Gunsmith said this was a good job?

[bruce_ventura]

Hey! Don't besmirch Stevie Wonder. He taught my wife how to drive!

I completely agree with all the above comments. I use a lathe and mill in a lot of my prototyping work. I don't consider myself a professional, but my work always looks better than those photos.

Get a refund and take your business elsewhere.

 

[SDM]

Hey! Don't besmirch Stevie Wonder. He taught my wife how to drive!

Your wife and my wife must have gone to the same driving school.....

 

[Punisher]

If he does, he doesn't know how to make it a finished job or doesn't care.

A good Gunsmith would not leave it looking like that. There is a lot more to being a good Gunsmith
than being able to turn a Lathe on and cut something.

Craftsman ship is a big factor in the end results and a good craftsman would never except ''Good enough".

If you know how to sharpen a lathe tool you can get a finished cut without any sanding, filing or lapping. All HSS and carbide tools are much harder than any barrel steel and should not have any trouble cutting them if they are sharpened correctly.

Some grades of steel are harder to cut than others but if you use a properly sharpened tool at the right speed and position/angle to the work it should come out finished.

I don't know, and don't want to know who did the work. but like the others said go somewhere else to get your gun work done.

J E CUSTOM

I think the biggest part of my issue was the hardness of the steel... Coupled with the fact that my equipment was made during WWII! I have pieces of Arkansas stone to sharpen the tool, but it may be time to buy new equipment. Especially after I put this last barrel on. I don't do anything commercially, so I need to keep the cost of my equipment down.

 

[FearNoWind]

Can't resist suggesting that you remember who this guy is and keep track of where he goes so you can avoid having anything to do with him in the future. I'm not a gunsmith, not even a trained machinest, but the work I do on my little mini-lathe compares quite well with any professional end finishing job I've seen and the job you've shown us is a VERY long way from professional. Some guys buy a lathe, watch a few videos and call themselves a gunsmith. I think you may have found one of those. If you don't understand the material you're working with, the type of tool you need to use, the correct depth of cut, the proper speed for the feed and the proper spindle speed you'll never do good work. IMO the guy who did that work through those classes.
The one part of your post that jumped out at me it his saying he used a steady rest. My gunsmith uses a six jaw lathe with a spindle bore that accomodates running the barrel through the chuck and through the bore so that working on the end of a barrel doesn't require a steady rest. If I chose another gunsmith in the future he will have the same equipment or I won't use him.

...Be thankfull he wasn't blue printing your 700 action!!

Amen to that .............

 

[class3nfa]

Craftsmanship is pride in your work. Some have it, Some don't. Hope he isn't practicing in Idaho. Take your money and run sorry to see that kind of thing happen. Especially on such a simple job. Be thankfull he wasn't blue printing your 700 action!!

 

[J E Custom]

Can't resist suggesting that you remember who this guy is and keep track of where he goes so you can avoid having anything to do with him in the future. I'm not a gunsmith, not even a trained machinest, but the work I do on my little mini-lathe compares quite well with any professional end finishing job I've seen and the job you've shown us is a VERY long way from professional. Some guys buy a lathe, watch a few videos and call themselves a gunsmith. I think you may have found one of those. If you don't understand the material you're working with, the type of tool you need to use, the correct depth of cut, the proper speed for the feed and the proper spindle speed you'll never do good work. IMO the guy who did that work through those classes.
The one part of your post that jumped out at me it his saying he used a steady rest. My gunsmith uses a six jaw lathe with a spindle bore that accomodates running the barrel through the chuck and through the bore so that working on the end of a barrel doesn't require a steady rest. If I chose another gunsmith in the future he will have the same equipment or I won't use him.

Amen to that .............

+1

When I started out I was not allowed to turn on a machine until a real machinist/craftsman checked out the set up. If everything was correct, I was allowed to make the part. I was also taught how to tool up for soft metals like brass and aluminum because they take a totally different set up in tooling
and speed.

Looking at the pictures of the damaged scope base, it looks like he placed the breach in a 3 or 4 jaw
chuck and used the steady rest to hold the muzzle. (His Lathe may not have a large enough spindle
to fit the barrel through and work the end.

I don't want to gang Up on this guy, But he made lots of bad decisions and the quality of the work
suffered. The hard part for some is realizing there ability/skill and turning down work that they cannot do or that they don't have the equipment to do a good job.

Just Ok is not good enough in Gun Smithing and a man has to know his limitations. It takes time and
practice to get good at some things, But one should never practice on other peoples rifles.

Just my opinion

J E CUSTOM

 

[jam66]

I have no intentions of ever using this "Gunsmith" again. He did use a 4 jaw chuck. I talked with Ernie at Red Creek Tactcal and he said he could straighten the barrels out and recrown them properly. Luckily they were not cut so short that the are rendered useless.

PS- I'm still laughing at the "beaver on the lathe" comment.....

 

[jessegibson1978]

Will not be a big deal to recut crown for any decent machinist or gun smith. I have even went so far as to grind a smooth pilot with 11 degree flutes on a 1" end mill then just put relief on flutes cuts a nice smooth crown by hand. This was done on a precision grinder. By the way I have done tool and die work for about 15 years.

 

[Sully2]

Last time I saw machine work that looked like that was on the tail gate hinges on a garbage truck!

 

[Wallowa Hunter]

Good grief this gentleman should not call himself a gunsmith!

I don't care what kind of steel it is, I've been able to cut a nice crown on it. Carbide is funny that way, and if it's real hard I use ceramic inserts!

Wow

 

[sambo3006]

That is ridiculous! I've learned my lesson on gunsmiths the hard way involving much stress and wasted time and money. I will ONLY use smiths who have excellent reputations on this forum. The money spent for shipping to an out of state gunsmith is a pittance and well worth it in the end. Sorry about your bad experience.

 

[isaaccarlson]

I am not a gunsmith, but I do install pillars and do other work for friends. Go find a different "smith" or learn to do it yourself.