LRI_Chad
FNG
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2020
- Messages
- 39
Ok, IT WAS ME...
Chad Dixon, LongRifles, Inc.
Yes, my shiny brand new 5 axis mill killed a receiver. It happened and it'll happen again someday. I broke into uncharted territory 11 months ago when I bought this thing. It's something I've wanted to do for 15+ years now. Nobody in the industry has it other than LRI. Mistakes are going to happen but the process has proven itself beyond any expectation I ever had. When I can accurize 50-60 M700's IN A DAY and they all measure within +/- .0007" of each other for headspace target depth, it says something.
The same kinds of mistakes happened almost 20 years ago when I began fitting rifle barrels for precision guns using a cnc turning center. I was called a complete idiot for doing it and was chastized routinely.
Guess what? It's almost an industry standard now. The younger crowd of up and coming smiths/shops see the returns from using modern equipment. This trade has lived in the 1940's for far too long.
This is what were doing:
Now, regarding this particular job:
What I did to make this right after ruining the receiver:
I pulled an action from my personal collection. Ran it through the process and barreled it. Why did it take longer than it should have? After killing his receiver, I was hell-bent to ensure my mistake never happened again. Additional fail-safes in the macro variable registers used for the probing/setup routines were created. This is not code you go "buy" somewhere. This isn't a problem you're going to solve with a CAM system either. It must be written longhand, line by line. Then it has to be vetted.
What I failed to do while making it right:
Pay attention enough to realize my receiver was a 30-06. -Simply to mean the feed lips were too close for a .545 case head cartridge to fit through. We were never chartered to build the entire rifle, only the barreled action. Had I fitted a floormetal to it, the issue would have been obvious. We function tested the action and it did everything it was supposed to. We test-fired the barreled action as we do all of our stuff. Again, it did everything asked of it.
Again, it completely slipped my mind that the receiver might not have magnum feed lip geometry.
Now, to the OP:
I am very sorry we (I) let you down. It was never our intention. I screwed this up and I am sorry. I have the resources to easily rectify it if you would like.
In an effort to educate some of you regarding comments about "safety" and whatnot:
There's no such thing as "Magnum steel" vs "Std steel." Simply to mean that within the confines of production actions, they all begin life more or less the same. To expand on this further. I can quite easily take a Model 70, 700, 7, whatever that was built by the factory as a .223 (.390" bolt face) and turn it into a 338 Lapua Magnum if I want. (.590" bolt face) It won't feed worth a darn and I'll have to single load it by removing the bolt every time, but guess what?
THE GUN WON'T BLOW UP. It may stretch brass a bit with heavy bullets and hot loads, but it's not going to sneeze parts all over the creation. Turning an action from one thing to another has been done successfully by smiths all over the globe for decades.
Nothing new here, nothing to see...
Chad Dixon
LongRifles, Inc.
Chad Dixon, LongRifles, Inc.
Yes, my shiny brand new 5 axis mill killed a receiver. It happened and it'll happen again someday. I broke into uncharted territory 11 months ago when I bought this thing. It's something I've wanted to do for 15+ years now. Nobody in the industry has it other than LRI. Mistakes are going to happen but the process has proven itself beyond any expectation I ever had. When I can accurize 50-60 M700's IN A DAY and they all measure within +/- .0007" of each other for headspace target depth, it says something.
The same kinds of mistakes happened almost 20 years ago when I began fitting rifle barrels for precision guns using a cnc turning center. I was called a complete idiot for doing it and was chastized routinely.
Guess what? It's almost an industry standard now. The younger crowd of up and coming smiths/shops see the returns from using modern equipment. This trade has lived in the 1940's for far too long.
This is what were doing:
Now, regarding this particular job:
What I did to make this right after ruining the receiver:
I pulled an action from my personal collection. Ran it through the process and barreled it. Why did it take longer than it should have? After killing his receiver, I was hell-bent to ensure my mistake never happened again. Additional fail-safes in the macro variable registers used for the probing/setup routines were created. This is not code you go "buy" somewhere. This isn't a problem you're going to solve with a CAM system either. It must be written longhand, line by line. Then it has to be vetted.
What I failed to do while making it right:
Pay attention enough to realize my receiver was a 30-06. -Simply to mean the feed lips were too close for a .545 case head cartridge to fit through. We were never chartered to build the entire rifle, only the barreled action. Had I fitted a floormetal to it, the issue would have been obvious. We function tested the action and it did everything it was supposed to. We test-fired the barreled action as we do all of our stuff. Again, it did everything asked of it.
Again, it completely slipped my mind that the receiver might not have magnum feed lip geometry.
Now, to the OP:
I am very sorry we (I) let you down. It was never our intention. I screwed this up and I am sorry. I have the resources to easily rectify it if you would like.
In an effort to educate some of you regarding comments about "safety" and whatnot:
There's no such thing as "Magnum steel" vs "Std steel." Simply to mean that within the confines of production actions, they all begin life more or less the same. To expand on this further. I can quite easily take a Model 70, 700, 7, whatever that was built by the factory as a .223 (.390" bolt face) and turn it into a 338 Lapua Magnum if I want. (.590" bolt face) It won't feed worth a darn and I'll have to single load it by removing the bolt every time, but guess what?
THE GUN WON'T BLOW UP. It may stretch brass a bit with heavy bullets and hot loads, but it's not going to sneeze parts all over the creation. Turning an action from one thing to another has been done successfully by smiths all over the globe for decades.
Nothing new here, nothing to see...
Chad Dixon
LongRifles, Inc.
