Other than plans for a single shot falling block action, I have not seen any plans or anyone machining their own action. I'm talking about making your own action from bar stock material. Is the difficutly level to high for the average machinist? I apologize if this is a very naive question, but its something I don't understand.

Regards,
Kory

Kory, Let me give you one guy's perspective on it. I was a machinist and then a tool and die maker for many years. Then I went to the Univ. Wisconsin and achieved an engineering degree and since then have served in many functions of design and CNC programming of horizontal and vertical (4th axis) Machining centers as well as turning centers.

My experience with investment castings as well as sand castings in grey cast, ductile iron and cast steels is considerable.

Given enough money and time I'm sure I could produce some very fine actions.....but they'd be so expensive that no one could afford them.....unless I was to decide to compete with Ruger, Savage, etc., for mass sales.....and There's a very few that want to do that.....it's extremely competitive.....I frankly don't know how they produce a rifle for the prices they do.....

As long as I can go almost anywhere and buy a Winchester M-70 or a Remington M700 (or other) action for well under $500 there's no way I'd ever try to make them.

There's one more critical issue.....Testing and insurance....I'd be darn sure to test my product to the Nth degree for safety before letting it go to the customers.....and what's the product liability cost going to be to make a dozen actions???

Next time you look at an action count all the parts that go into it. Every one must be tooled in some manner.

I'd love the challenge.....but only with someone elses money!!!!!

This forum has the most guns from scratch:
http://www.homegunsmith.com/

from what i have read the biggest problem is getting the primary cocking cam right and the lug raceways finished. i have read that some guys with cnc and edm have finished a few.

hm2
with a traveling wire it's easy to cut the lug raceway and that process will leave a reasonably good finish as well.....The raceways can also be broached, conventional EDM'd or cut in with a shaper...it's very doable.....

As far as the primary cocking cam goes, that is a piece of cake for a 4th axis vertical CNC mill.

But who has this stuff in their garage.....or even shop that is giving their time away?.

In my opinion for anyone that has the equipment, skills, and time to make their own, starting with a piece of prehard 4140 (38Rc) is the clear way to go. Even hi-speed steels can cut this and the risk of warping in heat treat at the end is nill.

There was a fellow ,from the orient, on this forum who made his own receiver. He used 4340 and with it he won the competition !! Yes it can be done.

I am mostly interested in building an action for myself -- not for resale. I would not want to deal with the legalities of something like that. Having said that, I really wouldn't care if it took me 6 months to do it as it would be a side project. My may concerned would be safety.

Kory

You need to have a manufacturers FFL to do it legally. A buddy of mine manufactures Falling block actions www.hepman.com. From observing the developement of their products I would suggest to you that the undertaking is not for the faint of heart or lacking in serious machinist capabilities.
I think that you would be better served by learning all there is to know about several currently manufactured actions and then maybe you can start building something better when you really understand their faults........DJ

A FFL is not needed if the action is made only for personal use. If he was to make and sell the action then the FFL would be required.

Start your research on materials used by the custom action builders. Look over the "full diameter bolt" designs, they are more builder friendly than "raceway" receivers. The primary cocking cam is easily cut on a mill if you have a "superspacer", digitals and can handle the math. More challanging is cutting the clearance on the lug abutments that is necessary to accomodate the extraction cam bolt movement. The fun is in figuring out the many steps required to complete the receiver. A bolt can be made from pre-hard CrMo steel easier than having something heat treated during machining steps.
Probably choosing different steels at different hardness values is important. Similar metals at similar hardness is asking for a galling problem. A trigger hanger is more preferable than having the crosspins in the receiver.
Just a few opinions from a tinkerer.