Building The Steven's Favorite

[Rickabilly]

(06-28-2012, 10:41 AM)TomG Wrote: Thanks guys but it's going to have to wait a bit. I'm going on vacation next week where there's no high speed internet.

Tom

What, what, what,
No updates for a whole week, what will I do with my evenings now?
But seriously, Thank you for a, building the gun in the first place and b, showing us through the process.
I'm pretty sure Mrs Rick will never let me move to a country where I can build one for myself, so watching you will just have to do.

Hmmm, maybe I can go to the US for a holiday, build one legally, and then somehow get it approved for legal import back home;
Where there's a will, an all that.

Oh well a man can dream I suppose, realistically it's never gonna happen.

You know to me the engineering in gunsmithing is what it is all about, I have no need for a gun of any kind, I find target shooting interesting for about twenty minutes and being a bit of an Animal loving softy Hunting is not a desirable pastime, not that I want to force anyone else to stop, Just not interested in doing it myself. So as I said, no need for a gun, But, I love watching the action working, that smooth interraction of all the parts as you look inside at all the levers, springs and other gizmos moving around doing their jobs perfectly, I can't think of another form of engineering that has that sort of motion, It's a lot like watching a ballet, but a cool Ballet.

Best Regards
Rick

[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.

[Mayhem]

Looking good Tom - I'm hoping to see the finished product in September!

[TomG]

(07-11-2012, 06:13 AM)Mayhem Wrote: Looking good Tom - I'm hoping to see the finished product in September!

Guess I had better get busy!

Tom

[TomG]

Tonight's task was to cut the relief in the stock for the mainspring assembly and get it mounted. That involved making something I've never made before, wood screws. Their purpose is to attach the stock to the receiver through the upper and lower tangs. They are 3/16" diameter (#10) and about an inch long, with oval heads and the typical tapered sharp V thread used on wood screws.



The shank of the screw was turned to .188 and the taper attachment used to turn a 10º included angle taper.




The threading tool is 30º instead of the normal 60º and has a .058 flat on the point. I broke two of them off before getting wise and using a center in a super small center hole. I withdrew the tool at the end of the thread for a cleaner look, easy to do on the Hardinge with its quick acting lever on the compound. The same can be done on any lathe by stopping the spindle at the end of the thread and rotating it by hand as the tool is backed out with the compound crank.



Cutting a 90º angle under the head of the screw to match the countersunk holes in the receiver.



Parting off the partially finished screw.



The diameter of the head finish turned and parted to length, leaving stock for the oval shape on the head.



Machining the oval head on the screws with a form tool.



Cutting the screw slots using a collet block in the mill with a .045" slitting saw.



The finished wood screws.



Cutting the relief pocket for the mainspring assembly on the mill.




The firing pins is simply a 3/16" diameter piece of drill rod, turned down on one end, flatted for a retaining pin and tapered to the traditional wedge shape used on rimfire cartridges.



After turning down one end, it was mounted in a collet block on the mill, centered with an edge finder and the flat to index and retain the pin was cut with a 1/8" 4-flute end mill.



Then the block was turned on end and the wedge shape cut with a 45º end mill. I had to break out the old eye loupe to measure the .020" flat with a rule. The opposite end gets a radius to match the rear contour of the breech block. Rather than go to all the trouble of setting it up on the rotary table, I'm going to take the easy way out and just mount it in the breech block using the block as a pattern to cut the radius with the belt sander.





Here's the finished firing pin installed in the breech block. Another member pointed out that the newer model Favorites have a modified firing pin to prevent possibility of gases from escaping around it (inches form your eye), so I'll probably do a re-design on this one. I'm thinking to keep it looking original, I'll add an internal O-Ring to the pin to serve as a gas stop.


No pictures this time because the part has already been made once. Last night I re-made the link that connects the lever to the breech block. The link does double duty by also moving the hammer to the half cock position and I wasn't happy with the way it worked. A redesign moved the part of the link that pushes on the hammer farther away form the hammer pivot point. Now it does what it's supposed to to do without binding. That's the thing about prototype parts; sometimes they need to be tweaked and remade but it's all part of the process. Once the action is working to my liking I'll probably harden it to prevent damage to the sear and notches from playing with it too much.

[DaveH]

Tom,

That screw is one fantastic piece of work - fabulous

Nicely shown and photographed, so we should all be able to make them now

DaveH

[TomG]

(07-12-2012, 08:48 AM)DaveH Wrote: Tom,

That screw is one fantastic piece of work - fabulous

Nicely shown and photographed, so we should all be able to make them now

DaveH

Thanks Dave.

The nice thing about photographs is that I don't have to show the one that I "screwed" up.

Tom

[Rickabilly]

Hello Tom,
As always nice work,

I assume you used the taper turning attachment to cut the tapered thread on the wood screws?

Watching you making even the wood screws reminds me a bit of my Father.

My father used to have a bit of an OCD side when it came to making machine screws, he would cut the screws leaving the head in the cheese head style, with all of the under head surfaces finished and then screw them into the part, in this case the part would be the receiver and then mark each screw as to it's final tightened position, then he'd remove the screws again and finish the head and cut the slots so as all the slots are either vertical or horizontal, it would drive him nuts if just one of the screws was not in it's "correct" orientation, he would even go from room to room in the house with a flat blade screwdriver lining up all of the screws in the light switches, etc.

On machine screws with washers the easy way was to make washers of various thicknesses and match the correct washer, screw and hole combinations and then never mix them up, alternately just a skim off of the underside of the head could be used to adjust the final position of a screw slot.

I figure that any really good machinist has some OCD tendencies kind of comes with the territory

I do hope I haven't just made all of your screws into obsolete parts
Best Regards
Rick

[TomG]

(07-12-2012, 10:41 AM)Rickabilly Wrote: Hello Tom,
As always nice work,

I assume you used the taper turning attachment to cut the tapered thread on the wood screws?

Watching you making even the wood screws reminds me a bit of my Father.

My father used to have a bit of an OCD side when it came to making machine screws, he would cut the screws leaving the head in the cheese head style, with all of the under head surfaces finished and then screw them into the part, in this case the part would be the receiver and then mark each screw as to it's final tightened position, then he'd remove the screws again and finish the head and cut the slots so as all the slots are either vertical or horizontal, it would drive him nuts if just one of the screws was not in it's "correct" orientation, he would even go from room to room in the house with a flat blade screwdriver lining up all of the screws in the light switches, etc.

On machine screws with washers the easy way was to make washers of various thicknesses and match the correct washer, screw and hole combinations and then never mix them up, alternately just a skim off of the underside of the head could be used to adjust the final position of a screw slot.

I figure that any really good machinist has some OCD tendencies kind of comes with the territory

I do hope I haven't just made all of your screws into obsolete parts
Best Regards
Rick

Thanks Rick.

Yes, the tapers on the screws were cut using a taper attachment. That's likely the only way it could have been done since the taper was also threaded. The screws are a bit on the small side to be turning between centers using tailstock offset.

I do have some OCD tendencies, but not to the point where I have to "time" my screw slots to sleep at night. George Wilson, on that "other" forum likes to time his screws.

Tom

[doubleboost]

Hi
Tom
Some very nice work
Your attention to detail is a credit to you
John