Recent content by Dave W

Springfield Arsenal called them "reamers", per Fred Colvin in "US Rifles & Machine Guns" from 1917. The Springfields were chambered with sets of four reamers, first two at 100 RPM, last two at 90 RPM, fed by hand with 1/4-inch stream of "Triumph Cutting Oil". The reamers were resharpened every...

So, assuming you had some push buttons and a barrel blank, and you want to push a button through... how the heck do you push a button through a two foot hole with a 1/4" or so rod, without having it buckle?

So, I'm looking at an early 1990s magazine with a too-blurry-to-be-useful picture of a long drill. The caption reads, "As an illustration of how special bits are available if required, here's a 1/4 in. diameter one over 12 inches long. Wandering off line is almost inevitable during the making...

Rigby's steel-jacketed hunting bullets were considered top of the line a century ago. I've always wondered what sort of "steel" those jackets were made of; back then Britain was the world's leader in custom steel and iron alloys. Supposedly Rigby went to copper jackets because they were...

Does your cutting head have provision to force the cutter down into itself, or does the cutter largely float freely? (there doesn't seem to be any standard nomenclature here...) If the cutting head doesn't allow the cutter to lift, the maximum the cutter could "grab" would be the amount of...

Don't laugh. I've encountered TWO trailers where someone had done that. Lots of fun on a hot afternoon...

The 54R nestles right between the .30-06 and .308, depending on who is loading which. Communist military surplus usually goes bang, but it's not up to American ideas of consistency. Run Winchester or Remington 54R and some Mosins will tighten up a couple of MOA... Bannerman converted many...

2" square bar HRS vise. I use aluminum bushings. 1" wrench, three feet long. The jaws are chunks of scrap, made for each receiver type.

Colvin & Viall's "US Rifles & Machine Guns" shows pictures of the tooling and cutters used to do the raceways on the 1903 Springfield. The cutters were basically giant rifling heads; a reciprocating machine ran the head through and back, the cutter advanced the tooth slightly, etc. until the...

Unless you specifically want a #1, I'll second the "12 Gauge From Hell." The mother thread is on accuratereloading.com, but Ed has threads on it almost everywhere. Pac-Nor has the correct .72 caliber rifled barrels in stock, Rocky Mountain makes brass if you don't want to DIY, and there are...

I'm converting a No.4 Enfield over to .45-70 and ran into an interesting thing. .45-70 rim thickness varies a lot! In my batch of assorted brass, from .060 to .075"! I've decided to set the rifle up assuming .060" rim thickness, and I'll just cut a little off the fronts of the rims of the...

Does PM have a file storage function? I can upload just the Mauser articles; the five of them total 55Mb.

About... 1981, I was in a large machine shop in Cincinnati. Big wood-frame building, three stories tall, maybe 16-foot ceilings. The wooden framing members were enormous; what Machinery's Handbook refers to as "fireproof." The building dated back to 1900 or so. Anyway, I walked into the...

Hey! I worked there! Same shop had a rule, no oil-dry. They had some kind of fancy "coating" on the concrete floor and didn't want it damaged. We were supposed to use shop rags to wipe up oil and coolant on the floor. Then you had a bunch of guys walking *very carefully* on the slick...

Looking good so far!