I used a powered keyway cutter to cut the ways on a project i just finished. I posted it on another site, but, everybody was interested in how I broached the ways. I used an old used cutter I happened to have. This morning I called to see if the company was still in business. National Machine tool, 2900 Massachusetts Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45225. (513) 541-6682. I have no interst in promoting this company, but their tools solve the problem of how to broach ways in a bolt action. You can buy the tool for the price of one EDM job. keyseaters.com (plural)

Thanks for the info, PapaPaul.

Now this I gotta see! I'd be very interested in seeing a few pictures of your setup!

I have a bit of experience with and old Morison keyseater, and was a little curious as to the make of machine you used.

How did you go about lining up on the second keyway at 180 degrees out?

Were you able to cut them with out any taper in the depth over such a long keyway/bolt way?

This sounds very interesting to me!

I was just watching a show on tv called "How Did they make that" and the particular episode was on making wrenches, which required two different broaching operations. Very interesting to see how broaching works, and the machines that industry is using for broaching.
Looked to me like those same machines could easily be adopted for broaching a couple of ways in a mauser action.

Unless you want to wind up with a receiver similar to the late model FNs and Zastava Whitworths and Charles Dalys, which have the "H" bolt raceway configuration rather than the"C" ring configuration of the original Mauser, broaching will not work. The original Mauser raceways were probably cut in with a shaper/slotter type machine.
Just my 2 cents worth.

quote:

Originally posted by 22WRF:
I was just watching a show on tv called "How Did they make that" and the particular episode was on making wrenches, which required two different broaching operations. Very interesting to see how broaching works, and the machines that industry is using for broaching.
Looked to me like those same machines could easily be adopted for broaching a couple of ways in a mauser action.

For a few weeks I operated a 20 ton Colonial horizontal broach broaching internal splines in helicopter drive train parts. The broaches used ran from about 1" OD to about 3" OD and from 2ft to 4 ft long. The process was pretty simple and it impressed me with it precision, repeatability and speed. I normally had parts that were stacked 2 at a time on the broach, the broach was inserted through the bulkhead into a automatic chuck and the lever was pushed. The broach was pulled though the parts in 7 to 8 seconds. The parts were caught by hand as they dropped off of the broach. Then the handle was pulled and the broach reversed back though the bulkhead to be unlocked from the chuck for reloading. It was a good way to develop Popeye arms.
It would be an excellent way to make a huge pile of receivers. Just one of those machines could broach a lifetime supply of receivers in 2 hours.

SR4759, That is exactly how most Mauser type receivers were made. Long broach and a bulldozer press or broaching machine. National Machine Tools has a website "Keyseaters.com" plural. These things don't work anything like a Morrison. By the way the two companies are about three miles apart.

Huntingcat, you are right, I just looked at a drawer full of Mauser style actions, some only have one raceway going all the way through. I'll bet that they through broached that one at least. The Swedish Mauser, P14, and Caronas have through broaches on both sides. There was a company making small Mauser type custom order rifles here in Dayton, KY. I went to the auction when they went out of business. I don't know the brand name, but they were using a 6' long broach and bulldozer press to make actions.

I asked for a quote on one with a .700 bore and radiused keyseats with a .5 in radius to top of keyseat, width of keyseat .435 to try to approximate the Remington action (pretty close to the Winchester, Springfield, etc).

Haven't gotten the quote back, but the guy indicated it'd be around $700.

he said you could use a rotary table/spin indexer to do two raceways 180 deg out or three raceways w/120 deg spacing.

They also offer an indexing "tab" that can be attached to the tool.

Hope this is helpful to anyone interested in this tool.

Steve

quote:

Originally posted by huntingcat:
Unless you want to wind up with a receiver similar to the late model FNs and Zastava Whitworths and Charles Dalys, which have the "H" bolt raceway configuration rather than the"C" ring configuration of the original Mauser, broaching will not work. The original Mauser raceways were probably cut in with a shaper/slotter type machine.
Just my 2 cents worth.

I am certainly not a machinist, but from what I could see on the TV program I watched about broaching, on one of the broaches there was a cutting surface on both sides of the broach.

If one didn't want to have the bolt raceway go through the front ring on the left side of the action (like the military actions) wouldn't you just shape your tool shorter on that side and leave it longer on the other side to go all the way through?

22wrf,

Standard broaches have progressively bigger teeth (like a .003 greater depth/tooth), so if you wanted to stop your broach before cutting through the front ring of the Mauser, you'd have to have a single tooth depth and shim the cutters .003 per pass and do 50 passes on that side to get a raceway depth of .150 in.

Hope this helps,
Steve

I think that they might broach the one side and then use that extra space to get a bigger shapper tool in there. Or some other specialized tool.

I may have the broach that you need. I will measure the teeth in a little bit.
Butch