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Maggie’s Machining and woodworking for guns

Thing hole drilled:
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Stained with Varathane gunstock.
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It's a "thong".

You of all people....

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Obsidian Heart Removal Knives next?
Nope, spray painted wood “blades”. This is going to an 8 year old. Hope he eats his vegetables.

If I ever make another, the width at the end will be less than 4 inches.
 
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Check out the wood repair and restoration on this '58 Les Paul



Now think about any old stocks in the back of the safe that need a little TLC. I still have my first 22 and this has me motivated.
 
Testing my rouge on some abused walnut. I've basically been doing to this spatula what the stock is getting. It had the 3F treatment already....

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Hoping the red pigment stays in the grain...

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Rouge is that shit once on stuff never goes away...

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Nice finish...

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I'm pretty certain that once I wipe the oil off for days and weeks after I will be rubbing rouge off the stock or seeing red staining on my hands. Still going to do it.

As it looks now after letting the 3F dry a week......

IMG_0638.JPG
 
Testing my rouge on some abused walnut. I've basically been doing to this spatula what the stock is getting. It had the 3F treatment already....

View attachment 8023413

Hoping the red pigment stays in the grain...

View attachment 8023414

Rouge is that shit once on stuff never goes away...

View attachment 8023415

Nice finish...

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I'm pretty certain that once I wipe the oil off for days and weeks after I will be rubbing rouge off the stock or seeing red staining on my hands. Still going to do it.

As it looks now after letting the 3F dry a week......

View attachment 8023418
I thought that the “Aunt Jemima Treatment” was an Army thing, not a USMC thing?



I’m trying not to judge…

Sirhr
 
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Club is heavy! Because it's on a 'steel frame.' And has a lot of poured pewter in it. It will crush... things!

It's kind of a modern interpretation. I have an 'authentic' (aka made from root) club made by a legit maker and it is much lighter.

My biggest mistake... using spalted maple for the head. Even with stabilization, it is soft. It's gorgeous... but soft. Next time, I'd do rock maple for the head!

Some pictures of it going together last spring...
club 1.jpg
club 2.jpg
club a.jpg
club body.png
club roughed scales.png


Cheers,

Sirhr
 
A little off the normal track, but I promised a buddy I would do his Beret flash… and another that I would make him a Dark Side of the Moon panel (making two of those because I want one).

power was off most of yesterday… but don’t need power to run a glass cutter!



7E8C9D17-22E2-488E-B2CD-0F352834100F.jpeg


The prism rays were a bitch! Very thin.




AB871E14-D37F-4D79-87B1-32B833F194A0.jpeg


Out of black glass and almost out of solder. So will hit a brick wall tomorrow. But I’ll get the “image” done.

Merry Christmas!

Sirhr
 
A little off the normal track, but I promised a buddy I would do his Beret flash… and another that I would make him a Dark Side of the Moon panel (making two of those because I want one).

power was off most of yesterday… but don’t need power to run a glass cutter!



View attachment 8029448

The prism rays were a bitch! Very thin.




View attachment 8029451

Out of black glass and almost out of solder. So will hit a brick wall tomorrow. But I’ll get the “image” done.

Merry Christmas!

Sirhr
Beautiful!
 
A whole new world of possibilities opened up for me when I bought this old 12x36 lathe earlier this year. It was an old one at work that was too small for any sort of production work, and it was in the way, so I managed to buy it for scrap, and it weighs a lot more than their estimate said. Best $100 I ever spent.
t-p8mBvptxJoy7sslBQCm_zpIUU1ltHXp8MOqHRStwLYJIF6yZETrWNB1l-flEeW3t300pXuBWwfz9nSllr2J8uqoqQ7dYugOMxas6xFzxrpxrId-awxjYAqyHdp0JF23xuiHoAE0Ok=w2400

I haven't built much gun related stuff with it yet though, just a little muzzle brake for my PRS 22, trying to get a little more weight towards the muzzle. It was going to be a barrel tuner, but I screwed up the thread on the end and had to cut it off. The first project was to make a chuck adapter for it, seeing how it's got a proprietary quick change mechanism, and the original chuck was missing. Used a an old blind flange out of the scrap yard at work, and one of the bigger lathes there to make something round that I could bolt onto the lathe spindle, then finished it off on my lathe to make sure it's as concentric as possible.
sCN5LI7S1sOquQmnlp0ONg4vnZ716OlmrCigSERGvcu0UPp10M-2s_Jmm6gXSafkNzN60VnkDvUCfkS2c_7ppH6b7WGqWteJ2c2UNIiGEVcN2-dEnpL2jwVMwV2UrxQlJgoMiYGWrsE=w2400

tUU5BjxIPgfeVfluYz6QJw_H0uHQpShSdQl14Rh8qz9fRex3hbfVC0hjwZ2P4eAQ5u74Tiak1NGLrfvSG2g73z1HU5BgzQ0VsaiLk9ogIxNirYuOwuEQuABcEyLcUcU2KRbGXaxU60Y=w2400

