swamp_thing

Well, I haven't seen too many, but here's one of mine. http://www.sporterizing.com/index.php?showtopic=161 Thought you might want to see it. swamp_thing

Looks like a fine huntin vehicle to me as well. I have had a couple that the doors were trying to fall off of and seeing this one makes me think I should have let them. Would be great in the midwest for road hunting pheasants. Of course, you might freeze to death in the process, but a good hunt has a way of warming ones body. Now that I reside in the deep south the cold is no longer an object to contend with for me. Maybe the open air vehicle would be more practical. Looks like a proud boy there with you too. Always take time to savor moments like that and they will be with you forever. swamp_thing

dave h, you sir are very welcome and thank you for the kind words. Thanks to z1r for the link, az, tinkerfive and all the others for their responses and participation in this thread. Have fun guys and hopefully some old fond memories will surface for many of us. swamp_thing

This is great to see the interest in the old crystal sets and for the info I have gotten from all of you. I hope that those that take the trip back down memory lane so to speak will recapture the joys we found in these old sets. If you are far away from a station you will need a good antenna and ground of course. Evening and nightime is the best for listening. Enjoy them. swamp_thing

You won't find them at Radio Shack any longer. You can look up a place on the net called the crystal radio society, and they sell a remake of the rocket radio. They have a few parts as well. There are many other crystal sites on the internet that do carry parts for them, and it is addictive as you know. Do a search on crystal radios and you might be suprised at what you find. It would be neat if more people got back into the basics on them and started the craze over again. Funny afterthought about what you said, I sent my daughter to Radio Shack for rosin core solder and the guy there did not know what that was. They had it though, and she showed him what it was. swamp_thing

Another very nice example of what can be done when building a sporter. Beautiful rifle indeed. Keep us posted on how it does. swamp_thing

I believe without looking that the highest coupling is around 340-360 feet but I would have to look it back up to be sure. It is horizontal antenna, elevated about 15 feet in the air. One hundred sixty feet east/west and one hundred sixty feet north/south. Ideally it would be two seperate antennas, but this seems to work out real well for me. I have a crystal set with one transistor amplification, different than the one mentioned above, that I received Beijing, China, China Radio International with this evening. I looked it up on the web and it appears it is multilanginal, with different languages during different times of the day. The antenna is doing it's job. I have also picked up Canada Radio International on the crystal set without amplification. Sure has been a lot of fun and is addicting. swamp_thing

Karl, the little earphones do work If they are high impedence crystal earphones. They are available from a few sources but are not as good as the earphones or sound powered units. I can order the little earphones from Ocean state electronics rather cheaply and will get a few. Still will be looking for the other styles though. I do thank you for the offer though. If anyone stumbles across any info on the headphones or the sound power units, please let me know. Thanks folks. To guest, local stations can be a real problem and makes using a crystal set much tougher, but they can be tuned out with additional circuitry. Just makes the radio more complex. swamp_thing

Tony, the headphones are old vintage stuff, and yes, you can find them from time to time on Ebay, but of course they are costly and you take a gamble on them. It would be nice to find an old set from someone that I could feel comfortable dealing with, thus the question about them. Old sound powered headphones or handsets like those used by the military are usable as well. As for how does a crystal set work without batteries, here is a brief explaination. The radio signals picked up in the long wire antenna, coupled with the use of an earth ground creats a very small amount of current. With the antenna and ground I have I have measured this current at 2 to 26 millivolts. This current, along with the carrier and radio signal is passed through a crystal diode which seperates the radio frequency signal from the carrier. It is passed through the very high impedence headphones. Of course, it is more detailed than this, but I wanted to give a general idea. It is the small current that operates the set. That is why ordinary headphones like for a walkman will not work. It takes a very sensitive set of phones unless one incorporates amplification. True crystal sets never use power sources. As for distance, I live in eastern Georgia and have received Nashville, New Orleans, Ohio, Des Moines Iowa, Radio Canada International and several others. We have no local AM stations in the area, so long distance DX'ing is easier here. It is a good way to pass away a lot of hours. I do dabble with tube sets as well. swamp_thing

