I'm in machining tech full time at the community college here, and I have the materials and the time to put together some good gunsmithing stuff.

What homemade fixtures do you use most often in your shop? No, not the liquor still!

I'm sketching up a barrel vise and action wrench at the present.

I recommend you buy Mark Stratton's book and CD-ROM. You can read about it and order it here.

It's a tie between the phone and checkbook.

Yeah, mine is the light fixture.

Air compresser

does the electric beaver count as a fixture?

i probably bother designing a vise and wrench, if I was just starting out... like pliers, it's hard to design them better... but it can be done

my pantograph
stock cradle
enfield turning fixture

in about that order

jeffe

Hey Jeffe, how did you design your enfield grinding fixture? I've got one I built using a cup stone in a drill press, but, it takes a long time and a lot of repeated quenching. I think I got the design out of Gunsmith Kinks. It works, but, is very time consuming. Rojelio

If you are looking for a simple barrel vise
then copy this one. The next post will have an action wrench also. These tools will work on almost all actions and they will not cost much time to make. Les

[IMG][url="http://www.hunt101.com/?p=228251&c=500&z=1"] [/url][/IMG]

Action wrench for Mauser and Rem actions. Turn the bottom section over and then the round section will fit the Rem. with some sheet rock tape coated with powdered rosin from Brownell's.

[IMG][url="http://www.hunt101.com/?p=228252&c=500&z=1"] [/url][/IMG]

recipe for an enfield fixture


1" solid round, 1/4" plate, 60 degree countersince in both ends, custom bushings to fit into the rails, bolt THROUGH the bushings to lock the action down, spin in chuck and a live center..

adjust height for desired radius...

WARNING: this creates POWERFUL HAMMERING interrupted cuts on a lathe

jeffe

Here is a shotgun tool to use for checking the barrel and chamber. This tool was made over 40 yrs ago and made me lots of dollars by checking chokes and reboring of chokes. We had a long mic. , but this simple tool was so quick and it had a direct read out on the dial for instant check. Bend the arms to fix all sizes of shotgun barrel work, zero the dial and pull out slowly to read. This tool will let you check the chamber for swells as well as the forcing cone area. Mark chamber lengths on the side of the bottom arm and you can read the short chamber shotgun quickly.

[IMG][url="http://www.hunt101.com/?p=253798&c=500&z=1"] [/url][/IMG]

Thanks Jeffe, I'll have to study that one for a while. Rojelio

quote:

Originally posted by ForrestB:
It's a tie between the phone and checkbook.

Preface all following with "I am not a gunsmith"

Are you planning on doing smithing for work or just for pleasure? If for work then I would look into the things that are going to help with the most encountered jobs, i.e.

Bolt handle welding fixture (there were some pics on here I posted)
jeweling fixture
your own version of recoil pad grinding setup (if you don't want to buy one from brownells)

my understanding is that the biggest thing shops get hit with is pad installation, is that true?

Would probably be worth it to make some mandrels for the different actions. my understanding is that you need to have a properly fit mandrel to be able to surface grind the action true to the bore, if you're doing base and rings on an action that is cattywompass a bit then the top of the rings will have to be corrected. (if my understanding of how that works is wrong somebody please correct me).

Red

Kimball stock vice, hands down.

What's that Chic? I have the cradle you sent me, I have given up for the time being on trying to figure out how to get that machine gun turret mounted, for now I am going to make an adapter plate to mount it to my existing stand.

Red

Wow thanks all for the neat stuff! I'm studying manual and CNC machining after having been laid off from my manufacturing job in December. Get to take classes for an Associates Degree on the taxpayers dime....so thanks everyone. Rest assured your tax dollars will not be wasted!

Please post and describe any tools and fixtures you have made in your shops...

I've been tinkering on my own guns since I was six, but the machining degree has opened up a whole new world of possibilities. School is going grand; have great instructors, good classmates, regular day hours (after 7.5 years of rotating 12 hour shifts), and lots of pretty 18 and 19 year old girls to watch....

If you really want to do a neat project, machine a Forster drill and tap fixture.

You can improve upon it by making it a bit longer and adding another post for a V or a flat block so that the spacing between posts is shorter overall.

-Spencer