Guncraft

Greetings To The Mexican Truckers!

2011-03-09T16:17:00.000-08:00

Greetings To The Mexican Truck Drivers!

So now that President Obama and your President Calderone have agreed on allowing you to come into the Unites States legally with your 18 wheel Big Rig Truck, I thought a formal introduction to our methods and customs might be helpful.

It is our hope that your trucking experience here in the Land Of The Free will be a pleasant one, and you’ll help your amigos back home with these helpful hints.

First of all, when you cross the border and go through all the hassle and inconvenience of those pesky border checks, you can relax, and get back to driving the way you do at home.

That’s right, forget about those stupid things like turn signals and stopping when the traffic light turns red, those things are for the non-truckers….not you, the professional.

In America we have a saying, More Is Better. This is especially true with trucking. Driving a 80,000 lb rig is for kids….real truckers haul 90-100 and even 110,000 lbs.

Which bring up an important point. You’ll see Weigh Stations in the states you’ll go through. A Weigh Station is just a big “Welcoming Place.” The people who work there have been specially trained to make you feel at home on our roads…Obama mandated it.

When you come to one of these Happy Huts and they ask you to come inside, please keep in mind, all they want to do is to share coffee and cookies and take photos to share with their families. Now, if you are behind schedule then stopping when asked, is optional, and you can just go on your merry way. Just remember to wave to them as you drive on.

If a DOT officer asks you anything, all you have to say is “No speaka English” or “No habla English.” Either one works very well, especially with the cashiers in the truck stops and the police down in the southern states.

Let’s talk about truck stops for a moment. There are some unwritten rules that you should be aware of. First of all, when you go to get your fuel, our cashiers have been specially trained, courtesy of President Obama, to handle all of your financial transactions. So feel free to bring in a bundle of pesos to pay for your fuel, and for heavens sakes, take your time. That’s why we have many fuel islands. Want to take a siesta, go right ahead…you can do that in our truckers lounge or at the fuel island.

In America we have the freedom to do that, heck its even in our Constitution.

After you’ve driven your 20 hour day, feel free to use the special area of the truck stop that has been set aside specifically for the Mexican Truckers use, that is the scale. Just park on top and take your break.

Also make sure you announce your arrival at night by sounding off on your air horn. We’ll be glad to know you’ve made it safe and sound.

I hope this has been a big help to you, and feel free to pass this along to your buddies.

The Troublemaker

2011-02-09T12:37:00.000-08:00

My apologies to you. It seems that there are glitches with this particular template set, which puts all of the Troublemaker novel as one long sentence. Grrr!

So it would be best that if you wanted to read all that I have written so far, please go to my alternate blog at:

Stand Up and Be Free

I'll post chapters as long as you're interested in reading them...then I'll post chapters on my newest book "For The Greater Good"

Shame On You Wal Mart

2010-06-24T11:22:00.000-07:00

So I'm at the Travel America (TA) off exit 28 on I-70W outside Kansas City. I've been out for a couple of weeks and needed to refill some supplies.

I Google Wal Mart and there is a Super Center about 1/2 mile from my 20. The day was only about 80 degrees...and if you've been anywhere in the Midwest the past couple of weeks, know that 80 feels great, unlike the oppressive 100+. So, I decide to walk to the Wal Mart...and this is what I see at the main entrance and the side entrances.

Think Truckers are welcome here? I think not.

More and more I read in the terminals about being ticketed while shopping at Wal Mart. So why bother?

Egyptian Pyramids

2010-01-10T13:29:00.000-08:00

I watched a show the other week about the Great pyramids in Egypt. I can't explain what clicked on in my head about these things. I mean after all, in the scheme of recent events, they are waaaay down on my "who cares" list.

I just for the life of me cannot wrap my head around the vast numbers of people that it would take to make ONE of these pyramids, much less all of them. Also, the pyramids were carbon dated to have been build BEFORE the Biblical flood of Noah.

Well if you're thinking about this then a couple of questions should be asked.

1. Pre-dating Noah's time would be BEFORE the Bronze age. So how could the ancients create such mathematically perfect structures?

2. Why?

Accurizing A CMP M1 Garand - Stock Prep

2009-08-18T02:59:00.000-07:00

Stock Prep

The second part of accurizing your rifle is stock preparation. Your CMP stock will be filled with years of dirt, grease and cosmoline. The critical areas of the stock will probably be compressed due to the recoil of the action, so when we remove this inbedded stuff, your wood will change.

