Thread: Making a Sharps Barrel in my lathe.

Hell, I don`t think I`m that good, but will be happy when I feel the recoil and see the smoke from the first shot at the range and as they say, "It`s not over till the fat lady sings", which means the gun is not finished yet. So still working on bits for the Sharps like the back sight, set up on the lathe to mill out the range slider on the pop up for long range shooting. Would also love a tang peep sight, so will look at that a bit later, quite a tricky bit to make, but as my grand son say`s, "grandad can fix anything, he even made a GUN!. Homebrew.357. , Milling machine at work. , Making the slider. , In the rough, but getting there.

Hi, Have sent the block of 4140 steel for the receiver to cut out the breech block hole, should hear back soon when finished. Went to the black powder shoot and after lunch had a go with my Hawken, .45, well getting all ready to load and hammer to half cock, no spring load, the tumbler to spring pin had come out, , so a frantic side plate out, pin back in and pliers to hook spring back on. Had my best group with ten shots, fore holes touching ,. The sight is finished and looks good, Homebrew.357.

Hi, Have sent the block of 4140 steel for the receiver to cut out the breech block hole, should hear back soon when finished. Went to the black powder shoot and after lunch had a go with my Hawken, .45, well getting all ready to load and hammer to half cock, no spring load, the tumbler to spring pin had come out, , so a frantic side plate out, pin back in and pliers to hook spring back on. Had my best group with ten shots, fore holes touching ,. The sight is finished and looks good, Homebrew.357.

Oops, forgot the pic`s, , , , , And the day went with a bang!, Homebrew.357.

Champion!

Gotta get my arse to one of these BP shoots, looks like a hoot!

Hi, Its a lot of fun alright , will post some pic`s on a new thread. Here is my best group bench shooting with ten shots aiming at the black cross, 6 o'clock, mind fore shots are missing, have to put a bigger backing paper to see where they go. Was trying out a new way to load, powder in 70grs 3f, card on powder, lube felt wad, S P G lube 270gr bullet. Seam's to like it, this will be my hunting load. Cheers, Homebrew.357.
, That's definitely a dead deer!.

Looking good
That's the Akld Deerstalkers range, at Riverhead ?

Yep, that's the one, this was the first time out there for me after convalescing from my hip op, had to give my Hawken a feed. But something will always go wrong, set up to start loading, hammer to half cock and no spring presser, the retaining pin to the sear had come out. So a frantic side lock off, fined pin and re hook up mainspring. After all that It`s a wounder I could hit anything. All so shoot my old PH .308 and a Marlin .3030 , helps keep the eye in .Homebrew.357.

Hi guys, I`m a happy camper, have just got my block of 4140 steel back from the machinist with the breech block hole cut out and my breech block fits in a nice snug oily fit. It has also been squared up by grinding for good datum points, so as they say, I`ve got my work cut out for me, but lots more to do. Some pics before I stuff it up. Homebrew.357.
,, This is the precision I can not do ,

Hi, hopefully this is the precision I can do, b/block mounted on top slide after marking out centre for barrel hole and then drill with small and larger drills. Change to milling cutters to plunge cut hole larger and change to boring bar for a hole size of 1.070",and then will have to thread it on the saddle as well. The threading tool held in four jaw chuck and adjustment out using two of the jaws ever so slightly. Will have to remove the tail stock so I can test the barrel for fit, by driving saddle to back of the lathe while still in threading mode. So this is what you do if it won`t fit on your faceplate ., Homebrew.357. P S, All so have threaded the Sharps barrel, 1.5metric.
,, Getting there. .

Hi, As you can see I have threaded the barrel end ready to fit in the receiver and as I said it will not fit on my face plate, but with right low down cunning, it did!," there`s ways and means". So with the angle plate bolted to the f/plate, and the rec/block clamped to that , it took all day to git it running true to side, face, and hole. Now I can cut the thread and test the barrel for fit, I think and if not will just have to remove the tailstock. Will take it real slow, Cheers, Homebrew.357.
, boring bar to finish size. , It takes low cunning and a lot of junk., And some nuts and bolts.

After some careful but slow thread cutting I finally was able to screw in the barrel with plenty of grease so it would not jam up on me as I wanted a tight thread. It now screws in nicely with a bit of presser and when tightened up there is a .050" gap with the breech block and barrel chamber face, as I left it short for final machining of barrel lip to receiver face and head spacing. Will have to cut away about 70% of the steel block to get it looking like a Sharps receiver , but must, must take it carefully so there`s no stuff ups, measure three times and cut once!, if I cut it off, carn`t put it back. Cheers,Homebrew.357.
,

Hi Guys, Back from a few days up north at Kerikeri, saw a weather window so loaded up my small caravan with eggs, bacon, sausages, onions and when I got to the camp site, there`s a home kill butcher across the road, best aged sirloin steaks I`v come across. Great stuff, one needs a break to get healthy , well it was a bit of a walk to the butchers and had to have a few beers when I got back, .
So have just finished cutting the radis at the top of the Sharps receiver after clamping it to my angle bracket on the cross slide and slowly fly cutting out at the top, one more bit done. Homebrew.357.
, Cutting out the radis . , Bit more done.

Originally Posted by homebrew.357

Hi, As you can see I have threaded the barrel end ready to fit in the receiver and as I said it will not fit on my face plate, but with right low down cunning, it did!," there`s ways and means". So with the angle plate bolted to the f/plate, and the rec/block clamped to that , it took all day to git it running true to side, face, and hole. Now I can cut the thread and test the barrel for fit, I think and if not will just have to remove the tailstock. Will take it real slow, Cheers, Homebrew.357.
Attachment 37119, boring bar to finish size. Attachment 37120, It takes low cunning and a lot of junk.Attachment 37121, And some nuts and bolts.

Brilliant HB, "more than one way to skin a cat" springs to mind