A strange request

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dakota.potts

New member
Hey everybody,
I am wanting to get a jump ahead on my gunsmithing skills. I am going to college for it next summer, but have a lot of time before then, so I'd like to try some projects now to increase my skill and build something of a portfolio.

I have some machinery and experience, but not a lot. I lack the ability to do more complicated jobs or finishes like bluing. I have experience making knife handles, polishing bolts to a nice finish, light cold bluing of magazines etc. but I'm looking for just a small step up.

What I'm wondering is anybody has a spare beat up rifle/shotgun stocks, cracked set of handgun grips, scuffed and rusted bayonet, or anything at all that needs some TLC that they can bear to part with. I'd be able to pay a modest amount for something worthwhile to my learning (plus shipping costs) and could return to you anything if you liked the job I did and wanted it back. With my part time job and saving up for college, I don't often have money to buy things like whole stocks, broken firearms, etc. and I haven't found a place yet where I could buy broken accessories like grips to work on. If anybody has anything they are willing to part with, I would greatly appreciate a private message.

I hope this is OK to post in this forum. Thanks for reading and suggestions are always welcome
 
Do you need an actual gun to fix?
How about making a stock or grips for a gun you already have.
Or see how good you can blue a large piece of steel.
Or making a part from scratch, and see if it works in one of your guns.
Maybe a extractor, hammer or revolver hand.
Or practicing drilling and mounting a scope mount perfectly straight on a thick, flat piece of steel.
Just some thoughts or three.
 
No, I definitely didn't need a full gun. That's why my request was more along the lines of any spare grips someone may have, a broken stock that they swapped out and have laying around, something like that.

I'm making a couple of knife handles to finish some knife blanks right now. Once I get more comfortable with shaping from wood blanks, grips for my CZ 75 are next on the list. After that I might give a go at replacing the pistol grip on my VZ 58. Doing anything more (like an entire inletted stock) is frankly overwhelming to me right now even though it is an end goal of mine. I believe there's an entire semester dedicated to stock making at the school I'm going to.

As far as your other suggestions, they all sound great, but I'm not sure I can do on the tools that I have. Right now it's just an old, rusted drill press with a table that won't adjust (so must vices won't fit on it), a dremel, various files and hand tools, and a couple small power tools. I'm buying more as money comes in to do so and as they're needed in projects.

I tried cold bluing a couple of metal pieces and some of them turned out pretty horribly. After a couple of days, it turned an orange color. Googling didn't bring up why that would happen. That's something I can try again and learn to do.

Art, you are right that reading is always good. I'm reading "Elementary gunsmithing" now. A pretty old book, relatively, but still enlightening on a lot of things. What about the books that you linked do you enjoy?
 
Spring making does sound interesting and attainable. I think I will try that.

I can't really afford a drill press because the one I have works for the majority of what I've used it for and I can't really spare the money right now when I need to be saving for the move to another state. It may be one of the things I save up and get before moving though
 
I like browsing through the Kinks to see if anything jumps out that is pertinent to past problems or possible problems.
 
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