Building the Stevens Favorite

really enjoying this thread. quite the project you have going on.......thanks the pics and info.
 
I had to do some house painting today so it cut into my shop time a bit, but I still managed to get the upper and lower tangs roughed out. With all of the material that needed to be removed, I broke out a 3/4" roughing end mill to speed up the task. I forgot how much fun they can be. At one point I was taking a 5/8" deep cut at a 3/4" per minute feed rate. The next task is to finish mill the inside of the tangs, round the ends and drill the holes in them.



Lots of clamps are mandatory when cutting steel.


3/4" roughing mill, 5/8" deep, 3/4" per minute, no coolant.



Notice the clamp and spacer to support the long flimsy tang.
 
Machining these tangs required a lot of different set-ups due to the fact they are not parallel to each other or perpendicular to the axis of the receiver, plus the various holes in each one and the full radius on the ends. The most creative set-up was the one required to mill the full radii on the ends of the tangs. I clamped a parallel vertical in the vise and then clamped the side of the tang to it using parallels for spacers. It was an ugly set-up but it got the job done without a crash due to attention to cutter forces and a total lack of climb milling. Do not try this at home. smiley-rolleyes004.gif Next comes the part I've been dreading, hollowing out the inside of the receiver. It's going to take a combination of drilling, long end mill milling, slotting and possibly broaching to get it done.

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All told it was a pretty productive day. I got all of the internal cutouts roughed out with end mills and it went much better than expected. Some of the extra long end mills still needed to be gripped on the very end, which really cuts down on their rigidity. I've had a lot of experience working with long end mills and was able to get through the whole job without breaking any. sweat.gif Long end mills demand special techniques that can only be learned the hard way and I've broken more than a few learning them. Next on the to-do list is grinding a slotting tool bit and squaring up all of the corners in the pockets.

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This was the deepest pocket and it need to be cut from opposite sides to get through.

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Power tapping a 5/16-24 thread in the mill.

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This was the longest reach. I drilled two holes through to start and then milled it with a 1/2" x 5" end mill which was just barely long enough.

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Milling the slot for the hammer.

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"Aviation is going to make such progress as cannot be imagined."


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All told it was a pretty productive day. I got all of the internal cutouts roughed out with end mills and it went much better than expected. Some of the extra long end mills still needed to be gripped on the very end, which really cuts down on their rigidity. I've had a lot of experience working with long end mills and was able to get through the whole job without breaking any. :phew: Long end mills demand special techniques that can only be learned the hard way and I've broken more than a few learning them. Next on the to-do list is grinding a slotting tool bit and squaring up all of the corners in the pockets.



This was the deepest pocket and it need to be cut from opposite sides to get through.





Power tapping in the mill.



This was the longest reach. I drilled two holes through to start and then milled it with a 1/2" x 5" end mill which was just barely long enough.



Milling the slot for the hammer.
 
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I made a bar to hold a triangular carbide insert to square the corners out on the pockets. Since there was no clapper built in, I had to limit the feed to .001-.002" at a time to keep from chipping the carbide. It did a good job though, it was just slow going. One down, three to go. I also started filing and polishing the machining marks out.

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Tonight's task was to make a slotting tool to square the corners in the trigger and hammer pockets. I made the tool out of O1 the full width of the slots with a 1º lengthwise taper on each side, 10º clearance on each side and 10º end clearance. All that is left to do on the receiver is to file out the rest of the machining marks, polish and color case harden. The hardening will wait until all of the internals are finished and installed in case any "engineering changes" need to be made.

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I was working on the honey-do list this weekend so there wasn't much time for the rifle, but I did manage to make a few screws. The following pics show the procedure to make two 8-32UNC slotted, fillister head screws, a typical style used in gunsmithing. They were made two at a time, one on each end of a piece of .25" O1 round stock.

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The ends shown faced and center drilled.

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A slick way to set the threading tool is to place some paper under the tool and shine the work light on it. That makes it really easy to see the gap between the thread gauge and the tool. Leave the locking screws loose and just slide the gauge back and forth until the tool is lined up.

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Checking the pitch diameter of the thread.

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Threads are fun to cut on the Hardinge because it has a lever to quickly lift the tool at the end of the cut without disturbing the setting. This makes a relief cut at the end of the thread unnecessary.

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Next, the screws were parted off, the heads turned to the finish diameter and faced to length.

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A form tool was ground to machine the crown on the heads.

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The slots were cut with a .035" slitting saw. A collet block would be a better way to hold such small screws but the right sized collet was lacking in my selection.

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"Aviation is going to make such progress as cannot be imagined."

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Tonight's task was to make a slotting tool to square the corners in the trigger and hammer pockets. I made the tool out of O1 the full width of the slots with a 1º lengthwise taper on each side, 10º clearance on each side and 10º end clearance. All that is left to do on the receiver is to file out the rest of the machining marks, polish and color case harden. The hardening will wait until all of the internals are finished and installed in case any "engineering changes" need to be made.
 
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Working on the honey-do list this weekend so not much time for the rifle. I did manage to make a few screws though. The following pics show the procedure to make two 8-32UNC slotted, oval head screws, a typical style used in gunsmithing. Two at a time were made, one on each end of a piece of .25" O1 round stock.



Ends faced and center drilled.



A slick way to set the threading tool is to place some paper under the tool and shine the work light on it. That makes it really easy to see the gap between the thread gauge and the tool. Leave the locking screws loose and just slide the gauge back and forth until it's lined up.



Threads are fun to cut on the Hardinge because it has a lever to quickly lift the tool at the end of the cut without disturbing the center. Therefore, a relief cut at the end of the thread is not necessary.



Checking the pitch diameter.



Next, the screws were parted off, the heads turned to the finish diameter and faced to length.



A form tool was ground and the crown on the head was machined.



The slots were cut with a .035" slitting saw. A collet block would be a better way to hold such small screws but that size was lacking in my selection.
 
Made two more screws tonight. Similar to the last two, but 12-32UNEF instead of 8-32UNC. I had hoped to try them in the receiver but the tap isn't a very common size and I don't have one in my supply. It's about time for a McMaster Carr order anyway.
 
I believe that is closer to a Fillister head than an Oval. Nice work. Rifle is really coming along.
 
Thanks Tony.

Actually Fillister is exactly what they are, not sure where I came up with oval. Must have been breathing too many WD-40 fumes. :faint:

Tom
 
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