Rifles
Remington 700: Fitting the barrel
Back to the Remington 700 project. I finished the barrel and the blueprinting of the bolt and the receiver. It is now time to fit the barrel and test fire the rifle. The masking tape you see in the photos is to protect the action from scratches.
Taped and ready to go
The Remington 700 receiver is easy to damage if twisted. To prevent damage like this I use a wrench adapter that I made during our first semester.
Wrench adapter
Once I installed the wrench adapter, I clamped the barrel in a barrel vice (yes, I made one of those in my first semester but the one you belongs to the school) and use an action wrench to tighten the barrel. Yes, the action wrench you see was a first semester project. Normally, I would use an a tool to hold the recoil lug in alignment during this step, but it was not needed as the action would be removed from the barrel after the test fire.
Ready to tighten
Once this was done, I installed the trigger and the rifle was ready to test fire.
Ready
Ready with bolt in action
Next was the test fire! Test firing consists of three rounds fired from the rifle. After the test fire, the cartridge cases are checked for expansion. We are allowed an expansion of 0.002 inches (0.0508mm or 50.8 micron). Here is a video of the test fire.
The results of the test fire was good. Zero case expansion. I am more than happy with that. The next step for this rifle is to install a muzzle brake and I will detail that in the next post.
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Mauser project: Barrel, trigger and safety
As our semester is winding down, I am still playing catch up on posting my projects. Today, I will update some of the work I did on the Mauser. After completing work on the receiver and bolt, I am turning my attention to the barrel, installing a new trigger and a low position safety. I clamped the barrel and centered it in a 4-jaw chuck on the lathe.
Ready for cutting
After facing the barrel, I cut the tenon.
Tenon
I then cut the threads needed to attach the barrel to the receiver including a relief cut at the shoulder part of the tenon. This is to ensure the receiver fits tightly onto the barrel. I verified that the face of the barrel was also touching inside the receiver. In the picture, I am busy reaming the chamber (.257 Roberts). The red marks you see is a marking fluid that I used to ensure all the metal surfaces that should make contact with each other is in fact doing so.
Chambering!
With the barrel chambering complete, I turned my attention to the action. First, I installed a Timney Sportsmen trigger. I also installed a Beuhler-style low safety.
Timney trigger
Close up
Safety
Once I completed this, I attached the barrel.
Ready for test fire
Ready for test fire
The next step for the action is to test fire it and check that the case expansion is good. I also have some other metal work to do and I will cover that in a future post.
FN SPR project: Blueprinting
It is time to talk and show some of the work I have done on my third (required) project this semester. The FN Special Purpose Rifle (SPR) is essentially a pre-64 Winchester 70 action. We managed to get a good group deal on these and I ended up buying 2 of these. One (this one) I will keep as a complete rifle as it will be part of my portfolio. At some stage, I will complete the second rifle and sell it. I will chamber this rifle in .243 Winchester and I will make a laminate stock for it.
FN SPR action
Ready to start
As with the Mauser and Remington projects, I start by blueprinting the bolt and receiver. I trued the bolt face first.
Bolt face
I also had to true the bolt lugs. No picture of that but the process is the same as for the Mauser bolt. I then trued the front of the receiver.
Receiver
The only other step needed on the bolt and receiver was to lap the bolt to make sure there is full contact between the bolt lugs and the receiver. In my next post I will show the process of cutting and chambering the barrel.
Winchester 94: Fore end start
Time to start work on the fore end. Here is the wood blank ext to the existing fore end.
Wood blank
I started by drilling a hole through the wood for the magazine tube.
Drilling
Hole drilled but just too small. I needed to make a small reamer to make the hole larger. Here is the fore end with the stock after the grip cap glue dried and the metal piece I will be making the reamer from.
Fore end, Stock, Reamer
After I completed the reamer, I finished the hole for the magazine tube.
Tube installed, reamer
Reamer close up
Now it is time to do the channel for the barrel. I chose to do this without the help of any power tools.
Barrel channel start
Barrel channel
The next step is to take the channel diameter to the next size tool I have. Look for that in a later post with a picture of the tools I am using to do this.
Winchester 94: Sanding & grip cap
With the rough shaping complete I started sanding the stock. This is done in a few steps. I started with 80 grit sandpaper, followed by 150 grit, 220 grit and finished with 400 grit. The idea is to remove all tool marks from the wood until it is smooth. Not really much to see in the pictures, but here they are!
Left side
Right side
When I completed the sanding, I removed the protective tape and snapped a few photographs, including some close-ups.
It is now time to turn my attention to the grip cap. I removed the metal template and shortened the pistol grip a little. I then ensured the bottom of the pistol grip was square.
Square
On this stock, I opted to add a wooden grip cap. I found a piece of cocobolo that I thought would complement the rest of the stock. After cutting it and making sure that it was square on the pistol grip side, I glued it to the stock and left it to dry.
In place
Glued and "clamped"
Yes, the “clamp” that I use is just a piece of surgical tubing. This has been left to dry. If you are wondering, I have now caught up with the progress on this part of the stock. Next is to shape and sand the grip cap to match the pistol grip, mount the recoil pad (received today from Brownells) and then I will start finishing it! I have started with the forend part and will post the progress on that in my next post.