Gun boring machine

[David R. Pennington]

Getting closer. I just need to complete the fixtures to clamp the barrel in the carriage and get a little machine work done on the shaft.
 I used what I had. Some cherry inch lumber I sawed 20 years ago that had gotten wormy in the stack. I might have come up with another possibility for finishing cherry gun stocks in the process. I mixed some borax and white vinegar and saturated the wormy lumber. I don’t know if that will help or not but after this dried I gave it a good soaking with half and half boiled linseed oil and turpentine (with a dab of japan drier). When dry it got a coat of 1 part turpentine, 1 part boiled linseed oil and 1 part polyurethane, (and japan drier). I wasn’t really concerned with looks as much as preservation. I didn’t sand anything. Set it in the sun to dry as much as possible. The cherry darkened up real nice.

[rich pierce]

Now yer talkin!

[Hungry Horse]

David, are the cast iron parts from an old hand crank drill press? I love it when old stuff that is no longer usable, can be repurposed into a new tool.

  Hungry Horse

[mark brier]

Looks really good to me. Get some bits made up and put it to use. By the way looks like a wheel off an old sheller.
Mark Brier

[Bob McBride]

Looks really good to me. Get some bits made up and put it to use. By the way looks like a wheel off an old sheller.
Mark Brier

Definitely looks like a sheller wheel. Super nice.

[David R. Pennington]

Mark, I am anxious to put it to work. I aimed to finish it up today, but I had to make a bottom board and cover so I could hive some bees. I’m not sure what the wheel was on originally. It was some type drill apparatus. Was rusted tight. It had a pulley for a flat belt and a rack and quadrant feed. I removed all the extra apparatus and I will eventually shorten the shaft. I just did light cleaning on the wheel and revealed the original hand painted yellow pinstriping.

[David R. Pennington]

Progressing slowly on boring machine. Forgings for barrel holders made from wagon tire and machined. Carriage done except for hand screws. Added an extra bracket to accommodate different length barrels, pistols.  The barrel holders are threaded with jamb nuts to adjust heights. Old junk fowler barrel in place for illustration. A little machining to do on main shaft and then rigging feed mechanism.

[Pukka Bundook]

Good job David, but I think you need a much heavier set of legs under it to stop it walking about in use.  Turning can get quite a pressure up at times and it might start to walk.

[David R. Pennington]

You may be right. I had intended to brace up legs a bit. It seems pretty stable now, but has not been put to the test yet. I thought about putting transverse braces at bottom and screwing to floor if necessary.
There is a room behind blacksmith shop at the local museum that is not being utilized. The idea is to perhaps eventually have a working gun-shop demonstration there? Wish I had more time!

[Darrin McDonal]

I can tell you from experience, the fly wheel cannot be heavy enough. It certainly can be far too light. Now I'm talking about using this as a two man operation where one guy is feeding the barrel on to the bit, not being fed by weight and chain. The more momentum the better.
Darrin

[J. Talbert]

David,
 Apparently I don't check out the shop made tools section very often, since I have not seen this previously. It sure looks like you've done a heck of job.
Have you put it to use yet?
Missed you at  Boonesborough this year.

Jeff

[David R. Pennington]

Not yet. Have a barrel welded up waiting. Too many irons in the fire.