diggerdanh Posted February 25, 2006 Report Share Posted February 25, 2006 Gents, I've been reading for a couple of years and I've done a few Timney trigger installations, buehler safeties, restocking to synthetic stocks, some scout style mounts, and cold blueing jobs. I have decided that I am comfortable enough with the smaller jobs and I want to go ahead and step up the activity a bit. The C&R is on the way!! I'm not a machinist or welder, nor have I had any exposure to those things (being a computer programmer) so I don't plan on buying a lathe, mill, or a welder (though I plan on buying a welding outfit in a couple of years if I can do reasonably well with this stuff - hell maybe I'll even buy a lathe at some point, but not until I get much closer to retirement). I have been collecting tools for the past couple of months: benchtop drill press, receiver drill & tap fixture, barrel vice & shims, receiver wrench, various hand tools to fill holes in my collections, etc. I have a short list of things that I still need to pick up - one of them being a bench grinder and a buffer. I have read you guys talk about using wire wheel brushes for removing finishes and buffers for polishing, etc. Will one piece of equipment fit for both of these needs? Can I just buy a bench grinder and have it double as a buffer as well? Will a cheap bench grinder do? Like one of the $29.99 bench grinders from Midway or Harbor Freight? Or do I need to buy a separate buffer - I've seen those at Harbor Freight for about $45-$50? Or do I buy a grinder and just use a buffer with a hand drill or on my drill press? Or alternately buy a buffer and just use a wire wheel on a hand drill or my drill press? What kind of setups are you guys using? What do you recommend? Of course I have a limited budget, too - which is why one tool for both would be great. Any recommendations and links will be appreciated. Thanks, Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BradD Posted February 25, 2006 Report Share Posted February 25, 2006 Dan, when it comes to buffers/grinders you can't have too many - as long as you can get around. You will find that changing wheels will drive you nuts! For a minimum, try three set ups, one with a coarse and fine grinding (stone) wheel, one with a coarse and fine wire wheel and one with two different cloth buffing wheels (you'll still want a couple extra wheels because you'll find two grits probably aren't enough - removing metal, removinf scratches initial polishing and fine poishing). for the ginder go with Harbor freigts big 8", usually comes with one stone and one buffing wheel, put the buffing wheel on another motor and put a fine or coarse stone (whichver you need) on that spindle, it's usually on sale for $69.00, mines been great. For the wire wheels and buffers the 6" models are okay. If you seriously start home gunsmithing and have the room you'll probably find yourself wanting more. The other power items to consider are bench mounted belt sanders. I use two, one a 4x36 belt and the other a 2xsomething or other. I use them as much as the wheels. I've used HF sets before and was unsatisfied with them. For a few bucks more I've gotten some from Home Depot (Sears is good, too) that I really like. Make sure the rollers are not higher than the gring platform. Any like that are junk and will ruin your work if you go off the platform onto the roller. Try to get near 1 hp, use one vertically and one horizontally. Ah, so many tools, so little time. Good luck, Brad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fritz Posted February 25, 2006 Report Share Posted February 25, 2006 Buffing wheels are one of the most used tools in my shop. Here is my homemade setup, using an old sealed motor from a gasoline pump and a wheel stand sold by Brownell's (cheapie)--- http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0603/fritz/7744ec98.jpg These wheels are worn down and need to be replaced. One has a course grit Polish-O-Ray on it, the other a fine grit. fritz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinkerfive Posted February 25, 2006 Report Share Posted February 25, 2006 This subject comes up from time to time and I'll make the same offer as ususal. I can get very nice 1/2HP 1725rpm motors that I'll give you for the cost of shiping it to you. These things are continuous duty, they look like they should run about 10 years 24 X 7. I get them with 1 year on them, so I figure they have about 9 years of life (at 24 X7) left in them. I got all the pieces parts from Harbor Freight to make it work. I guess if I got it all put together and took a picture you could see what I mean. You could do a pulley system like Fritz's too. Maybe this weekend, if it isn't too cold here, I'll just have to work on putting it together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diggerdanh Posted February 25, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2006 Tinkerfive, Thanks for the offer. I'll have to take you up on that if it looks like something I can do. I'd love to see pics - that will help a bunch, I'm sure. Thanks for the information - much appreciated. I have a couple of 93 mauser receivers sitting around that I plan on using for practice: hitting them with a wire wheel, filing/griding down charger hump and any other imperfections, drilling & tapping for scope mount, polishing the receiver, and