twobobbwanna,
Yes the EDM is a wonderful tool. It can do amazing things and, as you say, saves a tremendous amount of milling. It actually leaves finished surfaces e.g. the water table. I will finish the other plane of the trigger plate, put it on the action and finish the milling. At least that is the plan now. We will see how it goes. I also need the EDM to cut out the area for the locking lug. It will cut out a rectangle then will finish with the mill. Regarding the stocks, you guessed correctly. I have had a 3-D scan done for the reference stock as well. They will not just be "roughed out" though. Since all the receivers will be identical in the mating surfaces, I can make very precise copies that should fit perfectly. With a little glass bedding we should be done. However, this was done in a "mesh" format and I am having trouble converting that to a useable CNC router code. I haven't bored the readers with this little problem since it seems I have a sufficient number otherwise! I have already made the stock for the 45-70 DR from traditional hand duplicating processes from american black walnut. You saw the forearm earlier in the post. The stock pattern for the shotguns is English straight grip to go with the light weight titanium receivers. If your measure of the number of problems being predictive of progress then I am nearing the end!!! The receiver and trigger plate are the real challenges and I think I now have a success path. The other parts are far more predictable and less complicated. For the steel DRs I will simply use existing forearm shoes, trigger guard and top lever. For the titanium shotguns I will have to make them out of titanium. So as soon as I get the receiver and trigger plate made it will not be long before I can shoot the rifle.

Regarding the film clips, right click on the picture. That should open a list of options. Choose the top one, "Open link" and left click on it. It should direct you to my photobucket and automatically start the video.----------------Bill