Building the Stevens Favorite

[Tom Griffin]

TomG A few weeks ago I 'told' the guys on Home Gunsmithing forum about your Stevens Favorite build thread..Wanted the guys to see a very well documented build ..This thread of yours is just exceptionally well presented..

Thanks!

I've been doing more thinking than building lately so the updates have been few and far between. Once I get the drilling and rifling figured out for the barrel, they will pick up. There is still a lot to do.

I checked out the Home Gunsmithing site and got another idea for a pretty simple rifling machine made from PVC pipe and cable. I wish there was a little more detail in the write up though, especially regarding the cutter.

Tom

 

[Tony Wells]

This thought just popped into my head, so for what that's worth.... I wonder if you couldn't take an expansion reamer, the kind with the adjustment screw in the end (and yes, I know what they are really for) and do a serious regrind on it for the rifling,and adjust it out on each pass after you drag it through. Part of it could be just under the smooth bore size, and act as a guide, and a cable and swivel used to pull it.

Just a wild idea that later I'll probably think of a half dozen reasons not to do that.

 

[Tom Griffin]

This thought just popped into my head, so for what that's worth.... I wonder if you couldn't take an expansion reamer, the kind with the adjustment screw in the end (and yes, I know what they are really for) and do a serious regrind on it for the rifling,and adjust it out on each pass after you drag it through. Part of it could be just under the smooth bore size, and act as a guide, and a cable and swivel used to pull it.

Just a wild idea that later I'll probably think of a half dozen reasons not to do that.

Tony,

I think the problem would be size. By the time you grind down a 1/4" expansion reamer to .218, there wouldn't be much left. Not sure what size the screw is in them. The rifling heads are typically a rod of the bore diameter (.218 in this case) with pivoted hook cutter and a wedge to vary the cutting depth. It needs to be attached to a solid pull shaft to rotate it at the appropriate rate of twist. Cutting depth is generally a few tenths per pass. I'll probably end up making one similar to the one shown below.

Tom

 

[Tom Griffin]

I finally got around to finishing up the cat heads. The one for the spindle needed a relief cut in the taper and a locking pin which I made from a 10-32 button head cap screw. It also needed a hole for a spanner wrench.



The head for the outboard end of the spindle needed to be quite large to mount over the locking ring for the collet closer so it required 4" round instead of the 3" I used for the spindle end. Too bad I didn't realize that before I cut an extra piece of 3" :rant: Both heads also needed a bunch of 5/16-24 set screws to mount them and to hold the barrel.

Here are a couple of pics showing the cat heads in place holding the barrel.



The cat head on the spindle is probably only useful to the gunsmith, but the outboard head is useful to keep long pieces of stock from getting off center and vibrating the lathe.

 

[TRX]

Tom, a bunch of the pictures earlier in the thread are missing. Arrgh!

 

[Tom Griffin]

Tom, a bunch of the pictures earlier in the thread are missing. Arrgh!

Yes, it's a mess. It looks like the pics got botched up the early part of the thread then were then re-posted later on. Truthfully, I'm not sure what is there and what is missing. The thread is posted over on MetalWorking Fun in its entirety if something is missing here. I should probably just delete the thread and start over, but a lot of good comments would be lost. Maybe Tony can figure out a way to sort it out, but it won't be easy.

Tom


TRX: I went back and took another look and it appears the entire thread has been re-posted on page five. It's kind of weird, but that's the way it is. :headscratch:

 

[Tony Wells]

I'll look into that when I get back in this afternoon, Tom. I'm going to a hospital about 2 hours away that wants iPod docks in the 2 new OR's they added so that the surgeons can rock out during the cutting. Already put in some time wiring in some nice speakers in the ceiling and pulling some of the wiring necessary. I would never have thought that Doctors would have been that fussy about something like that but some of them get pretty uptight if they can't listen to their favorite tunes while operating. They already have streaming music from the cable company, and a way to connect a laptop to play into the system, but they want iPod docks. Crazy.

 

[TRX]

I wondered about the apparent reposts. It still looked like some of the setup and tooling pictures were missing, though.

It's such a nice project, it's a shame for the thread to get messed up!

 

[Tom Griffin]

Today I was working on a method of holding the gun drill in my lathe. Since the drill is actually longer than the lathe I decided that rather than hold the drill with the 3/4" shank, I would hold it in the middle with the boring bar holder. This required a special adapter (of course) to hold the funky shaped drill shank without crushing it. The adapter consists of a 3/4" piece of round with a 3/16" groove in it that has a radius in the bottom to match the drill shank. A 3/16" rectangular bar with a 120º included angle goes in the slot to clamp on the drill and a couple of collars with cap screws provides the clamping force. With this set-up I should be able to grip the drill close to the end of the barrel so I won't need to make a steady brace to support the center, although some sort of support will still be needed on the end of the drill where the coolant hoses attach.

Tom

 

[Bill Gruby]

Now yer talking. You can choke up on that long drill and minimize flex. It will also maintain a good location. You da man Tom. Yes I'm still watchin this one.

"Billy G"