Buildin' a Stock!

Yes this forum/thread did turn out rather well.

I have access to an old mill, and lots of different pieces of wood, I'm always harvesting 8' saw logs for the owner of the mill, so I get the wood for nothing since I don't charge him for the logs (best landlord anyone could ever ask for), I've thought about doing up a stock in some fancy tiger striped Red Cedar.
This piece of wood came from near the stump where a burl was near by, red cedar is a soft wood tree, but this piece is a lot tuffer than most pieces and has a nice pattern to it, it's up in the rafters of the wood shed taking it's time drying currently. I wanted something very west coast looking.
I'm going to have to take a better look at the maple that blew over this year, before I cut it up and maybe a piece of yew wood.
I'm using the rest of the boards to refurbish some bee hives.

Fibre Glass? uhm maybe.

I fix and repair surfboards over here from time to time, so the fibre glass stocks would be a breeze, I don't think I would use polyester resin though, stick with epoxy, it's stronger and takes more punishment, poly boards are always getting dinged up rather than the epoxy boards, I have two epoxy boards and I have run over or hit rocks and driftwood with them before and nothing just scratches, where a poly board would have been in my shop for sure.
Poly resin is cheaper than epoxy, but for such a small glass job like a stock you won't notice the difference in the cost, and you''ll probably have lots left over. A stock might be smaller than a 6'-9' surfboard, but I'm thinking the stock would be a bit more tedeuse-(spelling?)

I use an electric planner to rough shape and a belt sander to touch up the shape and then a rasp and then sand paper to finish the shape, you can paint the foam before laminating, just use a paint that adheres with the epoxy, some don't work as well as others, and if you want to get interesting print up some graphic's on onion skin paper and liminate the graphics into the stock under the final layer of cloth (ie:camo, bush pattern, etc.)
I would imagine a dremel and a router would work for the barrel channel and action hole and a razor blade to fine tune.
If your worried about strength use some Kevlar or carbon fibre in your first couple of layers, and start with light weight clothes (2oz or 4oz), the more layers the more strength and weight. You can get polysterene expanded foam (works with epoxy only, poly melts it) from a hardware store for dirt cheap.
I would think by using a piece of light guage aluminum or sheet metal you could box in or re-inforce the action area and or the barrel channel, in the layering process.
(just don't sand into those materials (kevlar - carbon fibre) if don't have to, e-cloth or s-cloth are OK)
 
If you use a router to create your basic barrel channel then the outsides of the forend need to be parallel. You then can profile it once the basic pilot groove is in and true. I then used 2 different sizes of dowel and broom shank wrapped in glass paper to open it out but this is still reasonably rough. I found that boyds etc recommend sealing everything externally with lacquer after 3 days of hand sanding. Sod that mine are not safe queens and rough finishing is enough. The butt I replaced on my .303 sporter drew admiring comments from the other stalkers yesterday despite it just having the safety and bolt grooves done then oiled.
The final finish is all down to time and effort, lots of both and no compromise!
 
If you are handy with tools and woodworking, making a stock is not a hard thing. Time consuming but not hard.

The hardest part is inletting. If starting from a hunk of walnut, getting the inletting carved out quickly can be done with forstner drill bit, grinding wheels and carving knives/chisel. No thing of beauty but after the bedding goes in, looks and functions just fine.

If you really want to reduce the pain, you can buy a fully inletted stock from Boyds or other manf, and bed/finish.

For a bit more work, you can cut and splice onto a factory stock. The inletting is already done and most 'plastic' stocks take epoxy very well. They become very rigid too.

I have done both and prefer to start with an inletted blank (lazy). Saying that I am about to create a tactical stock from plywood and some inletting will need to be done.

Really up to your imagination.

