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RoyB
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Upper Missouri Hepburn Kit....Pictures
Jan 16th, 2015 at 5:07pm
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Lots of folks are asking for pictures of the as delivered Upper Missouri Remington Hepburn kit. Your wish is my command!

As I said in another post...LOTS of work! This is not a "sandpaper" project. It could be done with files, but you best have lots of time, elbow grease and know how to file. A milling machine is going to make this go a lot easier and more accurate.

The cast parts are taken from the molds, a slight amount of internal machining is done on the receiver, holes are drilled and taped.

The lower tang is about 1/16" proud of the receiver. I haven't looked at the specs yet to see if the receiver needs to be opened or the lower tang reduced in width.

The smaller cast parts are as delivered from the molds. These will easily be the most challenging.

The screws, springs and pins are of extreme high quality. Well finished and very hard.

Here are a few pictures:
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More pictures here:
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I bet I've talked to a dozen folks that bought these kits and they have been sitting in a drawer for 10 years! Waiting for the time and courage to undertake it. But none of them wanted to sell the kit......"I'll get to it one of these days!"

This is the "Semi" finished kit. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to locate holes etc on the simple castings kit without some type of jig.

So, anyhow.....I'll get back to you in ten years or so and let you know how I'm making out!.... Grin
  

Roy B
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SgtDog0311
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Re: Upper Missouri Hepburn Kit....Pictures
Reply #1 - Jan 16th, 2015 at 6:12pm
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Don't give access to your grandkids for the particular drawer they get stored in.   Would be bad to come up with a missing part:-)
  

Best Regards,
John
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harry_eales
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Re: Upper Missouri Hepburn Kit....Pictures
Reply #2 - Jan 17th, 2015 at 3:25am
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Hello Roy,
Well the hardest parts are done, and they've saved you some machine time and some costs of buying tools. As suggested elsewhere having the breech block mortise and the breech block cut to size by an EDM wire cutter will save you a lot of bother, sadly it isn't cheap, but if the operator knows his job it is superbly accurate. You may still have some jigs or fixtures to make, but that's all part of the fun. Good luck. Cool
Harry
  
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jhm
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Re: Upper Missouri Hepburn Kit....Pictures
Reply #3 - Jan 17th, 2015 at 6:49am
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I have done both a 74 Sharps and a 77 Sharps from such kits. It is a LOT of work. I had to make fixtures, buy some extra tools and special cutters etc...
The biggest problem was shrinkage of the as cast parts. You can't machine what is not there. Another problem is figuring out what to do first,second etc... I would like to do one cause I like the style of the Hepburn. I have a 40 cal badger barrel I want to do a 40-50BN with and the Hepburn would do the job. Just don't know if I want to do another "kit".

JMHolland
  
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RoyB
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Re: Upper Missouri Hepburn Kit....Pictures
Reply #4 - Jan 17th, 2015 at 7:11am
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JM.... Sounds like you already have the disease! Go for it....😉
  

Roy B
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nuclearcricket
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Re: Upper Missouri Hepburn Kit....Pictures
Reply #5 - Jan 17th, 2015 at 7:32am
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Roy, having run a wire EDM and being a retired toolmaker I would also vote to have the mortise done that way. Most shops will not want to do it for legal reasons but I do know of a place that has wire EDM and manufacturers rifles, so they could legally do the work. Would they? That's a good question. If you find a place willing to do the work, you will want to have a short stud screwed into the barrel hole, they can then center and square up on that and use the front of the receiver to set the location of the breach face. A shop with a surface grinder would be good to be in touch with to squire up the breach block and just make it pretty. That will also give you hard fast sizes that you want your mortise cut for.
Sam
  
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RoyB
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Re: Upper Missouri Hepburn Kit....Pictures
Reply #6 - Jan 17th, 2015 at 1:32pm
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I have access to wire EDM and plunge EDM. But looking at the parts I'm confident I can get within Hepburn 1880s specs with files, milling machine and patience. After all, that is how Remington did it and look what folks are paying for those non EDMed rifles....

After reading the instructions and looking at the parts again, I think I was making this to be more difficult than it will be.......Time wi;ll tell!
  

Roy B
Dartmouth, MA
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frnkeore
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Re: Upper Missouri Hepburn Kit....Pictures
Reply #7 - Jan 17th, 2015 at 3:22pm
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It looks like that on most of the external surfaces, that a disk sander could make your life much easier. It would save time knocking down the rough casting, too.

Frank
« Last Edit: Jan 18th, 2015 at 7:17pm by frnkeore »  

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graduated peep
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Re: Upper Missouri Hepburn Kit....Pictures
Reply #8 - Jan 18th, 2015 at 3:00pm
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frnkeore wrote on Jan 17th, 2015 at 3:22pm:
It looks like that on most of the external surfaces, that a disk sander could make your life much easier.

Frank

That and a Dremel tool !!
  
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marlinguy
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Ballards may be weaker,
but they sure are neater!

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Re: Upper Missouri Hepburn Kit....Pictures
Reply #9 - Jan 18th, 2015 at 6:43pm
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frnkeore wrote on Jan 17th, 2015 at 3:22pm:
It looks like that on most of the external surfaces, that a disk sander could make your life much easier.

Frank


What I've found works well on these types of surfaces is 3M Roloc discs on a high speed grinder. I have an electric die grinder, as it just works better in my basement gunsmithing bench. The Roloc discs are pretty reasonable, and once you have the arbor, disc changes take a couple seconds, so it's easy to start off coarse, and quickly change to finer as you go.
I buy replacement discs in 50 ct. bags for about $22, and keep several grit sizes here. They come in numerous diameters, but all I buy are the 2" size, as they work best for my uses.
  

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frnkeore
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Re: Upper Missouri Hepburn Kit....Pictures
Reply #10 - Jan 18th, 2015 at 7:15pm
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The reason that I suggested a disk sander is that it will keep the surfaces square and the surface flat to the ajoining surface if the table is squared up to start with.

Frank
  

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