Think I'm in a small pickle...

[Rich44]

Do it again for the first time, well that's what I do.

 

[Graybeard2A]

If you've not inletted the wood yet, cut off the bad hole & continue!

 

[Walkaheap]

you could fill the hole by peening in a piece of copper wire or brass rod , would be a little highlight and save the plate

I assume that's how they'd done it in the old days. Especially for a guy who didn't have a lot of spare money

 

[longwalk]

You could leave the hole in the towplate. Then drill a hole at a angle into the buttplate, make a pin and peen it into place, file it flush.

 

[Eric Krewson]

You could thread the hole, countersinking it just a little, screw in the right size screw, with solder paste on it, heat it, cut off the excess and peen the cutoff end into the countersink, file smooth. Unfortunately, I have done this several times when I messed something up.

Misplaced lock bolt hole;

Missed drilled trigger guard lug;

 

[Pukka Bundook]

Or, just rivet in a piece of copper or brass as mentioned above, then engrave a daisy around it, using the brass rivet as the centre of the flower.

 

[ppb]

The intention was to have three toe plate screws...

 

[TDM]

I like that!!

 

[Billy Boy]

Been working on making the toeplate for my SMR. It's 3 3/4" long FWIW. The pickle is, the aft most screw hole that I drilled is just under .5" from the toe. The wood is only about .3" deep right there.

I guess I could just make new holes. I was just hoping to spread them out more evenly, and use 4 screws of the same size. It also means I'd need to make a new toeplate, which I'm loathe to do. This is the 2nd already, and dimensionally correct for what I was going for.

A little pickle is better than a big pickle. For years around here I was know as King Pickle….just say’n….

 

[Mark E. Prickett]

Why do you need a toe plate?

 

[Jim K]

Why do you need a toe plate?

I’ve wondered that too. I think I’m the only one who ever built a Kibler smr and didn’t put one on.

 

[TDM]

I’ve wondered that too. I think I’m the only one who ever built a Kibler smr and didn’t put one on.

No, your not the only one. I'm planning to put one that I make on my smr, but I'm not certain yet. Jim doesn't think they're necessary. Boils down to personal preference and how roughly you plan to bang your stock butt down.

 

[1BadDart]

I'd drill another hole centered between the two. Then use a short screw in the one on the toe end and longer screws in the other two.

 

[oreclan]

Been working on making the toeplate for my SMR. It's 3 3/4" long FWIW. The pickle is, the aft most screw hole that I drilled is just under .5" from the toe. The wood is only about .3" deep right there.

I guess I could just make new holes. I was just hoping to spread them out more evenly, and use 4 screws of the same size. It also means I'd need to make a new toeplate, which I'm loathe to do. This is the 2nd already, and dimensionally correct for what I was going for.

Grind or snip off the point of the screw until it fits correctly.

 

[Codger Craig Wilcox]

Lots of good ideas. You ARE going to make mistakes - the craftsmanship lies in the manner of overcoming those mistakes or errors. Bonne chance!

 

[Birddog1911]

I'm going to suck it up, and make a whole new toeplate for it. It'll be for the best, in the long run.

 

[Col. Batguano]

You need to make another toe plate anyway. From what I see, your drill bit walked on you and made an off-center hole from your center line. You will hate yourself in the morning if you say "ah, it's good enough" now. Getting it RIGHT no matter how many times you have to do it becomes a habit, just like saying "it's good enough" does. Better to form habits that err on the side of quality and goodness (if this is a hobby and not a profession for you) than those on the side of roughness and badness.

To prevent that from happening, scribe in your centerline just as you did. Then do a right angle scribe across it. With your center punch, slide it along your scratch. When it gets to the cross scribe, the punch will "stick" a little. Punch your center punch there. Then drill your first hole. Drill bits tend to "walk" in the same direction every time Just start with a very small bit, like 1/16", with the bit choked way up there next to the chuck (if you don't have some of those fancy short starting bits) to minimize the ability for the bit to bend. Even just getting the hole started is all you really need to do. You can come back to it to finish it with a bit more bit after that. If the hole is off center slightly with the 1/16" bit, it won't be by very much. You can sort of counter that with your next up-size bit. Note; If you have an X-Y axis vice on your drill press this will be a TON easier to manage those couple of thousandths of "off-centeredness" that you're not quite happy with that you're trying to recompensate for.

Plan B (or maybe in addition to the above) if you are still planning on this location for the hole is to get a long wood insert thread (which would be about 1/4" thick) and drill it all the way through to come out the other end of the toe plate in to the butt area. Instead of using a wood screw you'll now be using a threaded machine bolt all the way through this threaded metal tube, which should be epoxied in place. All this metal through there will add some badly needed strength to an otherwise very vulnerable area of the gun. You can get this sort of thing at places like Rockler or Woodcraft.

You can also put a steel reinforcing rod (I'd use a 1/8" screw or coarse threaded machine bolt myself) from the toe plate inlet up about 2 1/2"in to the butt. The end will be covered by the toe plate anyway and then file it flush. Those little toe corners are really prone to breaking (due to how the grain direction runout usually runs in those areas) even with butt plates and toe plates protecting them. Doing it at this time of year is better than July due to wood seasonal movement.