Jerry
 
I have done a few,both wood and composite.
Probably the biggest thing that stops me from doing more is the amount of time invested.
Kind of like home taxidermy.... yup, you can do it. Sometimes the results look just a little "off". Nothing that jumps out at you, just a little off. Ever seen a whitetail mount where the deer seems to be grinning at you????
I was carving a skeet stock for my son, and Claybuster from this site made a very insightfull comment when he was examining my efforts. He suggested that every gun nut should attempt to make a stock at least once. Keeps you from complaining about the cost of having it done by a pro.
Having said all that, I will fess up and admit that I will buy a semi finished from Wenigs before I will ever start from a rough blank again.
With all the excellant composite units available at very reasonable prices, I would never bother to build one up again.
Any way you slice it, stockmaking is an art, a labor of love and a valuable skill.
If you have the time.... go for it. Try lo cost wood first just in case you end up with a "grinning deer"
Thegunnut
 
I like to do things by hand but a router would a good way to quickly and easily cut a barrel channel for the average hobby woodworker like my self.
I love jigs and about half a dozen different ways of setting this up are popping into my head.
I also like forstner bits and hand chisels for the action inlet but a router could be used here also.
As far as buying wood, stay away from large lumber yards and home depot type stores.
I buy from local small mills and pay on average of $4.50 bd ft for black walnut.
Last time I checked home depot it was about $12 bd ft.
You can laminate up the thickness if you are going to paint but if you are going to leave it natural or stain it then it would be best to buy one piece that is thick enough so that the grains on each side match and flow nicer.

I like the idea of trying fibreglass and epoxy resin but again I would be interested in hearing how they have held up with just a foam core and no reinforcement.

I also have a Stevns little favorate hmmmm.
 
composite stocks are only as strong as the 'core' or else they have to be made very thick and heavy (think truck canopy and hot tubs). It is not easy to overlay using carbon fibre or kevlar plus the cost would be up there.

A soft foam core would crush during recoil of most cals heavier then a 22lr.

you can reinforce the core by putting a rigid material in the inlet area then glue foam to the lower stressed areas like the foreend and buttstock. Covering this with fiberglass cloth and epoxy till it is rigid enough.

It will work but a whole big mess and odds are very heavy.

Composite stocks usually have a 'dense' polyurethane expanding foam for their cores, or some mixture of epoxy/resin and filler. In stressed areas, a alum chassis is used but a resin/epoxy filler mixture of acceptable density has also been used.

pretty hard to duplicate that level of density/rigidity with any commercially available foam blocks. Not without first building in a skeletal sub frame.

So much easier to build a blank out of plywood, hollow as desired, inlet and paint.

Jerry
 
mysticplayer said:
Saying that I am about to create a tactical stock from plywood and some inletting will need to be done.

Really up to your imagination.

Jerry
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Jerry, you had a thread on here a while back showing a stock you made using plywood. You have the link to that? It looked great when it was finished. :cool:

Ted
 
hicaliber said:
Mudpuppy I would be very interested in the stocks you have done could you post some pics and more info on how the inletting stands up to recoil?
I have thought about trying something similar to what you have done but using resin soaked balsa in the action inlet area.
I always thought that area would need some sort of reinforcement, don`t ask why it just seemed logical?
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When I build stocks the inlet area becomes one solid piece made up of several layers using mat for bulk filling and cloth/woven roving for strength. Soaking balsa in resin will not offer enough strength, the fiberglass is what gives strength, the resin simply holds it all together.

You are only using the styrofoam/foam block to build the skeleton of the stock with your first layer of cloth. Once the skeleton is built you reinforce it in key areas. Around the inletting you will completly remove the styrofoam and replace it with layers of mat and cloth. The mat is used to build up an area and the cloth/roving is used for strength, once it is complete that area is one solid piece that will never be affected by recoil.

For the rest of the stock it's strength comes from the built up layers, for those concerned with stiffness a single layer of woven roving on the outside and one layer inside the barrel channel will provide all the strength you will ever need. What's inside the forend or buttstock doesn't matter, you don't need a solid core there. As far as what to use to wet out your fiberglass, epoxy or poleyester resin, they both have similar properties for stockbuilding, it comes down to preference and experience with them. Epoxy doesn't smell as bad, will give you a longer pot life when working and is the best choice for someone inexperienced but it does not bond as well to mat as poly, so if you need mat to build up areas you need to take this into consideration. Poly has a shorter pot life, stinks and has to be mixed right, but it hardens faster allowing you to build the stock quicker, is usually cheaper than epoxy and is compatible with all mat/cloth/roving.

I prefer to use tooling-mold resin(poly) when building a stock from a mold and epoxy when I am building a one-of from styrofoam. As far as Kevlar goes don't waste your money on it uless you are trying to build an ultralite stock from only Kevlar.
When using epoxy it's best to give a light sand and wipe down between layers to remove any amine blush. For both poly and epoxy make sure your fierglass is wetted down fully and use a roller to push out excess resin and any air bubbles.

