do, then the angle for the pistol grip (the 60 degree slope on the bottom)

Pleasing progress. I guestimate that it'll be ready to weld up this weekend.

NS
 
kako911 said:
Oh the humanity !!!!!

:D:D:D
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huge-manatee.jpg
 
NavyShooter said:
Well,

At the 18 hour stage, let's just say I'm a patient man, and don't mind slow feed rates. *shrug* I only did the first term of my apprentice machinist course before I joined the navy as an electronics tech, and that was 16 years ago now. I'm lucky I remember this much!
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I'm spoiled. Its amazing what some of these new cutting tools can do. It boggles my mind to think what the future holds.
 
Well,

A couple more hours at it tonite. Here's how it's looking.

First, cutting the pistol grip angle:

Jan%2009%20069%20(Small).jpg


Then, while it's still in place in the vise, I first drilled, then replaced the drill with the tap to get it started, then moved to the tap wrench once things were lined up and going.

Jan%2009%20070%20(Small).jpg


And, here she is, about 95% to where I want it to be.


Jan%2009%20071%20(Small).jpg
 
Oh, as an aside, you can observe that the line of the bore is actually below the shoulder stock, that was done rather deliberately. I can't have an M-79, but it's a "blooper", and the -79's bore was decidedly below the comb of the stock. I figured there was probably a good reason for that, so I kinda copied it.

NS
 
Jan%2009%20074%20(Small).jpg


Well, it's all done, just needs to get parked, and that'll happen eventually. For now, it's good to go, and I'll likely test-fire it tomorrow!

I figure the total machining time was around 20 hours. Mind you, I'm a very conservative guy when it comes to feed rates and such. I figure I'd have been done in about half the time if I'd used aluminium, but alas, I only had steel onhand when I started work on it.

NS
 
Armedsask said:
Ah manual machines, the patience required is a skill I've lost. :)

I should send you the video of how I cut the picatinny slots. We use this fancy end mill that only cuts .005" deep but feeds at 200 inches a minute.
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I'd like to see that video. The CNC shop I use said that machining the picatinny slots was a b!tch to do. They bought special cutters to make it easier for them. They refused to do them in 4140. Do you guys use leaded steel to speed up the process?
 
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A friend of mine with a "LOT" of machining experience told me that for firearm applications, (especially anything with a bearing surface) I should avoid using leaded steel (11XX) and use 10XX.

NS
 
Clobbersauras said:
I'd like to see that video. The CNC shop I use said that machining the picatinny slots was a b!tch to do. They bought special cutters to make it easier for them. They refused to do them in 4140. Do you guys use leaded steel to speed up the process?
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Currently, all we use is 4140 heat treated, stress relieved tool steel. It sure makes things a lot harder, but the finished product is probably bomb proof.

Yes, the slots are the most time consuming part of the rail make process. We went through a few different ways to cut them. The current way drop us down from 15 minutes to cut the slots on a Rem 700 base, to 3 minutes.

I'll have to check with the boss if the video can be shared with the public, we don't want to give away all our secrets.
 
Armedsask said:
I'll have to check with the boss if the video can be shared with the public, we don't want to give away all our secrets.
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No worries - I didn't know there are different ways to cut them. This stuff just fascinates me. I wish I had navy shooters set up and more importantly the knowledge and skills to use those tools;).
 
stormbringer said:
Firing Pin for a Ceiner .22 kit??

lol
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Here ya go.

Hope you don't mind, the only 1/4" stock I had handy appears to be stainless....which might explain why I was getting such small cuts using the HSS bit....

Jan%2009%20(Small).jpg


Or at least, I couldn't blue it when I was done!

Drop me a note with your addy and I'll mail it out first of the week.

NS
 
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