The Dale C. Maley Family Web Site

I used the pattern I bought from ScrollerOnline that has 9 different wood gun patterns.  You can use this link to get this set of patterns.

The main challenge in this project was making the bullet cylinder chamber.  On Attempt #1, I used this process:

1. Glue up 3 pieces of 3/4" thick maple

2. Glue paper pattern on 1 end of blank

3. Drill the thru holes.

4. Drill the outer 6 holes just 1 inch deep

5. Change square to more round using band saw

6. put in lathe and turn round and too size

This did not work.  I had too much run-out when I put the cylinder on its 3/16" dowel and tried to rotate it in the gun body.  Since center hole is just 3/16" dia, this is not big enough to chuck up a 3/16" steel threaded bolt and then tighten and hold the wood blank [which I commonly do on objects with a 1/4" thick hole].

I finally gave up and tried another process.

1. Saw off a piece of 1-1/4" diameter birch dowel 1-3/8" long

2. Glue paper pattern on end

3. drill holes except the 6 outer ones.

4. Chuck in lathe and turn 1 end, then flip in lathe and do the other end

5. hold blank in vise, then 1 at a time, make the 1/2" circle marks 1 inch deep using the Dremel with a deburr tool.

6. Finish sand in the lathe

I still had excessive run-out in the chamber, but I removed the excess with the Dremel with a 1/2" drum sander, then sanded again in the lathe.

The plans say this design is weak because of the square sawed out in the body for the rotating cylinder.  The plans suggest if you want a more robust design, do not saw out the square opening, and instead slice off a piece of cylinder and glue on each side.  I'm going to try it with the rotating cylinder and see what happens.

Rather than using expensive black ebony, I used the trick of using oak.........then coloring it black with a black magic marker.  They polyurethane really makes the black "pop" after you coat it.

The only challenge on this project was figuring out how to make the rotating cylinder.

Hopefully, the grandkids will enjoy playing with this one!