Just somethin I been working on ~ Yes, I am still alive!!
- Thread starter sean69
- Start date
Big workday planned yesterday:
- repair a void in a win 94 stock
- finish inletting the Ballard fore end
- drill the butt stock bolt hole for the Ballard (what a NEAT gun!!)
- finish shaping the fore end for the 94 carbine.
- work on some of my own stuff!!! (about frikkin time!)
So the 94 had a gap in the top tang, not sure how that happened - must have tipped the router when roughing it out, luckily it's only about 1mm wide, so can be repaired invisibly!
I dyed everything first so that any glue that soaked in would be hidden.
Clamped it using the tang, it wil get trimmed to fit today & be invisible when done.
Started working on the Ballard.... that is one LONG stock bolt, and the receiver is conical.
The plan is to drill the bolt hole then drill the receiver lug in steps so that it can be filled with either glue/sawdust or epoxy ~ have not decided which yet. The other option would be to make a conical reamer, but that is probably over kill....
[the little piece of maple is just hiding the owners name
]
Gross material roughed out with the router jig, also routed out the channel for a 5/16 wiping rod.
Using white oil paint for transfer ink [loving the oil paint still!]
Nice tight fit, tried to get a good shot of the grain, lots of blues and greens in it ~ gonna look great!
Moving on to the bolt hole, planning on drilling it in stages, using longer bits as I reach full depth, those are the 2 longer ones in the green sleeves.
This is the last long bit 300mm flutes.... it was just long enough by about 5mm!
Had to make a little router template to inlet that odd shape on the receiver ~ no way I was going to be able to use chisels to dig into end grain that deep
Hot glued & routed, seemed to work quite well.
Used the Japanese saw to start cutting away more material before inletting the receiver.
That's it for the Ballard until I can get into the machine shop to cut a couple of dovetails & make the wiping rod thimbles & lugs.
What I have not been able to find is an original thimble or even a good picture of one to work from..... does anyone have either an original that can be photographed or a link to a good image?? HELP!!
My own stuff, want to get the lock partially inlet today, the barrel is already inlet & bedded [24" swamped octagon .68calibre Rice target barrel, ~ not cheap!]
That will go into the machine shop at the same time as the Ballard so I can cut dovetails in it as well.... I have cut dovetails by hand before, but it's better to do it on the mill and fine tune them by hand.
[it's not faster, but more consistent]
Never got the 94 fore end, but a good days work altogether. Tomorrow will be 'finish the Winchester & complete the lock inlet
- repair a void in a win 94 stock
- finish inletting the Ballard fore end
- drill the butt stock bolt hole for the Ballard (what a NEAT gun!!)
- finish shaping the fore end for the 94 carbine.
- work on some of my own stuff!!! (about frikkin time!)
So the 94 had a gap in the top tang, not sure how that happened - must have tipped the router when roughing it out, luckily it's only about 1mm wide, so can be repaired invisibly!
I dyed everything first so that any glue that soaked in would be hidden.
Clamped it using the tang, it wil get trimmed to fit today & be invisible when done.
Started working on the Ballard.... that is one LONG stock bolt, and the receiver is conical.
The plan is to drill the bolt hole then drill the receiver lug in steps so that it can be filled with either glue/sawdust or epoxy ~ have not decided which yet. The other option would be to make a conical reamer, but that is probably over kill....
[the little piece of maple is just hiding the owners name
]
Gross material roughed out with the router jig, also routed out the channel for a 5/16 wiping rod.
Using white oil paint for transfer ink [loving the oil paint still!]
Nice tight fit, tried to get a good shot of the grain, lots of blues and greens in it ~ gonna look great!
Moving on to the bolt hole, planning on drilling it in stages, using longer bits as I reach full depth, those are the 2 longer ones in the green sleeves.
This is the last long bit 300mm flutes.... it was just long enough by about 5mm!
