The Accurate Reloading Forums
Final Chapter: Broaching a Bolt Action Receiver, Raceways, Lugways
11 April 2018, 22:02
Doug WFinal Chapter: Broaching a Bolt Action Receiver, Raceways, Lugways
Loaded up the boat with the broaches, the press, the gun drilling setup, the shop built lugway shaving tools, 1/2 built lugway shaving machine, the Rem and Mauser receivers and set sail for Speerchucker Island. LOL
12 April 2018, 02:38
farbedoNicely done.
I'll just say that the 28 Rc prehard is still fine for use from a strength perspective, but will be less slick as an action. It may be tougher on your broaches, though. Softer material sometimes doesn't cut as clean.
Jeremy
Wow, great job! Thank you for posting this; it's very informative and interesting to read. When are you going to take orders for 80% receivers?

There was a kickstarter a few years back for for 80% remington clones, but the guy flaked out.
Keep up the good work!
Marketing idea; make 80 % receivers (don't thread for barrels) that take Springfield bolts with the safety lug removed, and Mauser magazines. And do not try to use a combination name made up from existing rifle designs. Your own name is fine.
12 April 2018, 06:19
twobobbwanaDoug,
Thanks for posting this.
I always thought a shaper would be the machine to cut lugways in an action.
Have seen a book using broaches do it.
I'll read your post carefully and often.
Thanks again. Good luck with your project.
12 April 2018, 06:46
twobobbwanaDoug,
Just finished reading your post thoroughly.
Sorry for adding my nothingness before.
Thanks for the meat.
Please keep us posted.
12 April 2018, 09:16
Doug W...
12 April 2018, 09:23
Doug W...
Very glad you posted this also.
13 April 2018, 09:05
Doug W...
Right; no real money to be made; this is just for AR members who want to tinker, and with you doing the hard part! You can make the usual ten$ per hour like I usually end up with.
13 April 2018, 20:48
Doug W...
14 April 2018, 03:20
sliversHeck Doug, Ya' gave 'um detailed instruction on "how to"! What more do they want? They want YOU to do the hard part!
15 April 2018, 04:08
lindy2quote:
But say at $150 each I would probably be making $20/hr with my 40-60 year old manual machines.
I would think that someone who had a good mauser bolt and wanted to make a nice custom rifle the exact way he (or she) wanted it would pay a considerable amount more than $150 to get a raw receiver that bolt fit into. The possibilities would be endless, and the peace of mind of having a receiver with good steel would be very attractive as well.
From what people spend to have a 100 year old receiver tricked out and reheat treated one would have to believe they would spend more than $20 an hour to get a modern unit to work with; and especially so if it were machined to tight - not sloppy - tolerances such as your look to be.
I wonder how many folks would line up for a g.33/40 receiver clone?
15 April 2018, 07:32
Doug W...
16 April 2018, 19:06
lindy2What would you have to do different to make that a C ring Mauser
16 April 2018, 21:47
Doug W...
Winchester Model 70 has the threads broached away; doesn't affect anything. The C ring Mauser was designed when skilled machinists worked for 2.00 a day and boys that watched the machines and carried parts from one to another, one dollar. A day.
17 April 2018, 00:56
speerchucker30x378quote:
Originally posted by dpcd:
Winchester Model 70 has the threads broached away; doesn't affect anything. The C ring Mauser was designed when skilled machinists worked for 2.00 a day and boys that watched the machines and carried parts from one to another, one dollar. A day.

Actually, it did create a problem. In the thin chamber walls of the short action ultramag cartridges based on the 461 case. The pressure of the threads pushing up and down on the tenon caused the chambers to SQUITCH and bug out into the broached areas ! Thankfully, those short, fat, poor feeding cartridges that create to much bolt thrust are on the way out.
Squitch is a technical term.
When I was a kid. I had the stick. I had the rock. And I had the mud puddle. I am as adept with them today, as I was back then. Lets see today's kids say that about their IPods, IPads and XBoxes in 45 years!
Rod Henrickson
18 April 2018, 21:18
lindy2quote:
Originally posted by dpcd:
Winchester Model 70 has the threads broached away; doesn't affect anything. The C ring Mauser was designed when skilled machinists worked for 2.00 a day and boys that watched the machines and carried parts from one to another, one dollar. A day.
And gas was 10 cents a gallon and you could buy a steak dinner for under a buck.
12 June 2018, 05:47
twobobbwanaDoug W,
Anymore to show us ??
Shaping of action ???
Great project........lots of meat.
15 June 2018, 07:10
Doug W...
20 June 2018, 09:32
Doug W...
26 June 2018, 10:01
Doug W...
This is a great thread; thanks for the update! Do you have plans for attaching optics?
26 June 2018, 21:27
Doug W...
27 June 2018, 03:35
Dulltool17I love this! Thanks for taking the time to post your updates. Not that I would wish rainy days for you but you've got our interest, that's for sure!
At this point, you could make this into just about any style you want.
Looking forward to more.
Doug Wilhelmi
NRA Life Member
27 June 2018, 22:47
Doug W...
10 July 2018, 05:53
twobobbwanaDoug,
Great to see the progress.
It is an exciting project so keep us up with the progress.
Great work.
07 December 2018, 19:41
J GoeringDoug,
I'm late to the party and just saw this thread. One of the first jobs I did for Wichita Arms back in 1972 was running the broach through the raw action blanks so your thread title caught my eye. I'm looking forward to future updates. Great work so far!
28 December 2018, 21:27
Doug W...
10 January 2019, 23:13
Doug W...
18 January 2019, 19:35
J Goeringquote:
Originally posted by Doug W:
quote:
Originally posted by J Goering:
Doug,
I'm late to the party and just saw this thread. One of the first jobs I did for Wichita Arms back in 1972 was running the broach through the raw action blanks so your thread title caught my eye. I'm looking forward to future updates. Great work so far!
That is a long time ago, if you remember any of the details, like depth of tooth cut, length of broach, number or passes required, number of receiver broached before resharpening,lap afterward etc, fill us in.
I got the nickle tour of BAT machine and they showed me their broaches (5ft long and very expensive) and machine (massive) but not while it was running.
It was actually 1970 so it really was a long time ago. I remember that we had 2 broaaches about 4' long. The homemade press was vertical and the cylinder was down in a pit in the floor. It cut on the pull stroke. I can't remember the bore on the cylinder but I'm guessing it was at least a 4" bore, quite possibly bigger. I only ran that machine for one batch of actions so my experience was fairly limited. I eventually became the metalsmith for the gunshop until I left in about 1980
22 January 2019, 11:43
John Chalmersquote:
LET'S MAKE IT A POINT TO KEEP ALL THAT NOTHINGNESS OUT OF THIS THREAD.
Great thread Doug.you have certainly achieved it. This deserves to be up there with the best of the 'stickies'
I always had a shaper in my shop, it made life easy cutting keyways or even double keyways. thats a lot of work with broaches. What you have done will be trialed by many an enthusiast.
Good luck with the project,I can see how you will reduce the machine time on small batch runs. It's a real pain having to break down settings.ATB. jc
22 January 2019, 22:28
Doug W...
17 December 2022, 21:29
TCLouisLike what happens sometimes a thread brought forward from way back in 2019.
A link or two or so more backward would be appreciated.
Don't limit your challenges . . .
Challenge your limits