Some CNC enabled gunsmith projects I've done.

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  • Ranchero50

    Ultimate Member
    Dec 15, 2012
    5,411
    Hagerstown MD
    I think I did individual threads but can't find them so here's a couple posts of them.

    Ruger 22/45 front site modification. Did this because the front site kept blending into the rear making target acquisition difficult. A hobby shop provided the neon dowels. Drilled a hole and then milled a relief so light would get to the dowel. Made quick siting in much easier.

    DSC01676_zps22cddae8.jpg~original


    DSC01682_zpsadf172df.jpg~original


    DSC01678_zps1f750a05.jpg~original


    DSC01677_zps4853c3b5.jpg~original
     
    Last edited:

    Ranchero50

    Ultimate Member
    Dec 15, 2012
    5,411
    Hagerstown MD
    Last edited:

    Ranchero50

    Ultimate Member
    Dec 15, 2012
    5,411
    Hagerstown MD
    Ruger 10/22 QA issues... Picked up one of the Ruger Appleseed 10/22 with the peep side from the Gunsite bolt gun and ran into trouble sighting it in. I needed to run the rear sight all the way to the right and it was still a couple inches off at 30 paces.

    DSC02223_zps8ab6974d.jpg~original


    I was able to use the mill and my 80% receiver to verify that Ruger mis-machined the barrel bore. Not a big deal on barrel mounted iron sights. Used an edge finder on each side the barrel and compared that to the receiver center line

    DSC02222_zps8181b2bd.jpg~original
     
    Last edited:

    r3t1awr3yd

    Meh.
    MDS Supporter
    Dec 14, 2010
    4,723
    Bowie, MD
    Very cool. You make me want to buy a lathe lol. I'm assuming you used a lathe to create that shotgun stock adapter. Is that true?
     

    Ranchero50

    Ultimate Member
    Dec 15, 2012
    5,411
    Hagerstown MD
    Yeah, I have a little 1950's Logan 925 lathe that has a National Bureau of Standards ID tag on it. You can turn small parts on the mill by holding them in the spindle and moving it to stationary mounted tooling. Kind of a tail wagging the dog thing.

    The stock adapter looks funny but work really well at taming a 12 gauge down to a 410 kick.
     

    ToolAA

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Jun 17, 2016
    10,500
    God's Country
    Nice work, keep posing. It will motivate me to get working on some more of my projects.

    I would like pickup a small lathe.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     

    Ranchero50

    Ultimate Member
    Dec 15, 2012
    5,411
    Hagerstown MD
    Finally got off my butt and finished the prove out on my 80% pocket milling program for the mill. Took a couple hours to sort it out but the results look pretty good. Did mine and went ahead and had my oldest son load his up and run the program on it.



    I used a doubled up parallel against the safety detents to hold the lower parallel. It actually measured ho pretty good. My lower wasn't square which was a head scratcher for a while. The kids was, go figure.







    No they just need holes and mine needs the FIRE/SAFE script done deeper. Then swap barrels on the uppers and go heat them up.
     

    Ranchero50

    Ultimate Member
    Dec 15, 2012
    5,411
    Hagerstown MD
    Justin case anyone wants a program that'll get you close. :lol: This was the unproven one and has a few errors that will net you scrap metal. Mostly movement typo's. Two subroutines (#-$) that are called every .05" depth and also at full depth for each pocket depth. Then a simple oblong cut for the trigger. I still don't think in cutter comp so all the dimensions are true for a 1/4" tool

