Start by drilling a hole pattern
Then I do a milling sequence but there's not a lot to see while it's happening, the parts are emersed with coolant, after the milling sequence they look like this, 10 to a bar.
Then I cut the bar up and mill saw the part off on the knee mill after that the part is ready for for four more second opps. and its done.

I got a few triggers going on too. Reminisant of 20+ year ago Grisel design slightly revamped on how the trigger itself attaches to the receiver. Into a pocket instead of the yoke approach, stronger, should resist more lateral G forces under hard aggressive cornering.
There's also a Pederson 9.3 bbl lurking in the back ready for an 09 Argentine action to get in from heat treat. It will be sweet.
Have a Jazzy day.
Timan

Stuart,

I enjoy seeing your work,keep posting the pics.

Roger

Welded and finshed out a CZ bolt handle while the VMC was running parts for the Mausers.
Not a bad day.
TIMAN

Stuart

You do excellent work. Thank you for the photos, I enjoy them very much. Please keep posting photos of your work.

On the safety levers could you not saw them off of the bar without cutting them apart first?

Have a great day.

James

Timan.

What type of steel are you using for your levers, an alloy such as 4140 and heat treating or 1018 and casehardening them.??

Also since you all ready have the bar in the machine, simply add a slitting saw and saw off all the levers at once by simply adding one more tool to your program. Drop the RPM and let her humm along and pick up the levers from the mill table once the fall off.

James Wisner
Custom Metalsmith

Intresting photos Stuart. I take it the holes are just to remove metal quickly and establish the radius on the levers.

I'm guessing your cutting them off one at a time because of clearance issues between your slitting saw mandrel and your vise?

Shane Thompson

C12L14, Is the steel, It machines at 325 SFM.
Zippity do dah, up and down round and round and it case hardens. It's a carbon steel.

It's all about clearance. The mandrel is a quicky 10 minute mandrel "got er did".

The drills are there just to clear the material for a 1/4 inch carb feeding at from 10 to 25 IPM depending on cut. It gets after it.The 4 flute 60 degree promax carbide endmill is a mean little Motha, she a screama.
Timan

Timan.

I have used 12L14 for this type of Lever for about 18 years now. One of the issues with it is the grain structure and grain pattern going cross wise in the arm and the junction of the shaft to the arm.

Long term is not the best for strength, I have had a few break at the junction of the arm to the shaft.

That is why I machine my levers rotated to one side at an angle, so that the grain of the steel is going from the center of the shaft out thru the center of the base angle of the arm. This increases the strength of that part and I have never had any break when machined this way. These are the same ones I currently supply to Ed Lapour.

I normally case hardened the 12L14 lever about .010" to .015" deep.

Over the years I have used 4140, 8620, 1144, 1018, and finally 12L14 steel for these type of levers.

We use 7/8" thick x 2.5" tall 1018 jaws on our 6 inch Kurt vises, for a lot of these parts we have to mill a small relief in the front jaw to clear the hub of the saw holder. We use a lot of 4 inch saws and a few 5 inch saws. But the nicest thing is you can hold the same specs with the saw for your Z hieght. The saws just leaves a small burr on the back side and a small teat where the saw is almost thru the part but the pressure pops off the part before the teat can get sawed off.

James Wisner
Custom Metalsmith

quote:

Originally posted by Timan:
C12L14, Is the steel, It machines at 325 SFM.
Zippity do dah, up and down round and round and it case hardens. It's a carbon steel.

It's all about clearance. The mandrel is a quicky 10 minute mandrel "got er did".

The drills are there just to clear the material for a 1/4 inch carb feeding at from 10 to 25 IPM depending on cut. It gets after it.The 4 flute 60 degree promax carbide endmill is a mean little Motha, she a screama.
Timan

If you buy 1/4 carbide mills from Ultracut. and run them at 10.000rew(guess this is max for your vmc) and feed them by 40"/min you will get a shorter productiontime, and a longer lifetime og your cutter(apx 2-3hours of eficient cutting for 10$)
Do all the programming in subprograms, to reduce toolchange.
Then buy your material in bars of 1"x 4", cut them in 2food length, and run one layer, then cutoff, then start of with a new layer, and so on.
Apx productiontime unmaned for this kind of parts should be less than 2min pr pcs.

Jørgen
Production amateur

As long as the opperator uses his fingers and not a hammer to acuate the safety lever they will not break. I understand that some smiths like to use a hammer to "set" the lever just slightly on the cocking piece to leave a mark on the cocking piece. Then use that mark to fit the safety angle. I've seen several Dakota levers get broken that way.

Rotation of the part is no doubt better.

However, one will have to get serious about breaking the lever with a hammer or some other tool too break one no matter how it is machined.

Jim, Under what conditions did your lever fail?
Timan