Making a Sharps rifle on my lathe

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homebrew .357
Posts: 214
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2011 2:32 am

Re: Making a Sharps rifle on my lathe

Post by homebrew .357 »

HI, I said in the first part that I was going to make the barrel bore to .450", this is wrong :roll: for a Sharps in 45-70, the bore is .458", I said this because with the gun drill I have I can only drill a .419" hole, ream to .430", and cut rifle .010" with the .429" dia cutter box. So to get it right I`v bought a .444' dia gun drill from E bay U S A , it`s on the way, and will have to make a new cutter box at .447" dia, see a lot more work to get it right, :shock: but it has to be right!.
Have a length of1- 1/38" dia 1215 steel for the barrel and because I can only make a barrel to 25/26" long on my lathe , this is going to be a sharps business rifle with maybe an octagonal barrel. I have made the lever spring, under barrel block, also making the lever in two parts, machining the front part and then welding the rest of the back lever together and a good sand to finish. Some more pics, Cheers, Homebrew.357.
Attachments
Grinding the spring down to size on my surface grinder.
Grinding the spring down to size on my surface grinder.
A few more bits, spring finished, barrel block assy, and lever assy part done. and the bit I made the spring from.
A few more bits, spring finished, barrel block assy, and lever assy part done. and the bit I made the spring from.
The barrel to be, 1215 steel.
The barrel to be, 1215 steel.
All the bits so far.
All the bits so far.
homebrew .357
Posts: 214
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2011 2:32 am

Re: Making a Sharps rifle on my lathe

Post by homebrew .357 »

Ok, Like I said, I`m making the under lever- trigger guard bit in two bits, machining the front part and then I cut the side of a bit of inch round mild steel , and lots of grinding, sanding to get it to shape to make one piece . This is straight and set it up for welding to the front bit and with a bit of bending it turned into the Sharps under lever , with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. :wink: , Any way here`s the pic`s of how it was done, Cheers, Homebrew.357.
Attachments
The two bits ready for welding.
The two bits ready for welding.
Same bits again.
Same bits again.
Now all in one bit.
Now all in one bit.
Ready for bending.
Ready for bending.
THE Sharps under lever,
THE Sharps under lever,
hammermill
Posts: 2938
Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2010 10:43 pm
Location: pendleton or

Re: Making a Sharps rifle on my lathe

Post by hammermill »

well your getting a lot of parts built built. working from a set of prints makes it seem pretty nice. hope to find the vender on ebay a get a set. ken
homebrew .357
Posts: 214
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2011 2:32 am

Re: Making a Sharps rifle on my lathe

Post by homebrew .357 »

Hi, yes working from plans is a big help, but some times its hard to figure out what you are looking at, ( well for me anyway), :oops: .
Have just received my gun drill from the U S, carbide tip with plenty left and nice and sharp , The butt end .750" dia , round with a small flat in the middle , is this flat used for clamping up the drill in the drill holder?, It`s in a different position to my other one, the cutting tip was horizontal , but I suppose this is because of different drill makers. Now have breech block and under lever fitted to check on the fit, seems all is nicely fitting together, The pic`s, Homebrew.357. :)
Attachments
Checking fit of breech block and lever.
Checking fit of breech block and lever.
All is good.
All is good.
hammermill
Posts: 2938
Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2010 10:43 pm
Location: pendleton or

Re: Making a Sharps rifle on my lathe

Post by hammermill »

how long is the drill you bought??? as it is a drill and cuts in a circle i am not sure indexing is important. ken
homebrew .357
Posts: 214
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2011 2:32 am

Re: Making a Sharps rifle on my lathe

Post by homebrew .357 »

Hi Hammermill, The drill I got is 42" long, was hopping to find one 38" long, but have take what you can get from way over in the U S. So will just have to make it fit on my gun drilling lathe setup, 4"inches is not to much to take up to get it to fit. The drill size is .444" dia , but it will cut a hole of .445" dia, as per they normally cut a bit bigger than there size. Then will be looking at reaming to .448" with 0.005" deep cut rifling out to .458" bore size. But not looking at that yet, will be machining the big bit for the receiver , :roll: , what`s a hobby for, helps keep me busy, Cheers, Homebrew.357. PS PIC`S.
Attachments
The gun drill from U S A.
The gun drill from U S A.
It`s 4 inches longer and a smaller end boss.
It`s 4 inches longer and a smaller end boss.
hammermill
Posts: 2938
Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2010 10:43 pm
Location: pendleton or

