Rebarrel small ring 95 mauser

[mickri]

I am going back to my original plan which was to solder/weld a larger piece to a shaft. I have ordered a Stay Brite soft silver solder kit.

 

[mickri]

The Stay Brite silver solder kit arrived early this week. $7.50 including tax and shipping. I wonder how Home Depot turned a profit at that price. I picked up the scope bases today from my mailbox. The scope bases have a small groove that the hump fits into. Don't have to remove the hump for the bases to fit. That makes life easier.

 

[mickri]

I have decided on the calibers for the two mausers and the carano actions I have. The carcano is going to be a 35 remington. The mausers are going to be a 257 roberts and a 222 remington. I am going to use green mountain barrels. All that I can afford. The barrels are all out of stock. Will order them when they become available.

For stocks I am going to get Richards Microfit stocks. Either the old classic or the modern classic for the 257 and 35 remington. I am leaning towards the marksman style for the 222. Otherwise either the old classic or modern classic with a wider forearm.

 

[pontiac428]

Sounds like you've settled on some classics, both in caliber and in stock pattern. Very cool. 50 years ago that is what we'd all be doing as projects. Now it's ARs and 1911s. Different times.

 

[mickri]

Those evil black rifles are a big no no here in California. And I have never been interested in pistols. In high school to earn a little extra spending money I scored targets for the monthly pistol matches at my local range. Everybody did pretty good with the 22. The 38/9mm scores weren't bad either. Whole different ballgame with the 45 cal 1911. Especially rapid fire. Lead seemed to fly everywhere accept at the target. Like any competition there were some really good shooters. The majority were lucky to get all of their rapid fire shots even on the target let alone have a good score.

I do like the classic look. Especially for the 257 and the 222.

 

[mickri]

Long day today. Was supposed to be cutting firewood. My chainsaw had other ideas about that. After fiddling with that for most of the day I decided to get back to my mauser project stuff. Started on the action mandrel. Set it up to turn between centers and everything was way out. Had run out of .007 to .010 on one end and maybe .002 on the other end. My best guess was the center hole in the end with the most run out was not centered. Put the end with the most run out in my ER32 chuck. Still had .002 run out. My ER chuck is usually spot on to maybe .0005. After fiddling with that I switched over to a 4 jaw and dialed it in. No run out. The other end in the live center in the tailstock now had no run out too. Finally I am good to go. Not to be. Covered the bar with dykem and took a skim cut. I like to use the dykem because it gives me a visual of the cut. Even though I had recently realigned the tailstock I was turning a taper. Only half of the dykem was removed at the tailstock end. Bigger at the tailstock. Smaller at the head. Took a .005 cut just to check. The taper was .006. ARG!!!! Moved the tailstock .003. Using the mandrel as a test bar and without changing the position of the tool bit I took another cut. Previous cuts had been towards the headstock. This cut I did towards the tailstock. The chips were getting gradually bigger as the cutter moved towards the tailstock. No taper now but the middle of the mandrel was .001 bigger than the ends. Flex in the bar as it was being cut. The follower rest should fix that. Nope. Couldn't get the tool bit and the follower rest to line up and still make the cut. I can live with the .001 in the center of the mandrel.

The mandrel started out at .750 OD. Needs it to be .700. I am taking light cuts of .005. OD was .736 when I stopped for the day. Will take more .005 cuts tomorrow to get the OD down to around .710. I have always been a sneak up on it hack. Rarely do I hit my target OD. Always seem to be just under my target OD. Recently watched a video on turning to a precise OD. The premise of the video was how to avoid over shooting the target OD. Per the video get your OD to within .010 or so of the target OD and then take just two more equal cuts. For example if you are .008 over target OD take two more equal cuts of .002 which should take off the remaining .008. No spring cuts. No skim cuts. Just two equal cuts. I am going to give this a try to see how it works out.

That's it for today.

 

[mickri]

Took two more .005 cuts this morning which decreased the OD by .020. Started at .736. The headstock end now measures .716. The tailstock end measures .718 and the middle of the bar measures .720. I probably took a half dozen measurements with the same result each time. These measurements indicate that I am cutting a taper again. ARG!!! Set up the DI and run it the length of the bar. 0 at the headstock, .002 in the middle and back to 0 at the tailstock. Did this several times in both directions with the same result. Also rotated the bar several times with the DI at each end. No run out at either the headstock or tailstock and I get the same 0, .002, 0 readings after rotating the bar.

The bar is 13 inches between measurement points. 15.5 inches from the chuck to the live center.

Don't know what to believe. My micrometer readings or the DI. How do I solve this mystery?

 

[pontiac428]

If you're fat in the middle, it might be deflection. That can be the result of a less-than-sharp tool, or from running the tailstock center too tightly into the work. Spring passes help here. Leveling and tailstock centering have a role to play as well. My Atlas is a bit of a wet noodle in this regard, and my hack fix is to use the tool post grinder to gently remove the offending material without deflection. You can also try it with a follow rest, that's what they're made for.

 

[mickri]

Long tedious day with not much accomplished. Started out ok then things went downhill. I probably made every mistake in the book. Even ones that I didn't know that I was making. My follower rest has steel jaws. Made some soft jaws out of copper tubing. Not pretty but seemed to work. About this time I discovered that the barrel end of the receiver has a smaller ID by a couple of thousands then the other end. Things were moving along. The follower rest is doing its thing. Then all of a sudden my nice smooth finish has some grooves/scratches in it and before I can stop the lathe and get the cutter backed off I have a 1/4" long low spot. I get long curling swarf. A piece of swarf got caught in the follower rest and pushed the mandrel into the cutter. Swell. Now I notice that my depth of cut is inconsistent. Finally get the mandrel so that if just barely slips into the receiver.

Start on the piece that will get silver soldered to the mandrel that will get threaded to fit the receiver. I see the boring bar moving as I make the first cut. Not flexing. Moving. Look closer and the whole tool post is moving. Either it came loose. Never had that happen before. Or I hadn't tightened it down enough when I was fiddling with the follower rest alignment yesterday.

Somehow through all this mess the mandrel ends up with a close fit on the receiver and on the threading piece. (don't know what to call it)

Silver soldering and cutting threads tomorrow. Wish me luck.

 

[mickri]

Finished the action mandrel today. No real hiccups. The silver solder didn't want to flow into joint with the parts laying on my welding table. Went searching for a solution and came across a video where they had the shaft vertical. They put flux on the part so that it would seep down into the joint and placed a ring of silver solder around the shaft. Heated the parts with a propane torch. When the parts got hot enough to melt the solder the solder flowed down into the joint. I did this and it worked. I used Stay Brite silver solder that Mikey had recommended.

Didn't have any problems with the threading. Just took me forever. I was using three wires to measure the depth of the thread. I should have trusted my measurements. Instead I kept taking my set up apart so I could try the fit of the threads to the receiver. This required me to chase the threads when I put the set up back together. I have gotten real good at chasing threads. The threads didn't fit until I hit my target, 1.008 inches. Fit was a little gritty. Did a cleanup pass but didn't use my last cut depth. I backed the cutter out .005. This cleaned up the grit and still left me with a very close fit on the threads.

Spent the better part of two days making this thing. Only took maybe 10 minutes to true the face of the receiver.