I was taught how to build stocks by a boatbuilder who has been in the fiberglass industry for 40+ years. He builds stocks on a custom basis and I have seen several high end stocks, such as a McMillan, in his shop that were cut in two. Most people would be supprised at what they look like inside, it's not all that high-tech and most of the arguments over what makes up the "best" stock are just that, arguments.
 
I must say it is very interesting to read all about how to make a fiberglass stock! I am very glad I knew nothing and figured it all out for my self!!!!!

Thanks!

Ian of Robertson Composites Inc.
 
Ian Robertson said:
I must say it is very interesting to read all about how to make a fiberglass stock! I am very glad I knew nothing and figured it all out for my self!!!!!

Thanks!

Ian of Robertson Composites Inc.
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Ian you make an amazing product from the reviews I have read and if I needed a seious fiberglass stock you would be the man I would see.

I do however enjoy making things just for the personal satisfaction of knowing I did it myself and an open exchange of ideas helps me avoid mistakes that others have made.
That`s all we are doing here is exchanging ideas, thanks for you input.
 
I thought about building one a few years ago and even sketched out an internal skeleton of aluminium to act as a fixing point for the action and somewhere to anchor the accessory rail. That was the easy bit drawing that. I had a few ideas about stock shape and profile and some experience from surfboard and canoe building at School but as usual something gets in the way!
I figured on making the skeleton and then a mould to make the outer of the stock. Fixing the action and rail together seemed easy but the interface between stock and action through some sort of expanding firm foam was not within my experience.
This is what I had in mind, in the rough. I spent ages in meetings when bored tryig to dimension a stock insstead of copying one. Not easy,
scan0016.jpg

Even though I have had experience joining halfs of moulds I was concerned about how to fill and how fix the skeleton without it going everywhere and costing me another set of moulds. The ideal is to copy a stock and make the mould but then you have a stock so why?
 
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TimC, you are on the righ track. I hope the 'pros' will jump in if I am way off base but with your style of chassis, you will need to make a plug and female mold first.

Now lay up the cloth to form the shell of the stock, lay the chassis in, close the mold up. You would need to put areas on the chassis to bond to the shell.

Once out of the mold, additional material can be used to glass the chassis in place or an expanding high density foam can be used to fuse it into the shell. the expanding foam is very sticky. When filling with foam, being in the mold will reduce the chances of distortion.

Finish the outsides, bed the action and voila...

Big work, lots of money and time but rewarding.

Jerry
 
I figured that bonding the chassis to the stock shell would be the way to go. I thought about doing this by clamping the accessory rail tightly to the spine through the shell.
I whiled away many a boring meeting thinking out and doodling the ideal single shot stock.
That is one job I probably will only do if I move, get a bigger workshop and start doing work on fiberglass projects. I have the almost ideal stock profile now that I have a Boyds fitted but would that be cheating?
 
TimC. Just a thought but if you had a square mould and suspened you chasis in it. Then filled the mould with expansion foam. Could you not shape the foam the same way they do surf boards with rasps and sanders? Expose your chasis at key points so that it can be tied into the fibreglass outer shell?
I have never done anything like this so I pose this as a question not a suggestion.
 
hicaliber said:
TimC. Just a thought but if you had a square mould and suspened you chasis in it. Then filled the mould with expansion foam. Could you not shape the foam the same way they do surf boards with rasps and sanders? Expose your chasis at key points so that it can be tied into the fibreglass outer shell?
I have never done anything like this so I pose this as a question not a suggestion.
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I thought that the shell itself would be the outer skin but thats a great idea, I was thinking like canoe building with upper and lower shells as left and right side but thats excellent. You would still get to final fit and shape before coating with your outer layers of fibreglass!
Excellent thanks very much.
I pity the pro stock builders here listening to us amateurs going on as if we just split the atom or discovered DNA. Thanks for putting up with us. you can tell us all how to do it properly later!
 
There is no one best way to make a "one of stock". If working with 'glass' , the costs will be substantial as will the time need to sand, fill and smooth it all out.

I am now working with plywood. Dirt cheap, very strong, relatively light, so easy to work with and can be easily finished to look at good as you want.

For my one of's, this is my better mousetrap. Your mileage may vary.

Jerry

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