verminaard
CGN Regular
- Location
- SW Bantario
It gets nice and cheap if you have access to a bandsaw and planer. Circular saw and sander work in a pinch too.
Building a Laminated Plywood Stock
- Thread starter SeamusMac
- Start date
It gets nice and cheap if you have access to a bandsaw and planer. Circular saw and sander work in a pinch too.
As the consensus goes I will +1 using PVA (Titebond III) or a Urea Formaldehyde (plastic resin) type glue. Which will be expensive ... but might be the best solution since I think the problem you are going to come up against isn't amount of pressure (10 tons is overkill
) but **even** pressure. Go ahead and do the glue up all in one go, jut be sure clamping pressure is applied evenly from the center outwards. (this is also where a Urea Formaldehyde glue will excel) You said you had access to a thickness planer and bandsaw?? you don't need the jointer, you can clean up edges with a hand plane, scraper, spoke shave or sandpaper
Now.... I don't know, but my guess here is that the thicker the boards you choose to laminate the more prone they are going to be to warp when they get soaked with glue - I don't think I would want to try this with anything thicker than 1/8" .... Let us know if you run into any issues like that
I built one years ago out of plywood. For my SKS, has a pistol grip (now it a black semi auto assault rifle) lol works great, still have the rifle..... I hunt with it ...never had a problem, with delamination of the plywood layers, only thing on it for protection is 10+ coats of gun oil, that I’ve put on it over the years. I also built it, out of plywood....just because I want to try and build a stock and not ruin a good piece of wood , in the learning process...
Good learning thread
I'm not that savvy on plywood.
Are you saying common plywood just a few layers would not work for a stock?
I have some Hobby Plywood in my model rm. (Beechwood I think from Windsor)
They are multi layers... like over 10. If a guy glued 5-6 of them together...
I'm not that savvy on plywood.
Are you saying common plywood just a few layers would not work for a stock?
I have some Hobby Plywood in my model rm. (Beechwood I think from Windsor)
They are multi layers... like over 10. If a guy glued 5-6 of them together...
- Location
- Western Manitoba
I have no experience with that multi laminate shown in last post, but have worked with "common" plywood. Be prepared that the inner layers will have voids - missing knot holes, cracks, etc. Apparently they use their "best" stuff on outside, so if you see cracks and knots filled in on the outer layers, you will know that inner layers get worse. Trying to cut on an angle can produce cavities, and that "black" or "brown" glue showing. Might be suitable for a $60 Russian shotgun, though. Real good suggestions about using or making your own veneers - that way you know what is inside, before you cut into it.
- Location
- WMU203, Alberta (YCT)
If you're set on using plywood, you'll need to use aircraft-grade and given the cost of it, you may as well find a Windsor Plywood or similar type store and buy something worth laminating.
if you have access to this (oak cherry maple) and have access to a planer then that is what I would use
do the machning (drilling the hole for the stock screw etc) while the blank is still rectangular...
- Location
- Ford Nation
There is really three parts to the plywood, the face which is the good side and is usually up graded by patching out any defects such as knots or splits,etc. The back which is the opposite side of the face, some plywood has both a good face and a good back. And then there is the core's the layers of veneer between the face and the back, sometimes we made plywood (mostly premium hockey stick panels) with up graded cores with all the defects patched out.
If you can buy your plywood from a knowledgeable retailer you should be able to find up graded plywood with no defects. I would check out hardwood quarter inch underlay for defect free plywood.
Good luck with your project and keep us informed of your progress.
If you can buy your plywood from a knowledgeable retailer you should be able to find up graded plywood with no defects. I would check out hardwood quarter inch underlay for defect free plywood.
Good luck with your project and keep us informed of your progress.
fingers284
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Alberta Cowboy Ranges
Back in the "lets bubba every P14-17 we can find" days a buddy of mine took it upon himself to make some plywood stocks using just plain old 1/4" lumber yard spruce to make the sturdy main frame and then covered the plywood imperfections with a plain old C.T. fiberglass kit, cost him about $20 for each one.
He engineered the ply layers so that they were cut to final size both outside & inside ( meaning the inletting was almost all done before gluing & compression). The outside contours , because of the smaller sized ply layers from one to another, left a series of L shaped benches, these benches were just filed down with a very rough rasp file and then smoothed a bit with a smoother cutting bastard file ( no need for it to be super smooth, in fact a little better to still have some roughness to it) Because of the rapid removal of wood by the rasp, this whole operation took 15 min or so.
