Hello all
I saw this shoe-lump thread and thought I might add a couple of my photos and some musings.

Two or three months ago I was all set to build a 577NE 3" double for a client (using the shoe-lump system) but unfortunatly that project has had to go on hold for an un-known period of time. How-ever, I decided to build a 470 double instead, just to take care of any spare time I "might" have had.

So, after I remembered how to post photos, here's some progress shots of a pair of shoe-lump barrels.

The initial convergence of the barrels was set and a shoe-lump blank and top extension blank were then formed and fitted (smoke and scrape, smoke and scrape etc) Peter said earlier "It's not that easy to make or fit a shoelump" Amen to that, it takes quite some time, and a lot of care and patience to fit it "properly".

Here are the "bits"

Here's the shoe-lump before it was fitted to the barrels

After fitting, the fit at the breech end

The fit at the front of the lump

And the fit of the top extension blank

Next will come chambering the barrels till the rim groove cut is just starting (chambers will be cut to full depth and the headspaced set when the barrels are final fitted to the action body). Then I'll make sure all the joints are totally clean, then flux it, wire all the pieces in their respective places and "braze"

it all together in a temperature controlled furnace.

I will try to keep you all posted as this progresses, although it's not always easy to get the time to play on the computer , so please forgive me if up-dates are slow in comming.

Take care

Alex

BTW, this is the action body blank, sawed and milled out of a block of Bohler EN36A 2-1/2" square and 10" long,

alexbeer.com