rdfrench31 Posted December 21, 2007 Report Share Posted December 21, 2007 I'm sure many of you guys have bought these from Brownells or Midway. Would one of you gentlemen give me the critical dimensions...I'd like to fabricate one and save some $$$. Thanks, and great site by the way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donmarkey Posted December 21, 2007 Report Share Posted December 21, 2007 When I made mine, I just took the dimensions off of the action I was going to use it for. -Don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdfrench31 Posted December 21, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2007 When I made mine, I just took the dimensions off of the action I was going to use it for. -Don That is plan "B"...I don't have an action in house yet. Will order it the first of the year. I was wanting to get a jump on some of the tooling before the action arrives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdfrench31 Posted December 21, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2007 Looking at the pics of the ones online, they look pretty beefy. What thickness plate steel is adequate? Looks to be an inch or better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z1r Posted December 21, 2007 Report Share Posted December 21, 2007 Looking at the pics of the ones online, they look pretty beefy. What thickness plate steel is adequate? Looks to be an inch or better. I'm in my PJ's so I ain't going out to the shop to measure. But, a mauser front ring is close to 1 3/4" long. So, the width of the wrench over the ring should be somwhere near but certainly no less than 1". The ring itself measures approx 1.410" I'd cut my wrench for that because it is on the large side of the scale and a shim of .005" to .010" brass is what I use to prevent marring the receiver. Beefy is good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clark Posted December 24, 2007 Report Share Posted December 24, 2007 drawing of how to make an action wrench from MacFarland Book pic of how my action wrench builds improved over time. What I learned was that there is place on the Mauser where the large ring is over flat bottom behind the recoil lug. The action bolts should be in this same plane. This can be accomplished by cutting a relief in the face of the wrench to allow the action to slide into the wrench deeper. Without this trick there is a bind on the bolt threads that makes them hard to turn and get beat up a little and some bluing gets rubbed off the receiver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinkerfive Posted December 24, 2007 Report Share Posted December 24, 2007 Check out Steve Wagner's site. My first action wrench was a "U" bolt and a piece of 1/4" flat steel. Steve recommends a piece of angle. I have bent the flat steel on the tighter fit barrels. I have a parts bender and a mandrel that was just about the same OD as the front ring. Tinker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirtyjim Posted December 25, 2007 Report Share Posted December 25, 2007 i built mine from a piece of 2 1/2 x 1/4" angle iron about 2 feet long, the u-bolt from a 1 1/2" muffler clamp & a small peice of 1/8"x1" strap. i used a 4 1/.2" angle grinder to make the cutout for the recoil lug then cleaned it up with a file. i forged the 1/8x1" flatbar around a socket i had that was the same size as a lr receiver then welded it to the u-bolt. it worked well for about 4 times then i broke the u-bolt on a realy tough barrel. when the ubolt broke it also slightly bent the action wrench where the receiver sits, the receiver wasn't damage. i filed it back flat then added a second u-bolt , the second ubolt is from a 3" muffler clamp so i could have then close together & still have room to get the nuts on the u-bolts. i also welded a peice of 2x2x1/2" plate to the bottom of the wrench to make the area under the receiver more rigid. if you were to make the cutout for the recoil lug on the other side of the angle iron it would be much stiffer but you have to put the u-bolt farther back on the receiver ring. i don't have any pictures of it after i added the second u-bolt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cold shot Posted December 25, 2007 Report Share Posted December 25, 2007 hi jim, never seen one done like that before. Looks interestin' though. what counts is when it does the job at hand. I bought mine from midway. my barrel vise is the split blocks of wood between 2 steel plate in a vise. works for me. I just might try to copy your design to build one for my father in law, if you don't mind. looks cool. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirtyjim Posted December 26, 2007 Report Share Posted December 26, 2007 strait shooter , feel free to copy it. if you want i could post a picture or a drawing with the dimensions for the recoil lug notch & the u-bolt holes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cold shot Posted December 27, 2007 Report Share Posted December 27, 2007 Hi Jim. That would be cool. We got a lotta steel stuff here at work so materials would not be a problem. Even have some ss also. I like your design . Straight to the point and simple. Looking forward to the pics. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdfrench31 Posted December 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2007 Thanks for all the info guys...this forum is great. Jim's design looks simple yet effective i think i might try it first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirtyjim Posted December 28, 2007 Report Share Posted December 28, 2007 here is a drawing that gives the diminsions for the cutout & the holes for the u-bolts. i started the recoil lug cutout about 3" from the end of the angle iron & the u-bolts used will determin the exact width for the holes as they vary a bit from one brand to the next but these mesurments should be neough to get you going. the u-bolts will also be to long to tighten down without some type of shim behind them thats about 1/2" thick, at first i just used a couple of 1/2 nuts as washers but now i have a peice of 2x2x1/2" plate welded to the underside of the wrench Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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