He used ordinary carpenters glue and a home built press from other heavier plywood & upright 2x6's nailed upright to the top plywood. the whole apparatus was taken out to his cement drive & laid under a vehicle bumper and two 4 ton hyd jacks provided the pressure.
The fiberglass sheeting was cut to size to fit as close as possible and epoxy applied. after this dried it was files smooth to take out the humps and wrinkles ( impossible to lay without a few wrinkles because of the stock contour) and then another coating of epoxy without any fiber cloth. this layer will pretty much go on smooth as a baby's butt. Now a coat of flat black paint and your done.
These stocks were a bit heavy but they were used on some very heavy recoiling rifles ( every "Improved" reamer that Ron Smith owned was used I think) and not one of them has failed or de-laminated to this day.
He engineered the ply layers so that they were cut to final size both outside & inside ( meaning the inletting was almost all done before gluing & compression). The outside contours , because of the smaller sized ply layers from one to another, left a series of L shaped benches, these benches were just filed down with a very rough rasp file and then smoothed a bit with a smoother cutting bastard file ( no need for it to be super smooth, in fact a little better to still have some roughness to it) Because of the rapid removal of wood by the rasp, this whole operation took 15 min or so.
He used ordinary carpenters glue and a home built press from other heavier plywood & upright 2x6's nailed upright to the top plywood. the whole apparatus was taken out to his cement drive & laid under a vehicle bumper and two 4 ton hyd jacks provided the pressure.
The fiberglass sheeting was cut to size to fit as close as possible and epoxy applied. after this dried it was files smooth to take out the humps and wrinkles ( impossible to lay without a few wrinkles because of the stock contour) and then another coating of epoxy without any fiber cloth. this layer will pretty much go on smooth as a baby's butt. Now a coat of flat black paint and your done.
These stocks were a bit heavy but they were used on some very heavy recoiling rifles ( every "Improved" reamer that Ron Smith owned was used I think) and not one of them has failed or de-laminated to this day.
Any idea where to get the bamboo? Might be more fitting on a Norinco but I bet it’d be interesting!
Thanks for all the other replies folks, there’s a lot of info here for me an potential laminate stock makers! I’ve got some calling around to do after the holidays to see what’s available but 1/8” marine grade Baltic birch plywood for $32.50/sheet is the front runner for stock material at the moment!
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I'm late back to this party thanks to all the holiday travels and visiting.
Seamus, if you really must use plywood then use the high layer count Baltic birch plywood shown in Huskydude's post #24. For a rifle or shotgun you simply do not want to use softwood. And on the common "oak" or "birch" plywoods they only hardwood is a very thin face veneer. The other layers are poplar or spruce. Or perhaps fir on some cases. Either way though all those softer woods will compress and deform at the joints to the receiver. So I'd say it's either the Baltic birch plywood where ALL THE LAYERS are birch or it's solid wood. Or laminated from solid as suggested in some posts.
Another reason to not use conventional plywood, and this still goes for the BB stuff, is that half the laminations have the grain running in the wrong direction to take the recoil loads. Side forces into the layers running up and down will easily beat on the wood and it's too soft to provide any proper support. So only the long grain layers that are presenting end grain to the recoil forces are doing the work. And there's not a whole lot of contact area on a side by side receiver to stock at the best of times. Can't say for sure on over/unders but SxS's I've had a few of and seen a few more from my cowboy shooting.
So all in all even as a learning experience I'd suggest either the BB or solid. But if you're new to all this I'd also suggest making a first go with some nice clear standard construction wood to learn the skills and methods. It's far nicer to screw up a buck and a half worth of wood than it is a nice $40 piece of walnut or black walnut.
There's a lot of other woods in the store too. And certainly some nice stocks have been made using maple or other species. But watch the weight. Walnut is a nice balance of strength to weight. It's easy to find stronger hardwoods but they are all heavier too. Some VERY much heavier. An overly heavy shoulder stock would throw off the balance pretty badly.
There's been a few stock making threads here and I'm sure you'll find a lot of them on You Tube. One feature I liked was leaving the butt end long and rectangular to aid with holding it while doing a lot of the shaping and inletting. Only at the last would I cut away the extra along the line for the butt plate or recoil pad.
