Making a sharps barrel in my lathe.

homebrew .357 · Post by **homebrew .357** » Mon Jul 20, 2015 2:40 am

Hi Guys, Still at it, but here is some more pic`s of it coming along, Homebrew.357.

homebrew .357 · Post by **homebrew .357** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 2:17 am

Hi, some more pics of the work done.

Homebrew.357.

homebrew .357 · Post by **homebrew .357** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 2:54 am

Oops, The right hand is not telling the left. The receiver is to big and a lot of it has to come off, So with a lot of elbow grease, sweat, I cut it of with my hack saw. Now it`s starting to look the part. Cheers Homebrew.357.

homebrew .357 · Post by **homebrew .357** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 2:11 am

I really mean at hack saw, well it is my bush camping saw with a hack saw blade fitted on to it, yep I`m really keen to make this gun go bang,Homebrew.357.

mikeehlert · Post by **mikeehlert** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 5:47 pm

Homebrew:
Just found this thread. You are to be complemented on your ingenuity. Fine work, keep on it.

homebrew .357 · Post by **homebrew .357** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 3:09 am

Hi guys, A bit more, the under lever fits in a slot in the bottom of the receiver and a tee slot at the top of this for the lever spring. So set up again in my angle bracket and with a milling cutter off centre, I slowly cut it out. The tee slot at the top was cut with a made up fly cutter and using the fore jaw chuck to adjust the in feed. All so drilled hole for lever pin, now with a bit of filling, sanding will see if I can get the breech block and lever to work.

, Homebrew.357.

homebrew .357 · Post by **homebrew .357** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 2:54 am

Now a mile stone in this build, I have assembled the breech block and under lever and with a bit of fine tuneing I have got it all working as sweet as, it`s nice and firm with a snug oily fit. I know I had the hole in the breech done, but with my back yard way of doing things I`m amazed it works so good, you know, I just mite get this gun to the bang stage.

,Homebrew.357.

homebrew .357 · Post by **homebrew .357** » Wed Aug 12, 2015 3:05 am

Hi, Doing some final machining to the receiver now , the under tang back sloping bit and the cartridge feed slot. Set up and fly cut the back slop with a long boring bar , that worked quite well. The cartridge slot was cut with a round nose mill, but I cut a small slot first so it was not to hard for it. The mill cut a
.725" slot, but I needed .800", so I just set the round nose mill off centre a bit till I got the right size.
It`s slowly coming on.

Homebrew.357.

homebrew .357 · Post by **homebrew .357** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 2:59 am

Hi, The end result of all the milling is looking good, a case slides into the breech nicely and with a bit more machining to do it`s really starting to look like a 1874 Sharps.

,Homebrew.357.

homebrew .357 · Post by **homebrew .357** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 3:06 am

Hi guys, Things are coming on good , so thought I`d have a fit out to see if all was going good and it is all working ok, a bit of sanding on the under lever that was a bit tight got it working nice and smooth. The barrel fits in but needs more machining for the final head spacing. With a bit more machining on the receiver to do yet ,but it`s coming along, but slowly.

Cheers, Homebrew.357.

homebrew .357 · Post by **homebrew .357** » Fri Sep 04, 2015 2:57 am

Hi, A bit more work on the receiver, I set it up on my angle plate to fly cut out the area for the side plate to fit. The front has a radis on the top ,so with a bit of thinking outside the square I set it up with the back end in the fore jaw chuck and the front off centre in the tailstock to get the radis. and at the same time I ground the sides of the breech block area as well. I used my drill with a grinding wheel of the right size and as it was grinding, I just rocked it back and forth with the top slide as in feed. Grinding on a lathe is a no no and will quickly stuff up your lathe, unless you take care not to get any grindings on to it, I took great care!. Here are ten pics of how it was done. Cheers, Homebrew.357.