Now, I'll admit I can't give every single detail of the M1 Garand...but I do know wood working. Wood, even though it has been shaped and used, will change over time. So the object here is to start from as close to ground zero as we can, then reseal the wood and remove the areas that rub against the barreled action.

There are many differing methods of removing the old finish from a Garand. Some guys will use oven cleaner and some will use furniture paint remover, and some will use the dishwasher.

I used the dishwasher method, and it worked perfectly for me.

I had some photos of that process which I did soon after I got my Garand, and some how I've lost them. However here is a site where they show exactly how that process works.

Remove your metal from the stock. The tricky piece is the band from the upper hand guard. I took a narrow pointed nail punch and secured it into my bench vise then put one of the holes onto it. I was able to remove my band that way. Thinking back on it I don't think I removed the metal from my lower hand guard, I just put that in complete.

Keep in mind that you'll use a regular dishwasher cycle and have it set to 'air dry' not heat dry.

My stock wasn't a historical piece by any stretch of the imagination. It was gouged, dented, dinged and had only one set of numbers beneath the hand grip.

After the cycle was complete, most all of the dents and dings were gone. The cartouche numbers remained, so I was a happy camper.

The wood itself looked totally different after it had been striped this way. A shocking pale gray chunk of lumber. I would have never thought that walnut would have taken on this color.

When you have done this the second thing that you'll notice is that your wood feels really rough. This is normal as the walnut fibers themselves are releasing. This is normal.

Now you'll take some 320 grit wet-dry sandpaper and smooth over the stock and hand guards. After you smooth over with the 320 grit, take some 0000 steel wool and go over it again.

This next part is very important. We will now need to seal the wood...all surfaces, inside the stock and outside. I use Tung Oil. Specifically I use Formby's Traditional Tun Oil Finish, Low Gloss.

Take some 320 grit wet-dry sandpaper, a small bowl to hold some Tung Oil and begin to "wet sand" your stock set. Wet sanding your stock set will create ultra fine particles which will combine with the Tung Oil and help seal better. Your first two coats will probably absorb quickly. Two coats are only needed at this point, we'll do a final finish last.

Now hang your stock set to dry for a day or two.

Here is what I started with:

Here is what I finished with:

Now that your stock is dry, put everything back together and check for ANY areas where the wood rubs against the barrel with a strip of paper. Sand those areas off and then reseal those areas with Tung Oil.

Let dry and then take her to the range to check for accuracy.

This process alone gave me this comparative set of groups.

Next up...we'll get the stock ready for glass bedding.

Accurizing A CMP Garand #1

2009-08-13T03:54:00.000-07:00

Why Have A Garand?

I love that photo and statement from the GI. Too bad that today's media doesn't have the cojones to write something like that.

This project has been a long time in the making.

I bought my CMP Garand a few years ago. My gal is a Springfield Service Grade, which was built between August-September 1944. If you would like to see the build date of your Garand, click here.

This is how she looked when I received her.

When I first got my Garand, I figured that because this was a Service Grade, which meant that the rifle was fit for military service in regards to condition and accuracy, that I would just be able to go out to the range and presto-bingo shoot 1-2" groups all day long.

So I bought some military surplus Korean ammo (more on that later) and headed out to the range.

My first time to the range I was lucky to have two or three rounds in a 5" group. THEN after the rifle heated up, THOSE groups got even larger.

So it was time to work on this rifle.

There are a few things that you should do before starting an accurizing project of this size. First of all I would highly suggest that you go to the CMP website and print off the entire instructions on How To Detail Strip and Re-Assemble your Garand. This will be a fairly large print job, so make sure you have a 3 ring binder and hole punch to keep this in order.

Now, a word about this project. There are two ways you can go about accurizing your Garand. First is to take some (re:a bunch) money and send it off to a 'Garand Smith.' You can get as much accuracy as you can afford. Please don't get me wrong there are things that a 'Smith' can do that you and I cannot. It's a matter of skill, experience and equipment.

Secondly, you can use your God given skills to do some modifications to your own rifle, thereby saving money and in return getting a deeper appreciation for the inner workings and engineering of this marvelous battle rifle. She might not be as pretty as a reparked, restocked WW2 work of art, but she'll go bang every time you pull the trigger and will be much more accurate than what you have now.

What I am posting here is minor cost mods. The tools necessary are your normal gunsmithing screwdrivers, Dremel tool, files, chisels, sandpaper and elbow grease (plenty of that).

First Steps

First things first ok?

I will assume that you have taken your rifle to the range and discovered how she shoots.

