Sc0,
The bottom piece that's missing, he cut off. It wasn't hooked to the grip so it never offered any rigidity to the stock, mainly for rear bag use and he uses a one piece rest so he didn't want it on there...
The bolt handle, as seen in image 7 in the album link is still plenty far away from the trigger shoe. It's no where near the scope tube at the top either, which is nice. The Badger bolt knob is really nice, I don't think he has a single rifle without one now. He just got the knob for the other handle he said. The handle/cocking ramp sleeve in pic 7 he's holding is the original right hand.
He ordered the bolt handle from Brownells and machined it some, I never did see what it looked like when he got it tho. He had the radius milled on the end to fit it to the sleeve, and I believe he turned it down some, threaded it and fit the BO knob.
He had three sleeves made at the same time out of 4140 CM. The bores in them were incrementally smaller so he could use the tightest fitting one and hone to finish. He then cut the two notches out and filed to fit the bolt perfectly. Length and I.D. are critical with this piece, so is fitting the notches tightly.
After the bolt handle notch and extraction ramp were milled in the receiver, a slot was milled lengthwise on the left side where a block of 4140 was TIG welded on to thicken that side for the new bolt stop. The sides of the block welded in was built up with the TIG and radiuses filed to blend into the receiver.
The bolt was positioned with the lugs vertical to figure where the bolt handle was to be TIG welded onto the sleeve. The bottom of the cutout in the action and stock was exactly the same as the opposite side, so that part was easy.
The stop at the top of the extraction ramp was purposely left thick to file finish the last few thou so lugs aligned with raceway perfectly. This was finished first, then the closing ramps were carefully cut back and finished so the bolt would finally close and there was about .030" - .040" clearance at any point throughout the bolt rotation cycle.
The very last thing that was done was the cutout for the cocking ramp, as the alignment, depth and shape at the bottom of this is very, very critical. This was done once, file fitted, lapped in, bolt handle bent to finish angles, then hardened, but it proved to be too wide at the bottom of the cocking slot, so it was built up with the TIG and redone once more. Cocking on extraction was too stiff and not right, so it was redone. After built up and reworked, lapped again, and rehardened, then it worked slick.
Lots of measuring, figuring, filing etc, but was really not too difficult to do tho.
It cost him $200 for all the machine work, sleeves and welding, but he did do everything else himself, so it could have been a lot more had he not.
An extended grip he had used on the AR10 was modified to fit and move it to the rear more. He ordered a different one and should have it in a few days, the one there is too narrow and doesn't fit your hand as well. At least the trigger's under your finger tip now, and not the second friggin knuckle anymore...
Mag release. Hmmmmm.... He's probably working that one out as I speak.
[ 11-12-2003: Message edited by: Brent ]