GunLab (KnownHost) » stock making

Saving a log from the fire pit.

Chuck — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 08:00:17 +0000

A while back I was a construction site where they were removing a number of trees. One of them in particular was a large and fairly straight Mesquite tree. The guys were going to cut it up for fire wood and that just kind of pushed the wrong buttons for me. After a little chatting with the superintend I convince him to let me have it.

This is the log and a few of the limbs.

After some clean up this is what I was left with.

The scrap was turn into mulch.

A quick trip to the saw mill left me with some beautiful slabs.

It is all back home.

and stored for an upcoming project.

It will be stored for a year to air dry out the sun and rain and then it will be kiln dried to the proper moisture content. I cut these slabs at 2 1/2 inches for stocks and to be able to re-saw for a few other projects.

A short video of the process.

Working on the VG1-5 stock

Chuck — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 08:00:32 +0000

With the router table completed, for the most part, we started working on the stocks for the VG1-5 rifle. This video takes the stock from a rough sawed pattern to the finished dimensional stock.

To complete this task we used two different router bits. The first bit

being a bearing guided bit that rides on the pattern that was made in the shop, by Axel,

and the second one is a bearing guided bit that runs across the stock.

This is a video of the process to make the stock.

With this step completed the next set of holes will be drilled on the drill press and then the stocks will be fitted to the individual rifles.

The usual weekend update

Chuck — Mon, 19 Dec 2016 08:00:39 +0000

Another weekend has come and gone. I just do not know where the time goes anymore. The weekend ends seem to take forever to get here and in a flash they are gone.

There were two main projects that I needed to complete this weekend. The first is re-work and finish up the router table. The second was to finish the siding and roof of the fab shop addition.

This post will deal with the router table.

I started out with the table looking like this.

There is only a miter track and a piece of scrap lumber for a fence. In addition there is no dust collector system on the router table.

Installing the dust collector parts.

Now for the new fence.

With the new Table fence and tee slot/miter slot added

Just a quick video of everything.

Part 1 on making the stocks for the VG1-5

Chuck — Thu, 01 Dec 2016 08:00:47 +0000

This last weekend I started making the stocks for the VG1-5. This is a multi step process in which the basic board is measured, have the edge squared, re-sawed, planed,and generally set up to then make the stock.

This is the video for part one.

So I am starting with this.

And end up with the blanks ready to cut into stock blanks.

Happy Thanksgiving from Gun Lab

Chuck — Fri, 25 Nov 2016 08:00:53 +0000

Here at gun Lab a terrific day was had. My wife cooked an outstanding meal using her new and almost completed kitchen. There was ham,turkey,stuffing,potatoes,and all the necessary fixings to go with them. Friends and family were her to enjoy the meal.

As for myself The day off was perfect. I was able to get the fluting press working, I have completed the first few ops on making the stocks for the VG1-5 using my new router table and the chamber issue with the Vg1-5 barrel was solved. A really good day.

I hope all of you enjoyed the day as much as I did.

More going on at Gun Lab

Chuck — Mon, 24 Oct 2016 08:00:46 +0000

With this post I am happy to note that Axel, a friend of gun lab, is back for a visit and as always we put him back to work. And unlike what most people think of me we did actually allow him some time off to go to the local gun show and stores.

This post is about the continuing work that is being done on the VG1-5.

This weekend was spent working on a number of projects by different people and in different shops.

Axel spent most of his time working on making a stock pattern for the rough cut and the finish router work.

Before I go into great detail on making the stock pattern I have to stress that some people just do not like to change there ways. We have a rather complete machine and wood working shop. So when you see the method that the pattern was make it is all Axel.

It started with a wood blank that was roughed out on the old stock fixture plate.

This a really scary fixture to use with a 3/4 horse power router especially toward the grip of the stock. Even though there is a bearing riding against the fixture

it was still an interesting experience.

Axel took the rough shaped stock and fitted it to our test rifle.

A close up of the fit up.

Then it was off to make a pattern that would make the same thing over and over but still allow for the minor differences that we are going to encounter.

Now this is the point where German stubbornness comes into play. We will just go back to the fact that we do have a couple of nice work shops and in the saw room is a really nice band saw.