Had to make a little router template to inlet that odd shape on the receiver ~ no way I was going to be able to use chisels to dig into end grain that deep
Hot glued & routed, seemed to work quite well.
Used the Japanese saw to start cutting away more material before inletting the receiver.
That's it for the Ballard until I can get into the machine shop to cut a couple of dovetails & make the wiping rod thimbles & lugs.
What I have not been able to find is an original thimble or even a good picture of one to work from..... does anyone have either an original that can be photographed or a link to a good image?? HELP!!
My own stuff, want to get the lock partially inlet today, the barrel is already inlet & bedded [24" swamped octagon .68calibre Rice target barrel, ~ not cheap!]
That will go into the machine shop at the same time as the Ballard so I can cut dovetails in it as well.... I have cut dovetails by hand before, but it's better to do it on the mill and fine tune them by hand.
[it's not faster, but more consistent]
Never got the 94 fore end, but a good days work altogether. Tomorrow will be 'finish the Winchester & complete the lock inlet
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I like your tool holder for the rasps and shave, keeps them from rubbing together and off the floor
I did a Ballard years ago, I would suggest drilling that stock form both end, less chance of getting off line.
Nice work
BTW, I just found out how spell check works, show where my interests are.
I did a Ballard years ago, I would suggest drilling that stock form both end, less chance of getting off line.
Nice work
BTW, I just found out how spell check works, show where my interests are.
Yea, just trying to keep things organized, messy benches seem to breed mistakes!
The bolt hole wandered off a little bit, but not enough to be concerned about - still fits just fine. I'm finding with the new drill bits, holes only really wonder if setup isn't done right...
Got some dye on the Win94 today, will have it whiskered down & dyed again tomorrow.
You can really see the grain raising in this pic ~ that all needs to be re-sanded & whiskered off.
Really wish I had written down the mix proportions of that particular batch of dye
Not sure if I mentioned ["complained about"] it, but I'm not getting any time to work on my own stuff, so I've decided to spend at least an hour on my own stuff each session in the shop.
Today I installed the vent liner for my Jaeger ...
A couple test holes is never a bad idea....
it has a bit of a chamfir [chamfer?] - I did not have a center drill large enough so I just used a 5/8 bit. Not a good idea, see last pic....
Hole drilled, nice chips, no surprises ~ you only get one shot at this!
Tapping ..... again ~ only one shot at it!
Could be better, a little sloppy around the edges because I did not use a center drill.... but it is good & tight.
I still have to remove the breech plug, measure how much the vent protrudes into the bore & then file that off [the vent liner] but removing the plug is a bit of a production & can wait for another day.
Today we're going to do more finishing on the 94, finish inletting the lock on the Jaeger & inlet the butt plate on the Ballard. and if there is time; prep the blanks for the Winchester Mod.1886 that a repeat offender wandered in with the other day.
You can really see the grain raising in this pic ~ that all needs to be re-sanded & whiskered off.
Really wish I had written down the mix proportions of that particular batch of dye
Not sure if I mentioned ["complained about"] it, but I'm not getting any time to work on my own stuff, so I've decided to spend at least an hour on my own stuff each session in the shop.
Today I installed the vent liner for my Jaeger ...
A couple test holes is never a bad idea....
it has a bit of a chamfir [chamfer?] - I did not have a center drill large enough so I just used a 5/8 bit. Not a good idea, see last pic....
Hole drilled, nice chips, no surprises ~ you only get one shot at this!
Tapping ..... again ~ only one shot at it!
Could be better, a little sloppy around the edges because I did not use a center drill.... but it is good & tight.
I still have to remove the breech plug, measure how much the vent protrudes into the bore & then file that off [the vent liner] but removing the plug is a bit of a production & can wait for another day.
Today we're going to do more finishing on the 94, finish inletting the lock on the Jaeger & inlet the butt plate on the Ballard. and if there is time; prep the blanks for the Winchester Mod.1886 that a repeat offender wandered in with the other day.
