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Inletting a stock

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CapnJack

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As soon as my breach plug arrives I'm going to start on the stock for my rifle.
The barrel is octagon and I'm thinking of ways to make the cut out. I'm thinking of starting a router cut down the middle, the width of the bottom barrel flat. I'll make this cut to a depth that the flats on the sides of the barrel will be half their width below the top edge of the stock. Once the bottom of the groove is cut to it's depth and the width of a flat, I'll move to an edges. I'll make a pass down each side of the stock to give me a total width equal to the width of the barrel across the flats and cut to a depth, half the width of the vertical flats on each side. Now I have in effect cut a, " T " shaped groove the length of the barrel bed.

Herein lies the problem, it order to get an octagon barrel to lay in the groove I will have to make a 45 degree bevel cut down each side at the bottom of the, " T ".

I know there has to be someone that has done this and I'm looking for suggestions.

Thanks, Jack
 
The old gun builders cut a round bottomed channel with a plane or chisel. The channel doesn't have to be octagonal. The angled flats don't have to touch the barrel. Inlet your barrel or shape the wood so the wood is just below half a flat. Maybe 1/32 or 1/16" below half. Shows more metal and looks better than a half a flat inlet. You can inlet the lock at half a flat( I like my vents centered on the flat.) or depending on the vent location a little less and taper the wood down to below half along the forearm. No one will ever see it. Barrels inlet at half a flat look too thick in the front end. Look at some pictures of well made rifles to see the difference. The wood only holds the ramrod pipes like a rib. It doesn't support the barrel.
 
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Thanks EC121,
That sounds a lot less complicated. I'll cut the groove like I did for my round barreled musket. I made a router cut to approximately where the bottom would be, then used a round rasp and a dowel wrapped in sandpapper for the final shaping.
 
Hi,
You should post your questions in the "Gunmaker's Bench" forum below this one. You will get more responses about building there. I did what you are doing almost 40 years ago on my first few guns that had straight octagon barrels. I no longer use straight barrels and tapered and flared swamped barrels are more difficult and require more hand fitting. Once you have the "T" cut, just take a shallow 3/8" shallow gouge or sweep, and cut off the shoulder. Then take and old 1" flat chisel and grind flats in it the size of your barrel and use it to scrape the channel and clean it up. Avoid using sandpaper because you will very likely round corners and create gaps on the sides. I am guessing you are using a straight 13/16" barrel.

dave
 
Just do the 45 degree cuts with a chisel. Its not very hard. I would suggest that you make the router cuts slightly undersize and finish it off by hand with chisels. Trying to cut to final size with a router is just asking for trouble.
 
Bill Raby on the Forum here has a ton of vids on you tube. He’s a number one builder. He has done two vids that I know of on inletting a swamped barrel, but the general description is valid for a straight.
The owner, I think, of Kibler rifles also runs a set of vids on building that’s very good.
 
10-04 Thank You.
Lots of advice posted already, I just make a bit out of an Irwin spade drill bit. Cut the point off, grind the 45 deg flats, and bottom. The home made router bit is done by just using a bench grinder. Even if the bit is not perfect in dimension or a little lop sided (meaning in reference to perfect machining.) it can do the job. Try your new bit on a scrap chunk of wood and trim it to arrive at the final barrel fit. Purchase an Irwin 15/16" spade bit and make your own. I have done 4 barrel inlets that way and one was even tapered. That took some stock shims on the side to compensate for the taper. The main item to watch since it is not a carbide bit is to go slow and not take too much wood each pass. Max about 1/8" deep. Works like a charm.
Flintlocklar:D
 
As soon as my breach plug arrives I'm going to start on the stock for my rifle.
The barrel is octagon and I'm thinking of ways to make the cut out. I'm thinking of starting a router cut down the middle, the width of the bottom barrel flat. I'll make this cut to a depth that the flats on the sides of the barrel will be half their width below the top edge of the stock. Once the bottom of the groove is cut to it's depth and the width of a flat, I'll move to an edges. I'll make a pass down each side of the stock to give me a total width equal to the width of the barrel across the flats and cut to a depth, half the width of the vertical flats on each side. Now I have in effect cut a, " T " shaped groove the length of the barrel bed.

Herein lies the problem, it order to get an octagon barrel to lay in the groove I will have to make a 45 degree bevel cut down each side at the bottom of the, " T ".

I know there has to be someone that has done this and I'm looking for suggestions.