Tony, as I said I will be sending a bit as well, like some others, just waiting on payday. Most all here are happy to contribute to the cause I am sure and we all appreciate the efforts you have gone to in order for this site to continue to exist. Just our way of saying thanks to you. swamp_thing

Must be getting old. I find myself embarking on a new (read that old, but recurrring) hobby again. This time it is crystal radios, transistor sets and small tube stuff. I decided that I can only spend so much time tinkering with guns and needed to branch out some. Put up a nice 320 foot long wire antenna and cobbled together a set or two to listen with. It is rather neat to listen to broadcasts from hundreds of miles away without so much as even a battery in the set. I am sure that some of us did this when we were young. Funny how as time goes on we sometimes revert back to the simple things that brought us much joy. I haven't done this since I was in grade school. In just a few nights of listening I have already logged over ten DX stations. This is going to be a great indoor activity. Anyone got an old high impedance set of crystal earphones around they might want to part with? swamp_thing

OK, so, as has been pointed out you would probably want hardened washers, which can be obtained. I just looked on one fastener site and they do make them. Of course, that said, I do not know how much would be saved in cost. Also, Brownells does sell the replacement cutter sets for about half the cost of the tool itself. If one was on a tight budget, you could just buy the cutter replacements and make the rest of the tool. fritz, is the cost you quoted with a C&R license? I checked their web site and they are about $23.00 each without it. It all boils down to how much is ones time worth and what can they afford to spend, as well as how much satisfaction will be attained through making your own tools. For me, I elected to buy the complete cutters at the time of purchase. When the time comes for the next set I may well try the washer route. I have made many of my tools and it is half the fun of using them. Little_canoe, if you don't have your C%R, you may want to consider having it for the savings on supplies alone. I did have mine, but after I quit buying surplus rifles from the distributors I allowed it to expire. Miss the savings on parts and supplies though. swamp_thing

I agree and have many tools that I have made or refashioned myself. But, that said, not everyone has the means or the ability to make their own tools. For those, the store bought ones will come in real handy. I have seen many folks who were very good at working with wood that couldn't do anything with metal. The same goes for almost any type of work. If one can make their tools, and has the materials to do so, then they usually will end up with the best tools for the job. Not trying to take away from anyones suggestions here, as they are all good and contain invaluable information. Even in the case of the inletting tools, the handy person with some rod and a few flat washers could fabricate their own. It all boils down to the time and skills one possesses. swamp_thing

Honestly, I must say that I use the two biggest ones very little, but, when opening up a channel near the chamber area, it is much harder to keep straight and true using a smaller sized channel cutter. One thing to keep in mind here is that when you are using say a 3/4 inch channel cutter, it will cut the width at 3/4 and keep the depth at 1/2 that distance, or 3/8", thus inletting the barrel to the half way point. This is the depth you want. If you use a smaller cutter to make a wider channel, then you must also try to keep the depth proper as well. I would really suggest getting them all, but if you must leave any out, then I would say skip the 11/16 and 7/8. You will wish you had them later though. swamp_thing

Excellant!! This is going to be such a good thing. Many thanks to you Tony for a great move. swamp_thing

I have the same tools as the one fritz showed you for the barrel channel. Mine are in 9/16, 5/8, 11/16. 3/4, and 7/8" sizes. I paid around 18.00 for each through Brownells and they are what I use from start to finish on the barrel channel. They are very good for this and with a degree of caution can be used very accurately. Those channel inletters, assorted wood chisels and a hand rasp with changable blades are the only real tools I use in stockmaking. Otherwise it is sandpaper with a backing block and slow careful progress. If I was going to make a suggestion on what is the single most valuable tools to have, it would be the barrel channel cutters shown. swamp_thing

