Pesky Pipe!

[Zonie]

I don't know about the rest of you, but inletting the lower ramrod pipe (thimble) has always been a pain. In fact, I consider it to be one of the most difficult things to do when building a rifle.

Don't get me wrong, I get there eventually but I just spent the better part of 6 hours working it slowly down into the stock.

As this pipe is usually the same as the forward pipes, I first inlet a forward pipe into the location of the rear pipe, and then start using this as a locating pocket for the real flanged pipe.

For me, getting the flange worked down into the forestock is an almost endless matter of blacking the underside of the flange, installing it, removing it and cutting away tiny chips of blackened wood.
Perhaps I am too careful but I like the look of an exact metal to wood fit and I want the hole in the pipe to line up with the drilled ramrod hole as it should.

OK, I'll stop ranting now, but I do feel better.

Any of you feel the same way I do about this? ::

 

[swquiro]

Ditto to what you said. I have also learned to use cast entry pipes as opposed to sheet metal, which gets boogered up real quick in my hands. One more little thing that I have to say: thank God for Accraglass.

 

I have just about quit coppying anyone else's ideas and doing my own style traditional guns. That pesky pipe does not exist on a Ghost Gun. I use a poured pewter detail in place of the entry pipe. It matches up with the pewter nose cap. Looks real nice once it takes that grey patina.

It probably takes more time to carve the detail into the wood so it will properly fill, but I do hate those entry thimbles.

Patchboxes are absolute worst thing I hate to inlet. Don't know why I havn't gone to pewter there too? I wind up using simple ones to avoid the infinate detail.

 

[LSU TIGER]

Rather than inletting the entry pipe, inlet another pipe in it's place. After finishing that, the tail is pretty easy and sure beats doing the whole thing at once. :relax:

 

[ploeg]

I hate inletting the rear pipe too :agree:. I like to do a tradegun every now and again and breath a sigh of relief when I get to the ramrod pipes and know I don't have to do the rear one. And yes, I use my fair share of acroglass.

 

[rootnuke]

Everytime I think a certain segment of building will be simple, its not. I spent 4 hours inleting the pipe with probably another 2 hours of final touchup. Every aspect of building seems to draw on yet another skill I must devlope followed by a total miscalculation of time required to complete the task.
There is one thing I can say is easy and is possible with little or no effort...I can grow rust. With 100 deg. temps and 95% humidity it's eeaassy.
I think I have what Peter Alexander calls "poison hands".