Thanks, Jack
I guess I am the odd one here. I would get the gunsmith of grenville county, (or similar) and do it by hand, not all that complicated, even for a swamped barrel, just takes time. The books will answer your questions. If I can do it you can. The problem I have, (notice I said I have) is a little slip up with a power tool and you have a nice piece of fire wood. Just my suggestion. chuck
 
The 45 degree angles can be cut with a 45 degree router bit having a diameter half the width of the barrel.

I think a lot about using a router to in let a barrel. I think I will build a jig to support both the router and the stock. Also cutting the channel 1/16th undersized with a router and finishing the job with hand tools. The ultimate would be to have a custom router bit made to size. It would be used following cutting the tee to take things to finished dimensions.
 
Kansas-Volunteer.
You and the others are the reason I subscribe to this site. The wealth of information and experience you all bring here is over whelming. I still have a number of parts in the mail and I would like to find a better piece of wood, but with summer almost upon us, I may have to move this project to the back burner. My boat has been feeling totally dejected and Canada will soon beckon.
 
I guess I am the odd one here. The problem I have, (notice I said I have) is a little slip up with a power tool and you have a nice piece of fire wood. Just my suggestion. chuck
Chuck,
No disrespect to your thinking, but do you ever use a table saw? If you do, you sure don't want to get any body parts into the running saw blade. Way more serious than ruining a good piece of wood. A router is made to cut wood such as a barrel channel. If one does not feel comfortable using it, fine, but using a router properly and safely will cut lots of time and even do a better job than by hand.
Flintlocklar:)
 
I have done two with a router with success. It was a little nerve wracking! On one I did a square full depth rout and used a couple small pieces of filler at the muzzle. If you do it this way you must be cautious about how far you take the forestock down so as not to break through.

I have also done the center single flat full depth router cut followed by the partial depth cut for the full barrel width. Taking the extra wood out with a chisel really is a piece of cake with a good sharp tool.

I'm older and more patient and reflective now. If I inlet the barrel myself I do the whole thing with hand tools....or I order a blank with barrel inlet and ramrod hole drilled.

I'm neither a prolific or very good builder so take what I say along with any other advice you can get. :rolleyes:
 
I haven't built a rifle from a blank but I did build a pistol using a maple blank I got from Dixie Gunworks.

The gun used a 3/4" octagon barrel so the barrel flats were .310 wide. A 5/16" diameter router bit cuts a .312 wide groove so using a 5/16" bit I cut a groove to the depth needed for the bottom barrel flat to rest against.
Because the wood was curly maple and it is known to chip, the groove was cut by making multiple passes, each one only about 1/16" to 3/32" deeper than the last one.

Readjusting the fence so that the cutter would cut the wood leaving material 3/8 inches from the center of the bottom barrel flat to form one side of the barrel channel I figured out what the depth at the bottom of the side flat would be.
It turned out that the bottom of the side flat would be .220 above the bottom flat on both sides of the barrel channel.

Knowing this I removed the wood on one side of the barrel channel stopping the depth so it was .220 above the bottom flat.
I then had to repeat this on the other side of the barrel channel.

I ended up with a barrel channel that was 3/4" wide with all of the wood removed above the depth of the octagon side flat basically ending up with a T shaped open area.

Know, knowing the angular flats between the bottom barrel flat and the side barrel flats are at a 45 degree angle, holding the chisel at this angle I removed the wood between the ends of the bottom flats and the bottom of the side flat surfaces.

I'm sure this confused some of you but if you think about it for a while, you'll figure out what I'm saying. :)

Oh. To confuse more of you, if you want to figure out how wide the flats on your barrel are get a calculator with trig functions and find the Tangent of 22.5 degrees. Multiply this times the distance between the opposite sides of the octagon. (Tan 22.5° = .4142)

For a 13/16" barrel that would be Tan 22.5°X .8125 = .4142 X .8125 = .337
For a 7/8" barrel that would be Tan 22.5° X .875 = .4142 X .875 = .362
For a 15/16" barrel that would be Tan 22.5° X .937 = .4142 X .937 = .388

To figure out how high the bottom of the side flat is above the lower barrel flat take 1/2 of the distance across the barrel flats and multiply it times Tan 22.5°and subtract this from the the same, "1/2 of the distance across the barrel flats".

Written out, if the distance across the barrel flats is called B then 1/2 the distance across the barrel flats would be B/2. We'll call this C.

This leaves us with the formula, C - (C X Tan 22.5°) equals the distance from the bottom flat up to the point where the side flat starts.
 
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