I am thinking about buying a full stock from Pectonica River Supply for my TC Hawken. I spoke with the folks there and they said to finish would be about 15 hours. As I work 17 hours a day I do not have the time nor the skill to do this. My question is, what can I expect to pay to have someone finish this out for me? One thing I might add is, I will be omitting the patch box, if that would make much of a differance in the cost.
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cost to finish new stock
- Thread starter SCW
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jtmattison
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The hard part would probably be finding someone to do it for you.
If you're not in a hurry to get it done you could do it on your time off. It shouldn't really take a long time, maybe 15-20 hours of work plus time for your finish to dry in between coats. Cost of materials should only be about $20 tops. Plus you'd have the satisfaction of doing it yourself.
HD
If you're not in a hurry to get it done you could do it on your time off. It shouldn't really take a long time, maybe 15-20 hours of work plus time for your finish to dry in between coats. Cost of materials should only be about $20 tops. Plus you'd have the satisfaction of doing it yourself.
HD
HD, I know what you mean about doing it yourself. The folks there also stated that I woild have to do some additional inletting. What tools would a guy have to have to do this. How much additional sanding is involved? I just don't want to take on more than I can handle!
jtmattison
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I don't know how finished their stocks are but I have done a Lyman GPR kit and I just finished a T/C Hawken that was finished by someone else and needed to be re-done. The only tools I really used were a wood rasp, a couple small chisels, my Dremmel with sanding disk and wood shaping bit, sandpaper, and elbow grease. It's really a lot easier than you might think. It's also easy to mess them up if you try to work too fast and remove too much wood. Take your time and enjoy yourself.
HD
HD
paulvallandigham
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I agree with you. A half in chisel, a quarter inch chisel, and exacto knife, some sandpaper, a scraper( I much prefer the finish I can achieve using scrapers rather than sand paper) A used coat hanger to take apart to make a long " hook " to hand the stock from a closet pole while the finish is drying, and, or course, your choice of finish and stain is all that might be required. The barrel inletting work is usually well done, and you don't have to do much work there. The tang mortise, and the lock mortise may require a bit of wood be removed. If you have a sideplate, that usually has to be inletted into the stock, but the exacto knife, and chisels will get that done in quick order. The stock maker may leave extra wood on the butt end of the stock so that you can fit the stock to your buttplate accurately. Depending on how much wood is left, you may want to have a " Sur-form " wood rasp, and then some draw files to remove the excess wood and shape the stock. You may also have to actually fit the buttplate to the stock for your length of Pull measurment, and the stockmaker may leave extra wood at the end of the stock for you to do this. That can require a coping saw, and the use of rasps and files to remove the end grain wood to fit the buttplate.
If you check out TOTW's on-line site, they list the charges they assess to do various types of work for shooters, including cutting sight dovetails, and keyways for the stock, to inletting locks, and other parts of the stockwork. Then check with the guys at TVM about their prices, as they also do semi-custom work for customers. I don't know if they would do a T/C stock, but they might. If not, and you are looking for a good gunmaker who might take on that work for you still, send me a PM and I can refer you to a very competent man who can do the work for you.
If you check out TOTW's on-line site, they list the charges they assess to do various types of work for shooters, including cutting sight dovetails, and keyways for the stock, to inletting locks, and other parts of the stockwork. Then check with the guys at TVM about their prices, as they also do semi-custom work for customers. I don't know if they would do a T/C stock, but they might. If not, and you are looking for a good gunmaker who might take on that work for you still, send me a PM and I can refer you to a very competent man who can do the work for you.
Mike Brooks
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There's a whole lot more than just sanding involved. You'll be lucky to finish a pecatonica kit in 40 to 50 hours.
jtmattison
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Mike Brooks said:
I didn't know how finished their stocks come. That sounds like they are meant for the advanced do-it-yourself builder.
Personally, I'll stick with the simple builds for now.
:hatsoff:
HD
I also feel 15 - 20 hours is way off. I may be slow and admittedly dont log my hours down but over a weekend if im going at it i could do 15-20 and certainly not come close to finnishing. My kits have been from Pecatonica and i think they are great kits. I just dont think this amount of time would finnish any kit type project.
Just my 2 pennoth (northern english for cents) :wink:
Just my 2 pennoth (northern english for cents) :wink:
There's no inexpensive way to do this. It's going to cost time or money or both.
SCW: The 15 hours is probably a description of how long it would take someone who is very good at building a rifle would take.
Looking at the pictures posted by white buffalo you can see that there is quite a lot of wood that needs to be removed from the butt of the stock and, as I remember from the one I built the forend is also too thick.
These estimates are just guesses at what I think a first time builder would need:
Trimming the lock mortice so that the lock will fit in place is probably a 1-2 hours.
Cleaning up the barrel channel and tang mortice about 3 hours.
