Barrel finishing before inletting

[repawn]

Seems like an obvious question - but how finished is your barrel before you start the inetting? Sanded to nearly the final polish amount or completely ready for browning? I get that if you are reshaping a barrel that should be done - just not sure what will happen if you inlet -then polish.

Thanks,

 

[billraby]

There are advantages and disadvantages for either way. I don't think it really matters. I am sure that there are plenty of people that will say I am wrong.

 

[ppb]

The perfect barrel to channel fit eludes me every time. Sometimes, I get better results when I start fitting the barrel if it has had its flats draw filed and block sanded( 180 - 200 grit w/d) I don't do any finish work until all the parts fit - i.e., dovetails cut and soldering, if any.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
You don't need to finish the barrel very much before inletting. Draw filing and sanding later won't affect the fit very much at all. Just make sure the barrel has the external profile you want before inletting but then just inlet it and worry about polishing later.

dave

 

[Eric Krewson]

I have never inletted a barrel, I always got lazy and sent them off to Fred Miller before he retired.

One thing I did run into; A guy posted a Kibler SMR kit for $800 shipped free on the ALR form a few years back, he said he didn't have time to put it together, I jumped on the deal. When I received the kit, I found the real problem was he didn't know how to take the barrel out stock, the barrel fit was extremely tight, apparently, he had just grabbed the barrel and pulled, cracking the stock in the fore arm for a couple of inches. Being a bow maker who works with cracked wood frequently this crack was a non-issue to repair and make invisible. The barrel was in the inlet so tightly that it took me about 5 minutes of bumping the bottom of the buttstock to get it to come out.

Before I removed any wood, I draw filed and sanded the barrel, this was back in the Rice barrel days, the barrel still had all of the milling marks on the outside and not like a finished Rice barrel you would buy straight from Rice.

After draw filing and sanding the barrel, it fell into the inlet easily and perfectly, removing it from the stock only took one light bump on the butt.

I am going to inlet my next barrel, with my sometimes-sloppy work I will have the barrel draw filed and sanded before I start to keep the finished gaps to a minimum.

Here is the crack I fixed, it starts above the pin hole and angles down for a couple of inches.

 

[Kansas Jake]

I had to blow the picture way up to even begin to see it. Nice work.