Would really appreciate some advice for smithing...

[codyadams]

So I am a Deputy for the County I live in, I love my job, and plan on doing it until I retire, but I spend most of my off time tinkering with firearms, loading, and shooting. I can think of nothing better that I would love to do in my off time than Gunsmithing, it has been a dream of mine for a long time. I have taken machining and welding classes in high school, but that was quite a while ago. I am thinking about doing online classes, as being a full time Deputy, I doubt I could attend one of the tech schools. I have looked at lathes, and have a good idea of the large investment it would take just to get the tools of the trade, and I am willing to invest my hard earned money in that. After my schooling, I would start out mostly doing work for myself or my friends and family, at little or no profit, mainly to learn the ropes. After a few years of working, I may start doing work for a profit, but it would be on the side, and then after I retire, this would be my retirement job to benefit my retirement income (granted there isn't a zombie apocalypse....)

My question is, do any of you guys have any suggestions, lessons you have learned, things you would have done different, or suggestions in where I should search to get the schooling to do this? I love working with my hands, and I am very patient when I'm doing something I'm passionate about, and this certainly is something that I am passionate about, and truly want to do it, and not just do it, but be good at it. If you don't do it right, it's not worth doing. That's just my perspective.

So thank you guys very much for anything you may have to say, I appreciate any and all input, as it could help my attain my dream, in time. Again, thank you.

 

[shortgrass]

The correspondence course trained and the self trained are what drove me off to MCC (Montgomery Community College) for 2yrs of training 25yrs. ago. There's much, much more to gunsmithing than assembling the gas piston on a 1100 so it faces the right way, glass bedding a stock, threading a barrel for a muzzle brake or being able to assemble/tune a 1911. Probably not what you wanted for a reply......

 

[Danny1788]

My advice is just buy a lathe and go for it. If your just building rifles for yourself while your still working full time it will be a hobby. You will then learn if its something you want to do after you retire. I'm a garage warrior on my days off and I love building rifles, But when you start looking at the cost of the lathe plus TOOLING and knowing how to use it correctly its not cheap. No way part time your going to make that money back.

 

[engineer40]

There are groups in most areas called "Makers Group". Just try to google the name of your town or area + Makers Group. Those groups have all of the expensive tools that you could use in gunsmithing type projects. They also have workshops and mentors.

Here is the one in my area if you wanted to read about them. They are everywhere.
https://www.grmakers.com/

I first learned about them from a coworker who was showing me some custom injectors he made for his BMW.

Honestly if you could find a Makers Group near you, sounds like it would be perfect for you. Hope this helps!

 

[codyadams]

Thanks for all the help everyone!! Yes, this would be a hobby at this point, and my work would be pretty much all on bolt rifles, and I would possibly expand that in the future, and after retirement it could be possible to go to an actual school to get a full education, but that simply wouldn't be possible now, there is no way my department would let me leave for 2 years. However if I could learn the machining part with a lathe and mill, I think it could be a helpful skill by the time I am ready to attend a full time college. I am pretty young, 26, so if I started now then I would have almost 20 years of experience in metal work by the time I retire.

 

[shortgrass]

Thanks for all the help everyone!! Yes, this would be a hobby at this point, and my work would be pretty much all on bolt rifles, and I would possibly expand that in the future, and after retirement it could be possible to go to an actual school to get a full education, but that simply wouldn't be possible now, there is no way my department would let me leave for 2 years. However if I could learn the machining part with a lathe and mill, I think it could be a helpful skill by the time I am ready to attend a full time college. I am pretty young, 26, so if I started now then I would have almost 20 years of experience in metal work by the time I retire.

You'd have 20yrs of machining experience IF you worked at machining full time for 20yrs. Just like a part time police officer, does he have the experience a full time officer does? There's a huge amount of difference between someone who can fit a barrel blank or muzzle brake and a gunsmith. There are many, many things that are a gunsmith knows and does, that are maintenance/modification/customization/repair of firearms, that have little if anything to do with a mill or a lathe. There is SO much more to gunsmithing than machining, and that machining can't and won't teach you. Much of it that is better-off being shown "how to" than being explained "how to". Being "shown how" can save a lot of time and trial and error and misunderstanding. The work force has changed, workers used to work with their hands and make things, now the work force is dominated by sales and services (like credit card processing). Most people don't even work on their own car/pick-up, anymore!

