Making a Sharps rifle on my lathe

[JackF]

This is why, to my wifes' regret, I hardly ever throw anything out. I threw that hardly in there because in our effort to get our house on the market we are making many trips to the Goodwill donation store.

Jack.

[homebrew .357]

side plate

Hi, Have done all I can do to the side plate , will leave it for finale fitting and so when on to making the tumbler assy, this I`m making out of round stock in 4140 so I can harden it. Set stock up in toolpost and a milling cutter off centre in the fore jaw chuck to cut a radis in the end. Then into the chuck again off centre to machine the tumbler and using a t/c tipped cutter and the saddle up and down to cut the sear and half cock slots . Cut it off the stock and set up to mill the fly slot, I cut the slot on the side, the plans have it in the middle , how did there do it, any way, it works in my Hawken.
Have been waiting for my hip op redo, yep , came up it`s done, but it`s only a temprey one, have to wait 3/6 moughts for the finale one, getting there. Cheers Homebrew.357.

[homebrew .357]

Hi All, still hobbling around on my crutches but carn`t stand sitting around doing nothing So back on my lathe to see if I can make the Sharps hammer from a round lump of steel. This is how I am doing it, set it up in the lathe to drill some holes, some are just for profile only and they give you a datum point for most of the machining . Had to cut the rounded profile on the top of the hammer, so made up a profile cutter for this but as I could not turn it a full circle I had to cut it by the old ( rock and roll ) method , back and forth with the chuck until your arm falls off. It`s coming on, a bit more work yet and then a lot of sanding and polishing. I would like to get some colour case hardening on some bits of this gun, but nobody does it over here in NZ, Soooo, I`m looking at making a oil fired furnace to have go at it, You never know, if I get it going I could be in business , Cheers, some pic`s , Homebrew.357.

[hammermill]

well its good to hear the hip is progressing in the right direction, the hammer looks like a pain but you are getting it dialed in. ken

[homebrew .357]

Hi Ken, Yep, really had think on this, the way to hold it and machine it to shape from the large lump. Then had to cut the round hole square . I did this by making a small cutter to sit in the tool post and with the hammer in the fore jaw chuck centred on the hole, used the saddle as a shaper to slowly cut it square. Now how`s that for thinking outside the square, .
Just have to cut the square on the tumbler shaft to fit in the hammer and some polishing, should be good, a pic of the just about finished hammer. Homebrew.357.

[hammermill]

I wonder if the early ones were cast or the result of a 100 foot line of machines . With each doing a special task with jigs.

Or then lots of fittings with files

[GeorgeGaskill]

Maybe a forging?

[homebrew .357]

Forging I would say, certainly not my way. Here`s my way of squaring the tumbler shaft, set up in the fore jaw chuck and using a t/c cutter in the tool post , cut the square with the cross slide like a sharper, back and forth, register with the fore jaw chuck for the fore sides . You keep doing this until your wrist falls off, . A bit of hand filling to get a snug fit and its done, the pic`s, Homebrew.357.

[redneckalbertan]

How did you move the cutter up and down in your "shaper"?

[homebrew .357]

Hi, To slowly shave the square the tool post was packed up with blocks and shims, you can just see them in pic #805, and it is set to cut .010" thou or so. Need light cuts as it is lightly mounted in the jaws with ali packers and you don`t want it to move. To lower down after fore sides have been done ,I just remove one off the .010" shims , keep on doing this until the hammer just starts to go on the shaft, take it off the lathe and hand finish. The t/c cutter was from a skill saw blade , cut out a bit with a t/c tooth and welded it to a bolt, then reground and sharped it, pieces of cake, I`m also using same t/c made cutters for the rifling cutter head, they last and stay sharp a lot longer, specially when you are going up and down 50/60 times just for one grove. .
Doing a lot of hand finishing to get the action with all the bits working, stay tuned, Homebrew.357.

[Jim Jakosh]

Wow. That is quite an undertaking. I'd love to see it finished. It seems that the barrel will be the hardest part. Do you have a long lathe and will you be gun drilling it? How are the rifling grooves put in?
As for the steel. It would be best to use hot rolled steel as it does not have the stress in it that cold rolled steel does and is very stable when machined.

Jim

[homebrew .357]

Hi Jim, Yes It is a challenge all right, as to how I will be doing the barrel, have a look at my first post in" gunsmithing" on the Hawken plains rifle I made, (Making a gun barrel in the lathe ), I`m basically making the gun for black powder, maximum 18.000 psi, so I have some aisi 12/15 steel shaft, this is up from aisi 12L14 steel that C V A use for there black powder barrels. It is a good machining type and possibly easer to use for cut rifling and the jackup way I`m doing it. The Sharps barrels are 1.3" at the breech, so plenty of meat. I can only make a barrel 25/26" long on my lathe , so it will be a Sharps business rifle, with a octagonal barrel , I hope, and as I`m doing the all on my lathe it will take some time, more so now because my lathe has had a glitch, turned it on and could not stop it , electrical problem, still waiting on the sparky with the new bit. , Cheers, Homebrew.357. PS Will be starting a new post for the Sharps barrel when I start to do it.