How long does it take to install a butt plate?

[bioprof]

I just finished putting in my third 2-3 hour stint on installing a steel butt plate on the Hawkins rifle I'm working on. It's close to being there, but I still have a gap in one small spot. I think it might just be a void in the butt plate rather than a low spot in the wood. What's the longest that you've spent on installing a butt plate?

 

[crgabel]

6 hrs. I hate entry tubes as much as butt plates
Craig

 

[MikeChapin]

Can't give you a time but I remember my first one took a long time from cutting the contour to final fitting. It was at least eight hours probably more. It gets a little better with practice but it takes a while. My last one was on a pre-inlet TOW Hawken stock and it still took a couple-three hours. The one before that was a Lancaster buttplate on a plank and took about four hours.

I do agree with the other gentleman that entry thimbles are as big a pain as a buttplate. They seem to take me as long or longer than a buttplate.

 

[LSU TIGER]

For entry pipes, inlet another pipe in the entry pipe's place, then switch to the entry pipe and inlet the extension.

 

[George F.]

The worst part for me is the back ache and my neck ache afterwards from spending hours bent over the bench. I inlet the whole butt plate not just the edges. I've sp[ent days a few hours at a time.
George F.

 

[CrackStock]

It took me just over 6 hours to do the buttplate on a Vincent a while back. It took longer for my first Tennessee butt plate. I inlet them fully rather than settting them on a flat cut. I just like it that way.

If your back is sore, you might have your bench too low. Try working on a higher surface, raise the work in the vise and take breaks more often.

I hope that this helps.

CS

 

[fatboy]

I spent 6 or so hours on the butt plate it was the biggest pain in my Butt ::

 

[Mike Brooks]

20 minutes to an hour, but I've been doing them for 25 years. Curved steel hawken styled buttplates are the most difficult to do in my opinion.

 

[CrackStock]

Impressive time there. :hatsoff: to Mike!

Pretty similar to a Tennessee. I have done 5.

 

[Birddog6]

That all depends on the quality of what the end product is to be. The time spent usually = how good the end results are. Normally I would spend 3-6 hours on one. (I spend an hour cleaning one up good before installing it & measuring it & etc.) One the Acanthus Leaf Jaeger buttplate I may spend 8-10 hrs total on it as it is more dificult for me & I want it perfect as I can get it. I also want them to fit perfectly without screws or pressure, not have to torque them down to close up gaps.

Some guys install a buttplates & some guys install & Fit buttplates. I want mine fitted meaning I want it on there like a glove with NO gaps anyplace anywhere. Some just slap them on there & consider it good enough & go on. It really just depends on what ya want it to look like....... :results:

Most of the old rifles that I have examined the buttplates on were not fitted well. At first they may appear to have been, but when you remove the buttplates you find 300 years worth of varnish, dust, oil & crud filling in the gaps...........

 

[Stophel]

I can USUALLY do a buttplate within a couple of hours...assuming all goes well. I hate the curved ones...

 

[CrackStock]

You might also find a fair amount of darkened bees wax. It was done as a sort of period correct body filler. Because it worked.

CS

 

[pathfinderifh]

At least 6 hours. If I have a small gap and everthing else is fine,a few light taps with a small ball peen at the spot at an oblique angle usually does the trick. I HATE INLET PIPES! :curse:

 

[Birddog6]

Now that just shows ya how some things come easy to some fellers & to the other guy that is a problem. I save the RR pipes & entrypipe til last as they are just so easy for me.

:results:

 

[bioprof]

At least 6 hours. If I have a small gap and everthing else is fine,a few light taps with a small ball peen at the spot at an oblique angle usually does the trick. I HATE INLET PIPES!

Would this work with a steel butt plate? I would be afraid to do that near the toe and run the risk of ruining all of that hard work by cracking the stock. Has anyone "been there, done that?"

 

[rich pierce]

Never try to peen a steel or iron plate. Only soft annealed brass- preferably from Reeves Goehring. Plenty of brass buttplates and trigger guards have been cracked by cold working without frequent annealing and some alloy mixtures are just no good for this at all.

 

[Mike Brooks]

The reason I can do buttplates so fast is that I pean them. You get them close, screw them down then pean closed the small gaps. You can do this with steel to a small extent, you just can't close as big of gaps. I also do some "tweaking" of the buttplate while I'm fiting it to the stock. If I have the whole toe or a side sticking way out while the rest is fitting snug, I'll bend it the direction I need to bring it in closer to the wood.
That 20 minute time I quoted above is unusually fast. It was on a kit that had a preinlet buttplate, and one of reeves Goehrings BP's. Generally when working with a square blank, from the time I cut the blank to the profile of the buttplate, clean up the plate and fit to the stock and screw it down I've got 45 minutes to an hour and 45 minutes in the job. Any steel buttplate takes a little longer, curved steel hawken style buttplates are the worst. The early french style buttplates with the fancy finials are a real chalange, as they can only go staright down and not forward to tighten up any gaps.
One thing I don't do any more are any Pecatonica styled kits where the butt stockk is shaped and the butt plate not inlet. Just more hassel than I'm willing to deal with... :shake:
Now, that all being said, you guys aren't doing too bad. When I first started out, 6 to 8 hours was the norm for me. :winking:

 

Don't know how long it takes, never realy paid much attention to the time. I would guess about 2-3 hours. However, a couple of guns ago I discovered a method that helped cut the time and hassle considerably for me. After cutting the profile with the band saw, I fit the heel with a few thou gap at the front (to allow the plate to move forward) and then to smooth, shape and fit the back of the plate, I use a belt sander with a course (about 50 or 60 grit) belt. My band saw is pretty poor and leaves quite a wavy cut. By useing the nose of the belt sander, I can smooth out the waves and get a nice smooth curve in no time. I've only done this on the last two guns so it may be a bad idea for some reason and I just got lucky. Time will tell.


Cody

P.S. When you've done as many as Mike has, you don't have to think about it any more. You know what to do and you just do it. That's where you need to be if you're going to do this for a living. Customers just aren't going to pay for someone to stand and look at it figuring out how to go about it (about 50-60% of the time spent on the few guns I've built) ::


Cody

 

[George Pittelko]

I'm now building a .54 Cal Jim Chambers English sporting rifle with a steel butt that has fancy metal work on the comb side. With reference to the time spent on this part of the inletting; I guess that if I were doing this for a living, I would have worked for about $0.50 and hour.

 

[Mike Brooks]

I'm now building a .54 Cal Jim Chambers English sporting rifle with a steel butt that has fancy metal work on the comb side. With reference to the time spent on this part of the inletting; I guess that if I were doing this for a living, I would have worked for about $0.50 and hour.

Good luck! I just did one of those in steel, It's prety tricky!