Gippeto, no powered feed on the Sherline so I'm restricted to taps and dies for cutting threads, which is the machining operation I dislike the most, so pinning it is

Now that this has some chance of working I've progressed to the next stage of planning being what sort of blowback mechanism would be best.

"closed bolt" mechanism with a separate spring-loaded firing pin.

"open bolt" mechanism with a floating firing pin.
I'm inclined towards the latter, it's easier to build, perhaps less accurate due to greater movement before firing but that is not really a concern for what is meant to be a plinker. It will also cycle on full auto as long as the trigger is pressed, the closed bolt would be more difficult to implement as a select fire device. Not that with a limited amount of cartridges that would last very long anyway.