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There are goof ups and then there are GOOF-UPs

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Joined
Oct 10, 2004
Messages
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Florence Alabama
This rifle has been a pain, partly because of the precarve and partly because I am not doing the quality of work I once did and I don't know why. This has to be a record for added shims to correct a brain lapse.

Case in point; simple job, line up the side plate with the lock plate, drill the bolt holes, tighten down the bolts, scribe around the plate and inlet it to the proper depth.

Something went wrong, somewhere between tighten down the bolts and scribe around the plate something shifted. I took out the bolts and inletted the plate to the proper depth, the lock bolt holes were very slightly off and were binding in the holes through the stock and wouldn't hit one of the threaded holes in my lock plate. On close examination I could see I had the plate inletted a bit too high.

I recut the inlet to where it was supposed to be and still had a slight interference with the holes in the lock plate so I filed the holes slightly larger.

The recut inlet now had gaps, I hate gaps so I started adding shims, it took 9 of them in all and several days to get the plate fit just right and tight.

I like to show my builds warts and all, I have had a bunch of warts lately.

First the patches, none will show on the finished gun, I am going to make the gun black with tannic acid and AQ the lighten only specific areas.
sideplate patches.JPG
sideplate fit.JPG
the final side plate fit.
 
The best part about mistakes are, unless they're really bad, you will be the only person that knows about them. Once that rifle is finished those shims won't even be able to be noticed.

I made a few boo boos on the inlets in my side plate and on the hunters star. Plan was to fill them in with colored glass bedding after the stock was finished. As soon as the first coat of stain went on, it got into those little areas and they all but disappeared.
 
Finishing up a .40 cal. Tennesse rifle that I started 10 years ago. Things happened where I just couldn't get back to it. Anyway, I think this beautiful piece of curly maple turned into a piece of iron! It just didn't want to cooperate and my carving tools are razor sharp! So . . . yes, there are a few chips & tearouts. A few shims were needed for sure. Fitting the buttplate was torture! The endgrain was brutally hard. When I started this build ten years ago I was having no problems as inletting for the breech and tang was easy. Did it get harder with age?
 
That's a good looking fix and you 'll never notice once the finish is on. Recently I was heating up a hard brass trigger guard to anneal it so I could bend it to fit. Lights in the shop too bright, the torch too hot, and left the heat on too long... The guard broke in two. After the requisite amount of time in the "Moaning Chair" ( which I use far too frequently...) I filed the break smooth and silver soldered it back together. I defer to Larry's wise comment!
 
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