The Minilathe Came in Handy Again

Lately I've been doing a bit of shotgun shell reloading. I decided to pick up one of the inexpensive Russian-made presses from Daddy Ammo that allow you to deprime, prime, and apply a star crimp to plastic shells. By accident, I ordered the 16 gauge unit but decided to keep it, in case I eventually get an old 16 gauge gun. I ordered the 12 gauge unit and got it a couple days later.

When I got the 12 gauge unit I found that the decapping pin for 209 primers was just a small stud that didn't screw into the mandrel.

In the picture the capping insert is screwed into the mandrel. Below the press is the decapper that works with brass shotshells like Magtechs, the 209 decapping pin that came with the 16 gauge unit, the pin that came with the 12 gauge unit, and finally, the replacement I made.

The mandrel is threaded to take the decapping pins, which are threaded M6-1.0. I did some rummaging and found a few M6-1.0 bolts. I cut the head off one and then turned part of it down on my lathe enough so that it can decap hulls with 209 primers. 

I didn't have any suitable nuts in my stash so I ran over to Lowes and bought a pack for $2.79. I secured one in place with a cyanoacrylate glue. The nut provides something to grab if the pin gets stuck.

If I didn't have the lathe I could've chucked the bolt in a drill and turned it down with a file but using the lathe was easier and faster.

Got a Spider for my Minilathe

A couple weeks ago I ordered a spider for my 7x14 minilathe, something I should have bought years ago. Little Machine Shop had it as their weekly special so I finally pulled the trigger on it.

Link to minilathe spider: https://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=1136

The spider threads onto the end of the spindle and provides additional support to long workpieces, to prevent them from whipping around.

To install the spider you remove the gear cover on the end of the headstock and simply thread it onto the end of the spindle.

I used it today while drilling and tapping the flared end of the factory ramrod that came with my Investarm Gemmer Hawken. Even though I bought an unbreakable Delrin rod for it from Track of the Wolf, which is threaded on both ends, I want to keep the OEM wood rod as a spare.

This shows the ramrod mounted through the spindle bore.

And here I was using the lathe as a tapping guide to keep the 10-32 tap straight. I did not do this under power. Instead, I used the chuck key as a handle and rotated the chuck manually. Power to the lathe was off when I did this.

Aside from drilling and tapping the end of the OEM ramrod to accept 10-32 accessories like cleaning jags, worms, and bullet pullers, both ends of both rods got drilled and cross-pinned. To drill the holes I used my minimill.

Always cross-pin your ramrod tips! Failing to do so can result in the ends pulling off the rod if you get a jag stuck or need to pull a ball. It's simple to do so:

1. Drill a hole through the rod crossways. I used a #40 drill because for my pin I used some brass rod 0.098" in diameter.
2. Chamfer both ends of the hole.
3. Drive the rod through the hole and cut it off. I used side cutters.
4. Using a hammer, peen over both ends on a metal surface. I used the anvil on my bench vise.
5. File the ends of the pin smooth.

One end of the Delrin rod from Track is tapped 10-32 and the other is 8-32. I will use 10-32 jags, etc. and have an aluminum T-handle with an 8-32 stud on the end. I have qualms about using it for cleaning or ball pulling.

Just another example of how my small, tabletop machines help me out with gunsmithing tasks.

A Little Gunsmithing With My Table Top Mill

Back in October I picked up a Northwest Trade Gun put together from Caywood parts by Arizona gunsmith Mike Roby. The NWTG was one of the most important firearms in North American history, being made by the tens of thousands from the mid-18th to late 19th Centuries. It's basically a single barrel shotgun that was wildly popular with Indians and to a lesser extent, whites.

As a smoothbore, it's very versatile in that you can load it with shot for small game and birds, buckshot for larger animals or defense, or a single ball for large game.

The Caywood/Roby NTWG is a lefty, which made it impossible to resist.

It's a 20 gauge which translates to about .62 caliber.  My goal for it is to develop a round ball load that will allow me to hunt whitetail deer out to about 50 yards. That means I need to keep my shots on a paper dinner plate at that distance.

The first time I shot the gun I was getting pretty good groups at around 25 yards but they were about 10" low and a foot left. I decided the best way to correct this would be to add a rear sight, since as it came it only hand a front sight.

Last week I dismounted the barrel from the stock and used my Grizzly G8689 mill to cut a shallow dovetail.

The rear sight as it currently appears. After I settle on a load and get it zeroed, I'll narrow the blade to match the barrel.

I took it to the range yesterday and tried several different ball/patch combinations but failed to get what I consider an acceptable group, so more experimentation is necessary. One thing I'm going to try is 2Fg powder instead of 3Fg.

ASSuming I'm able to develop a good load it'll become a deer gun for me. It's under 8 lbs. and has a nice sling, making it nice to carry. Recoil is not bad at all with a hunting load. The large balls should drop deer nicely.

Many machinists turn their nose up at these small Chinese machines. Would I like to have a Bridgeport mill? Of course! But I don't have anywhere for it. This mill and my 7x14 lathe are quite capable of doing useful work as long as you confine yourself to their working environments. For making small parts or even modifying bigger ones, they've found a place in my toolkit.

A Small Lathe Built in a Japanese Prison Camp

I’ve been doing some preliminary research into silencer designs prior to filing my first Form 1, and ran across this article about a small lathe made by a British POW being held in a WW2 Japanese prison camp. Link to ~1.1 meg PDF.

This lathe was quite a bit smaller than the modern Chinese lathes made by Sieg and Real Bull, and which are commonly derided as toys. Yet, the author of the article made good use of it, fabricating parts for artificial limbs, among other things.

There’s something to be said for picking up and learning how to use a lathe as part of your preps. It could come in useful in the event of an economic depression when manufactured items become hard to get and it’s a tool with which to earn some extra cash.

Sources for the modern mini lathes include Harbor Freight, Grizzly, Little Machine Shop, and Big Dog Metal Works. Also check out mini-lathe.com for more info.