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Next projects are on deck for
- Thread starter Sharps40
- Start date
Once the buttsection of the stock is shaped a bit smoother, just some file work, final fit the steel plate. Progressively pull the screws up tight and tap lightly around the edges of the plate with a brass rod or small smasherwacker to shape the metal closer to the wood. The last step is to file all around the steel buttplate to remove any unevenness and true up the edges. The new stock is larger than needed so bring the edge of the plate and the wood closer to final dimension and shape. For most of the rest of the finish, the plate stays on for sanding and part of the initial finish. This gets the edges of the plate smooth, keeps from rounding over the edges of the stock where it meets the wood. I'll seal the back of the stock later in the finishing process. So, salvaging a nearly 100 year old buttplate to help keep this rifle period correct....not totally original (original was usually a rubber plate) but very close and consistent with what was availalble on many of the factory Favorites of that time.
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Looking good, who did you order the butt stock from? I love the grain of that stock.
Install the stock, snugly and lightly mark where the holes for the screws are to be drilled.
Top and bottom tang screws marked and dimpled for hand drilling.
Eyeball, adjust the angle of attack as you drill a tad at a time...use a drill matching the diameter of the screw shank at the depth of the thread. The screws shall be oval head, single slot. No flat head pillips screws ever allowed. And, only flathead slotted screws on the buttplate as thats what it came with.
Lube the screw threads, hand soap, spit, greese, bees wax, what ever and carefully screw in the screws with proper fitting bits. The upper screw is a straight shank modern oval head. The lower screw is a taper shank oval head original screw, special drilling is required for a heavy tapered shank....
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For the heavily tapered shank lower screw, the lower tang screw is drilled progressively with different diameter bits to various depths so the screw dosn't split the stock. Only the threads are to bite the wood, the shank should not expand the wood.
The screw holes, tapped now, should line up with the tangs with the stock just touching or a whisker short of touching the action. In this case, the wood just touches, a tiny bit of room for glass bedding later to keep the oil out of the stock end grain. Oil soaked wood, and it happens to all of them with time, turns black and punkey in a few years. A touch of glass bed is the best sealer for end grain there is.
Screws in and just a bit snug for now. Good enough to go to the range with this weekend and determine if the barrel is good as is or needs work. It'll need crowned for sure, thats next.
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Top and bottom tang screws marked and dimpled for hand drilling.
Eyeball, adjust the angle of attack as you drill a tad at a time...use a drill matching the diameter of the screw shank at the depth of the thread. The screws shall be oval head, single slot. No flat head pillips screws ever allowed. And, only flathead slotted screws on the buttplate as thats what it came with.
Lube the screw threads, hand soap, spit, greese, bees wax, what ever and carefully screw in the screws with proper fitting bits. The upper screw is a straight shank modern oval head. The lower screw is a taper shank oval head original screw, special drilling is required for a heavy tapered shank....
[Broken External Image]:
For the heavily tapered shank lower screw, the lower tang screw is drilled progressively with different diameter bits to various depths so the screw dosn't split the stock. Only the threads are to bite the wood, the shank should not expand the wood.
The screw holes, tapped now, should line up with the tangs with the stock just touching or a whisker short of touching the action. In this case, the wood just touches, a tiny bit of room for glass bedding later to keep the oil out of the stock end grain. Oil soaked wood, and it happens to all of them with time, turns black and punkey in a few years. A touch of glass bed is the best sealer for end grain there is.
Screws in and just a bit snug for now. Good enough to go to the range with this weekend and determine if the barrel is good as is or needs work. It'll need crowned for sure, thats next.
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The original muzzle crown...rusted, worn and the muzzle looks round, that means the most important rifleing is prolly a bit worn. Bad for accuracy, the most important rifleing is the muzzle as it impacts even release of the projectile preventing it from being tipped by early release of gas to the side.
I was trained by old men...that means handwork before machine work. Learn to do it right by hand then learn to do it fast or ruin it fast with a lathe or mill. I was also taught to recognize the differences in weapons and age and potential accuracy. This ain't no PacNor Barreled Dakota or Cooper so, at 100 years old, hand tools (as proven on several mauser and marlin and rolling block and sharps projects) is suitably accurate with hand tools. It would be a waste of time to set up a lathe for this recrown. We want to get to tight rifleing, behind the crown wear. 75 thousands to 1/10" deep should do the trick....lets see.
A few initial turns with a proper pilot on this 11 degree crowing cutter. A squooch of oil, clear the chips and back to pressing evenly and turning clockwise only to make the smooth chatter free cut.
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Approaching 1/4 the depth of the cutter teeth, time to clear chips and reoil. About 50 to 100 turns in to this part of the project. Even pressure, not too hard and the cut remains chatter free in this old gal.
Here we are, a measured 80 thousands deep, I can see the pimples of the rifleing around the bore and if I'm past the crown wear on the rifleing, a bullet will be snug in the muzzle and I won't have to shorten this original barrel at all.
Looking good. A fresh round of .22 LR can't be thumb pushed hard into the muzzle. The full diameter of the bullet stops firm in the muzzle.
Here, maybe you can see on the right bullet (unmarked bullet to the left) the slight impressions of the rifleing and a slight ring all the way around the diameter where the slug was marked because the bore is slightly smaller than the bullet diameter now. With luck, this old gal has a good chamber (it looks quite clean), dosn't leak and will hold a 1 or 2 inch group at 25 yards for hunting and plinking. We should know this weekend.
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I was trained by old men...that means handwork before machine work. Learn to do it right by hand then learn to do it fast or ruin it fast with a lathe or mill. I was also taught to recognize the differences in weapons and age and potential accuracy. This ain't no PacNor Barreled Dakota or Cooper so, at 100 years old, hand tools (as proven on several mauser and marlin and rolling block and sharps projects) is suitably accurate with hand tools. It would be a waste of time to set up a lathe for this recrown. We want to get to tight rifleing, behind the crown wear. 75 thousands to 1/10" deep should do the trick....lets see.
A few initial turns with a proper pilot on this 11 degree crowing cutter. A squooch of oil, clear the chips and back to pressing evenly and turning clockwise only to make the smooth chatter free cut.
[Broken External Image]:
Approaching 1/4 the depth of the cutter teeth, time to clear chips and reoil. About 50 to 100 turns in to this part of the project. Even pressure, not too hard and the cut remains chatter free in this old gal.
Here we are, a measured 80 thousands deep, I can see the pimples of the rifleing around the bore and if I'm past the crown wear on the rifleing, a bullet will be snug in the muzzle and I won't have to shorten this original barrel at all.
Looking good. A fresh round of .22 LR can't be thumb pushed hard into the muzzle. The full diameter of the bullet stops firm in the muzzle.
Here, maybe you can see on the right bullet (unmarked bullet to the left) the slight impressions of the rifleing and a slight ring all the way around the diameter where the slug was marked because the bore is slightly smaller than the bullet diameter now. With luck, this old gal has a good chamber (it looks quite clean), dosn't leak and will hold a 1 or 2 inch group at 25 yards for hunting and plinking. We should know this weekend.
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Yep, tuning in again to see his work
Well, a small smasherwacker looks like a mini tac hammer or a wrench or a screwdriver handle or a chunk of flat steel from the junk box or ......but a large smasherwacker looks like a splitting maul. So, sort of a range of perspective for ya. The large smasherwacker is best reserved for removing recalcetrant ball joints from steering knuckles on old trucks.
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