probably some rust blueing practice. Getting a grinder/buffer setup is about the only thing I have left to acquire before I can start on that stuff (oh and an India stone). Once I do a couple of those I think I'll be ready to take on one of the "real" projects I've got sitting around - a 7x57 95 Chilean in a Ramline synthetic, a 6.5x55 on a 38 Turk in a drop-in wood stock I picked up somewhere, and a .308 PH barrel on a 98 (don't remember the country of origin right now) in an ATI stock for more of a tactical look - ala FMSniper. Those are just the things I've been stocking up on over the past couple of years. I'm sure the C&R will bring plenty of new projects!! Thanks again, Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odies dad Posted February 27, 2006 Report Share Posted February 27, 2006 I put together a polishing bench made from 2 belt driven arbors with motors mounted on a board on a cart that I can move around to where I need it. One of the arbor/ motors was free because the motor needed a new cord, the other was about $5 at a garage sale. One arbor has a wire wheel and a 1200 grit sanding wheel on it and the other has 2 buffing wheels. One uses the red rouge and the other uses white. (don't mix rouges on the same buff) By using this setup I can move from one station to the next as I move to progressivly finer polish without having to bolt on a new wheel. Some of those cheap chinese grinders are preet easy to stall when you are trying to grind something. You will probably be money ahead to spend a little more up front and get something that you won't have to replace right away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emul8 Posted February 27, 2006 Report Share Posted February 27, 2006 tinkerfive -- Are you serious with that offer? That's GREAT! Are you able to get the motors on a relatively consistent basis, because I am going to be moving, so I don't want to acquire the motors now, but in a couple of months, I would be interested as I plan to set up a small shop where I can work on my gun stuff, and assorted other things. I have considered getting the el cheapo versions of these grinders/buffers from Harbor Freight, but would seriously consider setting up something on my own to fit my needs, and as BradD indicates, getting more than one would be fabulous. Please let me know if you are able to get these motors consistently, or however it might work best for you, and I will probably take you up on the offer at some point down the line! Email me via the system here, or at my personal email (putting a reference to the motors in the subject line, thanks...spam, you know!), and I will definitely be in touch! That's so cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diggerdanh Posted March 13, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2006 I have a couple of 93 mauser receivers sitting around that I plan on using for practice: hitting them with a wire wheel, filing/griding down charger hump and any other imperfections, drilling & tapping for scope mount, polishing the receiver, and probably some rust blueing practice. So that was the plan. However, I've determined that I may be too much of a perfectionist to "practice on a couple of actions." First of all I have to say that I drilled and tapped my first mauser receiver for a scope mount about a week ago - it worked flawlessly! Thanks to all of you for the inspiration and examples - I would never have had the nerve nor the knowledge to do so without your help. So my first "practice" project was to be a '94 brazilian action that I picked up somewhere with a 6.5x55 swede barrel that I got from Sarco a while back. I took the bolt from a '93 turk that I had been playing with a while back - was already bent and polished and had a buehler style safety installed. I got the bottom metal, trigger, ejector and other needed hardware from another '93 mauser that I had laying around. The stock is some type of slight profile laminated stock for a SR that I picked up somewhere (probably on ebay) a couple of years ago. I figured the end result should be a nice lightweight sporter. I'll post some pics once I have something worth showing. So here is my issue: I figured I would be happy enough to just "go through the actions" with this project and be happy to get everything good enough and consider it a learning experience. Instead I find myself finding a small flaw, fixing it, looking deeper, finding some other small flawy, fixing it, on and on... For example I have spent the last two evenings continuing to work on grinding down and smoothing out the area where the clip guide used to be. I probably had it "good enough" two nights ago, but I continue to work on it. I'm sure this persistence will be worthwhile once I have an action worth the attention, unfortunately the one I have now has some pitting below the woodline. I guess I am just plain and simply "hooked". Thanks again gents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest Posted March 13, 2006 Report Share Posted March 13, 2006 I remember hearing a long time ago,"A true artist is never satisfied with their work".There's a huge gap between half-assers and perfectionist.If you can get around the pits in your 94,that orta be a fine little rifle.I love 6.5 Swede.Jerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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