a few updates...
ok guys, first of all thanks for the compliments!
I thought I would show a little of what is involved in a project like this, and maybe shed a little light on some of the details that I think a lot of people never notice when looking at a stock gun vs one that has had attention from someone with a more critical eye and some hand fitting abilities.
This is the beginning of the barrel work. Now, you may be wondering why its mounted in a lathe when it is going to become an octagon. Well, the first thing I wanted to do was make sue that the external diameter of the barrel was absolutely concentric to the bore. To accomplish this, the 1.25" barrel blank was mounted in a four jaw lathe chuck that allows me to use a dial indicator to set the bore of the barrel on the exact center of the lathe. Then I took a small cut, just enough to remove some material from the full diameter of the barrel for a few inches. Now the outside of the barrel is concentric to the bore in tha area that I have cut. This will become the area that I hold the barrel by in the next step, cutting the octagon flats.
In this photo, the barrel has been moved to the mill and chucked into an indexing head. This allows for the work piece to be rotated in exact amounts to allow the machining of the flats. As you can see, the front sight ramp is starting to take shape by cutting a shorter distance on one flat.
Here, the mill work is nearly complete. The octagon is nicely formed and about ready to go back into the lathe to cut the shoulder and threads for mating to the frame. Unfortunately, I did not take pics of that stage. Sorry...
Now, it's time to remove the machining marks left from cutting the flats. This is done by hand with a series of mold polishing stones and sand paper. Not a fast process!
and now... a few of those details I was talking about earlier...
Look at the lower portion of the load gate. you can see a small "bump" where the contour of the gate does not match the contour of the recoil shield. This area will have to be carefully filed to shape, sanded, stoned and refinished for a smooth transition.
This one is a little more subtle. I've scuffed the load gate with sandpaper to show the areas that don't match up well to the recoil shield. once again, careful filing,stoning, sanding and finishing will cure this defect. While it may be minor, it's the details that make the overall project stand out when completed.
JW
