Sharps Borchardt Action

[Harry Eales]

Hello gentlemen,

Many thanks for the warm welcome, I've been pottering around building a Sharps Borchardt Action fron scratch for some time, but my Arthritis is giving me some stick at the moment. lol. You can see my progress here:- http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k206/Rifleman_01/
Ignore the countryside scenes, they are of a local Red Grouse Moor, also ignore the completed Borchardt Rifle, I was advising the owner on rebuilding it, it came out very well indeed. All the other Borchardt bits and pieces are my own work. It's great fun building a rifle action especially when you only have an X2 mini mill and a 7 x 12 bench top lathe. It's slow work, but I'm getting there. It's a race between the Grim Reaper and myself as to who gets done first. lol. In the meantime it's fun devising ways of doing things that can't be done easily today as much of the machining was done on machines that no longer exist. By the way, I am to photography what Adolf Hitler was to World Peace, not very good at it.

Harry

[Highpower]

(07-23-2012, 12:54 PM)Harry Eales Wrote: You can see my progress here:- http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k206/Rifleman_01/

Harry

Wow, that is some impressive work Harry.
That takes a lot of patience and dedication to make the special tools to use as well as what you are working on.

I hope to see more of this project coming soon. Thank you for sharing it.

Willie

[DaveH]

Harry,

Terrific work - very nice

DaveH

[Harry Eales]

Quote:Wow, that is some impressive work Harry.
That takes a lot of patience and dedication to make the special tools to use as well as what you are working on.

I hope to see more of this project coming soon. Thank you for sharing it.

Willie

Quote:Harry,

Terrific work - very nice

DaveH

Thank you kindly Willie and DaveH for the compliments. I learned machining the old fashioned way by cranking handles on machines powered by leather belts running off a shaft drive on the ceiling of the machine shop. Not many can remember those now. lol. Most of the young bucks coming into engineering today sit in offices in front of a computer screen and wear a suit. CNC machines can do magnificent work but it does away with the hands on approach which is sad. I wonder how many could actually use a none CNC machine? Very few I think, even fewer would take the time to sit down an think of designing and making a tool to make cuts than cannot be done any other way. The latter is half of the fun in engineering.

Harry

[Mayhem]

(07-24-2012, 06:16 AM)Harry Eales Wrote: ...I learned machining the old fashioned way by cranking handles on machines powered by leather belts running off a shaft drive on the ceiling of the machine shop. Not many can remember those now. lol....

Something like this Harry?

When I got her:
   

After some work:
   

Not to hijack this post - I'd really like to see more of your work Harry and hope that you will find time to post some of your projects here. Whilst I know next to nothing about guns (except to stay away from the pointy end), I really enjoy seeing the skills used in producing them.

[Harry Eales]

Hello Mayhem,

Love your 'monica' lol. I gave up machining nearly thirty years ago and only recently have returned to it. However, it's like riding a bike, you don't forget how to do things and the Borchardt Action is my first project in a very long time. There's all sorts of things than get in the way of hobbies, like relationships with women, kids, work etc. I never seem to have enough hours in the day to do the things I really want to do. I had a failure on my mill speed control and the supplier had none in stock. I ordered as replacement but delivery was three months. When they sent a part it was an emergency cut off switch not the speed control switch. To be fair to the supplier they told me to keep the wrong item and they wouldn't charge me for the correct item when it did arrive in another three months time. Apparently the supplier ships everything by sea to keep the cost down, so only another six weeks to wait. lol.

I would agree that the pointed end of any firearm is not the best way to view it. lol. Yes, your picture is familiar the only exception are the drive belts which were much longer and had no protection cages. Modern Health and Safety people would shut a factory down if they worked like that today. It doesn't pay to be near a machine when the belt breaks either. lol. Your restoration job on that lathe looks great. I wish I had space for a machine like that. My machine shop occupies 2/3rds of my bedroom. I get to sleep in the corner. lol. You can only do that when your single.

Regards,

Harry

[TomG]

(07-23-2012, 12:54 PM)Harry Eales Wrote: In the meantime it's fun devising ways of doing things that can't be done easily today as much of the machining was done on machines that no longer exist. By the way, I am to photography what Adolf Hitler was to World Peace, not very good at it.

Harry

I'm with you Harry. Building all of the special tools and fixtures that it takes to build a firearm is half the fun.

Interesting approach you took to winding springs. How do you control the pitch of the spring, or do you just wind them all closed and stretch to suit?

You know using a wire EDM on the trigger guard and action parts is cheating, don't you? Or are you just trying to stay one up on the grim reaper?

Nice work harry, please keep us up to date as it progresses.

Tom

[Harry Eales]

Hello Tom,
Glad to see this thread has been split into two, I don't like horning in on someone else's, but sometimes it happens unintentionally and the original thread gets sidelined, so sorry for that. I had to go the EDM way, A. To keep one step ahead of the 'Hoodie' with the scythe, and B. My machines are too small, being desk top size. The action alone is 1/4 of the length of the mill table, so there's not enough room. I would have liked much larger machines but I haven't the space for them. When I first started I had access to a fully equipped workshop belonging to a friend. I went away for a couple of weeks and when I came back he had passed on. His distant relatives had decended like a flock of vultures and had sold the machines and workshop before I even got back home, it was like he had never existed, even his house had been sold. A great shame. Then I had no choice but buy small machines I could get into my house. (See photograph 103 on page four of my photobucket pictures for a look at my Mill).

My greatest regret is leaving this until so late in my life. I've wanted a Borchardt since my teenage years and did my initial drawings and sketches over 50 years ago. Oddly Borchardt are very rare here and I have only ever seen one, and that was just an action. That's now being rebuilt back into it's original Creedmoor configuration by the owner. The Creedmoor actions were lightened by removing a lot more metal that the standard Borchardt action, just to make the weight limit of the competition rules. I have a reasonably good set of machine drawings now, they were made by an American Draftswoman who regretably did make a lot of dimensional errors, most of which are obvious, fortunately, even before you start cutting chips.

The springs are wound close coiled and then stretched to the correct turns per inch, the little milling machine does them in seconds, it actually takes longer to stretch them than to coil them. I think my method is a little safer than winding them on a mandrel on a lathe. It's surprising how much wire is used up just making one spring, even a small one. lol.

Harry.

[TomG]

No problem Harry. I just had Ed start a new thread so we could run with it and not stray too from the original topic in the color case hardening thread.

I have often thought that a wire EDM would be extremely useful to have. There are a number of home built ones around the web, but I've never got around to seriously looking into building one. Maybe some day...

By the way, how do you get away with building a rifle in England with the strict gun control laws over there?

Tom

[DaveH]

(07-26-2012, 09:12 AM)TomG Wrote: By the way, how do you get away with building a rifle in England with the strict gun control laws over there?

Tom

I was wondering that as well.

DaveH