    N0 : AR 15 80% LOWER
    N10 : FIRING GROUP POCKET MACHINING
    N20 : PART VISE HELD, MAG WELL TO RIGHT
    N30 : X0 CENTER OF FRONT PIN (.225")
    N40 : Y0 CENTER OF RECEIVER
    N50 : Z0 TOP POCKET SURFACE
    N60 :
    N70 : T1= .25 END MILL, 1.5 EXPOSED
    N80
    N90 : FIRING GROUP
    N100 : POCKET
    N110 : .630" DEPTH
    N120
    N130 T1M6
    N140 S3200M3
    N150 M8
    N160 G90 G0 X-5.1912 Y1.023 Z.01
    N170 G1 Z0 F10.
    N180 #1 : POCKET PROFILE SUB
    N190 G90 G3 X-5.0998 Y1.095 I-5.296 J1.25 F20.
    N200 G1 X-3.515
    N210 Y0.937
    N220 X-5.7407
    N230 G2 Y1.125 I-5.7407 J1.031
    N240 G1 X-5.296
    N250 G3 X-5.1928 Y1.1795 I-5.296 J1.25
    N260 G2 X-5.116 Y1.22 I-5.116 J1.127
    N270 G1 X-3.483
    N280 G2 X-3.39 Y1.127 I-3.483 J1.127
    N290 G1 Y0.873
    N300 G2 X-3.483 Y0.78 I-3.483 J0.873
    N310 G1 X-5.116
    N320 G2 X-5.2053 Y0.847 I-5.116 J0.873
    N330 G3 X-5.3253 Y0.937 I-5.3253 J0.812
    N340 G1 X-5.0098 Y1.095
    N350 $
    N360
    N370 N390/12 : -.05" X 12 PASSES
    N380 G91 Z-.05 F10.
    N390 G90 =#1
    N400
    N410 G90 G1 Z-.630 F10.
    N420 =#1
    N430
    N440: FIRING GROUP
    N450: POCKET
    N460: 1.249" DEPTH
    N470
    N480 G90 G0 X-5.1912 Y1.023
    N490 #2
    N500 G90 G3 X-5.0998 Y1.095 I-5.296 J1.25 F20.
    N510 G1 X-3.515
    N520 Y0.937
    N530 X-5.607
    N540 G2 Y1.125 I-5.607 J1.031
    N550 G1 X-5.296
    N560 G3 X-5.1928 Y1.1795 I-5.296 J1.25
    N570 G2 X-5.116 Y1.22 I-5.116 J1.127
    N580 G1 X-3.483
    N590 G2 X-3.39 Y1.127 I-3.483 J1.127
    N600 G1 Y0.873
    N610 G2 X-3.483 Y0.78 I-3.483 J0.873
    N620 G1 X-5.116
    N630 G2 X-5.2053 Y0.847 I-5.116 J0.873
    N640 G3 X-5.3253 Y0.937 I-5.3253 J0.812
    N650 G1 X-5.1912 Y1.023
    N660 $
    N730
    N740: TRIGGER SLOT
    N750: 1.25 - 1.4" DEPTH
    N760
    N770 X-4.083 Y-0.031
    N780 G1 Z-1.33 F6.
    N790 X-4.451 F10.
    N800 G2 Y0.031 I-4.451 J0.
    N810 G1 X-4.083
    N820 G2 Y-0.031 I-4.083 J0.
    N830 G1 X-4.2
    N840 G0 Z0.5
    N850 M9
    N860 M30

    That was yesterday. Today's project was the side pins. Should be pretty simple but before I took the print at it's word I drilled a sample .156" drill in some aluminum for the pins. Good fit so mounted the part i the vise on a block of aluminum and checked it or level.

    Pic is the firing group hole locations and also the safety pin program along with the take down pin references. Big text because I need to manually transcribe the points into the mill.


    About an hour later three very nice correctly located holes are done. I did the safety hole undersized and worked up to a good fit.


    In the middle of getting the lowers finished we swapped the barrels. Gained roughly 7 oz on the front end with the barrel swap. My sons has the fancy cover and was easy with the set screw gas block. Mine with the A2 sight and taper pins isn't finished yet. I still need to true the sight, lock it in place and mill replacement taper dowel holes. PITA but I just wanted a simple carbine. I did buy the Daniel Defense stock set because I fell in love with it's feel. Kids is Magpul MOE. Everything else is PSA


    Clicking the pics makes the bigger. I post up how I do the sight when I get there.
     

    Ranchero50

    Ultimate Member
    Dec 15, 2012
    5,411
    Hagerstown MD
    Quick update of me making a mistake. :) Spent a couple sleepless hours last night thinking about how I was going to hold and measure the barrel / sight to get a correct alignment before drilling it and decided to use a dial indicator and once I had a reference measurement use it to find 1/2 the width of the applicable parts.

    So, first up was the mount the upper in the vise with the piccy rail against the back as it should be perpendicular to the sight axis. Then I used the dial and swept the 'Y' axis to find the 'tallest / widest' part of the barrel and then the 'X' axis while using the far right jacking bolt and hold down bar to level the barrel in the mill. Once level since this chunk of barrel measured .875" I set the dial to .428" and zero'd the mill's 'Z' axis. Now when the dial indicates .000" the mill readout is the width to the center line. Make sense?


    So, checked the .750" gas block and at .000" on the dial the machine read .375". Good.


    Now I set the mill to .310", 1/2 of the sight width and adjusted the sight until the dial measured .000" locked down.


