How much experience required or recommended?

[barbie]

It's great to hear all your stories! Thanks for sharing. If it's your first ML, a kit would help get you started. If it's a decent kit it will have the proper arcitecture of the gun in place. This not only will help make sure the balance is good, but will give you a base pattern to go by to try one for scratch the next time. A great way to get your hands dirty and also to be able to do some reseach, learn from others, and ask a ton of questions is to attend the kit assembly class at Conner Prairie's Arms making workshop in Oct. Jim is teaching the class this year so you'll have a very experienced instructor to not only guide you through the tough parts, but he can also explain why - why this part goes in before that part, why your touch hole lines up here, why ... well, you get the picture. You can check it out at Conner Prairie - Arms Maker Workshop . :thumbsup:

 

[Darkhorse]

Well I had about 30 years in the Tool&Die, fixture building and design and general machining trade.
As far as drilling straight holes with a drill press heres a tip; get a center drill and use it to start your holes. Adjust your table so you can just get your drill in the chuck when everything is fixtured up. This will give you a little more rigidity in your setup.
Then use as little pressure when drilling as possible to keep from flexing the tool, or breaking it.