Planning a chicopee build

Howdy guys .
I want to build the dehaas chicopee cf rifle . And I was hoping there might be a member or two or three who can throw a few pointers my way In regards to what hand tools you found to be an absolute necessity and those that will be handy to have to accomplish the build .

Metal working is a rather new hobby to me And I lack most of typical hand tools some of you guys take for granted . tools like good quality files .

In order for you to make helpful suggestions it might help to know what I have to work with .

I have a grizzly 10 x 22 inch lathe . with very basic tooling for turning , boring and threading .
Along with the typical drill press and metal cutting bandsaw .
And I have an 8 inch metal shaper I just picked up a few weeks ago .
I also have access to a mig welder to do the welding .
So I think I have my bases covered as far as machine tools for the build

But Like I mentioned I am rather new to metal working and still lack a lot of the basic hand tools a lot of you take for granted and I think this project will go along a good bit smoother if I plan ahead and try to have most of the tools I'll need before starting .

Thanks in advance

I started my build with what I had, side grinder, hacksaw, and hand files. That worked out well for the majority of the roughing out and initial shaping. What I soon found out was that things were not as square and flat as I thought but they would work. Where I got my but kicked with simple hand tools was the barrel receiver block. I cut the rabbits with a hacksaw and took them to size and depth with hand files. It was a decent fit but not as precise as I wanted. If I was just trying to coble something together that I did not expect to last for years it would have been good enough. My goal though is to make something that will last a lifetime. Thats when I found a deal on a combo lathe/mill/drill machine. That has really helped out as far as making precision flat, square cuts. I am still using hand tools quite a bit for the actual fitting of the parts. I cut all of my parts over sized and trial and error fit them. Another area that the combo machine has made life a lot easier is in making hole that are square to the work piece. The drill press just did not make good holes, so watch out for that!

I would also buy twice the amount of steel as you think you need. As a newbie to metal working, I have had to make some parts 3 times to get it right.

I have planned on having to re-make most of the parts more then once .
I already have all of the cold rolled stock . I bought enough to build about 25 of these :)

Like you I plan on taking my time and doing the best job I possibly can.
My only goal time wise is to have it far enough along to be able to test fire before Thanksgiving .

I was cleaning up around the barn and found a old flat mower blade and this this thread came to mind. I am sure the metal from lawn mower blades would take you pretty far in one of these actions.

i over heated the old noodle today thinking about this . lets talk files .

i know i need some good files . i own one . i wont count the half dozen or so beat up junkers i have because i i know just enough about files to know that what i have is junk .

so what would you fellows suggest towards sizes shapes and patterns . i do have to work within a budget and i want to buy good quality files with the most likely candidates being Nicholson files .
what would you consider as the minimum requirement .


i think i have made up my mind on a barrel as well , i am going to go with a green mountain .25 cal blank . at 25 inches long and 1.06 rough dia i think i can work with it with a bit of ingenuity and careful planning . the only thing i wont be able to do is put a taper on the barrel unless i shorten it up enough to fit between centers and offset the tail stock .
i'd like to keep the barrel as long as possible so i might just live with a straight no taper barrel .

Quote:

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Originally Posted by redneck1

i over heated the old noodle today thinking about this . lets talk files .

i know i need some good files . i own one . i wont count the half dozen or so beat up junkers i have because i i know just enough about files to know that what i have is junk .

so what would you fellows suggest towards sizes shapes and patterns . i do have to work within a budget and i want to buy good quality files with the most likely candidates being Nicholson files .
what would you consider as the minimum requirement .

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A nicholson Bastard cut is what I use the most. It removes a lot of metal quick. I have "safed" one of the edges, thats a fancy way of saying that I used a grinder on one of the edges to remove the teeth and make it smooth. The next most used is a nicholson smooth cut. That takes away less metal when you are trying to sneak up on a dimension. A half round comes in handy too for shaping inside radius/curves.

Even with a mill, I find it quicker to use the files on shaping the small stuff and bring it to dimensions.