So, take some time to break down your rifle, and clean it. If you have a rifle like mine, the barrel spec'd out fairly decent, but never was able to really get a clean patch when cleaning.

I'll explain why the crud keeps on coming.

Back in the 'day.' The Garand was designed for one purpose, and that was to fight and to be maintained by the average GI Joe. Now if you've served in the military you'll know that not every guy was neat, tidy or detail oriented.

The average M1 was used and abused. When the rifle became SNAFU'd it would go to an armorer for repair. The ammo used during WW2 and Korea was primed with corrosive primers and sealed with a substance called 'asphaltum.' Asphaltum is exactly as it sounds...liquid and thin tar like stuff. The ammo was sealed with this stuff to prevent water damage. In the Pacific theater, the Japanese didn't seal their ammo, and many of their soldiers lost their lives from water damaged rounds.

Now, what happens when you have tar sealed rounds fired through a barrel? It tends to accumulate and harden. Now, combine that with corrosive primer residue, improper cleaning and battlefield conditions....you get the picture.

I still am working on getting clean patches out of my rifle. I use Kroils and a brush, and will alternate that with Hoppes and a product called Blue Wonder.
To be candid, I have tried almost everything out there and these three seem to get the lion's share of use and success.

Schematics for reference

Let's start by doing some simple tests to determine issues.

First of all make sure your rifle is UNLOADED.

With the rifle held securely, try to move the receiver in the wood stock with your hand. The receiver 'lock up' is one of the most critical issues that you'll have. What 'lock up' means is how your trigger group locks up to the receiver and to the wood stock. When you have the trigger group unlocked and in a position to either remove or to re-insert, is there pressure during that last 1/4" before your trigger guard clicks into the trigger housing? Is the wood stock beat up and filled with oils or cosmoline? We'll work on that.

Now take your barreled receiver off of the stock. Remove the Op Rod Spring and the Bullet Guide components. Leave the Bolt and Op Rod on. You should be able to move the Op Rod back and forth without the pressure of the spring.

Tilt your Barreled action downward and see if the Op Rod slides easily into the Gas Cylinder. Tilt it back and see if it returns freely. Your Op Rod/Bolt should slide easily into and out of battery. If it doesn't then you'll have accuracy issues.

The first thing to do is to make sure your Op Rod is CORRECTLY bent. Now, this is the only thing that you'll need to send off to have it done properly. Please don't hammer your Op Rod. There is a fellow who does a marvelous and FAST job of correctly working your Op Rod. Jim Schwartz is well respected in the Garand community and has the equipment to correctly spec your Op Rod. Jim's rates are very, very reasonable (in the $20 range)and the turn around time is just a few days. Contact him via email at JSwartz280@aol.com

Now if your Op Rod slides in perfectly, do you feel ANY friction between the Rod and the metal plate in your Front Hand Grip. A quick way to check this is to use a THIN line of Lubriplate on the metal strip and see if any gets on your Op Rod. If it does, then we'll work on that.

Next grab your barreled action by the gas cylinder and see if it twists in your hand. The Gas Cylinder should be rock solid on your barrel. We'll work on that later.

Now remove the Op Rod, take out the bolt, remove the Gas Plug, unscrew the Gas Cylinder Lock and remove the Gas Cylinder. Take off the Front Hand Grip. you should have the Lower Band attached to the barrel. Is it loose at all? If so, we'll work on that one too.

Now take a 1" strip of thin paper and slide it between the Upper Grip and the Barrel. Slide this back and forth to see if the wood rubs on the barrel at any point. This Guard should only touch the barrel at the metal clip. If there is any wood that is making contact, then you'll need to remove that.

As I'm sure you've noticed, the Garand isn't a simple system. The power of the cartridges and the age of your equipment makes this proje3ct not only challenging but very fulfilling to accomplish.

Our plan of action is as follows:

1. Remove the oils/cosmoline from the stock and then seal up the bare wood.

2. Remove any wood that is touching the barrel.

3. Glass Bed the barreled action to create a perfect lock up.

4. Secure both the Gas Cylinder and the Lower Band

Unlike the project I did with the Ruger 10/22, this one will have alot of photos...and will take longer to publish. So please bear with me as I write this over the next week or so.

In the mean time, check your Op Rod, send it to Jim Schwartz if needed and order some Acra Glas Gel.

This isn't a job that will take a couple of hours, it will take some time. So get ready.

