A 1800 Meter Luger !

sheepherder · 10-31-2018, 06:40 AM

Milling the front sight 'blade'.

25. Finished front sight fitted to barrel.

26. Squaring/shortening muzzle protrusion.

27. Milling sides of 'blade'; milling top to 1º angle.

28. Milling radius on front of 'blade'.

Had to break off barrel work again, to make a spanner for that front sight.

A. Boring the hole in a block of 5/8" x 1 1/2" 6061 aluminum.

B. Milling a clearance slot for the 'blade'.

Next will be finishing operations on the front sight.

29. Beveling the muzzle.

30. Crowning the muzzle bore.

31. Setup to mill the chamber ramp.

32. Milling the ramp, using a 10mm end mill.

Finishing operations at the breech end of the barrel.

33 & 34. Cutting the extractor notch with Woodruff keyway cutters.

35. Drill & tap the rear sight base retaining screw (#6 x 48tpi).

36. Setup to cut a Patridge notch in the rear sight to replace the 'V' notch: finished cut.

Getting near the end...

At this point, my machine work on this 'fantasy barrel' is done. It needs to be sent out for final finishing and bluing, and when it comes back I'll assemble it and check functioning.

sheepherder · 10-31-2018, 06:40 AM

Couple of pics of my setups, using spirit levels. Mostly for my machine notes, as I forget how I did something unless I take pics for reference.

Setup for cutting the extractor notch relative to the front sight.

Setup for leveling the front sight to cut the 'blade'.

Setting up to cut the feed ramp.

sheepherder · 10-31-2018, 06:41 AM

When I have more than one project waiting for space & tooling on the mill table, I try to plan to do similar machine operations together. So if I'm using the rotary indexing head ['superspacer'] to mill the Luger front sight, I'll follow that with another comparable procedure.

Following the Luger front sight, while I had the 80+ pound superspacer on the table, I set up a jig to mill curved slots in 1911 triggers. The JT Masen Co used to offer a skeletonized long trigger for the 1911. It was similar to the Colt Gold Cup trigger, but with the narrower trigger blade in the 1911. (The Gold Cup blade is .350" wide; the 1911 is .250"). They no longer offer it, and other vendors offer other styles of skeletonized triggers but not with the Gold Cup profile.

But JT Masen does still sell the steel long 1911 trigger, so I decided to make my own skeletonized triggers.

But I needed to design a jig to hold the trigger, and revolve it while milling the curved slot. It took me a week of 3-4 hour workdays to turn out a satisfactory piece. Two of those days were trial & error with wood mockups, trying to figure out how to locate the piece in the jig and then rotate it.

Here's the finished jig, with a 'raw' trigger in place. Looks simple, and it is, but it was a PITA to design.

It's only about 3 inches by 4 inches, aluminum, and clamps in a 4-jaw chuck mounted on the rotary indexing head. Here's how it works...

1. The 'raw' steel trigger is clamped in the jig, resting against a Nylon disk with a dimple in the exact center. A steel pointer is chucked in the mill quill and centered on the dimple.

2. I want my slot to be 3/32" away from all three edges of the front of the trigger, so I chuck a 3/16" drill rod in the quill chuck and locate it 3/32" from the edges.

3. Now I center drill each end, just a shallow indentation.

4. I drill through each end with a 1/8" drill.

Moving to next pic...

5. Next I enlarge the two holes to 3/16".

6. Finally I load the 3/16" 4-flute end mill and start rotating the indexing head along the curve. The centerline of the curve is ~.875" from the center dimple of the Nylon disk. I take .020" cuts, and rotate slowly, to eliminate or at least reduce the tendency of the thin end mill to 'wander'.

7. Completed slot.

8. The tooling used. The C-clamp has been ground to allow low mounting. The C-clamp actually secures the trigger between the two aluminum blocks; the socket head cap screw just holds the trigger flat against the base.

My next project will be to make up a 'plug' to allow quick centering of the indexing head under the quill. I've been just marking the table with a magic marker but the marks keep rubbing off. A plug in the center of the indexing head that can be centered under the quill with be a real time saver.

