How It's Made: Bat Custom Rifle Actions

have you ever wondered what does it take to build a custom rifle action i'm here in post falls idaho at bat machine we're going to answer that question in this video okay bruce i had an idea what would you think of not only giving us a tour of the factory but showing kind of the start to finish process of building one of your custom actions yeah that'd be good i'd like to do that let's do it okay [Music] so bruce what do we have here we have the receiver blanks and the finished product and all the operations in between so this is the just the bar steel right off cut off 12 foot bar 17-4 stainless steel and 17-4 stainless has a bit better properties compared to barrel steel does it for for a higher degree of toughness and depends on the heat treat but yeah we we prefer it and then after it's cut off it goes to heat treat gets hardened and now i know some of you just noticed that this is larger diameter than this one and that's because this is a different variant yeah yeah this is a this size of material is needed because we make this model receiver with a 40 moa rail integral so that requires bigger material and don't worry we're going to show all of this in detail wanted to give you guys a high level kind of overview of the process from start to finish next thing that happens is that heat treated blank gets a hole popped all the way through it so that we can do the next operation of wire edm and facing on both ends faced at the same time within 10th hour finished overall length this one here has had the wire edm work done uh bore and raceways cut in one operation after that's done the receivers put on a mandrel id od trued up to each other and then threaded and those threads are critical because when you're building a custom rifle that's kind of the datum point right the bore has to be concentric with that and that's the critical element exactly yeah it's it's that's that datum is where all the rest of the operations of the receiver happen and it's critical for the accuracy of the finished product and this is where a custom rifle action can really stand above something like a factory mass-produced variety is they they'd have something like a tap wouldn't they and just math and order of operations is different as well the order of operations we use to create this to get to this stage is all designed around to make it as accurate as possible to do the most extremely accurate job we can do there's faster ways of doing it faster operations uh you know orders of operations it could be done faster but it's not necessarily going to give you the repeatable results that you're trying to get every receiver for year after year so this one is that receiver in the next operation tang cut bolt handle notch cocking piece slot and final operation is between centers all these operations are completed engraving everything is completed in this operation and this one has been through finishing as well this one has been through the polishing department it's just it's a beautiful piece of artwork and let's talk about how much material is removed when we're talking about this round that one is nine pounds yep that's one pound three ounces so that's a lot of it seems like that's a lot of waste how do you how do you think about that uh it's the only way to do it properly yeah if you want uh extreme accuracy in your receiver and you want integral rails and all the things that that we feel are the most important to make a truly trouble-free everything done to the best way can be done that's the way you got to do it so if you're wondering why custom actions cost quite a bit more than factory mass-produced actions that would be one of the reasons huh yeah for sure yeah okay so that's that's the high-level process why don't we next walk through the different machining stations for all of these processes and go into more detail [Music] so here we are at the heat trading station yeah so all the blanks get heat treated like i said before before we start machining and that's to achieve the hardness to make the receiver safe and long lasting um a load of material we generally get dependent on diameter will generally get 15 to 20 blanks in there and then they have to soak for an hour per inch so you have to add up what's how much you got in there so it generally takes about an eight hour shift to heat treat a full batch so you're bringing all of those steel blanks up to a uniform temperature in the oven yep and then you're gonna sometimes when you're hardening you would oil quench right or even water quench or whatever the material is 17-4 stainless is kind of a weird weird material 17-4 15-5 they're precipitation hardening so the transformation that takes place inside the steel molecules does not require an oil quench and a subsequent temper all the transformation takes place at the temperature that you run it up to and then it has to be there actually in a certain amount of time for that transformation to happen and then it's just air cooled yep yeah yeah so we alter the material properties and then it's on the machining exactly all right let's do that next okay so tell us about this machine so this is a mazak hcn 4000 full fourth axis on the pallets it is a as i said a pallet machine so this is actually the side where the parts are loaded the other side behind that door is where the machining actually takes place so when we're doing these blanks to take them from heat treat to getting ready for wire we talked about over there we face the ends off and drill the hole obviously a different fixture than what's in there at the moment but we face them off drill the hole and yeah take them out and head to the wire machine yeah and that the whole purpose of that hole is to get that wire through there the only reason for that hole is just get the wire through there it doesn't have to be precise but what does have to be precise is the overall length and the squareness of that because the wire edm the guy the