I thought some of you might like to see some before and after photos.

Personally, it always bothers me to see a full-blown custom rifle that has those tool marks in the bottom side of the action (I know they're below the woodline, but it still bothers me.)



I think they look much better when the tool marks are polished out.



Same thing on the rear tang.

Before:


After:


Here's what's been done to the other side.

First passes:


About half way there:


Almost done:

Lookin' good ! !

You ain't too bad New Guy.
Butch

New Guy

How about sharing your technique and your tools for that nice polishing job.

And by the way, what is that action. Don't think I have seen one just like that before.

Very nice metal work.

Larry

Looks very nice, it also aids in inletting and later it will come out of the stock for disassembly much easier. Good work!

quote:

Originally posted by 22WRF:
New Guy

How about sharing your technique and your tools for that nice polishing job.

I'm only a hobbyist, but I enjoy working with my hands (helps me relieve stress.) I use a combination of files, whet stones, mold stones, sandpaper and scotch brite pads.

The key is to keep all lines straight and corners sharp.

By the way, the outside is only part of the job... the inside has to be done too.

new_guy- I've done some polishing on an action myself and am amazed at the time and effort it takes. Would it be possible for you to post pictures of how you polish the inside of the action and the most important areas, tools, etc.
Thanks!

New Guy: Very nice work, setting in a stock no one will ever know what has been done. But on the other hand you and i now know. (details- details)...Good for you, meatalsmithing gone good!

Cleaning up real nice!

Nice work Chris, but you know it's going to eat at you if you leave those tool marks on the trigger pivot.

NG

very slick looking

Rich

Chris-

Great job!!!!! I remember looking at those pictures that were posted to a web-site by Jack Belk and I thought to myself, I'd like to try that.

How do you keep the lines parallel and/or perpendicular to the bore? Do you have certain jigs that you use?

Here's another overlooked area; the "race ways" (don't know what you call them) for the bolt travel on the rear tang.

Here the left side has been worked, but the right has not.



This was done with mold stones at 220 and then 320 grit. They break down to the shape you're polishing and work in curved areas like this very well.

Very nice. I like it.

Terry

Looking good my friend.
Now that it has value added will it need a 3rd lug pocket and cams?
Timan

quote:

Originally posted by Timan:
Looking good my friend.
Now that it has value added will it need a 3rd lug pocket and cams?
Timan

Third lug pocket and cams are already there!

Where did you get that unfinished action?

Chris
Great looking polishing there. Nice and crisp.

The finish work - the bloody, time consuming details, all of which, when done, seem so obvious and necessary, but that can easily be overlooked by the uninitiated.

The finish work is what separates an artist from a mere workman.

The finish work is so key, but so seldom understood or much less, appreciated, as something well worth paying for.

Thanks for these photos that make all of that so clear.

Nice work, hobbyist!

quote:

Originally posted by mrlexma:
The finish work - the bloody, time consuming details, all of which, when done, seem so obvious and necessary, but that can easily be overlooked by the uninitiated.

The finish work is what separates an artist from a mere workman.

The finish work is so key, but so seldom understood or much less, appreciated, as something well worth paying for.

Thanks for these photos that make all of that so clear.

Nice work, hobbyist!

More often than not it's the customer's budget that defines the level of polishing. Not all are willing or able to pay to have the action polished to that level. Make no mistake, it is expensive.

That is indeed a very nice job!

looks like a SARCO unfinished FN... right? no ejector cut and bolt release hole?

The action is an unfinished FN, and I would love to be able to provide more "how to" information to observers, but that could turn into a video project rather than the still shots I have time for.

Here's the after compared to the first photo above. It will be welded on to blind the rear screw and reshape the tang, so there's no sense in going 100% with it now.

new_guy,
About how much time will you have in polishing by the time your finished?

Really nice work by the way. And thanks for sharing the pics and information.

