Building the Stevens Favorite

[Tom Griffin]

Hey TL,

In post #30 you show a beautiful broach you made to square out the corners of milled pockets. Did you push that into the hole with the quill feed on your milling machine? If so, do you think a Rong-Fu derrivative from Grizzley has a quill that is up to that use?

BTW, It is this thread that convincebd me that I needed to join this forum. Your work with that rifle is inspiring ... makes me want to make stuff really badly so much that everthing itches.

Mark

Thanks Mark.

Itching is a good thing, or a bad one, depending on how you look at it. It's what got me started in this field a long time ago and it's what wakes me up at night dreaming of the next big project.

That slotting tool should work fine on pretty much any mill. Since it has no clapper to allow it to lift on the return stroke, you can only feed it a couple thousandths at a time to keep from chipping the carbide insert. If you make one, be sure to use drill rod and harden it to reduce the amount of flex and use lots of cutting oil.

Glad you are enjoying the build.

Tom

 

[mfim]

An old barrel of proper twist can be used as the guide for your rifling rod.Lineal center of this rod is cast in the center of a babbit "plug', Babbit 3 in. or so long. This is cast just inside the muzzle of guide barrel.
Then it is removed and lapped in with compound, by running it back and forth thru the "guide barrel. A "propeller type handle is then installed on
one end of the rod , and your single land cutting head on the other. Cutter is a simple scraper type that cuts both ways. Guide barrel is mounted or clamped down and in line with barrel to be rifled. You use .001 shim and pull it thru, give the cutter a brush off, then push it back the other way thru, give it a brush. after only a few strokes it will quit bringing out chips.
Then you mark this land as # 1. You then pull the slug just out, and index it one land and repeat. Then when all are done and you are back to #1, you add a .001 shim under your scraper cutter and repeat above.30 years ago I used an old .43 Egyptain barrel to rifle 2, .54 cal M/L
pistol barrels. The actual cutting only took about half a day. .005 deep is about what most button rifled barrels are. Ever think of making an extra smoothbore barrel and putting a 'jug' choke in it for shot cartridges? Don

 

[Tom Griffin]

RE: Building The Steven's Favorite I think I have most of the issues worked out with the action so I got busy and cranked out some drawings, started on the receiver and actually made some chips today. I'll post pictures as I go and make this thread sort of a build blog. And here..we.....go...

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I started with a 1 x 4 piece of mild steel bar stock, milled it to the proper thickness with a fly cutter and squared up the sides.

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The next task was to do a rough layout to locate all of the arc centers and holes.

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I plan on cutting all of the smaller radii with end mills and the boring head. It will need to go on the rotary table later to cut rounded surfaces on the contours.

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Boring the hole for the barrel using the boring head.

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The two 45 degree flats were cut with a 90 degree end mill.

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The toughest part so far was milling this deep slot with a long 5/16 end mill.

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[Tom Griffin]

RE: Building The Steven's Favorite I needed a cutter to mill the 1.5" radius on the contours of the receiver. Since nothing like that is available commercially that I know of, I had to make it myself. I first modeled it up in SolidWorks to work out all of the clearances so I would have a better shot at getting them right the first time. I used a piece of 1" diameter O1 and turned one end down to .875 to match the largest collet on my mill. All of the milling was done in a dividing head, with a tailstock for support, using end mills and a boring head. The faces of the four flutes were milled first, then the blank was rotated 5 degrees for the primary clearance and the 1.5" radius was cut using the boring head. Next the blank was rotated 32 degrees and the secondary clearance was cut in the same fashion.

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When the cutter was finished I tried it out on a piece of scrap aluminum and it seems to work pretty well. It hammers just a bit due to the lack of back rake but it should be fine for this one time use.

 

[Tom Griffin]

RE: Building The Steven's Favorite I had to go back to work today to support my expensive hobbies so I only managed to get a couple of hours in on the Stevens.

I had an old piece of jig and fixture plate laying around so I decided to use it to make a sub-plate to hold the receiver. A sub-plate makes it much easier to work on a complex part because there are no clamps to work around. In addition, it allowed me to spot holes at the center of all the radii making changes in set-up much quicker. After making the sub-plate I had time to saw out the rest of the receiver and make one cut on the top, a 3" radius blended into a 16º angled straight cut. It's been a while since I've used the rotary table and it was fun to dust it off for a change.

Tomorrow I'll harden the form tool so I can use it on these surfaces before breaking the set-up.

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Tonight wasn't as productive as I'd hoped. I hardened the cutter and it came out glass hard with no cracks but I think I got carried away tempering and went too far. When I tried it out on the receiver, it wouldn't hold an edge. I'll need to heat treat it again before moving on to the next step. I'll leave it full hard next time and just be careful not to push it too hard and chip it. At least the receiver is starting to take shape.

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The second time worked like a charm. I re-heat treated the cutter and left it full hard. That would not have been an option if it was smaller because it likely would have broken during use. Then I sharpened the face of the cutting edge with a die grinder and went to work. The cutter had to be fed very slowly because of the amount of cutting edge in contact with the work, but it cut cleanly and held an edge. The next task is to mill out the tangs where the stock attaches and then finish hollowing out the inside.