The chuck is a brand new $1000 Bison that was surplus at work, and I was told to make it disappear with the rest.
Kristian
 
A whole new world of possibilities opened up for me when I bought this old 12x36 lathe earlier this year. It was an old one at work that was too small for any sort of production work, and it was in the way, so I managed to buy it for scrap, and it weighs a lot more than their estimate said. Best $100 I ever spent.
t-p8mBvptxJoy7sslBQCm_zpIUU1ltHXp8MOqHRStwLYJIF6yZETrWNB1l-flEeW3t300pXuBWwfz9nSllr2J8uqoqQ7dYugOMxas6xFzxrpxrId-awxjYAqyHdp0JF23xuiHoAE0Ok=w2400

I haven't built much gun related stuff with it yet though, just a little muzzle brake for my PRS 22, trying to get a little more weight towards the muzzle. It was going to be a barrel tuner, but I screwed up the thread on the end and had to cut it off. The first project was to make a chuck adapter for it, seeing how it's got a proprietary quick change mechanism, and the original chuck was missing. Used a an old blind flange out of the scrap yard at work, and one of the bigger lathes there to make something round that I could bolt onto the lathe spindle, then finished it off on my lathe to make sure it's as concentric as possible.
sCN5LI7S1sOquQmnlp0ONg4vnZ716OlmrCigSERGvcu0UPp10M-2s_Jmm6gXSafkNzN60VnkDvUCfkS2c_7ppH6b7WGqWteJ2c2UNIiGEVcN2-dEnpL2jwVMwV2UrxQlJgoMiYGWrsE=w2400

tUU5BjxIPgfeVfluYz6QJw_H0uHQpShSdQl14Rh8qz9fRex3hbfVC0hjwZ2P4eAQ5u74Tiak1NGLrfvSG2g73z1HU5BgzQ0VsaiLk9ogIxNirYuOwuEQuABcEyLcUcU2KRbGXaxU60Y=w2400

The chuck is a brand new $1000 Bison that was surplus at work, and I was told to make it disappear with the rest.
Kristian
Jealous.
 
A whole new world of possibilities opened up for me when I bought this old 12x36 lathe earlier this year. It was an old one at work that was too small for any sort of production work, and it was in the way, so I managed to buy it for scrap, and it weighs a lot more than their estimate said. Best $100 I ever spent.
t-p8mBvptxJoy7sslBQCm_zpIUU1ltHXp8MOqHRStwLYJIF6yZETrWNB1l-flEeW3t300pXuBWwfz9nSllr2J8uqoqQ7dYugOMxas6xFzxrpxrId-awxjYAqyHdp0JF23xuiHoAE0Ok=w2400

I haven't built much gun related stuff with it yet though, just a little muzzle brake for my PRS 22, trying to get a little more weight towards the muzzle. It was going to be a barrel tuner, but I screwed up the thread on the end and had to cut it off. The first project was to make a chuck adapter for it, seeing how it's got a proprietary quick change mechanism, and the original chuck was missing. Used a an old blind flange out of the scrap yard at work, and one of the bigger lathes there to make something round that I could bolt onto the lathe spindle, then finished it off on my lathe to make sure it's as concentric as possible.
sCN5LI7S1sOquQmnlp0ONg4vnZ716OlmrCigSERGvcu0UPp10M-2s_Jmm6gXSafkNzN60VnkDvUCfkS2c_7ppH6b7WGqWteJ2c2UNIiGEVcN2-dEnpL2jwVMwV2UrxQlJgoMiYGWrsE=w2400

tUU5BjxIPgfeVfluYz6QJw_H0uHQpShSdQl14Rh8qz9fRex3hbfVC0hjwZ2P4eAQ5u74Tiak1NGLrfvSG2g73z1HU5BgzQ0VsaiLk9ogIxNirYuOwuEQuABcEyLcUcU2KRbGXaxU60Y=w2400

The chuck is a brand new $1000 Bison that was surplus at work, and I was told to make it disappear with the rest.
Kristian
Well done!

What “work” may not realize is that over the next year, you are going to ‘bring back to work’ skills worth tens of thousands to them… learned on your own time as you make cool stuff!