Seamus, if you really must use plywood then use the high layer count Baltic birch plywood shown in Huskydude's post #24. For a rifle or shotgun you simply do not want to use softwood. And on the common "oak" or "birch" plywoods they only hardwood is a very thin face veneer. The other layers are poplar or spruce. Or perhaps fir on some cases. Either way though all those softer woods will compress and deform at the joints to the receiver. So I'd say it's either the Baltic birch plywood where ALL THE LAYERS are birch or it's solid wood. Or laminated from solid as suggested in some posts.
Another reason to not use conventional plywood, and this still goes for the BB stuff, is that half the laminations have the grain running in the wrong direction to take the recoil loads. Side forces into the layers running up and down will easily beat on the wood and it's too soft to provide any proper support. So only the long grain layers that are presenting end grain to the recoil forces are doing the work. And there's not a whole lot of contact area on a side by side receiver to stock at the best of times. Can't say for sure on over/unders but SxS's I've had a few of and seen a few more from my cowboy shooting.
So all in all even as a learning experience I'd suggest either the BB or solid. But if you're new to all this I'd also suggest making a first go with some nice clear standard construction wood to learn the skills and methods. It's far nicer to screw up a buck and a half worth of wood than it is a nice $40 piece of walnut or black walnut.
There's a lot of other woods in the store too. And certainly some nice stocks have been made using maple or other species. But watch the weight. Walnut is a nice balance of strength to weight. It's easy to find stronger hardwoods but they are all heavier too. Some VERY much heavier. An overly heavy shoulder stock would throw off the balance pretty badly.
There's been a few stock making threads here and I'm sure you'll find a lot of them on You Tube. One feature I liked was leaving the butt end long and rectangular to aid with holding it while doing a lot of the shaping and inletting. Only at the last would I cut away the extra along the line for the butt plate or recoil pad.
Bamboo flooring would be a good start; it is already made of strips laminated together. Glue a couple of board together and you would have the desired thickness.
I've got some bamboo flooring that I used for some furniture projects. The compressed boards used for that format do not sand smooth very well. I had all manner of "hang nails" sticking out of the surface regardless of how I sanded it. So it might be an issue for a rifle stock depending on how the laminated bamboo is produced.
Another thing about bamboo boards of this sort is that the material is very heavy in density. Not a good choice for a field carry rifle. I'd say it's on par with rock maple or oak. The usual walnut is quite a bit less dense and less heavy.
Another thing about bamboo boards of this sort is that the material is very heavy in density. Not a good choice for a field carry rifle. I'd say it's on par with rock maple or oak. The usual walnut is quite a bit less dense and less heavy.
jmichelin84
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Big Land, nL
It's probably already said but use a high-strength flexible epoxy and watch YouTube videos
Weld wood resorcinol glue is a marine glue with kind of pinkish red hue that boat and aircraft builders used to use. I think you can find it in most hardware stores. Comes as a powder you mix with water. Might be a little outdated compared to epoxy, but is inexpensive.
If you use ply wood, that is the only one you should use, there should be no voids in iy and it is all quality wood.
common building plywood is made to sheet houses with, -ie cheap crap
hard wood veneer is just a thin sheet of walnut or what ever with cheap soft wood core.
Some of the Baltic birch plywood these days comes out of china, O.K., but not like the real stuff. BTW it is 5 ft x 5 ft sq.
good quality cabinet glue, tite bond, etc is fine, if your work is flat and straight.
I hate that gorilla glue.
you just need a bunch of clamps, and just tight enough so you see the glue squeeze out evenly. hand tight.
common building plywood is made to sheet houses with, -ie cheap crap
hard wood veneer is just a thin sheet of walnut or what ever with cheap soft wood core.
Some of the Baltic birch plywood these days comes out of china, O.K., but not like the real stuff. BTW it is 5 ft x 5 ft sq.
good quality cabinet glue, tite bond, etc is fine, if your work is flat and straight.
I hate that gorilla glue.
you just need a bunch of clamps, and just tight enough so you see the glue squeeze out evenly. hand tight.
Good learning thread
I'm not that savvy on plywood.
Are you saying common plywood just a few layers would not work for a stock?
I have some Hobby Plywood in my model rm. (Beechwood I think from Windsor)
They are multi layers... like over 10. If a guy glued 5-6 of them together...
