Everlast in Idaho--

[JBnID]

The first TIG welder I ever saw was the one I was hired to run in 1984. I had O/A welded for years but had never struck an arc. The first machine (Hobart 250HF) I bought in 1986 died 5 years ago and I've fought used 'bargains' that didn't work ever since. The blues and reds seem to keep one price hike ahead of my budget at all times and the ebay imports were calling. Weldingtipsandtricks.com tipped me to Everlast and after a four day delay with a lost UPS trailer, my 205 combo is on its way to my 'local' distribution point for delivery by the end of today. Then I'm sure I'll start receiving the UPS emails I signed up for to let me know where it is....

I'm primarily a gunsmith/gunmaker, machinist, knifemaker type of TIG welder and I'm very anxious to try the pulse features and inverter arc to solve some of the early problems in welding the nasty alloy steels and sharp corners found in many rifle receivers.

Here's a rifle made of two torch cut halves of a totally different rifle (Springfield M1922M2) salvaged from a junk yard in 1961.
http://www.hallowellco.com/american_...akers%2022.htm
The article explaining construction is at the end.
It was 'pushing the envelope' technology in 1990 and it was one of the first shortened/altered rifles to be built.

[CGCINC]

You'll love you 205 combo! Welcome!

[DaveO]

Amazing- the craftsmanship in that rifle is staggering. My hat is off to you! Anybody that hasn't already, make sure you click JB's link. I wish the article could have focused a touch more on some of your background work, with photos of torch-cut halves and intermediate steps toward completion. Had the rifles been demilitarized, is that why they'd been cut? I would love to hear more of this story.

Welcome to the forums!

[Brian Ski]

Looks like a lot of people are coming here from tips and tricks... That is where I found this place a couple weeks ago.

Looks like I will save that link and go over it later. Dial up... Yay... 10 minutes and haven't got a pick on that page to load.

I guess I have enjoyed quite a few firearms myself. I built a 1919 a few years ago. That was interesting.

[JBnID]

DaveO--
I appreciate it. That was just prior to digital cameras and the job was rushed at just over a year, but I was traveling 5 days a week at the time. The only pictures I have are a few 35mm shots of the rough finished barrel and action being bedded into an old M600 Remington stock so I could shoot it and file in the sights, check feeding and all the other things that go into getting a rifle ready to be 'something'.
Some history on the project.

I was 15 years old with a 1956 Cushman Eagle scooter with a book box on the back. I ran across a gondola car of de-milled military parts at the scrap yard and filled my book box and all pockets with parts and pieces at fifty cents a pound. In that batch were several torch cut M1922 M2 receivers and barrels. (Most were M2 Carbines, which fascinated me at the time.)

In 1988 I was asked by Bob Emmons, ACGG president, to 'invent' a rifle to be raffled off in January of 1993 at the annual American Custom Gunmaker's Guild show in Reno. It was already two years late and I had the first part of the project....the 'metalwork'.

I decided to build an African 'Express rifle' in 22 LR.... Because it hadn't been done before and I'd just gotten a TIG welder and I had that box of rusty old parts and I'd just 'perfected' the ability to cut very complicated barrel forms from over-sized blanks on the milling machine and by installing grease zerks on both elbows for hours of draw filing. I was working for Rockmount Research and had found a super clean TIG rod for super dirty steel (Tartan A TIG).... and it seemed a good idea at the time.

The initial welding was in shortening the action by 5/8 inch, but that was a mistake. The big part of the welding portion was changing the rear bridge and ejector box housing on the left side to look like a Model 1898 Mauser instead of a Springfield Model 1903. Not only that, but the rear bridge, to look like the #20 commercial 98 Mauser, had to have a 'square bridge' (to assist in quickly lining up open sights). To weld a square bridge on a Mauser is a very tricky job that's rarely successful. To do it on a Springfield was unheard of then and pretty much continues to be 'impossible'. The U.S. Springfield action is made of what seems to be re-bar with gravel added, then case hardened in some places and then through-hardened all over and then phosphate coated. They're also machined from a forging and internal stresses make them act like a snake when the arc strikes them. From out of nowhere can come a geyser of pits at any time. Some of those are still visible on top of the left receiver rail. Much of the rear ring welding was done around an aluminum mandrel while the action was bolted down to a large block of hot steel. Pre-heating to dull red and post heating and wrapping with an insulated blanket cured/prevented a lot of the warpage, but the entire action had to be re-fitted with the shortened bolt to give it the slurp fit such a rifle deserves.

I'll call attention to the bolt knob. It's a TIG project explained later. It's hollow.


The rest of my portion of the project was making parts from scratch and 'carving' them out of chunks of 1018 and what started out looking like a fence post with a barrel down the middle. I did TIG weld the trigger guard to the rest of the floorplate assembly and a lug on the back of the butt plate for the trap door to work from, but the rest was milling machine, lathe, a box of files and a gallon of elbow grease.

'Real guns' are NEVER buffed, but are polished with successive grits of die polishing stones so that all corners are sharp and surfaces optically flat. Another shot of that elbow grease, please.

The late Maurice Ottmar made the stock, the multi-talented and great engraver Eric Gold did the engraving and gold enlays. That was his first 'big' job.

The guy that won the gun in Reno later sold it overseas for a LOT of Krugerands. It later came back to America to the Bob Peterson collection. That was split up several years ago and Hollowell got it from there. At the time it was built, it could have been called the finest 22 rifle in the world...and it was in several publications. Its been put in the shade since then!

Brian Ski- With a dial up connection it'll be hunting season before that page will load. I have all the timing gauges for a '19.

[DaveO]

Amazing. I look forward to seeing your projects here on the forums!