Lathes open up worlds…. And when you know how to use the manual stuff, you will understand everything in the shop.

Well done!!

Sirhr
 
Well done!

What “work” may not realize is that over the next year, you are going to ‘bring back to work’ skills worth tens of thousands to them… learned on your own time as you make cool stuff!

Lathes open up worlds…. And when you know how to use the manual stuff, you will understand everything in the shop.

Well done!!

Sirhr
Unfortunately for them it's a union shop, and I'm not a machinist, so they won't get to take advantage of any skills I learn on the lathe. I'm hoping they'll put me through a machinist apprenticeship, but they don't take guys from the more electrical trades over to the more mechanical trades, probably something to do with them being totally different departments and not quite as inter-related as instrumentation to electrician or HVAC. Luckily for me though, my dad was a machinist for many years, and I grew up building stuff on his big old pre-war lathe at home, so I've got a reasonable grasp on the basics already. I was just in the right place at the right time for getting the extra lathe from work, and the machinist had some extra goodies stashed away to make it more worth my while to pursue. There's probably not too many guys that would be interested in a 45 year old lathe missing it's chuck and requiring 3 phase power for their home shop, but I was pretty careful not to let the cat out of the bag until it was safely back at my house. I did all the cleanup and modification work on night shift, away from potentially prying eyes.
Kristian
 
Going to get back into checkering. Haven’t done it since 2012-ish. I got to the point where people literally couldn’t pay me enough to do it. This is just an 18 LPI set to get back into it. I plan to dedicate 2023 to grip making again, but will spend down time working on stock checkering.

F341DB94-CD8A-4988-977C-A3A9CF4EE8C6.jpeg
 
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What, exactly, is an "absorbent, rear-view handle"?

And exactly how concerned should we, or for that matter, you, be about it?
 
My PRS 22. I built the stock from some 3/4" birch I laminated to make a blank, then inleted with a cheap router and carved away everything that didn't look like a rifle stock. The bolt handle I made on the lathe out of a scrap of drill rod, then polished and blued it, the knobs for locking the adjustable cheep piece and the scope zoom level I made with my 3d printer. The butt plate is a piece of rubber bumper on a heavy duty truck, and the rear bag I made from the leg of an old pair of Carhartt pants. I'm into the whole PRS game for probably around $1500 Canadian, including about $1100 for the scope and rings. After a fair amount of tinkering it shoots pretty good, at least as good as I'm capable of shooting it. Not bad for a $250 Norinco 22.
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This is a Norinco 1911 that I put a 460 Rowland barrel into, then cleaned up the frame and did some checkering, all by hand. First and maybe last try at checkering a front strap, that's a lot of work.
Before
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During
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NtAE4fgocCbI5f70fz6S2eIvInQ0ALRnl1JajQcgv5jEKEzIxrYWDkOqtxTp_BxFJHLuuPLcGhxi43sD8aNaVq2CCmq6YGZLwQDmtFtqE0-RAQ6CWrQPWbXhu7VOFnDmQ9BFdBaBaiU=w2400


After
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And another Norinco 1911 I worked over a bit, this time a 9mm that I had intended to use for IPSC. This one's a two tone parkerized finish with commercial solution, the one above was done with home brew park solution.
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Cheap and available Norinco project guns with no real consequences for wrecking them is about the only upside to being a gun owner in Canada, and that has basically dried up here now too.
Kristian
 
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What, exactly, is an "absorbent, rear-view handle"?

And exactly how concerned should we, or for that matter, you, be about it?
I’m not really sure what it means, lol. I’ll work these cutters for a bit and then buy Steve Earl cutters as replacements
 
Finished the 'Floyd yesterday! Two of them. The opaque glass for me, the slightly see-through dark blue for a friend who wanted it to show some light in the sun.

Shine on you Crazy Diamonds!

floyd 1.jpg


FYI, both are about 20" on a side. So about album-cover-and-a-half. Nice size! Ready for framing!

Cheers!

Sirhr
 
Finished the 'Floyd yesterday! Two of them. The opaque glass for me, the slightly see-through dark blue for a friend who wanted it to show some light in the sun.

Shine on you Crazy Diamonds!

View attachment 8035026

FYI, both are about 20" on a side. So about album-cover-and-a-half. Nice size! Ready for framing!

Cheers!

Sirhr
Is the bird feeder still available?

Just some humor. Those are really nice pieces!!
 
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Finished the 'Floyd yesterday! Two of them. The opaque glass for me, the slightly see-through dark blue for a friend who wanted it to show some light in the sun.

Shine on you Crazy Diamonds!

