What I've been up to...

Well its been a very busy summer for me, and sadly "off topic"...







But something VERY exciting happened last week....





Actually a few exciting things happened...





Should have power to the lathe and rifling machine tonight and heat by the weekend! A dream coming true....
 
Made first chips on the lathe last night! Still waiting on proper tooling to arrive. Seems hopeful though, The supplied Chinese turning tool was hitting sizes and the machine didn't mind taking a .1"doc in 4140 (.01" feed 1.25"dia and 700rpm). I was mildly impressed!

I will be tearing down the mill and converting it to CNC right away. gonna be another big project, but the end result should give me a very capable and versatile machine!

The rifling machine should be pretty well good to go, I was just finishing it up when the permits went through on the shop and I haven't been able to touch it since. It's next after I finish setting the lathe up (Got work waiting on the lathe).

Currently working on a 4 page quote with my tooling supplier and figuring out benches/cabinets.
It's like the biggest/best Christmas wishlist ever!(except for getting the bill afterwards)
 
Well my shop is slowly starting to feel like home!

I built some benches...






No more lathe tooling on the floor!


Theres still LOOOTS to do but it's coming!


I've got lots of nerdy things ordered for the mill conversion, but in the meantime, I kicked it old school last week and made a new trigger guard for this Turkish "delight"






The original guard was cast pot metal and cross pinned to the receiver. This one is 6061 aluminum with steel "receiver studs".










And there you have it! Not the MOST elegant thing I've built, but it gets this critter back in the game and it'll be WAY more durable than the original...
 
that is an impressive shop set up

I have a lot of work to do in my shop before I can move in my metal lathe, I am hoping to get that sorted out this summer.

I was going to set it back against the wall but now after seeing your set up I am going to have to reevaluate my plan. Might be better to go perpendicular and then set up the welder behind it.


I can't wait to see how the rifling machine works out.


Are you running LED strip lights??
 
I'm beyond envious, not only of your work but the tools. Nice to see a man that knows how to use a file at least no matter how fancy the tools are. I've made a few front sights out of bolts, and turned a stepped barrel in to a tapered barrel on a drill press using only files. I sure wish you were living next door I'd come over and sit on my a stool and just watch you. There always seems to be spare barrels floating around for sale. It's crossed my mind to make a single shot break action out of one of these. ((Keep up the excellent work.))
 
Wood chopper: There’s certainly nothing wrong with putting a lathe up against the wall. I chose to go perpendicular in my case because of having multiple machines (Sounds like you may have a similar situation). This way, the power comes off the wall to each machine all mice and meat, the splash guard for the lathe also acts as a chip guard contain the mill mess (and yet I’ll be able to monitor the mill while running the lathe), and the bench for the lathe becomes the tooling rack for the rifling machine.

MRP: indeed! Files are incredibly underrated tools if one has the skill and patience to put one to use!!
 
Well again I have to say you are one talented dude!! Everyday people tell me I’m good, great even at what I do and I tell them I’m just average, yes I’m better than some but there are a lot that are better than me and man people need to look at the work you do and they would see what tallent is!! Good work!
 
Time for an update...
Most of my time has been spent setting up my shop, I've got the mill tore apart doing the CNC conversion,
I made a cat head for dialing barrels through the head stock on my lathe and modified the guard to suit, I set up an oil pump system for the lathe along with a fitting to flush oil from the muzzle while chambering...
















I set up a Rem700 as a test bed for barrels and I've been working on developing barrels...












None of that pays the bills at this point however, but I have had some smithing work trickling in which is nice to see!



























Feels like molasses but things are coming along...
 
Here's a sweetheart! I'm refinishing this Winnie 1894 (built in 1917). It's a great candidate as its mostly complete and hasn't been beaten up too badly, and yet, needs a full going over...













Lots of elbow grease to follow...
 
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