Building the Steven's Favorite

[TGriffin]

I'm back at it again after temporarily suspending the project to verify its legality.

Click on the following link for the continuation of the build thread of My Steven's Favorite: Building the Steven's Favorite

[Hal]

What a great project.
Please keep posting pictures of your progress.

Hal

[TGriffin]

Thanks Hal, that's the plan. I just ordered a piece of 4140 for the barrel today so I'll need to look into how to get that skinny little hole down the center of it. There are still plenty of other tasks to do though.

Tom

[Bob Ford]

Interesting project and very nice work. Hope to see more.

Bob

[TGriffin]

Thanks Bob, there's definitely more to come.

Tom

[JCHannum]

Looks like you are making very good progress and doing a beautiful job. It will be interesting to see how you attack the barrel.

[TGriffin]

Thanks Jim.

I see gun drills on eBay all the time but as soon as I have an actual use for one, the right size isn't available. I have info on making them to suit, but I'd rather keep the tool and fixture time to a minimum and spend it building the gun instead. I can afford to watch for one for a while since there is no shortage of tasks to complete.

Tom

[Enfield]

That really is very good work you are doing, interesting to see you recreate an old classic.

I know some of the techniques were different (I guess the receiver was cast) but it gives one a better appreciation of what they did back in the old days.

Thanks for showing, I really look forward to seeing how you get on with the barrel

Cheers

[JCHannum]

Tom, a true gun drill is a length of tubing with the drill head attached. It depends on the hydraulic pressure of more than a thousand pounds produced by the cutting fluid being pumped through it to maintain rigidity. The process, obviously requires quite a bit of specializd gear to accomplish.

After drilling, the bore is reamed, then rifled. I would suggest that you take a look at the James V. Howe book "The Modern Gunsmith". It is two volumes with a supplement (get all three). It details the operation and making the tooling needed. If your intentions are to drill and rifle the barrel yourself, making the drill offers very little in the way of added work.

You might also take a look on the Home Gunsmith Forums site for some projects done by Charlie. He made a beautiful Volcanic pistol and rifle and did the rifling himself.

[TGriffin]

Jim,

I have a 1/4" x 18" gun drill that I've used on wood, with compressed air to flush the chips out. It worked great staying within 1/16" of center. I suspect the grain probably had some effect on it getting off center at all. For the barrel, I was thinking of using a water based coolant so it wouldn't require as much pressure as for oil. There are lots of power washer pumps available that should work just fine.

I have "The Gunsmithing and Tool Making Bible" by Hoffman and he goes into great detail on both the drilling and rifling procedure. I'll have to check out the book you recommended as well.

Tom