wire guys are only five thousands off each end so if there's any variation in the squareness of it the guys can hit the flushing decreases efficiency let's see the edm machine okay let's do it so here we are at one of is it two edm machines that you got here two wire edm machines and and tell us before we get into the process tell us a little bit about the machine itself so wired is wire edm uses a very small wire in this case we're using a 10 000 diameter wire i don't even know if you can see that camera it's time it's tiny and it's fed at a rate depending on how much amperage is being put to the wire obviously the more amperage is put to the wire the quicker the wire can burn into yeah and then that's not really part of your plan yeah right right it's like having your band saw blade break yep it's actually a very good analogy it's basically an electrical band saw interesting it's chart the wire is charged with electricity and it burns away minute particles of steel and as it's doing that there's a flushing from the top and bottom of the wire that flushes the chips away deionized water deionized water yep and uh without the water flushing the chips away the process would be impossible it just flat wouldn't work and let's let's talk about the motion of the machine here we've got linear move so this this particular wire machine is a sodic and it uses linear motors there's no ball screws no motor as such as like a conventional motor it's a flat motor electrical field that controls the movement along with uh glass scales for positioning that it's referencing yep for its position so and it reads to the let's see what do we got five places behind the decimal extremely accurate machines extremely accurate and and the whole this whole tank and and all the work can move with with the linear motors guiding it yep precisely and then there's the top and the bottom guides for the wire as well yeah and then the upper guide actually has a another axis so you've got x y and then you have u and v on the upper head that allows you to do tapers yeah which is utilized in these longer actions to actually help us create a really straight hole gotcha so so that's the machine and how the machine works roughly let's talk about what's happening with our work so talked about the hole getting put through there and that's just to get the wire through there to get your electrical band saw and it's going to cut out the shape of the raceway let's see if i got i don't think it's different size this is your waist piece here this is waste yeah yeah and it comes out as one chunk wow it just basically has the wire gap between it so recycle these because they're stainless get money for them yep and what's amazing to me about this is that you've got something that's shiny with a great surface finish right in there and it's gonna go i presume through polish or whatever yeah i actually don't do a lot of polish because service finish is very good it goes through the polishing machine but there's not a lot of really polishing that happens in there the bore is pretty close to the way it comes out of the machine wow so truly an amazing process yeah it's hard to believe that it works as well as as it does right it it's come a long way since wire edm was invented that's for sure so now we've got our boron raceway now next we need to true up the now we need to true the od to the to the bore okay so on to another cnc machine okay so this is the machine we use to true the od to the id tell me tell me about the machine how many axis what are you so this is a fairly simple one so this is uh three axis xyz live milling um and c-axis on the lathe spindle and then just standard programmable tail stock on the back end fairly basic machine in today's world it's actually the only machine we have and as far as lathes cnc lays that actually has a tail stock all the rest of our lays have sub spindles in them instead so gotcha this is the machine that works the best for truing the od to the id so basically it's very simple operations it just goes uh mandrel goes in the hole center goes in the other end and uh yeah it's trued up and then after a batch of those is done then a chuck is put on and the chuck jaws are bored true each time that happens and then the front end is threaded but before he threads each action they are indicated we actually i mean ideal setup would be like to have the chuck jaws right up front right for rigidity i mean always rigidity is yeah paramount to accuracy but we actually leave it out a couple inches so that we can indicate it here and here to make sure it's actually running true not going like this yeah and that's it's all about accuracy i say everyone's indicated it's not you know it's not cheap to have machines sitting there not running while you're indicating but it's necessary yeah for what we're trying to achieve you know most time he doesn't have to do anything you know what i'm saying they chuck up within a couple tents but you got to check it yeah so and then is that when you cut the receiver threads yeah yep that's that's what i was talking about that's all about receiver threads so od and receiver threads perfectly concentric running completely true to each other yep okay and then uh what's after this process so the next thing will happen is the tangs get cut okay and that's back down over the other machine yeah yeah so back to the horizontal for the tang operation our fixture here is cuts the tang and on this particular model it's we're set up for right now which i have in my hand uh this does not have the integral picatinny rail yep but it does have the integral recoil load so we'll also take that ring and machine it down yep so a little better view here of what's happening so a blank blank goes in there just like that there's locating dogs down inside that locate the raceways to for orientation and then as far as centering it um we probe it with machines probe it's kind of like a digital indicator yeah and probes it for