 

[LoneTraveler]

Being a retired Wildlife Officer/Certified Police Officer, Firearms Instructor and Police Armor, Hope I can be some help.

Talk to your boss. See if you can apply to attend Certified Police Armors Schools. There are schools put on by manufactures, Smith and Wesson Pistols, Glock Pistols, Remington 870 Shotguns, Ruger Mini 14 Rifles, and AR-15 Style Rifles. I ever went to a school on M-14 Rifles when my department obtained some surplus rifles.
These schools will give you a lot of knowledge on how firearms work, Problems to look for, And how to replace parts for proper operation. By our Departments General Orders. A Certified Armor had to tear down and inspect ever issued firearm once a year, For safety, reliability and liability.

Being a Certified Police Armor does put responsibility on you.

I got a lot of satisfaction from working on department guns, Making sure they were safe and dependable for our officers. Never know what you would find in and 870 Remington. I have found pennies, dimes, a paper clip and all sorts of seeds and sticks from our fields and woods. If a Cola drink gets spilled down over a holstered pistol in a vehicle while driving it will corrode springs into brown gooey rust ball.

Stay Safe and Good Luck

 

[codyadams]

You'd have 20yrs of machining experience IF you worked at machining full time for 20yrs. Just like a part time police officer, does he have the experience a full time officer does? There's a huge amount of difference between someone who can fit a barrel blank or muzzle brake and a gunsmith. There are many, many things that are a gunsmith knows and does, that are maintenance/modification/customization/repair of firearms, that have little if anything to do with a mill or a lathe. There is SO much more to gunsmithing than machining, and that machining can't and won't teach you. Much of it that is better-off being shown "how to" than being explained "how to". Being "shown how" can save a lot of time and trial and error and misunderstanding. The work force has changed, workers used to work with their hands and make things, now the work force is dominated by sales and services (like credit card processing). Most people don't even work on their own car/pick-up, anymore!

I know what your saying, and I'm not belittling or simplifying gun smithing in any way, I hope that wasn't the message that came across, I know there is way more to it than I would ever learn by threading barrels in a garage shop on some of my days off, all I'm saying is that I would have experience on a lathe or mill, which can't hurt. I was actually quite surprised when I saw there was such a thing as online gun smith schools, and part of this post was to see if anyone has attended them, and to ask how on earth you learned some of the things, when you could watch it being done on a video but not have it in hand to do yourself. I always thought gun smithing would be more of a hands on tech school only type thing.

And on a side note, I am the kind of guy that changes my own oil, rotates my own tires, puts on my own lift kits, adjusts the valves on my own motorcycle, rebuilds my own front end on my dodge ramcharger, replaces the chain in my Jeeps stupid transfer case....

That's why I want to start learning this trade. I love the pride of a job well done by my own hands, and always try to improve what I'm doing. JE Customs told me to be my own worst critic, and that I certainly am. And my biggest passion is firearms, so if one day I could build a fine rifle from the ground up with my own hands, that would be a great achievement for me.

 

[shortgrass]

Everyone with the notion wants to "chamber their own barrels". I can think of several gunsmithing tasks that require a lot more skill and patience. I had 16yrs experience as a job shop machinist (40hrs a week for 16yrs) before I enrolled in gunsmith school. After I'd made that first rifle stock, by hand from a blank during "Classic Rifle Stock Making", I realized "there are no limits". You were required one,, I made 2. It's a daunting task, makes chambering look like childs' play.......... I 'hooked-up' with a local pawn shop while in school. I always had plenty of work from there. I re-soldered ribs on a couple of SxSs. That involves removing the loose rib, cleaning-up all the old solder and re-laying the rib. Got to work on the lock work on more than a few (L.C. Smiths were cherished in that area), learning how to repair ejectors and time them properly, making leaf springs 'cause ya' couldn't buy them, then (those parts ARE NOT "drop-in") and re-cutting and hardening sears, besides all the 'common' repairs that came from that shop. That kind of work (hand fitting & finishing) makes as much or more than the average chambering job, 'cause any swinging dick can chamber a barrel given enough time, barrel blanks and interdnet........ But they stumble all over themselves with any other lathe/mill work. Learning to hand cut checkering can make you feel like an absolute fool, 'till you learn the 'tricks'. And even then it takes immense concentration (for me, anyway). I won't even work on a modern double action automatic pistol, there's no money in just changing parts.

