barrel inletting

[Don B]

I’m making progress on my Chamber’s York kit. I have the barrel partially inlet (down to the side flats) along its entire length, but can’t figure out where I need to remove more wood from the sidewalls to allow it to drop in to the bottom of the channel. When I soot the barrel and tap it into the channel, I get soot transfer along most of the length of the channel, and no indication of where the vertical hang-ups are. Any suggestions? Thanks. Don

 

[paulvallandigham]

Did you inlet the bottom flat? If not, do so. Determine the center line, then the width of the flat, and the depth you need to go, and inlet ( relieve the wood) for that bottom flat. Then the distance between the edges of the bottom flat and the bottom edges of the side flats should be an even width bevel. When you get close, you can use the filed square, sharp edged end of your barrel as a scraper to do the final scraping to fit.

If you have a section of barrel you have cut off, you can screw or weld, or solder on a handle and use it as a scraper to take those bevels down to final fit dimension.

 

[Don B]

This is a kit with a pre-carved stock, so the barrel channel is already roughly inlet for the barrel. Since the barrel is swamped, I can't use it as a gauge.

I've already fine-tuned the inlet well enough to allow the barrel to drop partially into the channel. Now I'm trying to find the last 1/32s of wood that need to be trimmed off the side walls to allow the barrel to fully drop into the pre-carved channel.

 

[Onojutta]

I just finished inletting a swamped barrel on a TOTW precarve and I found I had to really cut back the angled flats. The fit of these isn't too critical. What matters is the bottom flat and the vertical sides, so don't be afraid to remove wood on the angles.

Also, MAKE SURE you don't put inletting black on the side flats. You want these in full contact and you will get false black marks resulting in removing wood where you don't want to. Keep the black in the bottom three flats. I made this mistake already.

 

[agill]

I’m making progress on my Chamber’s York kit. I have the barrel partially inlet (down to the side flats) along its entire length, but can’t figure out where I need to remove more wood from the sidewalls to allow it to drop in to the bottom of the channel. When I soot the barrel and tap it into the channel, I get soot transfer along most of the length of the channel, and no indication of where the vertical hang-ups are. Any suggestions? Thanks. Don

Don,
I had the same problem. I draw filed the barrel and it still would not go in the channel. I sooted the barrel and lightlysanded the channel with 150 grit sand paper on a small block of wood that kept it flat. I was very careful doing this and checked the fit many times. It took a while to remove the high spots.
Hope this helped, Allen

 

[paulvallandigham]

Do what Onojutta says. That should make it easier for you to fine fit the barrel in the mortise. He is also right about the side bevels. Don't worry about removing too much wood there. Its the bottom flat, and the two side flats are critical for good fit, particularly with a swamped barrel. I use a machinist depth gauge that looks like a cross, with a thin straight edge that slides through a clamp. This allows me to set the cross bars on the top of the stock, and use the straight edge as a depth finder and measure. You need to have something like this to deal with the changing depth of a swamped barrel mortise. And the machinist version of this tool has a much finer scale than anything similar made for woodworkers. That is useful when dealing with those last 1/32" measurements.

You can also cut templates from thin sheet brass, representing various widths along the length of the barrel. I would not do this for just one gun, but if you think you will do another swamped barrel it might be a worthwhile thing to build. If one project is all you are doing, consider making the templates out of cardboard.