What have you made to fill the need for a tool you couldn't just go and buy, something you made that is better than 'store bought' or something you made on the frugal?

quote:

Originally posted by ted thorn:

Care to elaborate?

I would say that one measures depth the other heights. JMO

Samm

Right side up pad grinder jig. Easier to see and follow scribe line and ensures the pad is 100% square versus mounting the outside of the pad to the jig.

all the bells and whistles I needed

I want one!

gunmaker, I just viewed your website. Your work is stunning. Million kudos.

quote:

Originally posted by mlfguns:
gunmaker, I just viewed your website. Your work is stunning. Million kudos.

That may even be an understatement!

Dam, I just goin start over

quote:

Originally posted by ColoradoMatt:

quote:

Originally posted by ted thorn:

Care to elaborate?

Dial depth mic.

Starrett supplied the dial, ruby tip and the lift arm. I made the base and collet assembly

Anvil/Step mic.

Srarrett supplied the one inch mic head and I made the base

Magnetic parallels that will hold in any direction

Over twelve feet of 1/4" dia crs are in these two 1" thick aluminium blocks

Austin Hunter: How do you like the Rikon? Don't like cheapo junk and Delta stuff has not been up to par. Rikon is looking good.

quote:

Originally posted by Austin Hunter:

.750 dia Pac Man

For finding the location of the corner of a block if it is in a vise on an angel or the mill head is on an angle

quote:

Originally posted by gunmaker:
all the bells and whistles I needed

I'd say for the price it's good. For doing pads and light metal work it's ok. If I did this for a living, I'd get some big sander like I saw in Wening's shop.

Something like this: Sander

quote:

Originally posted by custombolt:
Austin Hunter: How do you like the Rikon? Don't like cheapo junk and Delta stuff has not been up to par. Rikon is looking good.

quote:

Originally posted by Austin Hunter:

That should eat through even the hardest hardwoods fairly effortlessly at 2 horsepower.
Did the folks at Wenig's allow you to drool over their blanks? How are they stocked with English? I'm about done with Claro. Got pores like moon craters.
Nicely grained wood is one of my weaknesses. I won't visit places like that (or Fredi's either) in order to protect myself from myself.

Rikon it is. I probably won't use it much. Might even consider the smaller one.
Nice clean work on that pad there.

quote:

Originally posted by mlfguns:
gunmaker, I just viewed your website. Your work is stunning. Million kudos.

Exceptional even.

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:

quote:

Originally posted by mlfguns:
gunmaker, I just viewed your website. Your work is stunning. Million kudos.

Exceptional even.

I was happy to see pictures of my extended tang 416 Rigby on James's website.Yes he does wonderful work.

quote:

Originally posted by custombolt:
That should eat through even the hardest hardwoods fairly effortlessly at 2 horsepower.
Did the folks at Wenig's allow you to drool over their blanks? How are they stocked with English? I'm about done with Claro. Got pores like moon craters.
Nicely grained wood is one of my weaknesses. I won't visit places like that (or Fredi's either) in order to protect myself from myself.

Rikon it is. I probably won't use it much. Might even consider the smaller one.
Nice clean work on that pad there.

I had them fit and do a shotgun stock for me. I didn't give them a price range on the wood, I picked what I liked and dealt with sticker shock after.

Not sure if this has the cool factor the OP was looking for. Here's some custom hardened and ground headspace gauges for a 22 rimfire 40X repeater. The go gauge I ordered exceeded the specifications of Remington factory service manual. So I home spun a few for the project.

Along those lines, made a set of 7.65x53 headspace gauges off the original DWM prints because noone makes them....

Talked to Mr. Manson and he will be making a set along with a reamer. Made these to verify dimensions prior to sending them off.

Nicely done James. Much appreciated. Must be nice to have the means to either have or 'make' the right tool to get the job done. I've made a few minor tools and enjoy that feeling of accomplishment no matter how simple the tool is. Might add a few of my own. But first, I'll need to find a replacement web-hosting site since photobucket went from no charge to $400-ish a year for third party web hosting recently.

quote:

Originally posted by gunmaker:
Not sure if this has the cool factor the OP was looking for. Here's some custom hardened and ground headspace gauges for a 22 rimfire 40X repeater. The go gauge I ordered exceeded the specifications of Remington factory service manual. So I home spun a few for the project.

I keep a bunch of screw drivers from yesteryear when they used real steel, buy them at Pawn shops for 50 cents apiece when I find them, I make scrapers, cutters, shapers, all my inletting tools out of them, If I need a certain size and don't have it I heat a screw driver, shape it, bend it, grind it, edge it and buff it, I use it then retire it up in its place amongst about 150 to 200 of these babys Ive made over the years, I do very little on machines short of sometimes I do have a stock pattern copied on a bolt gun to save labor and time...I do levers, doubles and single shots by hand for the most part..A lot has to do with mood and mood changes that are more common as I age! and the cost of not doing myself is a factor, oops gunsmiths are supposed to keep this stuff secret!!

