The Hearsch Angocoellum Rifle: A functional Steam/Cyber Punk Rifle

Step 6 Cutting your barrel channel

as they peered across the chasm at each other pure hatred simmered betwixt their eyes as bolts of Thor's smithy

erm not that kind of channel . . .a barrel channel to be precise!

Tools and Materials:

• Round bottomed chisels]
• Mallet
• 80 grit sandpaper
• A dowel or other round stick the same size as your barrel
• Rotary tool

This is the step that threw me for a loop . . .if I'd designed the gun so that the top of the barrel channel was even with the rest of the gun then I could have simply run this through the router with a 1" groove bit and called it quits but me being what I am decided that it didn't look as cool so I had to do it by hand . . .finding the right tool to do this job was interesting to say the least.

First I sanded in a line with the rotary tool so that I could use the groove to line up my barrel but then I was left scratching my head as to how to carve the rest in . . .I eventually bit the bullet and took out the old chisels and mallet and lo and behold . . .someone had damaged the chisels so badly (seriously the edges were shaped like extreme W's) that I wouldn't trust them to cut butter . . .I gave them a new edge on the grinder and went at it. . . You have to be extra careful here and make sure you are completely aware. . . this is not a job you should do when tired since a razor sharp chisel is no joke and one wrong angle will send it skipping off the piece. Bit by bit take out the extra wood and occasionally check the depth and width (as well as roundness) when you get pretty close wrap some 80 grit sandpaper around the stick and push it along the chanel over and over until it's nice and smooth as well as being the right depth . . .this step took me about 2 hours including the sharpening so it's quite a commitment! This will really show errors so make sure you work slowly and carefully.