Tips for building quickly/efficiently?

[Vaino]

After completely building 4 LRs from a blank, I started to send out for the bbl/RR work on the blanks which made things more enjoyable..... knew how to do this work and Dave Rase was able to consistently make webs that were 1/16" at the breech and 5/32" at the muzzle. .....both of which contributed to very slender Bucks County LRs. Dave's charges were passed on to the buyers until the last couple of builds......always thought my prices were reasonable but the saturation of the market w/ easy to assemble CNCed kits by Kibler forced me to lower the prices and I imagine other 1-4 per year gun builders experienced the same.

I no longer build because of macular degeneration which produces focusing problems in both eyes...but really miss the building.....Fred

 

[sheriff john]

Only one other thing - IF you reach a point you must leave a "project" for a while (in my case, some for 18 years), it'll be helpful to keep the project parts stored together and labelled. Not only will it help you resume work but the people at your estate sale will pay more.

One percussion nipple looks pretty much like the other 50 in the plastic pill bottle. not all screws are metric, tumblers pretty much only fit the lock they came off of and it's really boring to sort cast round balls with a micrometer.

Stuff you save for your kids will be in your estate sale. Enjoy your baby girl. They don't come with instructions like a pre-carved kit, but you'll figure it out,

 

[Flintandsteel]

Just remember this. No one will look at your gun and say “wow, he built that fast”. But they will say, look how great the inletting, finish on the wood, barrel, etc.
Do your best work, whatever time it takes.

 

[billraby]

Just remember this. No one will look at your gun and say “wow, he built that fast”. But they will say, look how great the inletting, finish on the wood, barrel, etc.
Do your best work, whatever time it takes.

If you build a rifle really fast I think people probably will notice it.

 

[Sean E Bug]

I only have a few tips and wish I took my own advice better. work on it every day. it doesn't matter how long, set an alarm and when it goes off you stop what you are doing. much more progress can be made a little at a time rather than a whole lot every now and then. clean your workspace so only the tools and parts you need are out. I have lost hours looking for that one thing I just put down. strop your tools often to keep them sharp rather than wearing them down to the point you need to use stones and regrind the edge. only takes a couple of seconds and sharp tools are safer.

 

[CTShooter]

2 things I learned from my mentor very early on,”slow is smooth, smooth is fast” and “if you can’t do it with a hand tool, a power tool will just screw it up faster”

Thank you Mr. Marino for taking the time to teach me.

 

[dave_person]

Hi,
Some other tips for being more efficient. Use scrap wood to make jigs designed for holding parts that are awkward to hold in a vise and file or polish. For example, a jig to hold lock plates flat while drilling, jigs to hold trigger guards and butt plates for filing, etc. Use planes to remove wood from the fore stocks and butts and to do initial shaping, and rely much more on chisels, sharp half round rasps and scrapers rather than sandpaper. Experience will make you more efficient mainly because you eventually learn what a gun should look like, how the contours are shaped and blended together. That knowledge and your capacity to see the gun in your mind is perhaps the most potent enhancer of efficiency. I used to demonstrate at Dixon's Gunmaker's Fair how to shape the wrist and lock areas of stocks. I took trimmed but still squared stock blanks and with a coarse half round rasp and a medium cut file, shaped wrist and lock panels to almost finished dimensions in about 30 minutes. I could do that because I had the right tools but mostly because I know what the finished gun should look like. For budding gun makers, that is the most valuable feature of a Kibler kit. It shows you what a well designed gun should look like and if you build one you would do well to inspect and analyze it very closely. Store that away in your brain and then train your hands to make what your mind sees and you will be on your way.

dave

 

[Tom A Hawk]

I have not mastered "fast". Precise fitting is a slow and tedious process for me. To the degree that I struggle to envision the old time Smith's being able to make living doing this.

 

[Flintandsteel]

We have to remember, in the 18th century, labor was the cheapest part of the build. People raised more kids for labor purposes. Need more help on the farm, have more kids.
No TV, no electricity, most had few books, so time was not wasted. Work days we’re longer, because we had few things to waste our time on.
15, 16 hour workdays we’re common.
When was the last time any of us worked 15 hrs a day?
Today a build takes 100 to 200 hours. It probably took that much or more back then, but that 15hr day certainly shortens up that completion time.

 

[Boston Bill]

Thanks, everyone. I'll keep all of your wisdom in mind and take a break to get some sleep! The last thing I need is to have a chisel slip and cut myself or drop my chisel and have it impale my foot.

Worse than the above, you might gouge a gap where you don't want one!!!

 

[LANEY REECE]

GOOD LOOKING little girl, Bud they grow up quick. Injoy the build and the little one. Laney

 

[LANEY REECE]

If you build a rifle really fast I think people probably will notice it.

Good saying, BUD

 

[HighUintas]

Thanks for all the advice everyone, I appreciate it. It sounds like experience and the right tools are what helps in efficiency, as well as that old saying slow is fast and fast is slow (or crappy looking)!

 

[smoothshooter]

Thanks, everyone. I'll keep all of your wisdom in mind and take a break to get some sleep! The last thing I need is to have a chisel slip and cut myself or drop my chisel and have it impale my foot.

As a chronic sleep-deprived person, I say make sleep your priority after your family.
Do not risk going to sleep driving to and from work and getting yourself killed or crippled.
That scenario is not good for your gun project or your family.

 

[stank]

Measure twice. Cut once