What kind of dye do you use? I've refinished a couple rifles over the years, although no where near as nice as what you're showing. I always used a stain, and never seemed happy with the colour in the end. Always wondered what the "trick" was to get that nice rich, vibrant colour.
I am using the water based aniline dyes from Lee Valley ... you can get alcohol &/or solvent based dyes as well but water based will penetrate deeper. Starting with material that has nice figure helps.
Sanding is probably the most important step - that rifle was sanded to 400 grit before dye then 600 after then 1000 after that. Basically sanded till it looks almost polished, any nick, ding, loose fiber or dull spot will show up in the clear coats (whatever that may be)
My opinion has always been that stain makes wood look like something that it's not or should be used when something has no figure to accentuate.
So these are the stock parts sanded to 1000 grit
You can actually see where the grain raised up where I touched it with damp gloves (latex gloves and dust mask when sanding dyes please.... )
then wiped with a sponge dampened with dye again.
One coat of tung oil
I had to go with some oil on this one as the stock swelled to the point of not fitting anymore & I didn't want to risk the fore end cracking when it dried out again, so this one will get the pure tung base treatment then some poly tung over that.
I'm really impressed by the quality of your work.
I did some light gunsmithing on some stocks.
I found that tung oil worked the best for me.
I learned how to refinish stocks by a guy who built Guitars.[The stocks were like mirrors.]
He had given me some Brazilian Rosewood, for the foreend and the pistol grip.
But allas it is all gone. And he has moved down south.
keep up the good work
I did some light gunsmithing on some stocks.
I found that tung oil worked the best for me.
I learned how to refinish stocks by a guy who built Guitars.[The stocks were like mirrors.]
He had given me some Brazilian Rosewood, for the foreend and the pistol grip.
But allas it is all gone. And he has moved down south.
keep up the good work
Thanks!
I actually call myself a 'gun maker' - I feel a smith should be able to rebarrel a gun - something that is beyond me
Funny, I had been trolling the luthier forums looking for good finishing techniques ... they do use a lot of the same tools & finishing techniques. That and a good chunk of what they do has to be done by hand as well.
Also - lots of options for inlay materials from those guys ....
Rosewood, Blackwood - any wood from India related to rosewood is now on the CITIES list - i.e. can not import it, if you find any HOARD IT!!
Technically speaking if you have a guitar/instrument/whatever with a rosewood fret board, you can't even ship it across international borders any longer. (well not without tons of paperwork)
Thankfully Ebony isn't on the list ~ yet. But getting more difficult to find.
Thanks for the tips Sean. Been looking for an excuse to go to Lee Valley. Haven't been there in years, but I guess it's about time to visit again. I originally tried to avoid it because it cost me so much $$$ every time I was in there
Yea, it's hard to get out of there with your rent and milk money intact ... what I usually do is create a cart online then go in, print it off, put my head down and walk straight to the counter... no looking around!!
So these are the dyes: http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=20081&cat=1,190,42942
They seem a little expensive, but they make A LOT of dye... they turn out to be much cheaper than canned stuff. the red I have is a mix between Dark Red Mahogany, Brown Mahogany and Dark Red - 3:1:1 proportions I think ... only pointers I have are the instructions are bang on. use gloves & a mask when mixing or sanding and don't ignore the "let it cool" bit, the dye will penetrate WAY deeper if has cooled to or below room temperature.
Nope - still there....
It's kind of amazing that the internet works at all....
I just got my custom Ruger #3 with heavy Douglas barrel back from Sean, he made a curly maple butt and fore-end for it and it is AWESOME! With the original stock it would group 1" to 1 1/2", it now groups 1/2" at 100 yards with the same load. Perhaps with enough encouragement Sean could be persuaded to post some pics.
He already has pics up, just took a little searching.
He already has pics up, just took a little searching.