Been wondering how many of us own or have owned a nylon 66 remington. They are a great little rifle that has stood the test of time. It would be hard to beat one for a lightweight knock around gun. Seems to be a shame that they no longer make them. From what I have read, they quit manufacturing them only because the molds for the stocks wore out. Got one, or ever did? If so, how do you like yours? swamp_thing

The following quote taken from yahoo news states the the boy raised the gun at the deputy. My thoughta are this. There seems to be the usual news statements leaning towards the fact that the shooting was not necessary. They don't come completely out and say it, but they are working their way all around the subject. Also, the family of the boy had their attorney in on it from the start. I smell a lawsuit here as well. I don't know what everyone else thinks on this, but if you take a gun of any kind into a school in these times and then take a hostage, followed by raising it at a deputy, you are going to get shot. How could anyone expect anything else of this situation. Maybe I am in the minority on this one, but as I see it once you draw done on someone you better be prepared for what happens next. So, what are your thoughts. swamp_thing

Since accessaies can be kept with it, I am suprised no one has said their rifle, bayonet and ammunition. That would be my chioce, you would be afforded protection, a means for food, a way to clean the food and the bayo could cut the necessary limbs to make shelter and other needs. The uses are limited only by ones imagination and skill. swamp_thing

fritz, that is absolutely amazing. Thank you for sharing it with us. swamp_thing

Success is a wonderful thing is it not? Sounds like all went very well on the job and I am happy that you accomplished the task at hand. You can now sit back and give yourself a pat on the back. Glad all is now well. swamp_thing

The first thing I would say is that the chamber is probably all full of gum and needs to be cleaned. Check very carefully to see if there is any dried and caked up cosmoline in the way of the bolt face. I have gotten a few that actually had pieces of brown paper coated with cosmoline stuck in the bolt face area. I think that in some cases they actually did this to keep foreign matter out of the bore during storage. If there is a build up, it could be holding the bolt back or interfering with the extractor. Also, is this when chambering a round or even on an empty chamber? I would suggest taking a pick like device and physically checking the rear of the chamber where the extractor would go and the bolt face area to see if it has hard cosmo there, impeding the bolt from closing. swamp_thing

That might make a difference but I honestly don't know. I wrote before in the old thread that if you want to be sure there are no burrs left you can push a cotton ball through the bore from the breach end after drilling. If there are burrs, it will snag the cotton and frey it as it goes through the counterbore area. If it comes out without snagged strands, then you would be relatively sure the crown is clean. If not, you can always us the small dremal stone to remove any burrs. swamp_thing

I have posted these pictures before but so you might see a welded handle and finished stock I will repost these two pictures of the last one I did. I have the wood to start another over the winter months. I made the scope mount. swamp_thing

This was discussed somewhat in the thread awhile back about the inaccurate MN by Doble Troble in the Mosin section I believe. I will try to cover what I can personally answer from my experiences. First off, if you turn the drill backwards you are not going to be cutting metal, but rather burning your way down the barrel and overheating both bit and bore. Don't run the bit in reverse. You can do this with a hand drill, but must be very careful of two things. First you must try to follow the bore as straightly as possible. Really, this is not as hard as it sounds since the bit will follow the existing hole. Secondly, and a bit more difficult, is that you must be very careful not to try and crowd the bit, as it will bite in and pull you deeper than you wish to go. If you apply LIGHT pressure and go slowly, you can maintain the cut depth and also will not leave a big burr at the beginning of the rifling. When you are at the depth you want to be, check very carefully that you have not left any burrs that will impede the bore. You will achieve much more pleasing results if you can clamp the barrel of the rifle in a bench vise to hold it verticle while you do your drilling. I put a patch in the bore just below the part I am going to drill so the shavings cannot get all though the barrel. Then when done just push the patch out from the breach end with your cleaning rod. You could probably find a grinding stone for a dremal tool that would fit inside the counterbore and touch up your crown. Also, as a last thought, use a bit with the common 135 degree end, not one of the bits that are made with the self centering tip on them. You will need the plain vee shaped tip to cut your crown and also it will start into the bore straightly. Hope this helps to clear up this question for you. swamp_thing