Fun with Frank dehaas

[redneck1]

More then a few people have this crazy notion that you need a shop full of machine tools and a huge assortment of hand tools to build a rifle .

They are wrong !

I used to have this same misguided notion myself , then I found a frank dehaas book Mr singles shots book of rifle plans .

So here is my rendition in progress ... made with a very bare minimum of tools .

A general Hodge podge of parts in the rough .

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And all of the major components in the beginning stages of being fitted together ... about 35-40 hours of labor at this point .

The trigger guard is backwards . I somehow missed that when I took the picture .

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Progress will be slow for a week or two , I need to gather up some funds for a few things I still need ... along with a barrel .

[Texas by God]

I'm watching this with interest!

[joatmon]

Looking good, have you picked a cartridge yet?
Aaron

[redneck1]

If I buy a new barrel it will be a 25-20 , otherwise I am pretty open minded if I find a deal on a barrel .

Before I can permanently weld the reciever sides to the reciever ring I'll need to fit a barrel , but I have quite a bit I can get done before I have to worry about it .

[smokeywolf]

Promises to be a fascinating thread.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Whoa, hoss! Let's start at the beginning of the project. Where did you acquire the steel? What grade (alloy) is it? What form did it come in (like 1/4" thick plate)? How did you derive the dimensions for the parts--did De Haas give measurements or a pattern or both? How did you cut out the parts to the forms we see in your original photos? (Looks like layout fluid on one part). The best instructive threads start at the very beginning. :D

[nekshot]

Whoa, hoss! Let's start at the beginning of the project. Where did you acquire the steel? What grade (alloy) is it? What form did it come in (like 1/4" thick plate)? How did you derive the dimensions for the parts--did De Haas give measurements or a pattern or both? How did you cut out the parts to the forms we see in your original photos? (Looks like layout fluid on one part). The best instructive threads start at the very beginning. :D

DeHass has a book with this action all laid out. I got that book about 17 years ago and haven't been the same since. Shame we cannot put the book with this build. Looks like alot of fun this summer!!

[cold1]

More then a few people have this crazy notion that you need a shop full of machine tools and a huge assortment of hand tools to build a rifle .

They are wrong !

I used to have this same misguided notion myself , then I found a frank dehaas book Mr singles shots book of rifle plans .

So here is my rendition in progress ... made with a very bare minimum of tools .




YEAH!!!!! Another one. I am watching with great interest.

[Jedman]

nekshot, PM sent. This is a project of interest to myself as well !
Please keep us informed on your progress.

Thanks, Jedman

[redneck1]

You'll have to forgive me , I started this on another forum . Unfortunately I found out a few disturbing things about the forum ownership and packed up my project and left .

Soo... from the beginning .

Materials , everything but the breech face is made from 1018 cold rolled stock . And the breech face is 01 tool steel .

The receiver ring that the barrel screws into was turned out of 1-3/8
Round stock .
I started by squaring up the ends and then boring the piece out to .680 and then I threaded it halfway 3/4-16
After boring and threading I turned the piece sideways in my four jaw Chuck and cut the flat surfaces seen in the picture below .

That was the easy part , then using an angle grinder , square and a file I cut the two slots for the reciever sides . As soon as I got this far a friend offered the use of his shaper , so I took advantage of that and whipped out two more of these for future endeavors .

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Next up was the reciever sides ... these will be welded to the reciever ring . Material is 3/16 crs. Tools used , hacksaw and file .

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Then came the breech block , material used is 1/4 crs
These have quite a bit of work in them aside from the effort it takes to hacksaw them out . Once I had the basic shape cut out the first challenge was to cut the radius on the one end
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I did this by using my lathe and face plate in one very shaky set up .
Sorry about the poor pic , the set up would have been less dubious if I owned a clamping kit , but I got it done .
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Once I got done sweating that , it was a few hours work to square the breech block up to the reciever ring .

Next job was the two support shoulders for the breech block , this would have been easy if I had a bigger lathe . But alas I didn't have enough swing to do these on the faceplate so it was file , sandpaper and Prussian blue to fit them to the breech block

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More to come once I eat dinner

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Great! Very good explanation and photos. Now those who do not have the book (I do!) will have a better understanding of how to do this. :D

[smokeywolf]

redneck1,
Can you be more specific as to what machine tools you might use and already have used in this build?

