My first lathe project! Pics up. tell me what you think!!!

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skeetlee

Active member
Ok fellas, I have been stowed away in my machine shop making chips. I needed an action wrench for my Borden rim rock, so i though what the heck, ill just make one. Here is what i did in a short, I took a piece of flat stock and surface ground it to the proper thickness. Then i center drilled and reamed the back end of the flat stock, and then pressed a turned piece of bar stock in to the back end. Then welded the two in place. After that was done i simply turned the flat stock between centers to the proper measurements, and contoured the bar stock. I even put the proper 25 degree cone on the front end. This was a fun project for me and it really boosted my confidence. I also learned a lot in the process. This project is fairly simple from a machinist standpoint i know, but this is my first project and i think i will grade myself with a B+. Indicating the flat stock was probably the most interesting. Here are a few pics for you fellas to enjoy. if you see something i should have done differently please share. Enjoy and Merry Christmas! Lee

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This is stainless steel in case your wondering.
 
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May I just say "I told you so?"

:)

good job

ain't but a THANG for a concrete guy.....kinda' nice having no deadline eh?

LOL

al
 
I make mine so the flats only bear on the front rec ring. If you get a tight bbl or you like to tighten them good and tight the wrench will twist and potentially deform or mar the receiver IMO.
 
Good catch, I agree with Ray. I have one wrench made entirely of flatstock (from one of the action makers) but I'm scared to really torque on it.

Bummer, now you gotta' make another one :)

al
 
I dont tighten my barrel real tight. I think about 50 foot pounds is all i will ever go. I also made this flat stock fit real close. there isnt much if any slop when its inside the race ways. Is there really a chance i could twist this action? i just dont see that??? Thanks Lee
 
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Looks good to me Skeetlee, there are several different ways of making action wrenches, each have + & -. In the pic the top wrench is from Time Precision, the middle one is a port wrench that I made for a M 70 and 700 Rem. and the bottom is a Kelbly’s Panda wrench. They all work well on BR soft seated barrels but my favorite is the Time style which I use a torque wrench on for consistency, 100 ft lbs is not a problem although I wouldn’t go that far on a Panda. Not shown is the Brownells action wrench which is for removing factory barrels the first time, with that there isn’t any contact with the raceway or lug area.

Rick
 

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crb said:
I make mine so the flats only bear on the front rec ring. If you get a tight bbl or you like to tighten them good and tight the wrench will twist and potentially deform or mar the receiver IMO.
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And if it does twist the action rest assured it will break the glue loose if it is a glue-in.

Not only that but if you have good tenon/shoulder contact and torque to, say, 50 ft/lb, it will take much more than 50 ft/lb to break the joint loose after it has been shot a few hundred times.
 
Lee, listen to Jerry.

Haven't twisted an action, but have seen one that had been tweaked from something just like this. Since he could reuse the original bolt, it only cost the owner about $600 for a new reciever.

Exspensive action wrench..... -Al
 
I know of a few Remington 700 actions that were damaged with by improper action wrench fit. I witnessed a glue-in joint broken by the same problem.
 
On an aluminum bodied action you only want the flats of the action wrench to bear on the steel insert at the front of the action. You also want to be careful to not apply any undue pressure to the bolt raceway as you tighten or loosen the bbl. The ideal would be to apply all the torque to the steel insert [ or front receiver ring of a steel receiver ] and have the rest of the wrench not even touch the action . Hard to accomplish but what you want to strive for.
 
crb said:
On an aluminum bodied action ......... Hard to accomplish but what you want to strive for.
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I use the Davidson wrenches on my Panda actions but I chucked the wrenches in a lathe and turned off all the flats except the front part that engages the bolt ways.
 
I ordered a Davidson and asked the vendor if it was the flat version and they couldn't tell me. Well, it was the flat version and it was boxed back up on on it's way back the next day.
 
Skeet, look at the wrenches in Rick A. post above. The top wrench looks like an Al Davidson. Now look at the bottom one, not the round rod but the part that goes in the action which looks like what Kelblys sell. Now, you can take a wrench like the Davidson and turn the center round like the Kelbly one and have a safe, workable, wrench, so, you can take the wrench you made and modify it accordingly.
 
I have twisted a Mod 7 receiver about 20yrs ago. Didn't know it until I found the scope didn't have enough travel. Put a bore sighter in the barrel and twisted it back. It is now a very accurate 30BR hunting rifle.
 
If you can find a guy who uses a Wire EDM (I think that's the correct term) to cut the bolt raceway in one piece, he may give or sell you one of the pieces that came out of the inside. (Not sure I'm explaining this right). Anyway, they make a prefect action wrench when fitted with a handle of some sort. I got mine from MacMillan.

A bolt body from a Rem 700 makes a good wrench for the newer actions with the "slot" in the side. Knock the handle off, screw a 1/2 x 20 bolt into the end, braze it in place and voila!

Action wrenches don't have to be pretty to work. But never underestimate the power of pretty ;)

Ray
 
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I think that the big problems arise when some folks have used internal action wrenches to take off factory installed barrels. Also, magazine cuts drastically weaken actions. I don't think either apply to the typical benchrest action,but they do bear keeping in mind for other situations. In the past, I have paid a local smith to take off factory barrels. He has the wrench that clamps on the outside of the receiver ring that he mounts in a big vise, and a long handled barrel wrench with a variety of bushings that fit various factory contours. He also uses rosin to increase friction. If and when I get a lathe, I probably will invest in those tools, but for now, all my new barrels are for custom actions. For my Viper, the rear entry wrench that I got from Kelblys works slick.
 
JerrySharrett said:
I use the Davidson wrenches on my Panda actions but I chucked the wrenches in a lathe and turned off all the flats except the front part that engages the bolt ways.
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Maybe you should show a picture Jerry. If I understand what you were doing, I would have used a mill. Otherwise clunk clunk clunk for about 20 minutes.

From recent posts, I guess the FrencH Canadians would have written a lot more "clunks"?
 
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