Barrel channels: do it yourself, or pay for it?

[LSU TIGER]

Since I'm pretty new here, I thought I'd pose this question to the other builders here. Do you inlet your own barrel channels or farm it out? If you cut your own, what's your techinque?

 

[rusty]

As someone who shortly plans on building a rifle this is a great question I will be watching this thread closely thanks for asking the question LSU. rusty

 

[Zonie]

I cut the barrel channel on a pistol I made from a blank, but except for that, I buy the stock blank with the barrel channel and ramrod hole drilled by the supplier.

On the pistol, I used a router with a 5/16 carbide straight cutting bit and a fence.
Except for smoothing and truing the edges of the block, this was the first cut I made to the blank.

The first cut created the center (deepest) groove and was made with a large number of passes to get to the full depth.
This depth was about 1/8 deeper from the top of the blank, than the barrel was tall. (for the 13/16 barrel I used, the cut was about 15/16 deep from the top surface of the blank). This eventually will position the top of the barrel 1/8 inch below the top of the blank which gives a lot of wood to play with when matching the wood to the barrel at the breech end.


The next cut I made was made by adjusting the fence so the side of the cut would become the wood that the side flat on the barrel would fit against. This cut was just deep enough to stop where the barrels side flat stops measured from the top surface of the block.
For my 13/16 barrel the depth was 15/16-7/32=23/32.
This cut was also made with multiple passes.

The fence was readjusted to position the cutter so it would cut the other sides barrel side flat also to 23/32 depth.

This leaves material which will become the 45 degree flats along the bottom of the barrel.
I could have used a 45 degree cutter to remove this wood, but instead I chose to just use a good chisel.

Because I didn't trust the router to finish all of these surfaces, all of the surfaces were cut leaving about .020 of extra wood to allow me to "fit" the barrel with chisels and sandpaper. Scraping would also be a good method to make these finishing cuts.

Using a router is not without its dangers. It can screw up a lot of wood in a heartbeat unless extreme caution is used.

If your installing a straight barrel, the formulas for calculating some of the numbers you would need are:

Barrel Flat Width= barrel octagon width times .414= A
This would be the maximum cutter diameter to use.
Center Channel depth = barrel octagon width plus 1/8= B
Side Channel depth = B minus (A times .707)= C

 

[Slowpoke]

If it's a straight barrel and you have a milling machine, I would do it. If it's a swamped barrel, you might want to think about having someone do it for you. Not because you can't do it, but it's so time consuming. I have Fred Miller do all my barrels and very pleased with the outcome and the cost.

S'Poke

 

[Birddog6]

I have done them myself but personally I would rather pay someone qualified to do it & go on with it, as it is very reasonable to have done. Fred Miller has done them for me also & has done a superb job of inletting.
By buying & picking my own blank I know for sure what I am getting, not what some Bubba at a suppliers warehouse grabs off the shelf.
I have 5 stocks started & sittin here now with the barrels in them & waiting on me to get on with them.... just too many toys & not enough time to play with them all.....

 

[LSU TIGER]

I've done both, paid and done the dirty deed myself. There is a great bit of satisfaction to doing it yourself, but... I use forsner bits to remove the bulk of the wood and then chisels for finishing.

 

[54JNoll]

Fred Miller does my barrels and ramrod holes. He does excellent work, is very reasonable, and has good turn around times also.

 

[Ohio Joe]

Pistol and halfstock rifles I channel in the barrel's with good sharp wood chisels. I also made myself some "dragging tools" from iron that fit the channel I am cutting, 13/16, 7/8, 15/16, 1 and 1 1/8 inch... They act somewhat like a gouge and scraper in one... I've had good success with them.

Fullstock rifles I order the stock with the channel cut and ramrod hole drilled... I prefer to inlet the lock and all else myself...

Making stocks are like making pancakes. The more you do, the better they get... I enjoy it, and would do it for a living if I lived where there was a good demand for custome rifles and pistols...

 

This is a been there done that reply.

I have cut barrel channels and drilled ramrod holes. I know I can do that. It is a difficult, time consuming job for me. I would rather pay the $$ for someone that is really set up to do this and spend that time actually shaping the wood or inletting parts.