sideways so we can get the slot dead center gotcha and uh also probes length so we can get this dimension correct to the other end repeatably with no stress so yeah and you've even got some engraving on here yeah go ahead on the repeaters we go ahead and engrave this the safe and the fire on there at the same time and then as well when this when this side is machined probe goes in and probes for position there to make sure the lug is centered not that really matters that much but it looks terrible if it's off-center [Laughter] gotcha you got two different operations set up here pallet rolls in both operations get cut gotcha yep and then pretty basic after this it goes to the uh last operation where the thing becomes a finished receiver one thing i was going to mention on this is the uh our cam for our extraction happens on this oh yeah and this is a helical move that so this is a four axis machine and so that enables us to cut that as a true helix aids in the bolt smoothness opening when it's extracting tight cases so when you're machining the bolt which we'll get to later it's the shape of the matching helix exactly which is that exactly those are going to slide together extract the case from the chamber smoothly boom yep very nice yeah okay so on to the final machining let's do it [Music] so the last operations happen here tell us about this machine yeah so it's just a simple three axis machine with a rotary axis and it's a full rotary not just an indexing rotary so you can program any increment you want and all the machining to complete the receiver happens in this last operation ports trigger pockets scope base holes in this case an integral rail then engraving all the holes threaded everything when it comes off of here all it needs is d-bird gotcha ready to assemble and this part here is going to become a receiver body with an integral rail is that correct integral rail and integral lug and how long does that complete set of operations take approximately 45 minutes gotcha can i press the go button of course okay okay so do i literally just hit the green button you just literally hit the green button here we go are you guys ready i'm gonna i'm gonna do my first cnc receiver here [Music] what do you think this is easier than running a manual machine [Music] what's he taking off there 150 deep cuts cuts like butter doesn't it yeah i heard a little bit more yeah chatter sound on that person down the tail stock and yeah this is just roughing getting rid of material yeah and then it'll go back to finishing so that process took approximately 45 47 minutes somewhere in there and we end up with this for coming straight out of a cnc machine that is a beauty and this will get polished but before we talk about that why don't we go through the machining process the full production process on the board and then we'll go to paul yeah sure that sounds like a good idea yep so here at machine we make two different kinds of bolts we make the modular style and then we make a one-piece version now as well the two-piece bolts modular bolt starts as a piece of 4140 hardened to 41 45 rockwell then it goes to the lathe and gets the initial turning done lug diameter bolt diameter and then the key for the modular bolt gets machined after that's done that bolt body then goes down to the mill gets the extractor ejector lugs milled gas port cross pins flutes gets all that done that takes care of the bolt body the handle side of that modular system starts as a two and a half inch diameter piece 4140 32 rockwell this is part way through the roughing operations and then finished completely finished now this all happens this piece is completely machined from here to here in one machine wow our maisack integrex so it's a milling machine slash lathe wow and allows us to keep the center line of all the different operations exactly on center and that's this machine machine here so why don't we start here with the bullet handle and then we'll do the body section sure sounds good so here we are at the integrex and here is a blank for a one-piece bowl i know you're just talking about the modular but yep this is what i'm set up for in this machine at the moment we'll go ahead and load one of these and start it running you won't be able to see anything anymore but so it's going to go through and cut the entire a lot of material to take off yeah yeah so that's hogging out this this shape here getting rid of that ring and before it's all done it'll have the holes machined in there and be cutting the extraction cam finishes the bore in here cuts the caulking cam and this contour is cut a little bit under the bolts diameter so it doesn't ever affect the alignment of the bolt itself yeah so the two piece modular bolt goes through basically the same operations but it gets after it's done with this stuff it gets handed off to the chuck on the other end to finish the last operations [Music] so from there we need to go to the bolt milling so that's gonna run for a while that's going to run for a while let's go look at the final operations okay sounds good so here we are right across from the other shuttle machine this is a pallet shuttle machine yeah so that's kind of uses a rotary pallet system this is a shuttle system so it swaps like this instead of rotating but so what we have here is we have a fourth and fifth axis on this table so this allows us to clamp the bolt that would have just come from the machine down there the integrex in here and machine the locking lugs and that to that and then it does the extractor and ejector and all that business after it's done with that operation then it goes to the other pallet and machines the flutes and the gas porthole so this this rotary axis here allows you to this tilts down here and this rotates 360 so you can get to all kinds of different positions in one clamping again kind of like just talking about in the integrax so we keep everything in relationship to the same center line so yeah we can go take a look