Allen

quote:

Originally posted by AllenBosely:
new_guy,
About how much time will you have in polishing by the time your finished? Allen

I'm afraid to add it all up... I usually work on one for an hour or two with distractions in between. I would guess that if I dedicated time to it and had all the tools at hand, that I would probably put about 6-hours in an action and two hours in a bolt body.

But now I'm kind of curious too. I've got a "fresh" one here to start on. I'll keep some time notes and let you know how far off my estimate is!

Chris-

I know of a certain VZ-24 that needs the bolt stoned on; I don't suppose you would like to take your stress out on it, would you?

Mark - You can do this too. It's time consuming and can be tedious, but you can handle it. Give me a call, and I'll tell you what you need and get you started.

New Guy

Just for the sake of discussion, you would admit that your surfaces, although straight, are not necessarily parallel with the bore, and of course that a surface grinder could probably reduce the job to about 2 hours.

I think the work is gorgeous. And maybe you have devised some way to determine whether your front ring and rear bridge are parallel with the bore. Otherwise, when you go to mount your scope bases and scope there might be a problem.

I guess what I am getting at, for the home hobbyiest, what manual way is there to check to see if the front ring and rear bridge surfaces are truly parallel with the bore and with each other?

22WRF - your observations are accurate, and your point is valid.

I didn't think of covering surface grinding, but it's a good time to. The front ring will be surface ground on this receiver to make it symmetrical, but the back will not. It will be an open sighted rifle, and I want to keep the hump on the back.

If I did intend on scoping it, I would definitely have the rear ground too. I can't imagine how anyone can do that as accurately by hand as could be done with a jig and grinder.



The front ring on this action measures 1.450, and it has enough "meat" on it for me to have a go at it with a file. Even after cleaning it up a bit, the OD is still well over 1.410", and it will grind down to that nicely. In the photo above, the front ring is just "shined up" a bit, and it is off by a few thou.

For scope mounting and/or truing up the bridge and ring, surface grinding is clearly the way to go, but, as you can see from the areas photo'd in this thread, there is a lot of work shown here that a machine can't do.

That thing looks GREAT!!!

New Guy

I am looking very closely at your photo and I notice that it looks like nothing was done on the underside of the front ring.

I used to know a gunsmith that did this kind of work, and the first thing he would do would be to put the receiver on a mandrel (or whatever its called) and then put it in his lathe. He would take a couple of very light truing cuts on the front find in front of the recoil lug. And that is how he would determine how deep to go with the surface grinder, claiming that those first truing cuts on the lathe is what got him parallelism with the rest of the job.
I don't know if he was correct in that assumption or not, but his work always looked pretty nice.

quote:

nothing was done on the underside of the front ring.

Nothing else needs to be done there. If you compare photos #5 & #7 you will see that that area has been adaquately addressed. It would be wasted effort & pointless to spend any more time on it.

Well, new guy admits that it is "technically" pointless to spend time on the sides below the wood line a well, but he does it.

It just gets better looking every day.

Get as much "me" time in within the next few months. Because after that time you ain't gonna have time to sleep, let alone play with your guns!

quote:

Originally posted by 577NitroExpress:
Get as much "me" time in within the next few months. Because after that time you ain't gonna have time to sleep, let alone play with your guns!

Yup! You will be cleaning and buffing baby buts rather than Mausers! You will become a true artisan with baby wipes and binkies!

New_Guy: I have used stones and such on cleaning up metal, but have never used MOLD STONES... Done a search but could not come up with anything. Could you provide a link to these or a brand name for a search, THANKS!

MSC has them, mold stones

and other companies specialize in them.

http://www.moldshoptools.com/catalog/list.php?category_id=5

Thanks Rob, thats what i was looking for.

quote:

Originally posted by ROSCOE:
You will become a true artisan with baby wipes and binkies!

I'm already in trouble, as I have no idea what "binkies" are.

Maybe I can get you and Paul to come down and spend the first couple of weeks showing me the ropes.