Rough day, should've quit while I was behind but I pushed through into issue after issue.
Firstly, big thank you to Fortyseven2n, the sight was indeed staked in place and was easy to remove. I just put on my vice soft jaws, clamped the shit out of it, and pulled the barrel off, leaving the sight there. I then measured it, figured my cuts on the barrel, and moved to the mill.
Here is my classic blunder: I'm bad with the mill. Like not even amateur hobbyist bad, truly trash. There's a few factors on why I'm much better and more comfortable with the lather but suffice to say, I'm bad doing things on my mill. And I forget this, cause I'm pretty decent at doing things on my lathe.
I milled a wide flat area across the front edge of the barrel with a half inch end mill. I then swapped out to a 1/16in centerpoint drill bit, and drilled down a bit, 2/3 final depth, at the front edge of the sight notch. I then swapped to a 1/16in end mill to start the groove. I had my spindle speed too high or was trying to cut to fast and I snapped the end mill on the second pass. This is where I should have stopped, ordered a new end mill, and just waited. But I'm an idiot.
Lets do the rest manually thinks I, as an idiot. I do the cardinal sin, break out a dremel, to help form the curvature of the groove. Shockingly, this actually went well, and using a cutting disk of a diameter that matched the bottom curvature of the sight, I made a narrow and shallow cut for the sight notch. Now that I had the shape of the notch, just not the width or depth, I break out the files since that went so well yesterday.
So about two hours of filing later it's going well. I have the correct width, and am just working on depth/shape of the notch to accommodate the front sight. Then I drop said front sight. It bounces off my shoe, into the hell that is my shop floor. My wife and I search for about 20 mins with flashlights and magnets to no avail. On a related note the primer catch system of my lock-n-load only works about half the time and there's a shitload of spent primers over on that end of the shop.
Well I could of stopped here, but noooooooo. I grab a big flat washer, and say I'll improvise this bastard since I have the measurements of the front sight. This goes relatively well, and now I have a jank-ish front blade that fits into my jank-ass groove. Hopefully some brazing can help absolve those sins.
Then, I haven't had enough punishment, so let's tap the hole for the ECT. Back to the mill, this time more carefully but also for this process it's a glorified drill press. Centerpoint drill, select the correct #drill bit for a 4-40 tap, and in with the 4-40 tap. Finishing the last part of the threading when my watch goes off with a phone call, I over torque in my distraction, and snap my 4-40 tap in the hole. Some guys just can't take a hint when it's time to leave the shop. Fortunately using wire cutters I'm able to rotate the tap out, and the hole is a good depth and threading to work for the ECT.
So my project lives on, barely, despite me blundering around pretty badly in the shop. If I manage to finish this project, it'll make for a great story. Busy this weekend but next step is brazing the front sight into the front groove and trying to clean that mess up, and then refinishing.
Still having fun which is what counts. On a related note a new 6.5in barrel is about $50 if I call it quits.