Kibler Copy ....Finished...(Replaced all of the Photos !)

[Cory Joe Stewart]

I think what impresses me the most is how neatly that underlug is installed. Very impressive work.

Coryjoe

[KLMoors]

I've got to admit, I laughed out loud when I read you are making the sights out of a meteor!  Only you could pull that off Dave.  I can't wait to see more progress.

[Tim Crosby]

 This gets more interesting all the time. Very fine work all around Dave, the Meteor is neat idea.

  Tim C.

[Jim Kibler]

Those casts are amazing! What is the material, and how were they made? (Especially without gunking up the original?)

The casts aren't perfect, but they do provide something pretty decent to use as a guide and they're pretty easy to make.  I used Biofoam impression foam to squeeze around the stock.  This takes on the shape.  The foam mold then was filled with Hydrocal plaster.  These are the first casts I've done and can hopefully refine things a bit more in the future.  The Biofoam is sold in chunks big enough for foot impressions, but I'd love to find bigger pieces so more of a rifle could be done with one cast.  If anyone ever locates bigger pieces like this, please let me know.  I learned most of this from Ron Scott. 

Jim

[Keb]

Is there a shrinkage factor?

[Jim Kibler]

I don't think there is much shrinkage.  If so, the little bit would be in the plaster.  If you look up a spec. sheet for Hydrocal you should be able to check it out.

[davec2]

Well, progress has been a little slow.....this working for a living is really cramping my style.  At any rate, I did manage to make the front and rear sights out of fragments of iron meteorites (see previous post).  The front sight blade (left a little tall here) was made from a piece of the Gibeon meteorite that fell about 12,000 years ago in Namibia.  It was recovered in 1836 and is fine octahedrite (iron-nickel).



The rear sight was made from a piece of a meteorite that fell and was recovered in 1776 in Xiquipilco, Mexico.  This one is medium octahedrite.



The rough finished sights.....



More trouble than they are probably worth, but I like the idea that the sights are made from a piece of interstellar debris.

[WadePatton]

I found one once, but didn't know anything about them at the time.  Pitched it (not knowing).

I remember where and could go back, but it's a riverbed and no telling how many times flooded over since.

We're all stardust according to modern science.  


and you left out a LOT of the middle part of that there sight-making process.  Any quirks/surprised to working the stellar material?

[docone]

I think those are great. I like the concept, and how the metal looks.
I have some Fulgerite along with some meteorites. I have faceted Moldavite also. Doesn't look good, but there it is.
Good luck, and well done.

[mountainman]

did that material file easy or hard, for your sights i mean?

[Don Getz]

Dave........talk about blowing your own horn, now you tell us your sights are "Out of
this world".  Just joking, of course.  It takes a lot of imagination to do the stuff that you
do.........Don

[Dale Campbell]

Like Wade said, we're all just interstellar debris. But your sights are pretty cool.

[Captchee]

out standing Dave .  not only a great idea but  your sights  turned outr very nice

[Mark Elliott]

It seems to me that turning meteorites into gun parts is the first step toward forming Interstellar Mining Inc..    Just think,  why wait for them to fall.   Just go turn that killer asteroid into barrels and locks before it ever gets to Earth. 

[davec2]

Wade,

Yes, we are all star dust to one degree or another.  As to quirks in working with meteoric iron, yes, there are a few.  The material is not homogenous and often includes very hard spots or, worst to deal with, microscopic diamond particles that chew up a file or saw.  One of the unique characteristics about meteoric iron is the Widmanstatten Pattern shown in the photos.  This type of crystallization in iron-nickel alloys can only happen if the cooling rate from the liquid to the solid state occurs VERY slowly...less than 1 degree Celsius per every 1000 years...a condition impossible to duplicate on earth.  So, as long as the pattern is visible, it is easy to recognize that the iron is not of terrestrial origin.  However, by the time I get finished cutting and polishing the pieces used for the sights, the crystalline pattern is no longer visible and I would have to re-etch them and leave them bright to make the Widmanstatten structure show up again.  But a bright polished sight isn't in the cards, so I will finish them the same way I end up finishing the barrel or by using heat to darken them.

Mountainman,

The material is difficult to work with (hard and soft spots as noted above) and it has a lot of fracture lines that you need to work around.  Othetwise a corner may fall of your finished sight.

Don,

The sights may be out of this world, but my shooting usually isn't.  The one thing I know for sure is that the "dirt seeker" I install in every round ball works perfectly every time and, at some point in the trajectory, I have a 100% success rate for the ball to find the ground....sort of like a little lead meteorite.

[WadePatton]

Wondering if etch to heat blue wouldn't leave some pattern?  Thanks for info.

[Curtis]

Dave,

You have taken a unique opportunity (most of us gun builders do not have meteorite resources) and made some amazing parts for your rifle, something that will likely be treasured for generations.

Wow, that is just COOL!!!!!!!!


Curtis

[JTR]

Curtis, There's no shortage of meteorites for sale if you want one.
Prices range from cheap, to not so cheap.
Check out this link; http://www.arizonaskiesmeteorites.com/AZ_Skies_Links/Campocito/index.html

John

[kaintuck]

Dave,
I do like this idea....I once saw a knife, blade made from a meteorite in Damascus wY, with a elephant ivory handle as I remember.......beautiful and w/o a price tag!!....this was MANY years ago.....but I have admired your work, now you a new direction......using strange materials for your work...
Think about mastodon ivory for parts.......

Marc n tomtom

[davec2]

Still too busy with work to throw full time at this, but some progress is being made.  Roughed out the lock side stock contours, got the lock inlet. Made the trigger assembly and got that installed.  Forearm shaped and molding cut in.  Muzzle cap installed.

[davec2]

Side plate made and installed.  Finished machining and hardening the lock and tang bolts.  Trigger guard is installed and trigger adjusted.  Cheek piece side of the stock is roughed in.  All the metal parts are made and installed with the exception of the spring and end plate parts for the wooden patch box cover.



The only major architectural feature to go, before I start in on carving and finishing, is the patch box.  I've never done a sliding wood patch box.  Any one have any suggestions before I have at it?  (I've read Alexander's description in his book on how he does it.......and I find his explanation fairly incomprehensible.)

[Tim Crosby]

  Dave, see if this helps:

   http://www.americanlongrifles.org/Workshop_sliding_wood_patchbox.htm


 Scroll down to Creating a Wooden PB.

  Here is another:

     http://www.hootalrifleshop.org/wooden_patchbox_lid.htm

  There is another on Al's site under "Tips and Tricks".

   Tim C.

PS: You are about 33 days into this (Based on first post) some of us would be happy to be at this  point after 6 months. Looking great, Thanks for the pix. TC

[jerrywh]

Einstein said that the greatest gift a man can have is imagination. Dave has it and the skill to carry it out.

[C Wallingford]

Einstein said that the greatest gift a man can have is imagination. Dave has it and the skill to carry it out.

Very appropriate, Jerry. He is quite an artist!

[Vomitus]

  Great work Dave. I love those big English locks!