doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Farmyard Farky

hello , I am a new member on this site. alphawolf45 sent me a link to this build, amazing work. if I could ask a question or two, when you edm'ed the mortice in the action body did you leave a radius in the corners for strength ? and what heat treatment was done apart from the colour case hardening ? was that done for cosmetic reasons or was it necessary for the strength of the action. thanks.

I did not EDM the hole myself, but it appears that the only radius is the wire radius.
The action is 4140 which was dead soft, and was carbon pack cased for cosmetics and strength.
It was then drawn (tempered) for about 1 1/2 hours at about 350C to reduce hardness.

Thanks oldstarfire, what design did you work to ? or was it the sort of project that just came into your head as you worked along ?

I guess the basic concept and design was based on Winfer's book on the Farquharson (Vol #2), but particularly on the article in DeHaas book "Single shot Rifles and Actions".

The layout was based on a block of 4140 that I had, which already had a square hole EDM cut in it. Couldn't let it go to waste....

The "numbers" were worked out on Autocad on my PC abacus.

This was my third attempt - Check a thread on here called "Building a Henryish Rifle" for #2 - worth a chuckle.

For what it is worth, you can get the "square" corners with a shaper.The 7" bench shaper is a good size for this. Shapers are "looked down upon" but will do some things nothing else will do.
Mike

Der Ami, that's true. I have tried to get my hands on a small shaper for a while now. Anyone I have asked about them, including a machinery dealer I know, says the vast majority of them have been scrapped. This is a great pity as more than likely they will never be built again. A lathe, milling machine, shaper and a small surface grinder in your workshop or shed and I reckon there is very little that couldn't be made.

For the halibut....a followup.

Shot today, 50 yards, 110 hp Sierra, 3031 powder
Peep rear, bead front.
Shooting high, but working on that.

If you have a vertical mill, you have a fine manual vertical shaper using the hand feed handle with the machine turned off and the head locked. Ideal for squaring corners with the proper cutting tools. Much quicker than setting up a shaper. Sold my shaper because I almost never used it.
Chuck

I happen to know a (now retired) toolmaker who told me he absolutely despised shapers, he reckoned the advent of the vertical mill the best thing that had happened in the trade in a long time. But i have to say the shaper does excel at cutting internal keyways and is ideal for cutting a nice square opening in a falling block action.