I forgot to add I grind old hacksaw blads to get the teeth off. and use them for scrapers. I would rather scrape a stock in than file it, file teeth marks simply go to deep and are hard and time consuming to sand out. properly scraped the stock looks like marble.

Fal Grunt , I appreciate your interest in the ol' 7.65 Argentine round. Got a pet load for it? Pickins seem a bit slim.

quote:

Originally posted by Fal Grunt:
Along those lines, made a set of 7.65x53 headspace gauges off the original DWM prints because noone makes them....

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I suppose I should specify, factory load choices are slim.

Hm,

Pictures do not seem to be showing up in this thread either. What the hay...

Honestly, right now I have a bunch of surplus for plinking and use PPU for anything else.

Much appreciated. I have a soft spot for a 7.65 Argy chambered custom magazine rifle. I'll give the PPU's a go if & when the opportunity presents itself.

The M700 bolt disassembly tool is a copy of one I saw. My friend Herbie (rest in peace) made it for me. The other crude bent metal is to hold the firing pin and spring for a cz527.

I modified a paint scraper to clean up around the shadow line of a couple of my stocks. It will shave the side on only one side. The round edge comes in handy on curves as well.
The Wooden handle was pulled from an auto body board sander and cut on a sharp angle. It works great with a piece of a self-stick sanding pad for cleaning up a shadow line near the pistol grip.

Well, I guess this is burned out. Can't blame some folks for keeping their inventions to themselves. Thanks to all who answered. Cool stuff.

Since you guys have all mastered checkering, stockmaking, and metal parts on a lathe it is time to take on a new field in gun making.

Make up a tool to use in learning the basic angles for engraving. If you can checker a stock you could learn how to do some simple engraving after you understand the angles needed to make cuts. Make your own bolt handles and place checkering panels on the sides.

Make up a turn table to use with stock checkering cradle and a basic tool to use in engraving without breaking the bank. \
This tool is simple to make and I use it to hold stocks so I can change end quickly and checker from another end if the grain is causing problems. Also use with a drill press vice to engrave as a rotating head.

Thanks Les. More good inspiration. I envy you pro's that have the means & of course the talent.

quote:

Originally posted by Dulltool17:

quote:

Originally posted by mlfguns:
gunmaker, I just viewed your website. Your work is stunning. Million kudos.

That may even be an understatement!

I agree. That's a wonderful collection of fine firearms.

Certainly worth a peek.

Zeke

Shotgun tool to check the difference between bore dia. and choke dia. If you do lots of shotgun work you can use this tool to find the choke in about 5 seconds. You are after the difference only, but you can also find a swelled chamber which does happen. I made this tool in 1965 and it was a easy way to make a few dollars to verify an unknown shotgun. Charts are available to compare the choke size per gage. Just zero the dial indicator after it is inserted into the barrel about 4 inches, then watch the dial as it is removed slowly.

quote:

Originally posted by ZekeShikar:

quote:

Originally posted by Dulltool17:

quote:

Originally posted by mlfguns:
gunmaker, I just viewed your website. Your work is stunning. Million kudos.

That may even be an understatement!

I agree. That's a wonderful collection of fine firearms.

Certainly worth a peek.

Zeke

Thanks for the kind words guys. Just remember, none of it happens without all the great gunmakers of past and present and the clients willing to have something built you just can't buy anywhere.

Nice LES. I appreciate the innovation.
The dial on your tool peaked my memory a bit.
I overcame a fear of precision simply because I was afraid to try something I was unfamiliar with, namely installing and setting the backlash on a racing set of gears for my Ford rear differential. Got it adjusted just fine and only 1/1000" under the minimum range.

Cheers to all who conquer. We've got several right here in this thread. Keep those inventions coming. Thanks again for the input.

quote:

Originally posted by LesBrooks:

Opposite end of the sophistication scale to most tools shown here but here is a Berdan primer decapper I made up for my Kynoch 404J cases but obviously would do all other Berdans as well.

Just took a short length of spring steel pin I had to hand (remaining length shown in photo) that fitted a standard RCBS decapping rod and ground down exposed pin to fit one of the twin flash holes in Berdan cases i.e. a two diameter decapping pin. Case in shell holder and fully up in reloading press then easily knock out the Berdan primer, no mess, no damage to anvil, not speedy but quicker than any other decapping system I've seen for these primers. Pin has never bent or broken.

Make a box of goodies for reloading in the field. This is a complete set for neck sizing only from 17-375 Calibers. Newton had a similar hand press around 1910.



Balance Beam is good to 1/10 gr and powder measure pan holds about 110 grs

I wanted to load shells while on the road in my RV. This tool is available with dimensions on my DVD