The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

We have a 2 Axis Manual/CNC lathe due in towards the end of next month and I will be using the machine for a variety of applications including barrel profiling, threading and chambering however it will also be used for our 'Signature' range of products due to its superb ability to machine complex curves and transitions. Although I have a fair amount of work ear marked for it I am looking for more ideas for it. With the increased capacity we need to keep it reasonably busy so is there a turned (Round) shooting related item you have been struggling to source? I was thinking of a run of Winchester and Marlin firing pins to start off with plus some small runs of bolt knobs which I can now produce in a less time consuming manner.

The machine is a Harrison Alpha with 1250,0mm between centres so a reasonable size and as well as being able to run as a manual machine can be programmed to machine just about any conceivable shape in a variety of materials including Titanium.

I'm interested in Winchester firing pins.

That's a Hell of a Lathe by the way and I guess a bit of a learning curve involved in the use of. Far to complicated for me. A bit of an investment to I wager. But it should certainly open up new possibilities for you I guess.

CMMG firing pins! Proper nice ones.

Marlin 1894 carriers?

Yes it is one hell of an outlay at 60 years old and we need to make a go of it as well. Not only is it a machine to buy, there is also all of the tooling and absolutely nothing we use fits other than the carbide inserts. So that is a 4 Jaw chuck, a fine adjust 6 jaw (Ouch!) and I need another collet chuck although I will look for a Crawford so I can use my existing collets. I am also contemplating moving to on-edge screw cutting so more to get my head around.

The plan is the Viking and I will learn the programming which is a conversational system curiously called Alpha (Insert joke here...) plus operation together, not so much that she will be able to run it (Although she will) More because if I get stuck I can ask her WTF do I do now. The good news is I can do the design off machine and then fire it across using some dedicated software so I can in theory modify my existing 3D models, remove erroneous data and load them the machine which means I can hold an unlimited library of shapes, forms, threads and profiles with the fun of screw cutting at 100 metres/minute (1200RPM)

I already do some CNC for complex forms however it is by buying time on machinery and they are now charging me over GBP50+VAT/hour so add travel and it is a costly exercise, the only good news is there is always someone to ask if things go tits up.

SimG, someone already does Marlin carriers here in the UK and it would be wrong to do the same.

Chris, a picture of a CMMG firing pin would be handy :)

safetyfirst wrote:CMMG firing pins! Proper nice ones.

Seconded, also Hornady decapping pins, not made from cheese.

H&I dies, bespoke internal diameters.

"M" die profile expander buttons to fit lee expander die body, bespoke diameters.

dromia wrote:"M" die profile expander buttons to fit lee expander die body, bespoke diameters.

I'll second that one dromia!

Yes H and I dies and expander buttons to fit the Lee expander die.