View attachment 8035026

FYI, both are about 20" on a side. So about album-cover-and-a-half. Nice size! Ready for framing!

Cheers!

Sirhr
Nice work, I thought the one on the left was the album cover for reference until I read your post at the bottom.
 
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Finished the 'Floyd yesterday! Two of them. The opaque glass for me, the slightly see-through dark blue for a friend who wanted it to show some light in the sun.

Shine on you Crazy Diamonds!

View attachment 8035026

FYI, both are about 20" on a side. So about album-cover-and-a-half. Nice size! Ready for framing!

Cheers!

Sirhr
My wife has been making glass art for the last two dang days. I got panels all over the house!
 
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My wife has been making glass art for the last two dang days. I got panels all over the house!

It is a very fun (and productive) hobby! I like the simplicity of the cutting and shaping... and the challenge of designing the pieces. It's damn hard to come up with the right 'connections' to bring together pieces!

Here is one I did about 10 years ago. This one hangs in the state F&W HQ now. This was when it was almost finished. It's huge... almost 40" tall.

wardens almost done.jpg


This one I did for my garage... copied it from an original I saw on Rt. 66.

IMG_5550.JPG
 
It is a very fun (and productive) hobby! I like the simplicity of the cutting and shaping... and the challenge of designing the pieces. It's damn hard to come up with the right 'connections' to bring together pieces!

Here is one I did about 10 years ago. This one hangs in the state F&W HQ now. This was when it was almost finished. It's huge... almost 40" tall.

View attachment 8035039

This one I did for my garage... copied it from an original I saw on Rt. 66.

View attachment 8035038
Those are pretty cool, she’s not that wild into it…………..yet. Still doing simple line drawing single piece projects. Will get a few pics when I get back to the house from getting skunked in the deer woods
 
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It is a very fun (and productive) hobby! I like the simplicity of the cutting and shaping... and the challenge of designing the pieces. It's damn hard to come up with the right 'connections' to bring together pieces!

Here is one I did about 10 years ago. This one hangs in the state F&W HQ now. This was when it was almost finished. It's huge... almost 40" tall.

View attachment 8035039

This one I did for my garage... copied it from an original I saw on Rt. 66.

View attachment 8035038
Here are some the wiff has been doing. Just small ones, but she enjoys it
0496A577-C0DC-47D4-870F-1C3D629674E3.jpeg
 
@turbo_bird

Good looking work. Checkering a front strap on a 1911 is not easy. Main spring housing is a lot easier.

Curious why you didn't do a relief under the trigger guard where it blends into the front strap? Would allow for a slightly higher grip on the gun. I did this work on mine about 30 years ago. Looks like I need to sharpen up the checkering again.

Spfd Armory 1911 SN (2).jpg
 
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@turbo_bird

Good looking work. Checkering a front strap on a 1911 is not easy. Main spring housing is a lot easier.

Curious why you didn't do a relief under the trigger guard where it blends into the front strap? Would allow for a slightly higher grip on the gun. I did this work on mine about 30 years ago. Looks like I need to sharpen up the checkering again.

View attachment 8037356
Thanks for the compliment. I'm not sure I follow what you said about the relief under the trigger guard, I cut it as far up as I dared. Measuring the thickness of the steel to the bottom of the trigger track, I've only got about .025 - .030" left to go, and wouldn't want to cut it any closer than that. Maybe the angle of the photo didn't show the relief very well, but it's definitely there. I kept the radius of the relief cut about the same as the original cut was though, so it looks a bit different than what you see on most guns. Feels good to my hand at least, and every time I pick up a 1911 that doesn't have that relief, if feels odd. I have a 6" one that I still need to do this with, as well as make a magwell for it.
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Kristian
 
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@turbo_bird

Seeing that the under cut is radiused, I though it had not been relieved. When I did mine, it was more squared off. Most I saw at the time were like that. Note what I saw was from magazine pictures as there was no internet back then. I have a Rock Island double stack 1911 and it is also squared off.

As you say, you can sure feel the difference when you pick up one that hasn't been done.

I know people like their plastic guns, but if you like to work on or modify a gun, can't beat a 1911. I think on my first, the firing pin may be the only part I haven't modified. LOL
 
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Been arts and crafts week here…

A buddy asked me if I could make him some wooden loading trays, this is what I came up with…
Qe7oSu.jpg

GUw0xY.jpg

The end grain on that oak was beautiful.

To facilitate the making of those blocks I first put together another long overdue project.
Made this table for the drill press. Used 3/4 birch plywood (shit for quality) and some hardware from Powertech.

8lbwIO.jpg

Kzj73O.jpg