I came across a set of Sharps receiver castings some time back and was curious if anyone has a ball park estimate on how long ut takes to complete an action? So far the thing hurting my head is how to get the receiver chilucked up in the lathe to face off the front and thread for the barrel.

Look up GT in  gunsmithing he has lots of threads on biulding actions

I have done three 74's two 77's and now working on a Borchardt. You will need a mill and a lathe and possibly a surface grinder. Some good hand tools and a lot of patience. I didn't really keep up with how long it took to do any of them so I can't help with that. I will say there is a great deal of satisfaction in the completion of one that functions well and gives good service. After completing the action then there is barreling and install of wood then finishing everything out. If you decide to do one there is a lot of experience here and people are willing to share.


JMH

guy82,

This will probably bore you to death but here is the link for one of the Sharps builds I did.  The browsed through it again and some of my wanderings are almost embarrassing.  The rifle is only slightly further along than the very last photo, sitting in one of the safes begging to be taken to the range again, ammo is loaded and ready for that day...
In the post includes pics of the fixture I made for facing and threading these actions.  A few others here on this forum have made this design and done a few actions.  I use mine frequently and tend to start several of these action castings in a given year...

How long for a build start to finish? It depends... a Sharps has a lot of parts and pieces to fit and come together.  This particular one, I'm nearing 350 hours. Another slightly different version, has almost 200 in it and it's probably 250 hours from being how I see it as finished.  (that's finished, not operational and used in a match of some sort...  ) 
I shot one of my builds yesterday in a match, it performed quite well and now almost has 100 rounds shot through it.  Nowhere near finished with it and I got a few laughs and jousts until the last shots were fired...
 
My recommendation, is to start one if you have some of the skill sets for machining.  I've been a machinist for 4 and 1/2 decades  and these action projects have been my hobby for 3/4 of this time.  Don't hurry any part of it, work a little, study a lot, research more, you'll learn a lot and broaden your horizons.

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Greg

Just a thought -you can bore and thread the receiver in the mill holding it perfectly vertical with an angle plate.  You don't have to make an elaborate fixture to hold it in the lathe like Greg does though his method is probably superior.

When I was teaching the gun building class, none of my students cared to try setting their action up in my fixtures - so they bored and tapped them in the mill.  Here's creative thinking for a larger tap handle, a double crescent and a tap guide...