10-31-2018, 06:40 AM	#1
sheepherder Lifer Lifetime Forum Patron Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: ...on the 'ol Erie Canal... Posts: 8,208 Thanks: 1,425 Thanked 4,474 Times in 2,343 Posts	Milling the front sight 'blade'. 25. Finished front sight fitted to barrel. 26. Squaring/shortening muzzle protrusion. 27. Milling sides of 'blade'; milling top to 1º angle. 28. Milling radius on front of 'blade'. Had to break off barrel work again, to make a spanner for that front sight. A. Boring the hole in a block of 5/8" x 1 1/2" 6061 aluminum. B. Milling a clearance slot for the 'blade'. Next will be finishing operations on the front sight. 29. Beveling the muzzle. 30. Crowning the muzzle bore. 31. Setup to mill the chamber ramp. 32. Milling the ramp, using a 10mm end mill. Finishing operations at the breech end of the barrel. 33 & 34. Cutting the extractor notch with Woodruff keyway cutters. 35. Drill & tap the rear sight base retaining screw (#6 x 48tpi). 36. Setup to cut a Patridge notch in the rear sight to replace the 'V' notch: finished cut. Getting near the end... At this point, my machine work on this 'fantasy barrel' is done. It needs to be sent out for final finishing and bluing, and when it comes back I'll assemble it and check functioning. __________________ I like my coffee the way I like my women... ...Cold and bitter... Last edited by sheepherder; 10-31-2018 at 08:35 AM.

10-31-2018, 06:40 AM	#2
sheepherder Lifer Lifetime Forum Patron Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: ...on the 'ol Erie Canal... Posts: 8,208 Thanks: 1,425 Thanked 4,474 Times in 2,343 Posts	Couple of pics of my setups, using spirit levels. Mostly for my machine notes, as I forget how I did something unless I take pics for reference. Setup for cutting the extractor notch relative to the front sight. Setup for leveling the front sight to cut the 'blade'. Setting up to cut the feed ramp. __________________ I like my coffee the way I like my women... ...Cold and bitter... Last edited by sheepherder; 10-31-2018 at 12:07 PM.

10-31-2018, 06:41 AM	#3
sheepherder Lifer Lifetime Forum Patron Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: ...on the 'ol Erie Canal... Posts: 8,208 Thanks: 1,425 Thanked 4,474 Times in 2,343 Posts	Interlude When I have more than one project waiting for space & tooling on the mill table, I try to plan to do similar machine operations together. So if I'm using the rotary indexing head ['superspacer'] to mill the Luger front sight, I'll follow that with another comparable procedure. Following the Luger front sight, while I had the 80+ pound superspacer on the table, I set up a jig to mill curved slots in 1911 triggers. The JT Masen Co used to offer a skeletonized long trigger for the 1911. It was similar to the Colt Gold Cup trigger, but with the narrower trigger blade in the 1911. (The Gold Cup blade is .350" wide; the 1911 is .250"). They no longer offer it, and other vendors offer other styles of skeletonized triggers but not with the Gold Cup profile. But JT Masen does still sell the steel long 1911 trigger, so I decided to make my own skeletonized triggers. But I needed to design a jig to hold the trigger, and revolve it while milling the curved slot. It took me a week of 3-4 hour workdays to turn out a satisfactory piece. Two of those days were trial & error with wood mockups, trying to figure out how to locate the piece in the jig and then rotate it. Here's the finished jig, with a 'raw' trigger in place. Looks simple, and it is, but it was a PITA to design. It's only about 3 inches by 4 inches, aluminum, and clamps in a 4-jaw chuck mounted on the rotary indexing head. Here's how it works... 1. The 'raw' steel trigger is clamped in the jig, resting against a Nylon disk with a dimple in the exact center. A steel pointer is chucked in the mill quill and centered on the dimple. 2. I want my slot to be 3/32" away from all three edges of the front of the trigger, so I chuck a 3/16" drill rod in the quill chuck and locate it 3/32" from the edges. 3. Now I center drill each end, just a shallow indentation. 4. I drill through each end with a 1/8" drill. Moving to next pic... 5. Next I enlarge the two holes to 3/16". 6. Finally I load the 3/16" 4-flute end mill and start rotating the indexing head along the curve. The centerline of the curve is ~.875" from the center dimple of the Nylon disk. I take .020" cuts, and rotate slowly, to eliminate or at least reduce the tendency of the thin end mill to 'wander'. 7. Completed slot. 8. The tooling used. The C-clamp has been ground to allow low mounting. The C-clamp actually secures the trigger between the two aluminum blocks; the socket head cap screw just holds the trigger flat against the base. My next project will be to make up a 'plug' to allow quick centering of the indexing head under the quill. I've been just marking the table with a magic marker but the marks keep rubbing off. A plug in the center of the indexing head that can be centered under the quill with be a real time saver. __________________ I like my coffee the way I like my women... ...Cold and bitter... Last edited by sheepherder; 11-01-2018 at 07:39 PM.