[redneck1]

That's easy ... the only machine tool you need to own or have access to is a lathe . You need it to bore the reciever ring and do the barrels shank .

Everything else is hand tool eligible .

[redneck1]

So next up we have the breech face and firing pin block ,
The breech face will get a 6-40 screw to attach the breech face .
And then both will be pinned to the breech blocks .

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And to give prospective to how things fit together.

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Obvious from the pile of parts pictured above I am a little further along then this , but up till this point most of the work has been just cutting out parts , now I am at the point where it is time to start fitting things together and making it work ... i.e. the hard part .
So I'll start going into actual detail with my progress .

Uhmm lets try to get the pics right side up.

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[Blackwater]

Gee whiz, Redneck! I have to many semi-finished projects laying around now, and now THIS???? Have mercy! I've long thought that I'd love to build my own action. A buddy once told me I'd make my own air if I could! (sigh) It never ends, does it?

[rancher1913]

thanks for posting this, don't know that I will ever be brave enough to try this but it is fascinating to see your progress.

[redneck1]

Don't be bashful about starting one , the worst that can happen is you screw up and have to make a new part .

The book doesn't give a lot of dimensions , before I started I found that to be quite intimidating. As I go along I find it does a good job of making things easier . It allows you to make changes as you please . And leaves a lot of room to make part A fit with part B

As to to many projects .... what would you do if you ever finished them all anyways .

If you can read / follow directions and have access to a lathe ... you can build this !

[TCLouis]

32-20, 32 S&W Long, 327 Federal seems like the perfect fall back if 25-20 falls through

[nekshot]

if you start and get spooked it would be simple to go 22lr with a Ruder 1022 barrel. Just get the firing pin at the right place. Thats what I like about this build if you mess up you did not lose a whole lot of sweat to get it right. I never cut up my book but I thought the drawings were to scale and could be traced? I need to dig that book out again.

[redneck1]

The drawings are to scale in the book , if you have the book .
It's been out of print for quite awhile now . But finding a pdf version to download is pretty easy .

Caliber , I am most definitely sticking with a center fire.
25-20 is my first choice , but I've run into some financial constraints
With some unexpected bills . So I am not going to get stuck on one caliber in case I find a cheap barrel somewhere once I have some cash to spend .

Moving on , last night was date night with the girlfriend, but after dinner I plan on going out and spending a couple hours working on something, not 100% sure what yet , I'm at the point now where the book calls for a barrel to already be fitted so I can weld the reciever sides to the reciever ring .
But I believe I can cheat a bit by just tack welding and starting to fit things .
Either way , something's getting done :)

[skeettx]

Watching and waiting
Good luck
Mike

[redneck1]

Very small progress , after eating I went out and managed to get the
Firing pin block drilled and tapped for the breech face .
You'll have to excuse the ugly screw , I ordered tapered head screws I could counter sink . And got fillister screws instead . In the effort of progress I butchered one up for temporary service .

It seems distraction free Saturday evenings and girlfriends don't mix well together , so I'll have to wait till she goes to bed for some quality shop time .

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[Jedman]

I am glad you chose to make the thread on the barrel shank 3/4-16 as FDH suggested 3/4-14 and that makes no sense.
To attach the side plates he says you can weld them , several ways to do that or use screws .
I was thinking if I were to use screws I would also use two taper pins each one reamed and driven in from opposite sides of the receiver. Along with two screws on each side. A taper pin can be nearly invisible when dress off flush and are quite strong.
There are many ways to make his Chicopee action and make it possibly stronger or easier with what equipment or materials you have to work with.

Good Luck with your project as many of us would like to build something similar.

Jedman

[Naphtali]

Do you intend to do the welding, or are you going to "farm it out?"

[redneck1]

I plan on welding it myself , I'm no expert welder by any means but I can do ok and I have access to a tig welder .

[redneck1]

I know I have been a bit lax on updating this , I do apologise.
It isn't from lack of progress though .
It's simply that I dislike showing stuff half done . So I promise a quite large update Sunday evening .

The thing that has been holding me back is springs , but that is no longer a problem , the music wire I ordered showed up finally so I can now wind some springs on the lathe .

I did a bit of research and learned that one of the key parts of successfully winding a spring is that first you have to straighten the wire ... who knew !

So with a bit of head scratching I came up with a simple solution I think will work .

This little gizmo will simply clamp in a tool holder .
The wire will ride in the groove with a plate clamped over it to provide a bit of tension to straighten it as the spring is wound on a mandrel
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[405grain]

I really like the Chicopee center fire actions. Of the four actions in Frank DeHaas's book, I think that it is the nicest one. I think that a lot of the diameters that he chose for pivot pins, and the thread sizes he used were just based on what he had laying around at the time. Many of the parts dimensions are left open so that the individual builder can make (sensible) changes as they see fit. Many of the pivot pins can use standardized sizes, like 1/8", 3/16" 1/4", etc. 1018 steel is a good choice for these actions, and even with mild steel they are really strong.
The limiting factor on the strength of the Chicopee action is mostly the diameter of the barrel shank. In cartridges much above 30 carbine or 357 magnum diameter, the breech end of the barrel starts getting too thin. Also, the pressures for this action should be kept below 46,000 psi. Chicopee's have been built in 223 and 222 Remington, but these rounds are really pushing it as far as the pressure goes, and Frank De Haas recommends against these calibers in his book. The cartridges that do work well in this action are: Cartridges based on the 22 Hornet case like - 17 Hornet, 22, hornet, 22 K-Hornet & 25 Hornet. Also cartridges based on the 32-20 case like the 218 Bee, 25-20 & 32-20. Other options are cartridges based on the 357 Magnum case, like the 256 magnum, 30-357 wildcats, 38 special, & 357 magnum. Chicopee actions can also be used with a host of other cartridges like 30 carbine, 32 Smith & Wesson long, 32 H&R magnum, 9mm Luger, etc.
One of the unique things about building a Chicopee is that, even though there are probably hundreds of them, no two are alike. Everyone that builds one makes it slightly different than anyone else's. Also, most builders end up making a lot of the parts twice because building one is a learning experience. On the first Chicopee action that I worked on, I chose 357 magnum as the caliber because brass and bullets for it would be cheap and plentiful. I got the barrel from Numrich (part # 1199550). Just a thought - if you plan to chamber a rifle in a pistol caliber, remember that you'll need a "rifle" chambering reamer, not a "cylinder" chambering reamer.

[dverna]

I am amazed at what many of you can accomplish. I have neither the skill or patience to attempt something like this but enjoy these kinds of threads immensely.

Thanks for posting.

[izzyjoe]

Very nice, I'll be following this cause I'm leaning towards building one myself.

[smokeywolf]

redneck1, on your spring winding toolholder, put a scrap of leather between your plate and the music (spring) wire.

[Gaseous Maximus]

Redneck 1, You are doing really great, I just hope you don't make the same mistake I did. I built one back in the 80s and I used a barrel that I had bought from Numrich, where they got it I do not know. Anyway, after completely finishing the rifle, I found that the bore is .227 instead of .224 so right now I am in the process of rebarreling. which is a real job, cause the front scope mount and fore end iron are attached to it.

[725]

This is fascinating. Most sincere good luck in the project. As you can, post photos and narrative to keep us up to speed. Can you please post the title and ISBN number of the deHaas book.
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[Parson]

Redneck 1, You are doing really great, I just hope you don't make the same mistake I did. I built one back in the 80s and I used a barrel that I had bought from Numrich, where they got it I do not know. Anyway, after completely finishing the rifle, I found that the bore is .227 instead of .224 so right now I am in the process of rebarreling. which is a real job, cause the front scope mount and fore end iron are attached to it.

This is not uncommon with Numrich, I once had a 45-70 barrel from them that measured .452

[woodbutcher]

:-D Looking good sir.Please keep the updates coming as you can.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[725]

I did a basic google search for deHaas books. Oh my....... they are expensive!