1933 SA 1903

[browningautorifle]

As huge as it is, I might have been tempted to use my compound miter saw to do that cut as it has the support on the sides for material. I could still cut long and it would be straight as long as I set up correctly. My band saw would give me the same trouble as yours. All seems to have turned out well, I was sure it would.

[mrandig]

As huge as it is, I might have been tempted to use my compound miter saw to do that cut as it has the support on the sides for material. I could still cut long and it would be straight as long as I set up correctly. My band saw would give me the same trouble as yours. All seems to have turned out well, I was sure it would.

Thanks Jim - I appreciate the vote of confidence. The bandsaw worked fine for the forend; next time I do a stock I'll be using my compound miter saw. It was just too tricky.

[mrandig]

Last report, I had just cut the stock and was going to take it to the disc sander.

Here's the disk sander. With lots of plastic and only a 6" disk, this is kind of the "easy bake oven" of my shop tools, but it's good enough for this project. It actually works remarkably well and I would recommend it.

Attachment 112501

[mrandig]

Here's the stock and forend after sanding and clean up. Leaving 1/16" extra on the forend and 1/16" extra on the stock, I get 1/8" of material, which makes up for the material loss from the bandsaw blade.

First is below and after pics of stock:

Attachment 112505Attachment 112502

Finished forend:

Attachment 112503

[mrandig]

With the forend and the stock both sanded square, let's see what these look like. Because of their shape, they can be hard to keep together for a picture, but I'll do my best.

Attachment 112506Attachment 112507Attachment 112508

So far so good... Since the original forend and replacement were both hand formed, there seems to be a little discrepancy on sizing. The new one isn't as wide, so there's a small step right in the transition. I'll cross that bridge later once I figure out how to put it all together. I may have a rasp laying around that will do the trick.

[mrandig]

The next question is how to join the replacement forend and the stock?

I was thinking a router. Routers are fun. They do make on hell of a mess however.

Attachment 112509

Since nothing about this wood is square or parallel, I finally decided against this approach. I probably could have made it work, but I'm not even sure I have an up-cut bit the right size. I need to figure out how to keep the pieces in alignment, then once I had made to cut, then I'd have to make and fit an insert, etc., etc., etc.

[mrandig]

The approach I finally settled on was using pair of dowels. These are 1/4" diameter and 1.5" long. It just seemed a little easier, and as an added bonus, I already had these sitting on the shelf.

I didn't take a pic of how I measure this out unfortunately, but you measure top-to-bottom, then left-to-right, to find the center of the wood. Once you have found the center, measure halfway from center to the right and mark the first dowel, halfway from center to the left and mark the second dowel.

Attachment 112510

[mrandig]

Once I have my marks made on the wood, I'm going to use a dowel jig.

The stock is clamped to the end of my workbench, and the Makita box is there intentionally to keep everything from sliding down when force is applied. I could have used a drill stop, but I couldn't remember where I put them last, so I just used a piece of tape to remind me not to go too deep.

The jig is pretty cool. It's self centering, and you just put the drill bit in the hole that marked for the size bit / dowel you're using.

Attachment 112513Attachment 112514Attachment 112515

In last pic, you can see the marks I made on the piece before I drilled it.

Since the stock already had weight reliefs cut into it, and I was using 1.5" dowels (3/4" per side), I did end up drilling into the channel, but I don't see this as being any issue. Might just be little messy when it comes time for glue.

[mrandig]

Once the first pair of dowel holes are drilled (in the stock), I'm going to use a pair of tenon centers to mark the forend piece. You pop these babies into the holes just drilled in the stock, slam the stock and forend together, and that will mark the forend piece so you'll know where you need to drill next.

Attachment 112517Attachment 112518Attachment 112519Attachment 112520

[mrandig]

I'm going to use the dowel jig again, for the second set of holes. You can't see it in the photos, but there is a small shim; since the stock and forend have different diameters, they have different centers. This will keep once piece from riding higher than the other.

Attachment 112521Attachment 112522Attachment 112523

So far, so good...