over there at the fluting operation yeah open the doors and see it from the side yeah [Music] so here we are in front of the machine there's a bolt in there this is what's gonna happen to it right now it's ready to be fluted so pallets already been put in put in here so really all we need to do is close the door and hit start we'll hit start first make it more exciting yeah see it a little bit better actually you know we can open the doors on this i forgot this is dry [Music] [Applause] so nothing real exciting it's just a another rotary axis same machine just on a different palette yeah um side moving yeah it's a tool that we kind of adapted to cut flutes not really a standard one but it uses standard insert and next pass you'll actually be able to see the groove it's cutting so back in the old days you'd have to have a gearbox yeah your rotation yeah you'd have to have it all geared to helical gear cutting right equipment [Music] that should be the last pass so now it's just going to drill the gas port hole and that will use coolant now what are we doing gasport hole okay so when you blow a primer lets the gas out so that last little cut was this chamfer yep on these two corners of course the gas port hole in the chamfer and your flutes very nice all right let's go on to the deburring yeah [Music] so this is polishing room this is polishing you got it so we have the receiver that just came out of the machine we have bolt that just came out of the machine we have a bolt a receiver that's been through the first deburring operation bolt through the first deburring operation and then final shine so what goes on in between those is the first operation uh there's some hand work that happens inside of the receiver that the machine can't get to real well yep so it takes a human to do that and same thing on the bolt there's a couple little things that they have to hand polish on these before it goes into the machine if this action is going to be nitrided it just goes directly from here to nitride if it's being shipped as a in the white shiny stainless action it goes to the next step of polish um this is a more of a cutting media leaves a it removes all the cutter marks this takes that finish and shines her on up it's aside from the hand hand work that's done at ebert edges it's just really amazing to me that it preserves the engraving yeah and it can apply such a nice finish without having to hand polish the whole thing that's awesome yeah they're quite incredible machines really it takes a bit of experimentation to get the results you want but once you get them dialed in they they work very very well so we've got our receiver body finished at this point obviously you have to set it up send it out for nitriding if that's right happen we've got our finished bolt it's just a matter of final assembly assembly chipping at that point yeah exactly so you want to go check out final assembly yeah let's do it okay hey guys so here we are in assembly and shipping denny and steve thank you for letting us interrupt your work day so bruce this is where it all comes together and it goes out the door tell us about this process yeah so denny he takes care of all putting all the little parts together so you guys watched the big parts being made your you know your bolt and the receiver we didn't show you things like trigger brackets recoil lugs on some models that are separate didn't show you a manufacturer of bases bolt stops denny assembles all those checks them for function as well as the bolt the bolt needs all the cocking piece firing pin spring lock screws lubrication the bolt itself extractor ejector and then he ascen once he's got that all assembled he checks it for function and makes sure it's good and smooth and if you got any complaints you know talk to him it's hard to believe that these major components started out as chunks of round bar big blocks of steel and here they are yeah beautiful pieces of equipment kind of jewelry almost yeah that's the way i think of it yeah so yeah and so steve he takes care of the shipping and uh if you're the guy he's the guy that you need to talk to for getting your atf and usually actually placing your order if your place order direct with us you'll be talking to steve sometimes daryl but um yeah any accessories you need you'll be talking to steve it's very cool yeah it's been great hanging out it's been great meeting the team spending some time with you all really appreciate it bruce yeah hopefully i'll come back here soon yeah please do well i don't know about you all but my mind has been officially blown that was an absolutely amazing experience taking the factory tour really seeing behind the scenes what goes into building a top quality custom action i know i'm inspired for my next rifle build you're going to want to subscribe with notifications because i've got more rifle builds more technical information that i've partnered with the team here about machine on and here's what i'd like to know is what do you think what did you think of the factory tour do you shoot a rifle with a bat action drop a comment and we'll start a discussion if you like the video please give it a thumbs up don't forget i got ultimate reloader shirts at the ultimate reloader store i'm on patreon i got a full article with a lot more detail and description links in the video description thanks for watching until next time happy shooting and happy reloading [Music]

Channel: gavintoobe

Views: 243,341

Rating: 4.8132515 out of 5

Keywords: 6 Dasher, 6.5 Creedmoor, 6mm ARC, BAT Machine, Benchrest, Custom Rifle Action, Long Range Shooting, Reloading, Reloading Blog, Reloading Press, Reloading Videos, Remington 700, Ultimate Reloader, bat machine action review, bullet central, bolt action, precision rifle, how its made, bat machine, bat action, bat machine tr, CNC Machining, Machinist, bat machine vs defiance

Id: VkvFtlTEuSc

Length: 30min 53sec (1853 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 28 2020