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I had to do some house painting today so it cut into my shop time a bit, but I still managed to get the upper and lower tangs roughed out. With all of the material that needed to be removed, I broke out a 3/4" roughing end mill to speed up the task. I forgot how much fun they can be. At one point I was taking a 5/8" deep cut at a 3/4" per minute feed rate. The next task is to finish mill the inside of the tangs, round the ends and drill the holes in them.

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Lots of clamps are mandatory when cutting steel and a piece of paper between the part and the table will help keep it from moving.

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Notice the clamp and spacer to support the long flimsy tang.

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A 3/4" roughing mill, 5/8" deep, 3/4" per minute, no coolant. I love these cutters!

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[Tom Griffin]

Machining these tangs required a lot of different set-ups due to the fact they are not parallel to each other or perpendicular to the axis of the receiver, plus the various holes in each one and the full radius on the ends. The most creative set-up was the one required to mill the full radii on the ends of the tangs. I clamped a parallel vertical in the vise and then clamped the side of the tang to it using parallels for spacers. It was an ugly set-up but it got the job done without a crash due to attention to cutter forces and a total lack of climb milling. Do not try this at home. Next comes the part I've been dreading, hollowing out the inside of the receiver. It's going to take a combination of drilling, long end mill milling, slotting and possibly broaching to get it done.

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All told it was a pretty productive day. I got all of the internal cutouts roughed out with end mills and it went much better than expected. Some of the extra long end mills still needed to be gripped on the very end, which really cuts down on their rigidity. I've had a lot of experience working with long end mills and was able to get through the whole job without breaking any. Long end mills demand special techniques that can only be learned the hard way and I've broken more than a few learning them. Next on the to-do list is grinding a slotting tool bit and squaring up all of the corners in the pockets.

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This was the deepest pocket and it need to be cut from opposite sides to get through.

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Power tapping a 5/16-24 thread in the mill.

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This was the longest reach. I drilled two holes through to start and then milled it with a 1/2" x 5" end mill which was just barely long enough.

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Milling the slot for the hammer.

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[Tom Griffin]

I made a bar to hold a triangular carbide insert to square the corners out on the pockets. Since there was no clapper built in, I had to limit the feed to .001-.002" at a time to keep from chipping the carbide. It did a good job though, it was just slow going. One down, three to go. I also started filing and polishing the machining marks out.

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Tonight's task was to make a slotting tool to square the corners in the trigger and hammer pockets. I made the tool out of O1 the full width of the slots with a 1º lengthwise taper on each side, 10º clearance on each side and 10º end clearance. All that is left to do on the receiver is to file out the rest of the machining marks, polish and color case harden. The hardening will wait until all of the internals are finished and installed in case any "engineering changes" need to be made.

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I was working on the honey-do list this weekend so there wasn't much time for the rifle, but I did manage to make a few screws. The following pics show the procedure to make two 8-32UNC slotted, fillister head screws, a typical style used in gunsmithing. They were made two at a time, one on each end of a piece of .25" O1 round stock.

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The ends shown faced and center drilled.

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A slick way to set the threading tool is to place some paper under the tool and shine the work light on it. That makes it really easy to see the gap between the thread gauge and the tool. Leave the locking screws loose and just slide the gauge back and forth until the tool is lined up.

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Checking the pitch diameter of the thread.

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Threads are fun to cut on the Hardinge because it has a lever to quickly lift the tool at the end of the cut without disturbing the setting. This makes a relief cut at the end of the thread unnecessary.

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Next, the screws were parted off, the heads turned to the finish diameter and faced to length.

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A form tool was ground to machine the crown on the heads.

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The slots were cut with a .035" slitting saw. A collet block would be a better way to hold such small screws but the right sized collet was lacking in my selection.

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"Aviation is going to make such progress as cannot be imagined."

 

[Tom Griffin]

RE: Building The Steven's Favorite The 12-32UNEF was harder to find than I thought. McMaster Carr let me down and MSC had one for $45, so tonight instead of starting on the breech block, I got to make a tap. Per Machinery's Handbook, I added a couple thou to the major diameter and cut a 32 pitch thread with a pitch diameter just over the max limit on a piece of O1. Then I milled four flutes with an end mill on the center line of the tap and a little deeper than the thread, hardened it and hand ground a taper starting angle on the ends of the flutes. I test fired it in a piece of aluminum and the screws fit well so I went ahead and tapped the two 12-32 holes in the receiver and called it a day.

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I intended to get started on the breech block tonight but the piece of O1 I had in mind for it turned out not to be O1 so I had to order a piece and play the waiting game. A guy I work with gave me a large chunk of black walnut the other day so I decided to make another incredible mess in the shop and get started on the stock (I'm still cleaning out wood dust from the last woodworking project). I didn't care for the orientation of the grain in the board but it was thick enough that I could cut the blank for the stock on an angle to make it more quartersawn. I also discovered a check in the wood which required even more creative layout to avoid. I left it slab sided for now because the next task will be to throw it in the mill and inlet it for the receiver. Looks kind of boring now but it's a start.

