I stumbled across a pre 64 M-70 for a good price. The barrel and stock weren't so good but the action was in great shape.
I got it home, took it apart, and cleaned the action. I had a barrel and stock that were in better shape so I swapped them out. Barrel headspaced just fine.
The stock needed a little work. The floor plate was very tight and the action screws went in with effort, meaning I needed to lengthen the inletting at the bottom if the stock. Should have been piece of cake. Just put the 3/4 end mill into the milking machine and elongate the inletting.
When I got out the 3/4" collet, it wouldn't fit in the spindle. I am forever a newby machinist and I hadn't used the 3/4" collet. The 9/16" collet fit fine. I measured and the 3/4" collet was .0005" to .001" larger in diameter.
So I put the three jaw on the lathe, wrapped the collet with a brass shim, but the jaw were too long to polish the top 3/4" of the collet where it was too big.
I then took the drawbar from the mill and threaded the collet on backwards all the way until it stopped. I wrapped the drawbar with a brass shim and got it in the lathe. Using Med, then Fine Emory Cloth I got the diameter polished a bit, oiled it, and made it fit into the spindle.
It took maybe 10 minutes on the mill to elongate the floor plate inletting and everything for fine. The whole process of figuring out how to polish the collet took about an hour and a half.
It shouldn't have taken that long.......
I got it home, took it apart, and cleaned the action. I had a barrel and stock that were in better shape so I swapped them out. Barrel headspaced just fine.
The stock needed a little work. The floor plate was very tight and the action screws went in with effort, meaning I needed to lengthen the inletting at the bottom if the stock. Should have been piece of cake. Just put the 3/4 end mill into the milking machine and elongate the inletting.
When I got out the 3/4" collet, it wouldn't fit in the spindle. I am forever a newby machinist and I hadn't used the 3/4" collet. The 9/16" collet fit fine. I measured and the 3/4" collet was .0005" to .001" larger in diameter.
So I put the three jaw on the lathe, wrapped the collet with a brass shim, but the jaw were too long to polish the top 3/4" of the collet where it was too big.
I then took the drawbar from the mill and threaded the collet on backwards all the way until it stopped. I wrapped the drawbar with a brass shim and got it in the lathe. Using Med, then Fine Emory Cloth I got the diameter polished a bit, oiled it, and made it fit into the spindle.
It took maybe 10 minutes on the mill to elongate the floor plate inletting and everything for fine. The whole process of figuring out how to polish the collet took about an hour and a half.
It shouldn't have taken that long.......
