At the risk of opening myself up to the same ridicule, I've ordered a set of castings from Frontier Armory to try my hand at fitting one up.

The only thing I can say for sure at this point is this; I'm in for a whole LOT of work!   

I would respectfully suggest buying and becoming passingly familliar with everything Frank De Haas has written on Single Shots. 
The titles I can think of off the top of my head are;
"Single Shot Rifles and Actions"
"More Singe Shot Rifles and Actions"
" A Potpourri of Single Shot Rifles and Actions" (er, something close to that).
"Designing and Constructing Single Shot Actions"
and
"Mr Single Shots Book of Rifle Plans".


Hope this helps!
Paul F.

I'm just a determined home shop machinist with a lathe and mill...
Time will tell whether or not I'm "Capable" or not 

Paul F.

I ordered the D.S. Cole castings...  it has the fewest parts (by far), and seems the most straight forward to get fit up.

I think that starting with a casting set would be easier than from bar stock... that square hole part in particular.

He is awful slow in answering his email... be persistant! 

Sounds like you have more skills than I do, so I'm guessing you've got more than enough smarts to do good work.

Good luck to us both 
Paul F.

I built a Hoch USA action a few years ago from the rough casting kit.  I have no formal training as a machinist or gunsmith, but 30 yrs as a mechanic.  I read Mr. James Howe's books from cover to cover and went at it slowly with dremel tool, files and sandpaper on a flat peice of steel.  I got help from friends on threading and fitting/chambering the barrel and drilling the holes for the scope mount. I made the stocks and rust blued all the parts myself.  It was a great deal of work, but probably the most satisfying project that I have ever undertaken,  especially when I found that it shot well to boot.  It sounds as if you are well equipped to do a project of this sort.  I wish I'd have known of this forum when I was working on mine.....so much expert help and advice so freely given is a treasure!  Best of luck!
Joe

I just got the set of Cole castings in the mail today... so Mr. Stanley of Frontier Armoury is indeed alive and well 
Having the set in-hand has reinforced a few things about this project to me that were not 100% apparent by the pictures.

First, the Cole action is smaller than I expected. This is good... as my goal is a lightweight rifle (until I change my mind, anyway).

The casting set is not marked for hole locations except by some cast in dimples. It's going to be a challenge to get holes that need precise positioning located given I have no dimensional drawing for the Cole. In this respect, I would have been better off with a High Wall for which there is a wealth of dimensional information.

The surface of thec castings are a bit better than I had feared... they're not ready to blue or anything, but it's not going to take a huge amount of finishing.

The block mortice is visually nice and square, with small corner radii. It will take some finishing, but at first look, it looks like a nice fine cut file and some patience will finish it to size.

The hardest part for me to imagine at the moment is holding the trigger,  hammer, and such to drill the holes for the pins.  I'm sure I'll come up with something clever though 

Now I just have to "Think twice, measure 3 times, THEN cut"...

To be 100% honest, someone REALLY good with a file could do most of the fitting. But I mean REALLY good. Pin locations and threading the barrel tenon probably will prove the most challenging.

Paul F.

   Gentleman;
                  Do the castings have the barrel threads cut in the receiver--since screw holes might be hard to locate, would an action such as the Ballard be eaiser because there's only maybe only one screw [finger lever] that would be critical.   leadball

leadball;
The Cole casting I have does not have the barrel threads cut. There's a hole, but no threads. 

Riflecountry is lucky... he had at least SOME sort of print... the Cole doesn't come with one    

The Cole has the fewest parts of any of the action sets they carry. By a whole bunch!  Three cross pins through the reciever (one is pre-cast in and easy to locate for reaming), one through the block.
I don't think any other set would be less work, or much easier. 
But, I have been known to be wrong before... quite often, in fact.

Paul F.