doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Action-in-Wood Rook Rifle

Using a method developed by Harry Eales, the vertical mill is used as a manual vertical shaper.
.002-.005" per pass. Works very well and quicker to square corners than setting up a shaper.
Not for production use but works for one of a kind.
Chuck

I owned a Bridgeport shaper head and used it once. Then sold it because it was like a wart on the back of the Bridgeport so I sent it down the road.
Owning a shaper??? Now there is a space waster if ever one existed. "Nostalgia" only lasts until you stumble around it. Harry Eales was a good friend and a clever guy. Work space was his big concern, so getting inventive was required.

Let me offer you out there wanting to build something and the vertical mortise is your big concern and completing the project, save a big investment in machines and all the hassle and take your action to a tool and die company, with a wire cutter, and have it wire cut out. Yes its costly but not nearly the investment in specialized machines, for a once in a lifetime project.

One other point for the would be rifle action builders, if you think building a rifle from scratch is economical then please think again. Rodney's kits are a starting point and the question of the square hole is no longer an issue and you have all the "net" shaped parts. Since I don't make "reproductions" and everything is of my own designs his kits usually don't workout for me.

Granted, a 28" shaper takes a lot of floor space (even the 14" I used to have did), but a 7", not so much. Plus, the cutting tools are cheap and easy to grind, yourself. If you are a hobbyist and not selling your time, slow doesn't mean much; anyway, for a tool junkie " He who dies with the most tools wins". Also, they are fun.
Mike

Since the focus is on cutting square holes lately, here is a bit about that on my project. On this design the operating lever is connected to a part called the toggle link. You can see this part is the earlier picture posts. Well as this link rotates up into the floor plate it slides up into a square mortise that is at a 15 degree angle. This is about the most difficult part of the action design to make. Today I cut that mortise at its 15 degree angle. I have attached a couple pics of the operation. I first milled out as much as I could and then used a broaching tool mounted in the Bridgeport quill to shave out the square corners. After the toggle link and floorplate are all fitted together I will post a finished pic.

Great work and set up, thanks for the photo.
Mike

I am considering the 30 Herrett chambering instead of the 30-30 for this project. Does anyone have direct personnel experience with this cartridge? I can and have done all the web based research so now looking for personnel experience info. Ballistic comments, accuracy with what powders and bullets, felt recoil as a function of rifle weight, any pressure concerns, etc

LRF,
I didn't have a 30 Herret but did have a 357 Herret. They both work much better if the sizing die is set to "kiss" the shoulder and not set it back. Early complaints of case head separations were traced back to setting the die, so the rim bumped it hard. Case life with the properly set dies for my 357 was good. I started setting all my dies that way and am very satisfied with my overall case life. Bob Mileck(?) wrote a lot about the cartridge and I think he did a lot of the development. It is a pistol cartridge, but since it was used in Contenders it was loaded very much like a rifle cartridge.
Mike

Thank you for the write up and pictures.

I’ve never loaded .30 Herret, but had been thinking about chambering a low wall in it. Hornady has some good data here:

https://static.hornady.media/site/hornady/files/obsolete-data/30-herrett.pdf

As Mike said above, case sizing is important for best results.

Just an FYI the spelling is 30 Herrett

That is not the first word I misspelled, and I doubt it will be the last.
Mike