Show a rifle I built from scratch

[Al_Messer]

"Submarine incident"?? Dave it there a story here? If there is, how about sharing it on a new thread??


Al

[steamin10]

No need to repost, it is all in the one edition about moving a cabinet, page 17 'never enough time', Junk drawer. Just one of those things when you are Mr. Fixit..

[alphawolf45]

Heres the Winchester 1873 .22cal. trapper length carbine that I finally finished..This was an original frame and lower tang (receiver was a deeply rust pocked paper weight when I started) and then I made/added the rest of the parts. I made bronze cartridge carrier, springs, toggle links, side plates, hammer, breechblock, carved the stocks , cast the buttplate etc.etc. Barrel is from a Ruger 10-22 that I cut down and machined to serve this project..Want to say that it was a difficult project but that it loads fires and shucks empties perfectly.Sweet little gun...Wonderful little hunter plinker with early AMERICAN roots.......Metals working is an awesome hobby.

[JackF]

Alpha,

Have been checking in on this thread off and on, I love what you have been doing with the guns. I am curious about your CNC mill, I don't recall seeing a full pic of it in your posts. Would it by any chance be a retro-fit of a manual machine? I ask because I have thought of retro-fitting my machine since I bought it and would be interested, if it is a retro-fit, how you went about it. Once again, beautiful work, and building a gun is just one more thing I would like to do before I am sprinkled over the landscape.

Jack.

[alphawolf45]

I have two cnc mills, both are big old industrial machines..I did toss the old computer and drives from the Hurco cnc bedmill and went back in with new everything electronics.. I run Mach3. Love it. I worked over the Hurco 'bout 6 years ago.. Very likely would find better drives and power supplies and all else today..So I cant help you with any upgrades done today..I'd be back researching components all over again if I was to upgrade another one..
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[JackF]

Alpha,

Thanks for the reply. When I get really serious about the retro-fit I will have to check in at at the Home shop CNC section on this site or the CNC Zone forum

Jack.

[oscer]

Hi folks,I just found this forum yesterday and must say I'm impressed with your rifle builds. I started setting up a machine shop about 2 yrs. ago with building firearms from scratch in mind. I'm nowhere near tooled up for it yet though, have an old Bridgeport with very little tooling and even less experience running it. Scored a copy of DeHass single shot rifles book a while back, not the one you mentioned in this thread but the one that has rifle plans. not sure thats what I want to build though. I realy like the JMB designs.Have some experience carving out stocks and minor rifle repairs. I've been reading up on barrel work but have yet to thread and chamber one. Much to learn. looking forward to exploring this forum.

oscer

[Harold_V]

Welcome to the forum, oscer.

Harold

[oscer]

Thanks, Harold.

oscer

[alphawolf45]

Hi folks,I just found this forum yesterday and must say I'm impressed with your rifle builds. I started setting up a machine shop about 2 yrs. ago with building firearms from scratch in mind. I'm nowhere near tooled up for it yet though, have an old Bridgeport with very little tooling and even less experience running it. Scored a copy of DeHass single shot rifles book a while back, not the one you mentioned in this thread but the one that has rifle plans. not sure thats what I want to build though. I realy like the JMB designs.Have some experience carving out stocks and minor rifle repairs. I've been reading up on barrel work but have yet to thread and chamber one. Much to learn. looking forward to exploring this forum.

oscer

OSCER
I am glad you are entertained seeing the pictures of my gun projects...I dont have a job to go to, dont have much of a life really other than watching my 5 dachshunds, taking care of the yard and puttering in my shop..Evenso it takes a rediculous amount of time to build a gun from scratch.. Takes months of my free time to build anything halfway nice......And I have all the tools that should aid in rapidly finishing a project....I dont believe a man with your present tool set and skill level could replicate any of John Moses Browning's designs....You should be building little steam engines and cannons and such for several years while you gather more tools and experience....And if you absolutely have to build a gun from scratch , build a Jaco..That gun was designed to be an entry level effort.. .......Myself, I am having difficulty maintaining a sufficient level of interest - fun for a while but I am now tired of slogging thru scratch builds ...Have decided to spend more time shooting targets..Now working on couple guns I can use for cowboy action shooting.

I will mention that there are forums devoted to hobby gunsmithing..But you can learn more about metalsworking on forums like this one..If a person can become a capable model engineer then he could easily transition to building a firearm or virtually anything else that he is determined to do...The love of metalsworking is my interest , guns is just another project among all the others.

[oscer]

Your right,I'm not ready to jump into a project like a high wall, I'm not retired yet and I've been spending spare time setting up shop, making tooling, and fixing/ rebuilding machine tools. Oh and reading threads like this one trying to learn as I go along. My first rifle "build" will be barrelling a bolt action, don't even have a time frame on getting that started. Just going to keep tooling up the shop for now.
oscer

[alphawolf45]

I like your attitude..You sound like a man with a great deal of patience. I hope you have a lot of good years ahead of you...Get yourself a surface grinder with a decent magnetic chuck while youre gathering tools, you'll need it for making chambering reamers , counterbores and dozens of other uses including actually grinding the surface of flat parts.. I use mine almost daily...Its where I go for precision , will often machine close and then grind to final size...And grab a heat treat furnace if you get the chance- or build one..
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I am rebuilding a wreck of a rifle. Its decendent of one of JMB designs..Its a Model 65 Winchester lever action rifle in .218 BEE.Was built in 1938..I traded for it 30 years ago in poor condition with fore end wood and magazine missing...I am finally getting around to working on it...It will retain its original buttstock with some original dings and there will remain some scars in the barrel and receiver.I tig welded up 12 tapped scope mount holes in the barrel ..And I relined the barrel..I'll have to make a spring loading gate for it as the one I bought from Numrich is a poor fit...Pretty satisfying to be putting the old gun back in good shape after 30 years I just had it knocking around in one closet after another....Lot of fun playing in my own home workshop.