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I’m still making sawdust, although not near as much. I got the receiver inletted into the stock using the mill and it ended up a nice tight fit. Then I did some rough shaping with a wood plane and blended it all together on the belt sander. The notch on the top of the stock just behind the tang was roughed out with a die grinder and sanding roll. It still needs some final finishing. The stock also needs some final fitting around the tangs. The bottom is getting close but the top still has a bit to go. I dug around in my supplies a bit more and found a chunk of Stentor which is Carpenter Steel's brand name for O1, so as soon as I get finished making wood dust I'll get back to making chips and make the breech block.

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The stock is finished. Getting the wood to metal fit was challenging. There are a lot of different surfaces that mate and getting them all to come together at the same time was a real pain. I ended up bumping the slots for the tangs back several times before I got everything just right. There is still the forend to do but that won't happen until the barrel is made. There may also be checkering to do (I haven't decided) but that will be the last task on the list, and a butt plate. The original butt plate was hard rubber and I was thinking of tooling one for mine out of leather. That's a rainy day project though, there are metal chips to be made.

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"Aviation is going to make such progress as cannot be imagined."

 

[Tom Griffin]

Tonight was breech block night. I sawed out a piece of the O1, squared it up and located the three cross holes. Two of the holes were temporarily threaded to screw the block to a sub-plate for the rotary table work. It was then set on a sine bar at 12º, the slot milled and the firing pin hole added. Next it will be mounted to an aluminum sub-plate containing locating holes for the centers of all the arcs. As with the receiver, that will make the rotary table work a lot easier and faster.



Set on 12º to mill the slot.



The survival of long, skinny end mills is always a concern. This one is 3/16" diameter by 1 1/2" long. The secret to making them long lived is to plunge cut first and side mill to finish. The slot was cut as deep as possible with a standard length end mill before resorting to the long one. This cut was over an inch deep and made in one pass using .02" steps. The same technique applies when milling tool steel like this or when milling aluminum. A lube such as WD-40 is necessary for deep slots in aluminum to keep the cutter from loading up.



Gauge pins are handy for locating features from cross drilled holes. Just place a pin in the hole and touch it off with the end mill or drill using a piece of paper between them as a witness. Here, the block is set up to drill and ream the hole for the firing pin. To set the 12º angle, I just put a pin in the chuck and held the bottom of the slot against the side of it as the vise was tightened.



This next series of photographs shows the method I use to set up and cut radii on the rotary table. The sub-plate has been made large enough to include the centers of all the radii and a hole was drilled and reamed for each one. To locate them, the rotary table is centered on the spindle, then a pin is put in the spindle and inserted into the hole at the center of the radius to be cut. The sub-plate is then clamped down, the table offset by the radius plus half the diameter of the cutter, and the radius milled.











In this case, where the radius blends with another, the part needs to be indicated at set-up and coordinated with the graduations on the rotary table. Then by watching the graduations, you can calculate where the radii end.

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"Aviation is going to make such progress as cannot be imagined."

 

[Tom Griffin]

RE: Building The Steven's Favorite It's time to move on to the lever. After squaring up the stock, I drilled the two holes, cut the internal radii with a boring bar and milled an angled surface while it was held in the vise. Next, I set up the 1 1/2º per side taper to the lever with a sine bar and milled them tangent to the two radii that I previously bored. Next, it'll be back to the rotary table for a couple of external radii and then a bunch of hand filing to get the elliptical shape of the lever. I could make another radius cutter, but for this part it would take less time just to file the shape.

Mistake #1 is under the bridge. I made a dimensioning error on the lever drawing and then like an idiot, made the lever exactly to print. But, the good thing about working with steel is that all it takes is a little weld to make it right.

To make matters worse, I had to knock off early tonight because I managed to get a chip in my eye. It landed on top of my safety glasses, fell down behind them and then flipped right in my eye. I saw it coming but not quite soon enough. Guess the reflexes aren't what they used to be. Luckily, even though it was steel, it wasn't hot enough to stick but it still irritated the heck out of my eye. Oh well, it wasn't the first time and it probably won't be the last, just one of the hazards of the trade. WEAR THOSE SAFETY GLASSES!



Just a little weld to make it right.



Here the lever is sitting on a sine bar to machine the first tapered side of the lever. I did one side first, then doubled the angle on the sine bar and did the flip side after sawing off the excess stock.







Next, the sides will be tapered on the belt sander, the end radiused and the elliptical shape filed.



The rough shaping on the lever was done with the belt sander, files and strips of emery cloth.



The rest of the radii were cut on the rotary table (getting rid of the weld evidence ). At the same time, the curved shape around the pivot point was approximated by using three different tapered end mills on the rotary table.



This is a quick and dirty fixture I made up to bend the scroll shape on the lever.



The first curve was tough. It took a lot more heat than I expected due to the thickness of the part and the tightness of the bend.



Making the bend around the second and third form rolls.



It still needs some hand finishing, but I couldn't wait to try it on the gun. The shape is pretty close, but it still needs to be tweaked a bit. Next time I'll add more form rolls to make it easier to hold the shape. Not too bad for the first try though.

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"Aviation is going to make such progress as cannot be imagined."