I've been quite poor at making a good one lately so I built this tool to broach the female side of things.







It makes a quite precise cavity for the "peak"



All one has to do then is match it with an endmill in the milling machine



glue it together



And flush sand it



one could even get carried away with this tool.....he might find uses for it that are unconventional

Pretty schneaky ! You just cut the broach out in the mill out of O1 tool steel the same as you would cut the male part on the forend tip with an end mill and then drill/thread it, screw on a shaft and then harden it. You could even use a tool like that in a common drill press. Lock up the belts or spindle and clamp the stock into the vise and broach it in with the spindle.
I seem to recall many a wasted hour back when I made wood stocks, cutting fool things like that with chisels and scrapers. Silly ole me!
I take it you tightly clamp a close fitting piece of wood to the underside to keep it from splintering on the out cut?

Show off. Looks great

quote:

I take it you tightly clamp a close fitting piece of wood to the underside to keep it from splintering on the out cut?

actually I epoxy a piece to the underside and then sand it off.

But for the forend, the underside is the bottom of the barrel channel and it's not necessary as it isn't visible at all.

Yes, I used O-1 steel and hardened and drew it by acetylene torch.

The actual broach is one piece made from 1" O-1 steel and a shank turned to 1/2" in the lathe. It's then milled with a 3/8 ball end mill with 7 degrees clearance on the bottom and inside the form to provide a clean cut. It's ground on a surface grinder after drawing.

quote:

Originally posted by ramrod340:
Show off. Looks great

Actually, I got a oxy-acetylene torch set for my birthday and heat treating this thing was on the list of things to do.....along with a long list of other worthless projects

Happy belated birthday Vapodog. Hope you had a good one.

Thank you. I learned something today. Very clever, very nice.
I should go out right away and make the tool (while I remember) so I'll have it somewhere down the line when I start to do it with file and chisels.

If one must have a bad habit this is one of the better ones





Making half round/half octagon barrels with vented ribs is among the worst....maybe