Gunsmithing B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

[LRI]

Here's the twin to the other rifle were building.

This stock is a virgin piece so it's onto the mill to get it inletted. Here it sits with my alignment fixture superglued to the top of it. This just serves as a convenient means of orienting stuff in the milling center.

As always, paperwork!

More to come as I move throuh this one.

 

[gunnergirl81]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

Ahhh, Chad. Been off the site for a while and I miss these threads. Can't wait to watch it come together!

 

[LRI]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

Here's the barrel being fitted up. Forgot to snap pics of the threading cycle so ya'll will just have to do with the setup and chambering portion.


This is an Oby barrel so it has the enlarged cylinder at the breech end. First job is turning this back down to match the rest of the barrel contour. Just a simple collet, indicate, shove a live center up its rear kind of setup. Then its a quick turning pass with a roughing tool followed by the finish pass.

Chambering: Gotta love carbide and pressurized oil delivery. Makes pretty dern quick work of this stuff and the finishes are really nice.

Back to the stock while the reamer cycle does its thing:

Here's the initial setup:

Indicating the stock straight with the X axis:

Soon as the barrel is done I'll be able to pull it from the lathe and get the contour mapped out. Write some quick code and then its off to making the fiberglass fly!

Back in a few.

C.

 

[LRI]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

Inletting work is almost done.

Barrel is fitted up as well. Onto bedding this biche shortly.

 

[LRI]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

"B" she's cookin in the goop. Not much more to do till morning.

Were done with this one for the night.

C.

 

[sawman556]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

Very nice! I have that same stock. Are you using Marine-Tex? What do you use for a releasing agent?

 

[Guy Montag]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

Thanks for sharing all these recent builds Chad, impressive as ever.

 

[varmint slayer]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: sawman556</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Very nice! I have that same stock. Are you using Marine-Tex? What do you use for a releasing agent?</div></div>

I don't think you could water board Chad into telling you what he uses for bedding...top secret stuff...

 

[Jmilera]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

You are f&&$en killing me Chad! Lol
Joe Milera
Laredo Tx

 

[cmh2007]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

My smith was really leary about how tight the Obmeyer barrel i had him install was, but he has been pleasantly surprised at how accurate it is.

Great work by the way

 

[LRI]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

Popped it out of the bedding this am.

Were in good shape. Almost done with the top side inlet features. I had a major system crash a few months ago that resulted in many of my inletting programs being gone forever. (Back up your shit!)

So, I'm having to rewrite stuff as I go along. Not always a bad thing as there's little things I'm changing that will make stuff cleaner/neater down the road.

Here's a 3/16th ball endmill surface machining the ejection port. Doing it this way allows me to match all the corner radius features and the draft angle in one setup. No need to tilt the stock for a 2nd op.

 

[LRI]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

Top side work is all done. Just finished fitting up the Badger EFR piece. We'll glue it in once the stock is all painted up.

Setting up the machine now for the floor metal fitting. This requires a fixture swap. Luckily I have everything sort of palletized now so that I can just "bolt and go"

 

[LRI]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

Floormetal is all done.

Onto paint! Little sanding here/there and I'm ready to shoot primer/base coat.

Machine work is 100% xcept for the barrel fluting. I'll do that while I'm waiting on primer to cure.

Should have this wrapped up by COB tomorrow.

C.

 

[lw8]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

Chad,

I noticed that some A5s seem to machine cleanly for the inlet while others look like they are packed with some ort of glass fiber that appears to machine roughly, leaving the look of a 5 o'clock shadow, especially just in front of the lug.

Is this an issue of the fill?

Also, I noticed that some McMs when inletted seem to uncover voids or airspaces in the action area and barrel channel. Is this due to a specific fill? Is it a problem and how do you fix it?

 

[LRI]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

Companies use a variety of materials for the core of the stock. Light fill, sniper fill, magnum fill, etc.

Ones with fibers do tend to be rougher generally, but its never really been an issue. If they are really "fuzzy" in the lug are I will detail it with an x acto blade after machining.

Voids can be a biche. What I've started doing is filling them with a quick set epoxy mixed with 1/32 milled fiberglass. Just slather it in, wait 10 minutes, and run the inlet program over again. This way its a smooth surface free of pockets.

My biggest concern is having trapped air blister the finish as its curing, causing a void along the contact portion of the bedding.

On a different note I did get the barrel fluted and the stock is in its first color. No picks yet as im still at home yet. Ill load them once I get to work. Plan to have this one done today.

C.

 

[Cigarcop]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

I love looking at your pics!.....as always everything looks great.

 

[LRI]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

Fluting is all done. Went with 8 of em. First pass created a little "morse code" (tool chatter) so I had to fuss with speeds/feeds a bit to get it to behave. No biggy as I did this in a few passes to manage heat and to observe some of the "voodoo" rules about barrel fluting. (something I am certainly no expert at as I've only done a handful of them.)

So far, they've all been shooters, so I'm optimistic about this one too.

Laying up the stock for the 2nd color right now.

 

[LRI]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

Onto finishing.

1st and 2nd color applied to the stock. 3rd will go on after it's had a few hours to cure.

Garrett is wrapping up the metalwork prep then its onto the Ceracoating. This one is getting Graphite Black.

Will have this one done by COB today for sure.

C.

 

[LRI]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

Final assembly:

Barreled action:

 

[DrewinTejas]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

Very Nice Chad.

 

[BenY 2013]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

Amazing as usual!

 

[SFC Carpentier jr]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

Pretty rig Chad.

 

[sawman556]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

Pretty slick!!!

 

[Turk]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

What was the turn around time?

 

[Skyking]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

Looking good.


<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Turk</div><div class="ubbcode-body">What was the turn around time?

</div></div>

Well since the first post was on the 4th and the gun is done on the 7th.

 

[ss10ring]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

Outstanding

 

[yz45067]

Re: B. Leith 308 Medium Tactical build

Absolutely amazing work! Beautiful equipment!