You know how it is. You get online and look at all those high end rifles with fluted bolts and just want one. But for a 125$ thats a steep price to pay. So I decided to do my own. First one I did was my model 12FV. It was quite easy. Made a few minor mistakes and wish I had made the flutes longer but it still looks good. Set up is quite involved though.
The hexagonal flutes were quick and easy to do. I think now that I have done two of them, the next one will also be a hexagonal flat flute. It seams to take of the most material. May even try a 5 sided flute. This one above was 6 sided.
Next was a long action bolt from my Savage Axis. Decided to use a ball end mill and did much longer flutes. Turned out really good. I am getting better.
If you want me to flute your bolt contact me. I would charge $50 for a short action and $60 for a long action. That gets you a size sides straight flute.
For the rounded ball type flutes I would charge $60 for a short action and $70 for a long action. That is also a size sided flute. If your have multiple bolts I can work out a discounted deal for you. Doing one bolt after another saves me time on setup so I will work out a discount for you.
Do you find the flat flutes bind on the cartridge case? One person told me this is the reason they generally stick to spiral flutes. Looks great though!
I have never encountered this issue myself. I would imagine that if you had sharp edges on the flutes because of sloppy machining than you could. I know I have had customers ship me bolts that were having this issue because they had sharp edges. I simple debuting and some buffing fixed it in the two instances that I have encountered it with other people bolts. Oh and on of those was a spiral flute. So they are not entirely immune wither.
This is a good comment. I will have to do some more research as this peaks my interest. I soon plan to start doing serial flutes myself.
Thanks for your reply! I was just told it by someone when I was looking to have one of my bolts fluted. I wanted straight flutes and he said “Nah, you’ll just hang up on the cartridge every time you try to cycle the bolt.” I think your work looks great! I might have to take you up on some of it. 😀