Building The Steven's Favorite

[TomG]

OK, I'm back from vacation and will pick up on the build where I left off...

The weekend was pretty productive for the Steven's project. I played around with the action a bit and decided to re-design the connecting link a bit because it was binding a bit on the hammer after raising it to half cock. CAD is very helpful but it doesn't provide the feel you get by operating something mechanical with your hands. I also turned down the breech end of the barrel and machined the socket in it where the barrel screw seats. That allowed me to check the over center operation of the lever and breech block. It worked perfectly holding the lever tightly against the underside of the receiver. The barrel screw turned into quite a project with its convex straight knurl and a couple beads that I added on each side to dress it up a bit. I apologize for the lousy pics but the wife took the point and shoot camera up north and I was forced to use my son's Nikon D700. It's a GREAT camera but I haven't used it enough to know how to change things like shutter speed and aperture and it is ALL electronic. Consequently I have a bunch of pics with zero depth of field.



The homebrew convex knurl was made by plunge cutting 90 teeth in a piece of 5/8 drill rod with a 60º cutter and mounting it on a bar using a dowel pin as a shaft.



This is the barrel screw in progress. The area under the knurl was pre-cut with a form tool that had the same radius as the knurl. It produced a nice clean knurl although I noticed that some of the teeth chipped off along the edge of the knurl. Guess I left it too hard.



Form tools were also made for the beads on each side of the knurl and the radius relief under the head. The thread is a single point cut 5/16-24. The angled point seats in the barrel to index and hold it in place.



I still need to cut the coin slot in the head. I didn't have the right diameter cutter so it'll need to be cut on the rotary table.



I may shorten the barrel screw a bit so none of the threads are showing.



This is with the breech block open showing how it drops down to allow a cartridge to be chambered.



Tonight was a bit of a milestone. I broke out my trusty slotting tool and finished squaring up the corners in the receiver to make room for the trigger return spring. I didn't have any 1/32 spring steel on hand so I made a temporary spring out of phosphor bronze. Now with the extra material removed I was able to install the hammer, trigger and the return spring and check out the operation. The hammer now falls all the way to the breech block and the sear catches the half cock and full cock notches as the hammer is raised. The trigger pull is a little light for my liking but that will get heavier with a stronger steel trigger return spring and some work on the notches in the hammer.

I forgot to cut the clearance for the mainspring when I made the stock so that will be next, then it's time to make some wood screws.