It is not my favorite part of the building process. Perhaps one notch below inletting patchboxes.

 

[musketman]

I also made myself some "dragging tools" from iron that fit the channel I am cutting, 13/16, 7/8, 15/16, 1 and 1 1/8 inch... They act somewhat like a gouge and scraper in one...

Do they have a single handle, like a scraper does or are the double handled, like a draw knife?

I could see where a double handled draw wood shaver/rasp/scraper would be easy to work with...

 

[wulf]

Long tyme ago I made a wooden vice 48" long. Only one jaw is movable. The other is wider and holds a straight edge/sine bar. I clamp the blank stock in the vice and line the sine bar up to position the router bit in a center line[where ever I want that to be] and use a center pointer to locate it. I have made many router bits over tyme and it is a simple matter "IF" you have a lathe. The bit is a half octagon and sharpened with a hack saw and file. I run the router with a very shallow cut each tyme to prevent burning as these are not carbide..I have cutter bits over 30years old..fact! After i reach the desired debth, I change to a straight bit and remove the sine bar and install a template guide. That slides along both sides of the vice jaws and removes the wood down to half on each side of the barrel channel. Much caution here because you employ a "crawl cut" instead of a gain cut so it don't chip the wood into the channel. Again caution when nearing the breech because you don't want a square butt on the left side but a gradual rise. That done flip the stock over and line up the center line for the ram rod and route that with a half round bit of the dia. of the rod. When I inlay a swamped barrel I make a template of the barrel. but the process is different in the use of cutters. but that is another tyme. I don't think you will be inletting a swanped barrel just yet. You know, I wrote all this up and complete with pictures, sent it plus a gang of other ideas to Muzzle Loaders..That was almost a year ago...didn't print...must not have had enough dimensions or details...My fault,, is keep it simple and apply your own measurements of your parts...hope this helps. Wulf

 

[Ohio Joe]

Musketman,

My scrapers/gouges are shaped in an "L". The bottom of the boot of the "L" is where the scraper/gouge is located with proper size octagon cut and sharpened on the five edges so I can pull it along in the channel and shave out wood where needed and at the same time check for levelness, squareness, and depth of cut with a metal yard stick...

If I had the means to post a picture of them, I would. Unfortunately I don't... :boohoo: Maybe some day???

I find that I can cut channels so much easier using chisels then I can with anything else I own... I do prefer to work with maple, and I've got some pretty good straight grain and curly maple planks on hand...

Right now I've got five rifles in the works... One is a fund raising donation. Two are .54 cal. hunting rifles that have to be ready by the end of August, (they're close to completion), and two personal rifles that will be used by me and my family...

 

[LSU TIGER]

What does Fred Miller charge for cutting a barrel channel, ramrod hole & groove? ::

 

[Randal Zartman]

I recently had Fred do my 38" swamped barrel and ramrod channel for $50. Crazy thing was he did it while I waited. Took it along home with me all in same day.
Zman
Ps WOW check out all those new Graemlins. They're neat. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yb635.gif

 

[LSU TIGER]

Thanks for the info! :master: :applause:

 

[flaming canvas]

I've only done one, a pistol stock. Just for cussednes, I didn't want to use any power tools. I used one of those Japanese saws that's about .020 thick and cuts on the pull stroke. Mark the sides of the barrel channel and the lines for the angles in the bottom of the channel and cut down on these lines. I kept my dial caliper handy and used the depth guage to know when I was deep enough. Width of the blade minus the desired depth. I stopped a little short of what a I wanted the final depth to be. Use a chisel to split out the strips and square up the breech face. I eyeballed it to take out the real high points then used a candle to blacken the sides of the barrel and tapped it down to mark the spots that needed scraped. A sharp quarter inch chisel did most of the work. Can't tell you how it turned out. I got in a hurry working on inletting for the lock and split the *^%(*&^(*&%( thing. :cry: :cry:
:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

Roger

 

[LSU TIGER]

I know just how you feel! I've ruined a few stocks, too! :curse: