Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats 7mm PRC Build Begins

Here are photos of the gimbals in the 4-jaw as well as the smaller ones that I use on the muzzle end when crowning, etc. Just 3/8" O-1 milled in half. https://www.dropbox.com/s/jiaotc23gsal606/2022-12-21%2010.12.52.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3nzmjdw4gc5wxu3/2022-12-21%2010.13.50.jpg?dl=0

I don't disagree-- if they shoot, they shoot.

This is how I do it, I'm certainly not qualified to tell anyone else how to do it but it works for me.

Mind if I ask another question? How do you affix that 8-jaw spider chuck to the back side of your lathe? Can you also move it to the 4-jaw for accurizing an action? TIA.

Not sure what you mean-- I have a 4-jaw mounted to the spindle nose taper. The spider is a 4-bolt arrangement, I used nylon tipped screws to attach it to the OD of the spindle. The spider isn't under much of a load and I didn't want to risk making a burr on the spindle.

Understood. Thx.

It isn't the height of precision, but I've seen a pretty accurate build done without indicating at all.

The first time I ever saw a guy build a rifle, he put the barrel in a collet chuck and spun it until he couldn't see any wobble on the muzzle end. No indicator in sight and I'm pretty sure he was drunk. I still have the rifle and it shoots extremely well. All of that said, if I'm going to go to the time and expense of building rifles as a hobby I may as well do it to the best of my ability.

Of course.

What I saw wasn't simply eyeballing though.

You willing to share with us what you paid for that beauty of a lathe? Inquiring minds want to know! TIA

If I remember correctly it was around $15k but I traded another Hardinge as part of the deal (that was more work to restore than I wanted to take on). The DRO was extra and I had Paul at Hardinge Repair do a service on it and my Bridgeport.

Woodhits
May I assume you are using WHC’s method number either 3 or 4…can’t remember the number?

Thank you.

Would you mind giving your opinion on a Southbend Heavy 10 for gunsmithing? Sufficiently heavy and precise to do high-quality work or no? TIA.

I'll put my 2 cents in concerning Southbend Lathes. They had a bunch of 9" and heavy 10s in H-School. A few of these were in very good condition. Most were pretty worn out. Great lathe to learn on. Belt can slip if you get in a jam. Gunsmithing school at Trinidad had several 13" SBs and a few heavy 10s. Most were in reasonable shape and could produce quality work. They also had some "newer" Clausing 13/40s. I didn't use them much as the Southbend was what I learned on. Then I had to cut metric threads and asked the toolroom for the change gears for the SB 13. They told me they had the gears, but it would take me a bunch of time to set the gears, cut the threads and return the geartrain to inch for the next class. They said just use a Clausing and just flip the levers to the metric settings. I had no idea you didn't have to put metric transposing gears in the Clausing to cut metric. I got my threads cut quickly on the Clausing and marveled how convenient the brake was. In school I had my own 9" SB in the dorms or my rental house for third year. I really liked using it for most smaller projects.

Recently I've sold my 9"SB and miss it. However I'm happy to have the extra room for a Milltronics CNC Mill. The only lathe I have left is a Kent TRL-1340 I bought new back in 2006. It's got plenty of power. Enough to eat you and spit you out the other side. As I'm very comfortable and competent at using a lathe, It may be a bit much for someone just learning. It's a Taiwan made precision lathe almost exactly like the Clausings in gunsmithing school as well as the Clausing copy made in the same plant as what Southbend is selling today.

13inchSouthbend

Back in 2006 my Kent was $10K delivered to my shop, now they are $15K and the SB version of the same machine made in the same plant is $20K.

The older Southbends in really good shape are an investment that should hold it's value and then some. Great first machine IF you don't have to cut metric threads. Heavy 10 would be a minimum as you can get a barrel through the headstock.

At Dak Arms, they had a Nardini in pretty good condition. Really liked the machine but I was the only one that ever changed the gears to cut metric threads. Couldn't just flip a lever.

The Hardinges and Monarch EE are in a much higher class.

Thanks for the information. Much appreciated.

Got a chance to finish chambering. Here is the bolt not closing on the no go gauge.



Time to flip things around and handle the muzzle end.

Christmas slowed down my progress but I’m back in business. With the breech end done I got to work on the muzzle.

Started by parting off the end of the barrel



Faced off the end of the barrel before turning.



Turned the barrel down to .623” and threaded a .600” section 5/8-24.



Test fit the TBAC brake.



Threads complete



Cut an 11 degree crown but didn’t take any photos. Onto bedding. Got most of it prepped but won’t have a chance to finish for a couple of days.

My apologies for the delay on updating this thread, our whitetail rut is about to kick off and I've been focused on work and chasing deer.

Bedding, in my view, is more art than science. Though I've built some great-shooting rifles, I've never done a bedding job that I was truly happy with. This one was complicated by the fact that it was a) finished and b) came with pillars installed. Bedding an unfinished stock gives you far more flexibility in my experience-- as an example, I can let the bedding compound cure along the barrel channel before I sand it down to flush. Little things.

The best-shooting rifles that I've built were ones where I made and installed the pillars myself. I can set the pillars exactly where I want them and can torque the action down without any stress points. I make them where the ID of the pillar is a slip fit with the action screws so I know exactly where the barreled action is going to end up. Later, after the bedding is complete, I can ream out the pillar ID to provide relief. The ID on these pillars was huge, like over .300".

On this rifle, I taped the barrel with 20 mil tape, filled the voids with modeling clay and used electricians tape on the sides and bottom of the recoil lug. I did not tape the front of the lug-- Robert Gradous taught me to bed this way and, so far, I can't argue with the results. I also taped the portion of the action on both sides of the magazine port so that only the receiver ring and tang are in contact with the stock.

I used Marine-Tex and managed to get the epoxy in place without creating too big of a mess. Hoppes #9 is great for cleaning up bedding compound before it dries.

I waited 24 hours, broke the barreled action free and began the clean-up process. A milling machine is ideal for removing excess epoxy in places like the magazine well and trigger inlet.




The results were not as aesthetically pleasing as some that I've seen but I'm more concerned about the targets. I headed out to the farm to see how it shot. Using factory Precision Hunter 175gr. ELD-X ammo, I started by simply test-firing the rifle. It shot with no drama and the case looked like everything was kosher in terms of headspace, etc. I made some scope corrections and shot a three-shot group. Imagine my surprise when the group was strung vertically, well over an inch. I shot another three with the same result. Damn.


On the way home I did what I always do when I screw something up and called a my gunmaking Obi Wan. I was threatening to put the stock in the Bridgeport, rip out all of the Marin-Tex and start over but he talked me off of the ledge. In his view, the .020" clearance under the barrel wasn't enough and my barrel was likely slapping the stock during recoil. Using a 3/4" cobalt ball end mill, I relieved the barrel channel an additional .040" to provide some clearance. Then I cleaned everything up with sandpaper so that I can paint the area black in the future.

photo hosting

In between some quail and deer hunting this past weekend I pulled the rifle out and shot another three-shot group. I didn't measure it or photograph it but all three shots were touching in a nice triangular clover. Good enough to kill a deer with before I start hand loading and fine-tuning. Alabama's deer season runs until February 10 and I very much want to use this rifle in the field this season.

Once the season is over, I'll send the action off for black nitriding and have the barrel shank engraved appropriately. For now, it's all about the buck that I'm after.