Cleaning the trigger guard mortice, 1/2 hour
Installing the butt plate, 6-12 hours. This is perhaps the most time consuming and difficult task. Ask if Pecatonica can pre cut it for you. Given the amount of free time you have, their fee will be money well spent. (You will have to tell them what length of pull you want. I would suggest somewhere around 14 inches).
Sanding/filing the butt down to match the buttplate and reducing the chunky look due to the extra wood, 15 hours.
Applying the stain and finish oils, 6 hours.
This adds up to about 35 hours total time to finish your gun.
While this seems like a lot of time, remember, you still have a complete TC to shoot right now so you might think of this new stock as something to work on in your spare time (assuming you have a day off now and then).
If you choose to go ahead and build this yourself, I cannot agree more with the others comments about the self satisfaction you will have when your finished with it.
As for finding others who are willing to build it for you, hopefully they will PT you with a message explaining their available time (most builders are currently working on other peoples guns) and the fees they would require.
zonie
Looking at the pictures posted by white buffalo you can see that there is quite a lot of wood that needs to be removed from the butt of the stock and, as I remember from the one I built the forend is also too thick.
These estimates are just guesses at what I think a first time builder would need:
Trimming the lock mortice so that the lock will fit in place is probably a 1-2 hours.
Cleaning up the barrel channel and tang mortice about 3 hours.
Cleaning the trigger guard mortice, 1/2 hour
Installing the butt plate, 6-12 hours. This is perhaps the most time consuming and difficult task. Ask if Pecatonica can pre cut it for you. Given the amount of free time you have, their fee will be money well spent. (You will have to tell them what length of pull you want. I would suggest somewhere around 14 inches).
Sanding/filing the butt down to match the buttplate and reducing the chunky look due to the extra wood, 15 hours.
Applying the stain and finish oils, 6 hours.
This adds up to about 35 hours total time to finish your gun.
While this seems like a lot of time, remember, you still have a complete TC to shoot right now so you might think of this new stock as something to work on in your spare time (assuming you have a day off now and then).
If you choose to go ahead and build this yourself, I cannot agree more with the others comments about the self satisfaction you will have when your finished with it.
As for finding others who are willing to build it for you, hopefully they will PT you with a message explaining their available time (most builders are currently working on other peoples guns) and the fees they would require.
zonie
In addition to what Zonie posted you may have a nosepiece and ramrod entry thimble to fit. This is time consuming as well.
I restocked my TC this spring and spent lots of nights after work and as much as I could stand for more than a few weekends too. I was under the impression when I bought the stock that it would be basicly a drop in situation and I was way off. If your really busy and not very patient, I would not recommend doing this but if you find pleasure in tedious projects and are not in a hurry to get it done, it is really rewarding. My gun fits me so much better now that it is like getting a brand new gun, fitted just for me. I certainly would not do another just for "fun" though. I get enough tedious time consuming projects as it is at work but I'm really glad I did mine.
Idaho PRB
I restocked my TC this spring and spent lots of nights after work and as much as I could stand for more than a few weekends too. I was under the impression when I bought the stock that it would be basicly a drop in situation and I was way off. If your really busy and not very patient, I would not recommend doing this but if you find pleasure in tedious projects and are not in a hurry to get it done, it is really rewarding. My gun fits me so much better now that it is like getting a brand new gun, fitted just for me. I certainly would not do another just for "fun" though. I get enough tedious time consuming projects as it is at work but I'm really glad I did mine.
Idaho PRB
Thanks for all the info gents. I think this is a job I will need to farm out. Looking at the pics from white buffalo, there is indeed a lot of work. I have been sent a few pm's and as soon as I get all the costs together I will see about fiding someone to do the work for me.
Thanks Again!
Steve
Thanks Again!
Steve
Maybe you don't need to farm out all the work.
Reasonable cost for a small set of hand tools (chisel, rasp, scraper, files) is maybe $100.
Book/video $50.
Take your time to remove wood/metal. If unfamiliar with any step the forum can help. Maybe someone here is local to your area.
Drilling and tapping of tang bolt and lock bolts and dovetailing you can get a local gunsmith to help.
You could just work one hour a day, maybe a few hours a week. Maybe only on weekends. Depends on how much spare time you have. But 17 hour/day work doesn't sound like you have any spare time at all. A smith will take a few months just because of their backlog.
If you give up half way no harm done probably and can then farm it to someone proficient.
Reasonable cost for a small set of hand tools (chisel, rasp, scraper, files) is maybe $100.
Book/video $50.
Take your time to remove wood/metal. If unfamiliar with any step the forum can help. Maybe someone here is local to your area.
Drilling and tapping of tang bolt and lock bolts and dovetailing you can get a local gunsmith to help.
You could just work one hour a day, maybe a few hours a week. Maybe only on weekends. Depends on how much spare time you have. But 17 hour/day work doesn't sound like you have any spare time at all. A smith will take a few months just because of their backlog.
If you give up half way no harm done probably and can then farm it to someone proficient.
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