Range Report Ruger 10/22 After Rebuild

2009-07-20T04:39:00.000-07:00

The tutorial below lays how how I rebuilt my Ruger 10/22. My goal was to correct the group spread by installing a new barrel, bedding the action and free floating the barrel.

After re-zeroing my scope I ran a three shot group at 50 yards using CCI Mini Mag ammo.

Here is that three shot group.

I am pleased with the accuracy. I do have a couple of things that I want to do with this rifle now. I want to reduce the trigger pull to about 3lbs or so and I had a few FTF (failure to fire) so I'll investigate that further.

Rebuilding a Ruger 10/22

2009-07-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

Rebuilding a Ruger 10/22 rifle

I bought a Ruger 10/22 35 years ago. It was 1973 and I was 18 years old and fresh out of high school. I paid the princely sum of $69 dollars brand new. Right now I think that the 10/22 is going for over $200. That doesn't seem like much of a change in price, but the gun itself has undergone some substantial changes. Now they use Birch wood instead of Walnut and in trying to maximize profits, they've made many short cuts and also many "safety" related changes.

I don't think there is a rifle on the open market that has as many after-market products as does the 10/22. If you want yours to look like a M2 Ma Deuce, or a Thompson sub machine gun, then you'll find the kits to do that. If you want a pink laminated thumb-hole stock...then go right ahead and place your order.

I'm a little different in that I am a wood and steel kinda guy. I like the classics, and the stock 10/22 falls into that category.

Since I bought this 10/22 I have put tens of thousands of rounds through it. I've hunted gray squirrel and ground squirrels, cottontail rabbit, jack rabbits, crows and everything in between. Not to mention beer cans, paper targets and the like. All the while, this rifle has been the most reliable.

I had thought that I would like to rebuild it a few years ago. The accuracy has fallen off and my groups could be measured in 'minute-of-beer can.' I want to clarify, I'm not rebuilding this to be a competition target rifle, but to put rounds inside of a quarter at 40 yds.

Now that I have the parts to do what I would like, I'll walk you through my rebuild. Hopefully you'll be able to take some of the things that I've done and use them for your own rebuild. I also hope that you'll see my mistakes and learn from them.

Let me set the stage for you. I do woodworking, as you have seen by the gun grips that I make. There are some things that if you work on guns, even if it's just to maintain your own guns, that I feel are a must.

Personally I feel that a gunsmithing screwdriver set is a must have. I bought the set made by Wheeler Engineering and sold through Midway USA.

Let's be clear about one thing, there are tools that if you put the word 'gunsmith' in the description of your search that will add about 35-50% to the cost. Some, if not most of those tools are available through regular woodworking sources for substantially less. Also if you have a Harbor Freight near you, then make sure that you check them out. There are a lot of things that I wouldn't buy from Harbor Freight as the quality isn't what I would like, but there are some products that for the price are very good. I'll try to identify some of those products for you in this tutorial.

Here is what I am going to attempt:

Replace the 'Sporter' barrel with a bull barrel
Cut down the stock and add a forend piece, which I will make
Make and add a grip cap to the stock
Hog out the barrel channel to accept the bull barrel and free float that barrel
Make and install a pillar bed for the receiver
Glass bed the barrel for support
Strip and refinish the stock

Here are the parts that I'll install:

Green Mountain 20" fluted Bull barrel

Power Custom Competition Bolt Handle and Spring

Power Custom Extended Magazine Release

Tuffer Buffer

Let's get started.

First of all make sure that your rifle is unloaded.

Now, remove the barreled action off of the stock and remove the barrel band. Take the barrel band and put it in a plastic bag that is labeled. If you don't already have a separate place for gunsmithing parts and stuff, now might be a good time to do that. I use an old fishing tackle box, and it works very well to keep stuff organized. Keep in mind that Murphy's Law will prevail with this project. Just when you think that you have everything, you'll miss a screw, or drop a bolt or something like that.

Remove the shoulder pad off of the stock and also set in a labeled bag. Do the same with the sling studs, if you have them on the stock.

Take your scope off of the receiver. Keep the screws and the Weaver base in a bag. Keep the receiver screw handy, you'll be using this a lot.

Take your trigger group off of the receiver. To do this, punch out the two pins that hold the group in and also take out the bolt buffer which is the rear most pin, which for the most part just falls out by itself.

Please make sure that you set your parts aside in a secure place and label them accordingly.

Wal Mart sells a product called Kleen Strip. This is a paint stripper and it is VERY GOOD. I have used this to take the rock hard finish off of a Remington 700 BDL. I think that this costs about $5.00 for a pint or so. Brownells sells a product that is a 'gunsmithing' quality paint stripper for $20+ shipping. you'll get the same results for a lot less.

