Stevens

[Billthomas]

The no pin or screw showing is the Holy Grail of gun design, look at the Shirley post and no screws or pins show. The design I have been playing with has no pins or screws showing and the internals are removed by opening the action lever and a small lever in the forearm then all the parts slide out the bottom in one assembly. Bill T

[Billthomas]

Trigger group, positioning the parts on the end of a "tree" eases the problem of holding them for milling, layout, filing and drilling. This will be the last pics, when its cased I'll post it under projects. Thanks for viewing, I learned a lot in the process, hope you enjoyed. Bill T.

[arjacobson]

Bill-EXCELLENT work. I have been itching to build one of these!! You should do a tutorial on weaponsguild!

[Billthomas]

Thanks, I hope you start, when you do if I can be of help personal message me, and I'll do my best. Very few people in my area are interested in this "hobby" but I did help my neighbor build one and he did all the work himself, he did trade for an old mill, but had no experience, its a 45-70 and has been proofed fired, just needs the final finish, I relate this to dispel the concept of "no experience", don't look at the whole project, just one step at a time. Thanks again, Bill T.

[Billthomas]

Ready for polish and case hardening, that's it till spring, thanks for the responses. BT

[woodbutcher]

Hi Bill.You da man.Outstanding craftsmanship sir.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[rbertalotto]

Bill,

Beautiful shop! I love the diamond plate cabinets!

Your work is superb! I do a bunch of gunsmithing as a hobby but I've not built an action yet. I just got off the phone with the fellow from Missouiri Trading and I ordered a Remington Hepburn kit. This will be my first foray into finishing an action. Should be fun and keep me out of trouble this winter!



Machined kit - $595.00
Unmachined kit - $395.00
(plus $15 shipping & handling)

[Billthomas]

Way to go, I looked at their ad and it takes me back, I purchased a lot of barrels from Bauska, and blueprints from the people in Texas, Tools International as I remember, please post a pic of the action parts before you start, and as you progress. If I can help, no problem. B T.

[oldred]

Bill are you using 8620 steel for these actions? Since they are to be color cased I can assume they are not 4140 such as I used on both my rifles but I have 8620 on hand to work with. My new project is about to start, in fact I have already laid out the internal parts and I am about to start making chips but after talking with the fellas on the BPCR section here I have made a few changes to my plans. The 4140HT material is super strong and polishes/blues nicely but I truly would like to color case this new receiver so I am considering using 8620 this time. Do you do your own color casing or do you send it out? Have you had problems with warpage (my biggest concern!) or dimensional changes? Since this one is going to be another 458 caliber (I have settled on 45-100 this time) I am thinking of slightly enlarging the receiver and threading the barrel lug to 1" 16 thread for a strength increase, that 15/16" 16 barrel lug is probably the weakest point in this design when chambering for large cases, Thoughts on that?

[M-Tecs]

Bill

Very nice work and shop.

[Billthomas]

Oldred, good to hear from you, I do my own case hardening, sometimes I get good colors, sometimes not, then I rust blue. I have to make some more bone charcoal, some say that's the secret. I have used other materials, but 8620 is hard to beat. I have used 1 x16 threads on a thick side, you have to alter the main spring port under the barrel threads, but its doable. I fudge a few dimensions now and then, sometimes not on purpose, I now start the rec. width at 1.400, that makes the figuring easier, and if all goes well I can do a paneled one and add 30% strength to the side walls. If you ever want to talk privately, pm me. On the warpage I've been lucky, but where the lower tang screws go I always put in a filler block, using those screw holes. B. T.

[Billthomas]

M-tecs, I kept it like a pig sty for years and at the point where I spent more time looking for the parts I made, than the time to make them, I had to face reality, it's not really me, but I'm trying to live with it. Thanks, BT.

[big bore 99]

Been following this thread and want to say that's nice work. I've been a toolmaker/prototype builder for over 47 years. Had my own small shop for the last 25.
Had a couple Bridgeports with power feed and DRO and a few lathes and surface grinder, etc. I used to pack harden small parts in a cake pan with Casenite usually got a nice coloring. Anyway, sold it all off a couple years ago. Thought I'd never want to see that stuff again, but following this thread, it gives me the itch. Hope it passes...

[oldred]

Oldred, good to hear from you, I do my own case hardening, sometimes I get good colors, sometimes not, then I rust blue. I have to make some more bone charcoal, some say that's the secret. I have used other materials, but 8620 is hard to beat. I have used 1 x16 threads on a thick side, you have to alter the main spring port under the barrel threads, but its doable. I fudge a few dimensions now and then, sometimes not on purpose, I now start the rec. width at 1.400, that makes the figuring easier, and if all goes well I can do a paneled one and add 30% strength to the side walls. If you ever want to talk privately, pm me. On the warpage I've been lucky, but where the lower tang screws go I always put in a filler block, using those screw holes. B. T.

On that main spring port I had planned to alter that anyway even if I did use the 15/16" barrel lug, that port just cuts too closely to the threads to suit me. Since I use the coil main spring that spring only loads the lever anyway and in that configuration the port does not need to be cut so close to the barrel lug, probably nothing to be concerned about but a bit more "meat" in that area makes me feel better. I have not yet decided which material to use and while I have an oven I have not tried color casing but now just might be the time, I was looking at Brownells color casing mixture but from what I have heard it's a bit pricey for what it is and apparently it does not yield any better results than most home mixtures.

[M-Tecs]

I haven't tried this source http://www.ebonex.com/b_bla.htm but it has been recommended to me for bone charcoal.

Excellent thread here http://www.marlin-collectors.com/for...hp?f=21&t=3732

[Billthomas]

Oldred, I don't think you need that spring at all, Winchester did away with it in the coil spring model, they did add a small coil spring and cup to keep things snug, I have a pic if you need it. When you say you use a coil main spring, are you saying "mouse trap" type or a long coil? I would really like to see a pic of that. I have a project that is in limbo, I tried using the hammer spring from a AR-15 and its not strong enough, I need to change my approach.

[oldred]

By coil spring I mean the mouse trap type that Winchester used on the later versions, I did however toy with the idea f using a different type spring for the lever but in the end I just used the barrel mounted spring for that -simple and works quite well. On the new rifle I am starting that barrel mounted spring won't be there nor will the forearm be attached directly to the barrel, However I still plan on using the Winchester style coil for the main spring.

I don't think you need that spring at all, Winchester did away with it in the coil spring model, they did add a small coil spring and cup to keep things snug, I have a pic if you need it.

Yes I would be interested in a pic of that set-up, I couldn't find a picture of it on the 'net and both original rifles I had used for reference used the flat main spring.

[Billthomas]

I'm really having problems, I have pics in the ether.

[Billthomas]

Oldred, I have hundreds of section views like this, any time you need, don't hesitate. Bill t

[oldred]

That's much clear than looking looking at an original without disassembling it, both of the ones I disassembled for reference were flat fspring models although one had been converted to the coil for the hammer and just left the original spring for the lever. After getting well into the first project I decided to use the coil spring but since the flat spring was already made and the lever was fitted it was much simpler to just do it that way, on the small scaled down 22 Magnum version of that rifle I tinkered around trying to figure out a different lever spring arrangement but the original flat type again seemed like the simplest way of doing it. This time however I don't want that spring placing pressure against the barrel so the coil type lever spring will be used.

Thanks, the timing was perfect on that one since I had been doing some thinking about it before the subject even came up here.