Cutting dovetails for tennons.

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Like with anything else, the more you do the easier it becomes
Looks to me like those need to be deeper or at least soldered in.
The sight dovetails will show so take your time
This is a 7/8 -50 cal. I don't have much meat to work with
 
Silver solder can be your best friend. I’m working on a pistol and was drilling a hole in the brass TG to hold the tail into the stock. I measured…more than once, peened in a start indent, started the hole with a center drill, then drilled the hole.

The drill bit walked ( my fault….bit was not as sharp as it should have been). Cut a small piece of brass, bent it int an L, soldered it in…..all is hidden under the now centered hole.
 
Hi,
You can make things a lot easier for yourself by not making the bases so long. Make them just a little longer than the lug so you don't have to remove so much metal. I have little anxiety doing these anymore. So little in fact, that I demonstrate fitting them in front of scores of people at Kempton using 2 files and a hacksaw. I even pass the barrel around for folks to see if they can see daylight under the base. They cannot. On thin walled barrels, start the dovetails and then peel the upper edges up using a cold chisel and hammer. Fit the lug, and then peen the raised metal back down.

dave
 
Hi,
You can make things a lot easier for yourself by not making the bases so long. Make them just a little longer than the lug so you don't have to remove so much metal. I have little anxiety doing these anymore. So little in fact, that I demonstrate fitting them in front of scores of people at Kempton using 2 files and a hacksaw. I even pass the barrel around for folks to see if they can see daylight under the base. They cannot. On thin walled barrels, start the dovetails and then peel the upper edges up using a cold chisel and hammer. Fit the lug, and then peen the raised metal back down.

dave
Thank you This is my first venture into doing this. I'm definitely taking notes for the next time around.
 
Cutting in my 3rd dovetail. It gets a little bit easier but does it ever get to where it doesn't cause a little anxiety?
I would say no to the anxiety once you have it down pat. Yes to take your time and be careful. Speed kills on the highway as well as workin on a project that needs to be precise.
You didn't ask, but a suggest if you want to stop the file chatter on the barrel flat next to the underlug: Place a strip of electrical or duct tape down first. If you chew through that then you arei getting way to rambunctious.
Keep trying, that is half the battle. :thumb:
Larry
 
Place a strip of electrical or duct tape down first. If you chew through that then you arei getting way to rambunctious.
Keep trying, that is half the battle. :thumb:
Larry

Yeah the sad thing is I have 2 rolls
Of masking tape laying next to me on the bench. Didn't even occur to me to put it on at the moment. I had stepped out from working on entering quotes for door packaged and decided to do this for a while to get back my sanity. I'll clean the barrel up before I put the final finish on the rifle. I'm sure this rifle isn't going to win best of show in any contest, and I'm not really an artist, more of a mechanic with wood and metal skills. Bit I'm getting better as I learn. My next project is going to be a henner hawken kit from Traditions, or a Kibbler if I sell enough doors and windows,DOGE coin goes to $25 and they decide to produce a lefty model. 😀
 
I've filed them in and used a mini-mill with a straight end mill to cut the slot and a dovetail cutter with good results either way. Just taking off tiny bits of metal and LOTS of trial fitting. PATIENCE is key. Lugs on cast tenons and sights can be pretty rough so clean them up nicely so ends are parallel and bottoms nice and flat.
 
I've filed them in and used a mini-mill with a straight end mill to cut the slot and a dovetail cutter with good results either way. Just taking off tiny bits of metal and LOTS of trial fitting. PATIENCE is key. Lugs on cast tenons and sights can be pretty rough so clean them up nicely so ends are parallel and bottoms nice and flat.
These aren't cast they were milled out with a hillbilly milling machine AKA an angle grinder and a file from a chunk of 3/8 x 3/4 bar stock. They aren't petite and delicate, Im sure my next ones will be more refined, but they seem to work OK.
 
I'm a craftsman. The closer I get to finishing, the more anxiety I have because I could ruin an awful lot of work. The higher the consequences of failure, the higher the anxiety.
That's the Beauty of this build, it is just what I guess to be parts of an old Jukar Kit, so not much value. I think I'm going to name it the scrap bin build. I started with zero dollars in it, and anything done is going to be an improvement over what I started with. It had barrel bands and an octagon barrel. Or I think someone just blindly ordered parts out of an old dixie catalog without knowing how they went together.
 
That's the Beauty of this build, it is just what I guess to be parts of an old Jukar Kit, so not much value. I think I'm going to name it the scrap bin build. I started with zero dollars in it, and anything done is going to be an improvement over what I started with. It had barrel bands and an octagon barrel. Or I think someone just blindly ordered parts out of an old dixie catalog without knowing how they went together.
Keep going and ask lots of questions - doing is learning
 
This is a 7/8 -50 cal. I don't have much meat to work with
I once had an A weight Rice 50 the belly of the swamp was so thin I decided to solder them on with low temp solder. It worked so good I'll continue to use this method even though I have no problem with dovetails. Need to use low temp solder, I use SEE360 solder paste. Jim Kibler suggested it in a older thread, Works so well I even use it to attach peep sights to the barrel, never had a problem.
 


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