We are going to strip the finish off of the stock. We ARE NOT going to sand the finish off of the stock. Why? When the finish is removed, you'll see the dents and dings from knocking about, and we are going to steam those out. When you 'sand' the finish, you'll not remove any varnish IN the wood so removing those dents and dings will not come out as easily.

Use the stripper and a plastic scraper to remove the finish. After you think you have everything stripped off...let it dry and THEN use a 200 (or finer) grit sandpaper to lightly go over the wood. If your sandpaper clogs, in other words if you have shiny spots in the sandpaper, then you still have varnish in the wood and go over it again with the stripper.

Here is my 10/22 after testing the stock with Kleen Strip.

Now lets figure out what to do with the forend piece. There are a couple things you could do. First of all you could do nothing, but that won't work with a bull barrel. The barrel band section that is cut into the stock will look ugly. Secondly, you can 'sand' down the barrel band portion of the stock, but after seeing some guys projects where they have done this, I'm just not impressed.

So, let's remove that piece of the stock and add another to replace it. I chose for this job some Gabon Ebony. You can choose whatever you'd like, just keep in mind that if you plan on using a stock sling stud for a sling, that you want the added wood to be as hard as or harder than the stock itself. The sling stud will be a pressure point and you don't want to pull it out with soft wood.

Get your wood that you are going to use for as forend piece and the stock. Measure about 2" off of the stock, and mark it. I made my mark where the stock became parallel. The two stock lines on the top top of the stock, I'll call these the 'rails' for lack of a better term. Anyway, I also measured about 3" on the Ebony and another 3/4" for the grip cap.

Cutting the Ebony and the Walnut stock has to be done precise. Use a chop saw if you have one...and do all of your cutting at the same time. You want to avoid having to come back later after you put the saw away and set things up again. Why? The cuts you make need to be flush with one another. When you have the saw set up at a 90 degree, or whatever angle you choose, I can just about guarantee that if you put the saw away and then come back to it at a later date it will be slightly off.

After you make your cut, then check the forend piece to see how flush it fits onto the end of your stock.

Take your forend piece and trace the cut stock end to the forend piece with a marker. I laid my stock down on a flat surface with the stock rails on the bottom and then just set the Ebony against the stock and made my tracing (like the photo of the forend piece being smacked with the rubber mallet below). Remember, fresh cut end to fresh cut end.

Now that we have the Ebony traced, I can mark on the stock where I want to drill for my dowels. Harbor Freight has some inexpensive dowel kits. The kit will have dowels, a brad point drill bit and inserts to make the matching holes. I think that their kits are about $4.95 or so. Pretty good value, just keep in mind that the brad point drill bits are junk and will dull up the first time you use them. It isn't the drill bits that are whats good about their kits it is the inserts and dowels.

So make your marks. I used 5/16" for the forend and 1/4" for the hand grip. Drill your holes to about half the length of the dowels. Put a dowel into the hole, if it's tight, then take the drill bit and try to slightly enlarge the hole.

After you drill your holes with the 5/16", now you can put in the insert plugs.

Clamp your stock to your work bench and set your forend piece as close to your tracing as possible. Take a rubber mallet and gently but fairly sharply give a rap to the forend piece.

Now you have the markings to make your corresponding holes in the forend piece. However, on the forend piece we want to go the next size up with our drill bit to 3/8." Why? Well, I can assure you that those holes won't be a perfect match, so by going the next size up, they not only will match, but the extra space will give your glue more area to adhere.

We also want to rough up the interior of the both pieces to give our glue more space and grabbing area. A Dremel tool with a small routing bit works perfecly here. Take your dowels and try on the two pieces. Check for fit. Do the two adjoining edges match up perfectly? If not, then work it with some sandpaper, but they both should be perfect.

Let's talk about making a barrel groove in the Ebony forend piece. Notice in the above photo the rectangular groove. I did this using my router and a 1/2" straight bit. I rigged a jig and measured the width and then routed the groove. I would suggest that you not make the groove too deep, as you'll need some area for the half-round rasp and sandpaper which we'll discuss later.

If you don't have a router, then you'll need a round rasp...in the 1/2" to 3/4" range. Harbor Freight would be a good place for this. This rasp doesn't need to be of any decent quality as all you are going to do is to make a groove of about 3/4" depth. Set your piece in a padded vise and break out the elbow grease.

