Restoration of a Martini Henry - inletting fun
Hi folks, thought I'd share this one with you, simply given the fun I had inletting the forend to receive the metal tab (or "hook").
The India-made forend came rather "naked" - it required inletting both for that hook, and for the semi-hexagonal shape of the barrel at the knox.
I started by drilling the two screw holes on the new forend, to make sure I was going to draw out the profile of the metal hook in the right spot.
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i screwed the hook upside down to get a flat contact with the forend, to mark the contour.
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I figured that doing all the inletting by hand was going to be time consuming and, given my hand carving skills, the result would probably end up unsatisfactory. What I needed was a milling machine. But, have you seen the prices on such tools?
Cheap as I am, I started looking for alternatives. I do have a drill press, so... I found out that small milling "tables" exist. Some $120 later, I was set for some milling on that forend. I went for the "Proxxon micro compound table". I'Ve screwed it on a rectangular piece of plywood, and clamped that plywood in my drill press vise. I used a small, round router bit
for the inletting.
In this picture I had just started. The clamping of the forend is a rather... "homemade" affair but, it worked. Almost.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../YDw3zjW-1.jpg
After I started the forend began creeping upwards. So I made a simple cross-member between two of the screws. You can see it in the following picture.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../sgi1g8y-1.jpg
After that, final inletting was done with chisels. I'm pretty sure I saved some time, and it was fun too.
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