Did I mention that this tool works great on cutting Aluminum?

He did it the old fashion way and when you don’t have much in the line of tools you use what you have and become expert with them. This is what Axel did.

He started by attaching the stock to the aluminum plate with the two stock screws and then a third point on the stock to firmly hold the blank to the plate.

He then marked out the stock out line.

Then he went to the drill press and drilled about a thousand holes,that may be a little exaggerated, but the number is close.

Then he put the stock that he previously fitted to the rifle and and spent quite a bit of time, between guns shows and gun store visits, and files everything away that did not look like the stock.

When it was all said and over this is what it looked like.

So now the new process for making the stock will be to lay out the stock with the aluminum pattern, cut the stock out with the wood shop band saw.

Then using the pattern cut the shape out on the router table using a straight cutter with a ball bearing guide.

After the shape is cut out go back in with a radius cutter to cut the couture.

The final set will be to plug the third hole with a wooden dowel.

Many thanks to Axel for his help this last weekend and we are a step closer to getting done.

VG1-5 stock making

Chuck — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 08:00:27 +0000

When we made the first couple of stocks for the VG1-5 we used a fixture to hold the stock. This fixture held the wooden blank that we cut using the bandsaw and then using a hand held router we cut the radius on the out side edge of the stock.

This procedure was a little harry to say the least.

The router bit and ball bearing guide.

The fixture that the router bit would run around on using the bearing as a guide.

After doing a couple of stocks this was it has been decided by me not to do this again. I have a cnc router that I have been working on and will use it for the hand guards, but for the stock it was not going to work real well.

While at a job I saw this in a guy’s garage and knew that this would be perfect for my stock project.

This last weekend I started working on it. I managed to get all the wood cut for it and the real good news is that most of it came from my scrap pile.

All the wood is cut to size and next weekend I will start cutting the groves and rough assembly.

Another interesting gunsmithing site

Chuck — Thu, 26 Nov 2015 08:00:59 +0000

I was doing research on rust bluing for a up coming project that I need t finish when I came across this site. It is not a how to site per say but there is a great deal of interesting information there.

http://www.finegunmaking.com/page56/page56.html

Stock making and rust bluing are two topics that he touches on that are very interesting.

Playing with the cnc router

Chuck — Tue, 19 May 2015 08:00:48 +0000

Most of Saturday morning was spent with trying to get a feel of how to use the cnc router. The operating system is Mach 3 which is totally different then any other system in the shop. A number of items were learned during this operating time. The first thing was the e-stop is wired in wrong and needs to be fixed. The program would not single block, once the program was started it ran until the end. This problem has to be determined and fixed. The most important improvement has to be a better way to hold down material while machining. I am thinking of making a vacuum table to solve this problem. For our test run I design a basic part that involved no surfacing, still having a little trouble with that in Del-cam. This is the drawing in solid works.

Basically the program that was written to bring the stock to size and radius the corners, ten face it to reduce the thickness and finally cut two pockets one round at a depth of .250 and one square at a depth of .100.

Here is the video of the operation as it was performed.

As a first test run things went well. There is still a lot to learn about Mach 3 as well as fixing some of the glitches we came across.

There was no good way to locate the part in relation to X and Y so the laser edge finder was used.

The MDF board has not been mounted yet so temporary clamps were used. Working on that.

The final product does not look half bad. Del-Cam does not have a wood setting. The next part we will manually program that in.

In the long run this will be a very useful piece of equipment in the shop for making stocks and grips as well as making patterns for metal casting.

Making the VG1-5 up date Hand Guards

Chuck — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 13:48:48 +0000

This last week has been a huge push to finish the VG1-5 in time for the SAR show. A great deal of work needed to be completed and not near enough time to complete it all.

The big push was to complete and correct the fire control mechanism. It is now fixed and operating properly. You should be able to hear the cheering crowd and bottles of Champagne being opened .

This video is about the hand guards. They are now finished and will be on the rifle by tomorrow as will the stock.

I wanted the hand guards to look as close as possible to the original ones.

This is what we came up with.

I started the process as a standard wood working project and then finished on the cnc milling machine. The next time through I will over size the stock and do the complete project on the cnc mill.