 

[codyadams]

Everyone with the notion wants to "chamber their own barrels". I can think of several gunsmithing tasks that require a lot more skill and patience. I had 16yrs experience as a job shop machinist (40hrs a week for 16yrs) before I enrolled in gunsmith school. After I'd made that first rifle stock, by hand from a blank during "Classic Rifle Stock Making", I realized "there are no limits". You were required one,, I made 2. It's a daunting task, makes chambering look like childs' play.......... I 'hooked-up' with a local pawn shop while in school. I always had plenty of work from there. I re-soldered ribs on a couple of SxSs. That involves removing the loose rib, cleaning-up all the old solder and re-laying the rib. Got to work on the lock work on more than a few (L.C. Smiths were cherished in that area), learning how to repair ejectors and time them properly, making leaf springs 'cause ya' couldn't buy them, then (those parts ARE NOT "drop-in") and re-cutting and hardening sears, besides all the 'common' repairs that came from that shop. That kind of work (hand fitting & finishing) makes as much or more than the average chambering job, 'cause any swinging dick can chamber a barrel given enough time, barrel blanks and interdnet........ But they stumble all over themselves with any other lathe/mill work. Learning to hand cut checkering can make you feel like an absolute fool, 'till you learn the 'tricks'. And even then it takes immense concentration (for me, anyway). I won't even work on a modern double action automatic pistol, there's no money in just changing parts.

The most I have done was finish a very rough and poorly inletted stock by Richards micro fit, and that took probably 60 hours of my time, with fitting the action and bottom metal and recoil pad and sanding down to shape and hand filling the grain by wet sanding and pillar bedding, I didn't attempt hand checkering, and it didn't come out nearly as good as I wanted, it was the 2nd rough stock I had done that with. I wouldn't want anyone to see the first one ha ha...but my point is, I want to learn this, I know there is an immense amount to it, thats why I'm asking what people that are current smiths would suggest as a starting point, as it's not possible for me to attend full time school right now.

 

[Danny1788]

buy a lathe and start making chips, don't let anyone tell you that you cant do it. Just buy a couple lathe books and start machining small stuff. Don't even worry about anything else until you learn how to use the lathe you purchased first. Once you learn how to thread up to a shoulder and stuff like that, then you can start to buy a few books or DVD on chambering a rifle. There are lots of ways to do it, between centers, through the head stock and many more. Knowing how to run your machine and what setup works for you is all that matters. The results are in the end product

 

[Hired Gun]

You could schedule your vacations to align with the NRA 1 to 2 week gunsmithing classes held at some of the regular gunsmith schools. https://gunsmithing.nra.org/find-a-school/ If you want to learn machining your local community college may have some classes to get you acquainted with the basics.

I would not make any big expenditures until you really figure out what all is going to be involved. There is a lot of legal and financial hoops to jump through before you can do anything for pay. Gunsmithing is very hard to do it as a hobby unless you strictly work on your own. To do it profitably is a whole other thing. It's very time intensive. It seems I spend as much time at a desk as I do in the shop.

A wise man once told me. "If you want to wreck a perfectly good hobby, make it your job." I wish I would have known that before I went acting in porn movies.

 

[shortgrass]

That ^^^^^^^^ is some sound advice. As for thinking 40 yrs into the future, any and every part of the firearms business is dependent on political "whim, these days. If this past Presidential election had gone the other way many, many more regulations would have been created. Regulate enough, and pretty soon you have regulated them out of business, because it could become impossible to comply. We are 'safe' for the next 4yrs, but who knows what the future will bring? The "other side" will regain powder, eventually. A guy could end up with what he thought was part of his retirement plan, that wasn't/isn't.