Re: Making a Sharps rifle on my lathe

Post by hammermill »

with the differient tail end diameter will you need to build a new fitting to feed oil into the system ?
homebrew .357
Posts: 214
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2011 2:32 am

Re: Making a Sharps rifle on my lathe

Post by homebrew .357 »

Yep, You are right there Hammermill, just making up an adapter to fit that new, second hand drill so the oil can feed through , the in feed bit has a male hydraulic coupling with a female one from the pump. When I was looking for there`s bits in a hydraulic and hose shop they said the male one is $125 and the female is $148 with extra for the hose!!!$$$$ :shock: , so I went to a tractor agent, and found them for $35 each, you gotta look around for sure .
Looking at the rifling twist for the 45-70 ,It looks like the 1-20 /1-18 twist is the go for this rifle , so looking at the bike sprockets I have, large one, 7 1/2" gave 1-33",twist, the small one, 4 1/2" gave 1-24 twist, so maybe a 3" one will get me some where near 1-18", well all the others were just a guess or plain luck. :roll:
Cheers, Homebrew.357. PIC`S.
Attachments
The main housing with male hydraulic fitting for oil feed.
The main housing with male hydraulic fitting for oil feed.
Making adapter to fit in gun drill.
Making adapter to fit in gun drill.
The sprockets, a 3" one should do it.
The sprockets, a 3" one should do it.
hammermill
Posts: 2938
Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2010 10:43 pm
Location: pendleton or

Re: Making a Sharps rifle on my lathe

Post by hammermill »

Thinking out of Bob but if the drive motor on the cutter was a stepper you could adjust for the twist and even do a GAIN twist

Consider high pressure washer fittings the ones I get are good to 5k psi
homebrew .357
Posts: 214
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2011 2:32 am

Re: Making a Sharps rifle on my lathe

Post by homebrew .357 »

Hi All, slowly getting a bit more done on this gun , the slow bit is cutting out the breech block using my lathe as a mill with a fly cutter in the fore jaw chuck, so boring had to have a three day break to our Waitomo Caves in my camper van. So back in to it and decided to make the main spring, again from the bit of car spring , cut it out , grinding and filing to shape , finishing sand with 400 grit then 600 grit and a rehardening and temper, looks good.
O bother :roll: back to milling the block, this is going to take some time. A few pic`s, Cheers, Homebrew.357.
Attachments
Milling the lump of steel
Milling the lump of steel
Fly cutter in the fore jaw chuck.
Fly cutter in the fore jaw chuck.
Slow job, but will get there, I think!
Slow job, but will get there, I think!
Making the spring from a spring.
Making the spring from a spring.
And now I have the main spring.
And now I have the main spring.
homebrew .357
Posts: 214
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2011 2:32 am

Re: Making a Sharps rifle on my lathe

Post by homebrew .357 »

Hi Guys, having a bad week of it, happily fly cutting away at the breech block, bang from the gear box and out falls gear teeth,!!%#&&#!,AAHHH. Two gears have striped some teeth off, I think a tooth broke out and went around to do the damage. So went to the lathe shop but I`m thinking will have to come from china. :cry: .O well, will just have to wait and keep a good grip on my wallet . :roll:
So thinking about making the side plate, looking for hardened type steel 4130 or so, but you have to buy a meter length of it. Asked my son if he had a bits like that and Bingo!, yep, gave a stuffed up stihl chain saw bar, very hard and just the right thickness . So cut a chunk out with angle grinder and annealed it with blow torch and rough cut out the side plate, It`s still pretty hard to cut. The idea of it being able to harden it when finished is to get the nice tempering colours in the surface of the receiver and side plate. Pic`s of the comehandy chain bar . Homebrew.357.
Attachments
The handy bit of bar.
The handy bit of bar.
chopped up.
chopped up.
hammermill
Posts: 2938
Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2010 10:43 pm
Location: pendleton or

Re: Making a Sharps rifle on my lathe

Post by hammermill »

were the gears internal or external on the lathe? good scrounging on the saw bar.!
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