    Now to check my work I went back to the large diameter on the barrel and made sure the dial's .000" measurement matched the .438 on the mill readout and the dial reading didn't move when sweeping along the barrel. Still good.


    OK, that took about an hour to set up but I feel confident it'll be drilled square. I then set up the coaxial dial indicator so I could locate the drilled holes on the front sight and realized I ran out of 'X' axis movement to hit the far hole. :crazy: Decided it was a great time to take a lunch break so here we are...
     

    PapiBarcelona

    Ultimate Member
    Jan 1, 2011
    7,343
    I usually never respond to the machining stuff but from what it looks like;

    You used the drop indicator and crowned the apex (highest point) of the barrel on the top and went back and forth on the X axis a few inches until the tilt read 0 on the indicator, adjusting it with a threaded stud and tightened the barrel down with the clamp. At some point the vice was also loose enough to adjust the tilt out, so you tightened the vice around this time too.

    Then you used the drop indicator to compare measurements to line up the loose front sight post from a few simple math calculations, adjusting it with another threaded stud and tightened that clamp down once it the measurements make sense.

    You assumed since the vise is indicated straight and clamping square on the receivers rail would align the barrel. I probably would have made an indicator measurement 90 degrees from where you were (top) and did the same thing, travel back and forth on the X axis and see how straight the barrel really is from where your vice is clamped on the work piece, just for a sanity check. Not sure how much difference it makes if you find a lot of error.

    Its not a very good setup from my professional observation but it's not absolutely horrible. Whatever to get the job done in the garage, or where ever you are doing this
     

    Ranchero50

    Ultimate Member
    Dec 15, 2012
    5,411
    Hagerstown MD
    Hey Papi, thanks for the comment and yes to everything you wrote. The vise is trued within .001" across the face, the receiver top indexed to that. It's sitting on a small block of aluminum to act as a pivot. The jacking bolts are very coarse adjusting but I managed. The barrel top swept within .002" over the 6" span once locked down so I felt I had a good chance at success. The clamp locations kept the force localized to just holding the parts and not deflecting them. The hardest part was keeping the sight back against the barrel step while locking it down. I used the coax to find the old holes and surprisingly the barrel didn't vibrate when the 1/8" high speed end mill went into it with an interrupted cut. The setup felts plenty rigid for the scope of the work. Everything is still in the mill waiting for a 2-0 taper reamer to show up to finish the holes.

    One of the nicest things about machinist work is there's many different ways to skin the cat and I'm always trying to learn better ways. What would you do differently?
     

    PapiBarcelona

    Ultimate Member
    Jan 1, 2011
    7,343
    I'm not sure what you're doing. Lol

    I wouldn't use a drop indicator for indicating like that, I'm more partial to test indicators. These days I only use drop indicators for comparing measurements, kinda like what you are doing but on a bench.

    The nut with flange down on the flat table, stud and upside down T-nut under the front sight post is a no-no for me.

    In all honesty, I'm not sure how much different I would do it in my home garage but in a shop with a real job I'd probably want the barrel removed and make an aluminum fixture to locate and orientate the barrel, probably taking advantage of that pin that's installed that orientates the barrel in the upper receiver.
     

    Ranchero50

    Ultimate Member
    Dec 15, 2012
    5,411
    Hagerstown MD
    OK, scope of the work is to get the front sight drilled and pinned after replacing the normal barrel with a MD compliant one on a PSA rifle kit. This is a one off drill and pin. I read up doing it with fixtures and other methods and saw some comments about the front sight still being canted. I think because the barrel alignment pin has a degree or two of looseness in the upper receiver. That's why I chose to do it as an assembled unit. The T post and nut was field expedient as I haven't made some fine jacking bolts or an adjustable wedge. Them walking made things more difficult than needed. I did a bunch of double checking before cutting and yes, I need to buy a decent test indicator. Thankfully the old Starrett and mag base were rigid enough to be repeatable.

    Thanks for the follow up.,
     

    PapiBarcelona

    Ultimate Member
    Jan 1, 2011
    7,343
    It's good work youre doing, a lot of DIY/Hobbyist don't ever come close to the level you're at.

    Machine shop work is a really tough trade to learn, id say from my own experience most people need at least 10 years of full time work in more than 1 shop to be a decent Machinist.

    YouTube videos and reading the machinery handbook is one thing but a lot of hobbyist I've helped struggle on math or focus too much on stuff that doesn't matter. A lot of people get the technical knowledge but lack the finesse to complete it.
     

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