First of all, if you didn't buy a builders drawing (plans), do it now. It will save you LOTS of questions, get things where they are supposed to be & give you come confidence & possibly save you from a dumb error, like a RR pipe out of place cause a dovetail is in the way, or vica versa......
Second, if you don't have a Builders Book, buy one now ... This ain't NASCAR but it is a good bit up from the 3 HP Briggs on Papa's tiller, so lets do it right the first time & not assume.... You know what Ass u me does... :hmm: I suggest the Gunsmiths of Grenvile County...... Very well written & good illustrations & get the spiral bound so it will lay flat on the work bench.
Several ways of doing dovetails.
1) Milling machine (I never had the luxury of)
2) With a Guide........ (make it)
3: Cut them by hand with hacksaw.
I mark them by hand & cut them with a hacksaw & it has never been a problem for me, takes me about 15 min each to do them after doing over a hundred of them. More ya do the better ya get at it.
To make a guide, take two pieces of flat steel 1" x 10" x 1/8" thick, lay the two flats of steel on top of each other, now slip the hacksaw blade in between them at the bottom edge, now lay four 1/2" pieces of old broken blade in the top edge to space the 2 slabs of metal apart evenly. (Basically you now have a gap between the two slabs of metal, gap being the thickness of a hacksaw blade) Now just tack weld the two pieces of metal 4 spots down along the edge beside where ya put the lil spacers & then pull the spacers out.
Now take the hacksaw blade out & lay it on bottom of the guide ya just made & have the teeth even with the edge of the guide, now slip the blade back inside the guide & now drill two 1/4" holes in thru the guide just above the hacksaw blade about 3" in from each end of the guide. Put a 1/4 x 3/4" bolts thru the hole & just tack weld the head.
Now adjust the blade in the guide to where ya have about .050 of blade hanging down from the guide & put two 1/4" nuts on the guide & tighten to hold the guide on the blade in the proper depth of cut you want.
Now you can mark your dovetails on the barrel, take the saw & cut the dovetails & not worry about them the saw cutting too deep. :thumbsup:
I usually mark the cut so I have about 1/32" on each side of extra meat to file out, best to have too much than too lttle. :shake:
Make cuts beside each other the depth of the saw guide, space the cuts close as ya can to keep the cuts from going into each other. When all of these cuts are done, remove guide & angle the saw & cut the previous cuts into the cut next to it til you have a open slot cut out. Now you take a 3 corner Slim 6" Nickolson file & grind off the teeth on one flat & now file the bottom flat on the slot ya cut. Now file the angle of each side with the smooth side of the file down. (Watch the angle doesn't tip up as ya do this, you will need to file with 2 edges sometimes to keep the bottom of the dovetail flat & not tipping up on each side.)
Now take the same file & file off that sharp edge on the dovetail, as it is sharper than the file will cut, just take off the very edge, now tap the dovetail in place.
If ya end up just a tad loose, don't worry about it, not a issue. Just tap the edges down or stake the edges just 4 places & forget it. These DO NOT have to be tight or soldered in. If you removed the barrel & they fell off it would make no difference at all, they are just underlugs to hold the barrel to the wood. To rip one out the pin or wood will give first, not the underlug or dovetail. Also, they don't have to be deep, .050 is enough. Remember we are Retaining the barrel to the wood, not building a foundation for a skyscraper..... :grin:
If it is a Precarve, get the lock in 3/4 way inlet, then put a RR down the barrel & mark the end of the RR sticking out with the end of the muzzle, now lay it along the barrel & line the RR mark at the muzzle & now mark the other end of the rod on the barrel flat, that is the Breechplug Face. Lay the vent liner in the position you prefer at the breechplug face, mark the center of the vent liner on the barrel flat.
(Personally I remove the breechplug & inlet barrel, then tang, but some like to do them all at one time)
Now inlet the barrel to where the center of the flashpan will align to the mark for the vent liner. (I actually scribe a light + on the barrel flat there & work toward the that mark. The vertical line being the center of the flashpan, the horizontal line being the center of the barrel flat)
If you are going to bed the barrel or the breech, now is the time to do so. This saves allot of problems from inclusions & holes with the barrel getting locked to the stock from bedding media seepage, etc.
So, now you have the barrel in the stock & you are ready to lay out the Muzzlecap, RR pipes & Dovetails....... (before ya can properly lay this all out, ya need the rifle in the stock to make Sure they don't interfear with each other & to have them properly spaced. Also ya need to be sure ya have the Entrypipe in the orrect place, NOT where the precarving machine may have left it! You may need to move it several inches to make the style rifle look perportioned)........
Good luck ! :thumbsup:
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