416WSM on Siamese Mauser & 416/348Ackley Improved on Martini

[AZDAVE]

Thank you for the video, understand the process better now.

 

[BlueFlyer]

The setup in this video is much better than mine.

I am going to ditch the chuck holding the cutter and use a draw collet. Then I can shorten the stylus to make the system more rigid

 

[Grumpy gumpy]

I still have access to the Deckel , just it’s a two hour drive to get to my friends place to use it and I then have to set everything up, turns into a very long day.
Gumpy

 

[BlueFlyer]

I don't have a 10mm draw collet for my mill, I only have imperial sizes. I had to make up a sleeve so that I could use the 1/2" collet to mount the 10mm end mill.

By using the collet the length of the stylus was reduced by 80mm, which greatly improved the rigidity of the setup. I also changed the clamping setup to give me more space to work.

First I machined down the centre line and stepped down and locked the quill at the depth and then machined all the way to the left of the picture. You can clearly see the steps in the photo below.

Remaining on the centre line, I then free handed the quill with a light pressure on the feed handle. Several passes the get it to blend.

Then I started indexing the table in 0.5mm increments and manually controlling the quill feed with light pressure to follow the contour of the pattern. I took 2 cuts per increment. I used the power feed on the table for all cuts throughout the whole process.

This rib is not going to be visible, it is going to mount the forend stock and add some much needed weight. It is going to be screwed and souldered to the barrel, to make it stand up to the recoil. I will clean up the outer surface by using the tool & cutter grinder as a surface grinder.

 

[BlueFlyer]

Here is the result after finishing the machining and then cleaning it up with the grinder. My constant companion in the shed, is out of focus in the background.

 

[BlueFlyer]

I put a couple of trail cameras out in a paddock that boarders state forest.

A few Dingos showed up.

It is obvious that they are not giving our cattle any grief, as this old cow does not even lift her head with a dingo in her immediate vacinity ( there is a series of photos). We have not recorded any loses in cattle numbers either.

 

[BlueFlyer]

Trying not to poke the bear (Bob).
I fire formed some 243AI cases, used 85 Sierra Varmit in front of 38gns of AR2209. It looks to be a mild load but is fully forming the cases and is useable on sub 100Kg pests.
First step was to use my DIY induction annealing machine on the once fired 243W Remington cases. By annealing the cases there have been zero lost cases.

And I checked the trail cam again,this time I got 9 dingos in the one frame! As Dad said 9 dogs need to eat a fair bit of meat. The cattle are not being touched, we have seen them hunting Kangaroos. I suspect the Sambar population is getting attention, but it would be good if they would get stuck into the Emus. Emus are the worst weed spreaders known.

 

[BlueFlyer]

More work on the 1/4 ribs today, trying different ways of adding detail. I have 3 ribs that I have roughed out at this point. 1 of the bottom ribs (not as good as the other) I am using to experiment with.
First was was just offsetting a 1/2" end mill and then similar concept using the 10mm ball end slot drill.

Neither really appealed to me. I have a 2 I/2" shell cutter that I could use to add a large diameter end radii, so that was the next attempt. The difficulty was how to hold the 1/4 rib as it needed to be rotated by 90deg for machining. There was the flat side top side of the rib but the opposite clamping side was the barrel contour. So as not to damage the barrel contour I used a .458, 405grn Lee mould cast projectile, as it is soft enough to completely blend into the barrel contour without damaging the rib.

I also want to be able to fit a Red Dot sight on the 1/4 rib but being only 1/2" wide it is insufficient to machine in groves that can be used with the standard picatinny clamp. I am going to need to screw a picatinny section to the rib when I want to use the Red Dot. Therefore I need a shoulder for the picatinny rail to butt up to, to accomodate the recoil. The photo below shows the current state of the three 1/4 ribs

 

[BlueFlyer]

This is how the 1/4 rib is sitting on the rifle. The rib is 3mm too short so cannot be used, but it is very handy to try out ideas. The rib is going to be tin soldered and screwed to the barrel.
The top and bottom ribs are going to add about 1/2lbs of much needed mass to the rifle.

 

[BlueFlyer]

If you are going to try to spot in a 1/4 rib get a kerosene lamp. It is by far the best way to find the contact points. Eliexpress $10 delivered, 10 days to deliver ou of China.

This is what it looks like after smoking and then rotating it on the barrel profile.

Then I ground down the shiny bits with a Foredom die grinder, and it looks like this.

Eventually you get to the point with 90% contact and thats good enough. I am going to screw & solder the rib in place with 100% tin solder.