Ken, I am beyond impressed by what you're doing. I think the 16/20 is a great choice, particularly a properly-scaled 16 of modern materials fully capable of digesting SAAMI stuff.

If no heat treating after machining is contemplated, why not keep the tolerances below 0.0015"? When I visited Ivo Fabbri 23 years ago, he was operating at or very near the 0.0005" Steve Earle is proposing. His mantra was/is CNC machine to super-fine tolerances, then use highly-skilled hand work only for visible beautification and polishing a few critical surfaces.

Incidentally, Tulio was in college (grad school?) at the time and was installing a DNC system to serve the CNC-controlled shop during his summer vacation. Steve might find this interesting, if he isn't already a student of Fabbri's pioneering techniques.

Last edited by Fred; 03/14/07 11:11 AM.
Fred