Planning the rifle on paper/plywood

[Walker]

I heven't seen much on the forum on planning the rifle.
I took the plunge (for which I will no doubt kick my own butt repeatedly over the next year) and bought the parts and a blank of curly maple- not a kit. I have abouit seven black powder rifles now and my main reason was to see if I could build one like the old guy - Jacob Dickert- using their methods.
I bought the two RCA books , plus Alexander, Dixon, etc .and I copied all the Jacob Dickert measurements I could find by extrapolating them from the measurements given below the headings of the photos in RCA. So I have a fairly complete list of how long/wide, thick things shoud be
I also got the full size plan for a Lancaster from TOTW and McCrory and have traced them out and am sinply modifying them on paper to comply with a Dickert rifle measurements and angles.
I have learned so much from reading this forum I thought I would ask if anyone has any tips on planning and layout?
Before I pick up a tool.
Boy, is that plank of maple intimidating!!!

 

[Geoff Jones]

Old Snake,

Congratulations on taking the plunge...soon that piece of maple will be a lot less intimidating. You will feel much self gratification upon having completed this project, not to mention the freedom of design which a blank allows.

I normally hand plane the lock side of the blank perfectly smooth. This allows me to draw the outline of the stock as well as barrel breech placement and lock placement on the smooth side. Easy to see grain properly to position the wrist properly for maximum strength. Proper location of the breech end of the barrel in the stock outline allows you to determine the touch hole location, which allows you to properly place the lock, which allows you to determine sear location, ergo proper trigger placement which allows you to determine the amount of "pull" you'll need. Whew! That's a mouthful!

The most critical line at this point is the line which runs the length of the barrel in the middle of the side flat. I then cut out the blank on the bandsaw, I cut the first few out by hand.....lots of work....I recommend taking this one departure from "the old ways" and using a band saw. Cut outside of all of your lines and be particularly careful with that barrel channel line. Plane the barrel channel perfectly flat and your ready to start inletting.

FYI, Eric Kettenburg has a great series of articles on building a Early VA from a blank which I'm sure you will find most helpful. Lot's of good hints, particularly when you get to the shaping stages.

http://www.firelocks.com/page31.html

Best of luck....you've already accomplished a lot by doing your "due diligence" with the research. Now comes the fun part.

 

[George F.]

Sounds like you have a good deal of builder's books and reference material. Also a full size drawing of the DICKERT rifle. Building your first gun from scratch can be kind of intimidating. The steps and progression of you gun is pretty much layed out for you in these books. Just got at it slow and cautious.I wood steer away from to many power tools. A drill press is always a big plus, when it comes to grilling pin holes, tang holes,holes in inlays, lock bolts, etc... But not entirely neccessary, it can be done with a portable drill (cordless drill), or by hand brace, or hurdy gurdy.
........REMEMBER... EVERYTHING IS LAYED OUT FROM THE CENTERLINE OF THE BARREL... EVERYTHING!!! Some parts are layed out from each other as in ramrod pipes, barrel pins, trigger guard pins etc. ...You can always take off more wood. Keep your chisels razor sharp when inletting or carving. Some people use the new diamond stones, I use mostly Arkansas stones and Japanese water stones. The Arkansas stones are soft.. hard... and surgical black. The surgical black stone will polish up the microscopic edge only after the edge is pretty much already sharp. And you can strop the edge on a piece of leather, an old belt etc. a few times in between honing. Files are what the stock is mostly taken down and shaped with.a 1/2 round bastard file a rasp, mill files, rat tail file, some needle file for file edges of inlays and patchboxes. A jewelers saw if you are going to cut your own patchbox or inlays. A propane torch for annealing brass(the kitchen stove will do in a pinch)
.....Its not hard but some people will be scared away because of confidence, which will come in time... Don't forget ever gun maker out there felt intimidated either at first or down the line because of a mistake, If you feel like that, put it down and forget about it for a while, BUT DON'T QUIT. The time away will renew your interest and desire and you WILL overcome the problem.
...Enough of the pep talk..... Good luck....George F.

 

[tallbear]

Old snake
One thing I do is make my pattern out of clear plexiglass.This allows me to lay my stock out more easily as I can see things like defects in the blank and how the grain runs through the wrist.

Mitch

 

[davy]

Old snake
" One thing I do is make my pattern out of clear plexiglass.This allows me to lay my stock out more easily as I can see things like defects in the blank and how the grain runs through the wrist."

Mitch


Cool idear ::

Davy

 

[Stophel]

I draw the stock out on a large sketchpad from the lock back (all I really need for stock layout). I will fiddle with this a great deal until I get everything looking just right. I make a straight line across the top of the paper level with the top flat of the barrel (pretending the barrel were straight), This is what I use to layout the drop of the stock. (rather than the nebulous "line of sight"). Then I (usually) transfer this drawing to a piece of luan plywood to make an actual pattern. Then use this to ROUGHLY place the stock pattern on the blank where I want it, taking the grain direction into consideration. When satisfied, I locate the top edge of the fore end and draw this off and cut it off to inlet the barrel. After the barrel in in THEN I do the fine tuning to the pattern, marking off the "web" of wood between the barrel and rod and the 1/8" of wood under the rod, etc. Oh, yes, make sure that the sides of the blank (both of them) are square with the barrel, or everything will be screwed up. I will also realign my pattern with what I actually have on the stock (barrel and rod positions) and redraw the pattern on the blank as necessary, checking and rechecking often. When totally satisfied with my work, I can then cut the fore end off for cutting the ramrod groove, then make the hole (leave the lower forearm fully square when cutting the hole for strength here...after cutting the hole, then you can cut the bottom line of the forearm). Then, I cut out my pattern pretty much to the line. DO NOT LEAVE EXTRA WOOD. SO much time is wasted working through "extra" wood. I draw the design on the stock around the outside of the pattern, so it is SLIGHTLY oversize anyway. I cut to the line. This also keeps the finished product much closer to the original design.

From there, you can cut down the thickness of the stock and do the lock inlet and shape down from there! Remember your cast off!!!

 

[George F.]

I like that idea too!!!

 

[Walker]

Many many thanks to George F, Schimmelsmith,Tallbear, Davey and Fatdutchman for all the good ideas. I am so glad I asked now and not later.This forum is invaluable.I will keep you posted on my progress.
One question - I thought about a Plexiglass cutout instead of wood but everytime I cut Plexiglass in the past the edge turms out like the ragged edge of a saw . Any tips from Davy for a non- plastic type person?.

 

[tallbear]

I use my bandsaw and then clean the edge with a file.Tried my scrol saw once,what a mess,it melted the plastic and fused the cut back together behind the blade.I use whatever blade is on the bandsaw but try not to go too slow then File everything smooth.Then I draw my refernce lines with a fine point Sharpie marker.

 

[davy]

I use my bandsaw and then clean the edge with a file.Tried my scrol saw once,what a mess,it melted the plastic and fused the cut back together behind the blade.I use whatever blade is on the bandsaw but try not to go too slow then File everything smooth.Then I draw my refernce lines with a fine point Sharpie marker.

I agree with the bandsaw and NOT slowing down but rather keep it moving or it will heat up and melt rather than cut ... a finer tooth blade would be better for a smoother cut, and less chatter .. then as he said ... sand it smooth.

Davy

 

[MSW]

Best of luck from a fellow 'plunge taker.' you should revisit Pete Alexander's chapter in The Gunsmith of Grenville County on how his 'try stock' works. He recommends plywood, but i like the plexiglass idea. i have heard of quickly running a propane torch along the edge of the plexiglass, but i haven't tried it so i can't say for sure that it works.

Good luck!

MSW

 

[crossstick1948]

I had Willie Bonot (sp) at Friendship breach a barrel for me. He cut some of the threads off and ground the breach plug to match. After I recovered my wits I asked him why. He said it would make the lock bolt go in easier and you really don't need all those threads anyway. He just removed about and 1/8 of and inch. It really makes the whole gun fit together better.
Pete

 

[Bountyhunter]

One of the Guru's on TV showed how he cut plexiglas. He put a blade in his band saw, then he took a stone and held it up to the side of the blade, canted to the back, and relieved the back of the blade quite a bit on both sides. By tapering the back 2/3 of the blade, he said it reduced the heat.

He ran the top guide down so that it just cleared his stone and ran the saw and then touched the sides of the blade. It didnt take too long to thin the trailing edge of the blade. He proclaimed that it prevented the pieces welding themselves back together behind the blade. He also left the sticky paper on the plexiglas and put a couple layers of masking tape over where he was going to cut. I think he slowed the saw down about as slow as he could run it when he cut then.

It looked good to me. If you see it on TV, then it must be right, huh?

Bill