1933 SA 1903

[browningautorifle]

Up to you I guess but it's the rifle that started the thread? Why change...

[mrandig]

Good point Jim. Let's keep it here.

Splicing that forend has me more anxious than I expected. We'll see how this goes tomorrow.

[mrandig]

Well, after sleeping in today and a bit too much coffee, I decided to get this show on the road.

Here's another pic of the rifle in all of its original (to me) glory.

Yes, there's a Corvette in the background. Yes, I should have a cover on it.

Attachment 112462

[browningautorifle]

a Corvette in the background. Yes, I should have a cover on it.

Naw, look at it as an old Chevvy. What could possibly happen to it?

[mrandig]

Attachment 112464Attachment 112463

Here's the new parts.

The handguard is from eBay. I think it was $25.00 new. Fits fine.

The forend piece of from Dupage trading. It's a little rough, but fine for this project. It was $40.00.

Metal parts of from Numrich. This include upper and lower bands, spring, sight and sight cover, stacking swivel, etc. The entire order was around $80.00

[mrandig]

Disassembly time.

Definitely not a NM, but that's fine. I didn't know pine needles were used as bedding. I don't think it's been apart in a long time. I'll leave the rear swivel and butt plate in place, at least for now, as they're not in the way.

Attachment 112465Attachment 112466

[mrandig]

Time to hack the forend piece. I'm going to leave this as long as I can, just in case I need to shorten it later. The reverse doesn't work very well. I'm cutting this as close to the transition as I can, so I can hide the seam with the lower band after I glue the pieces together.

For this cut I'll use the bandsaw, with a 5/8" blade, which is pretty wide, but good for straight cuts. Keeping this cut straight is somewhat of a challenge, as the forend has a slight taper on the sides, and wants to rotate. The other end will prove to be way worse...

Attachment 112476Attachment 112467Attachment 112475

[mrandig]

Now its time to hack the stock. It's long, relatively heavy, and since it's hand worked, it's not laser accurate in its dimensions to start with. I'm also going to leave this piece long, so I can take off more if I need to get it squared and right with the forend. I'm probably leaving 3/16" or more on each piece.

If I do this correctly, the joint will be at the transition, and sit under the lower band, making it invisible.

Attachment 112468

Needless to say, I don't like how this turned out on the bandsaw. It started shifting while I was cutting. Safety issues aside, it's just hard to cut while the wood is teetering off the side of the table.

[mrandig]

When modern shop equipment fails to do the job, it's time to break out the hand tools. These Lie-Nielson hand planes are some of my most prized possessions (and cost a small fortune). I'm going to use a #62 low angle jack plane.

This is a special jig I made for planning, on another project. I'm going to see if I can use this jig and the hand plane to get this cut end squared up.

Attachment 112473

[mrandig]

After a few swipes with the jack plane, the cut end of the stock seems like it's closer to straight. Not exact, but close. I intentionally left it long, thankfully, so I'll use a disk sander tomorrow to take a little more off both the stock and forend, and see if I can get them trued and fitted together with as tight a seam as possible.

Attachment 112474