Now that you have the piece grooved to close to the barrel channel depth and width, it's time to glue up.

Walnut and Ebony are not oily woods. That means you can use a good quality wood glue instead epoxy. Glue up both sides, add the dowels and press together. Compress both pieces together with a pipe clamp, wipe off the glue overage and let sit for 24 hours. After 24 hours take off the clamp and let it rest for a couple of days. You want this to be completely dry.

Now, we're going to do the same thing with the grip cap.

Before I go any further I want to say that you are going to need a GOOD half round rasp. Lee Valley Tools sells a very good half round rasp that does a phenomenal job.

Take your rasp and with the flat side, level off the top of the grip.

Mark your holes for a 1/4" dowel. You've done this with the forend cap, so no need for me to go into detail on this one.

Mark the Ebony cap piece.

Drill and check your work.

You want this piece to be almost finished when you install it.

Groove the inside like you did with the foreend piece.

Glue up and clamp.

When this piece is dried, take your rasp and use it to shape the area around the grip to your liking. I left mine to have a nice palm swell on the right side of the grip. It fits my hand very well.

This is how I have to dress when working on woods. My body reacts violently when exposed to some of the exotic wood dust particles. I don't know how I would do with the Ebony, so I have to gown up in a HazMat suit, asbestos quality respirator and gloves.

The things we go through to have fun!

Here is a shot of some of the tools I used doing this project.

You'll see the Wheeler engineering gunsmithing screwdriver set. Irwin tools makes an incredible drill bit set. These are cobalt and made for working with metals. Brownells AcraGlas Gel for glass bedding rifles. I use the gel because it doesn't run like the regular AcraGlas. The AcraGlas kit contains both parts of the epoxy, release agent...which works very well and black and brown dyes. I also have some Brownells atomized aluminum powder for mixing in with the AcraGlas. this gives the already strong gel another level of hardness.

The large round metal can is Lubriplate. Lubriplate is a white grease that I use for my Garand. I also use Lubriplate for an additional release agent when I glass bed or expoy close tolerance parts.

Also you'll see a spade end drill bit, we'll use that in a few minutes. I have a small chisel and an Xacto knife along with the round rasp and the half round rasp.

At this point we want to keep the Ebony unfinished and unformed. The Ebony block makes a great attachment point in your vise. This will keep the rifle stock away from the vise jaws and allow you to sand, rasp and chisel without problem.

This part of the process takes the most time. Using your rasps and some 80 grit sand paper wrapped around a large socket, you'll need to hog out the barrel channel. Use your barreled action to check your progress. When the barreled action fits perfectly, then go to the next step.

Notice the hose end that is attached to the vise. I have this hose attached to my shop vac to remove dust. I wrapped tape around the end and placed a small 'super magnet' on the end. This is a very handy way to set your dust collector where ever there is metal that attracts a magnet.

Now lets get started with the bedding pillar for the rifle. If you'll notice when you take your receiver out of the stock, the 10/22 only has one attachment point for the receiver. Since we're not going to use the barrel band any longer we will need to strengthen this critical part of the stock. This process will involve making or buying a pillar bed, drilling and inletting an area for the pillar bed...and epoxying everything together.

To start with I decided not to purchase a pre-made bedding kit. I figure that for $20 I could do this myself as it it is pretty simple to do.

I started rooting around for a washer and nut which could do the job. I found a machine screw with washer, which was slightly over 3/4" and a nut. One thing you want to check is that the threads on the nut won't interfere with the threads on the receiver screw. Mine did. So I took the nut and a pair of vice grip pliers and drilled out the threads on the nut. Make sure you use some oil to help cool and lubricate the nut and drill bit when you attempt this...it will get hot. I then took the nut, repositioned it in the vice grips and began to grind the edges, with my bench grinder, to be less than 3/8". No need to make the edges smooth or even. The epoxy will need rough edges to have a surface to adhere to.

Like I mentioned before, the washer was slightly larger than 3/4" in diameter and about 1/16" thick. The bit I used was a 3/4" spade type bit.

Now a spade bit will be flat and have one large protrusion in the center, and two small protrusions on the edges. So when you start to drill, the center will go into your receiver screw hole in the stock, and the small protrusions will start into the wood before the flat cutting edges come into contact. Does this make sense?

I used some JB Weld automotive epoxy and mixed a bit of atomized aluminum powder to give it a bit more strength. When you attach the nut and the washer, you'll need to eyeball it for centering. Now, the epoxy and metal will wander a bit, so don't just epoxy it up and leave it alone, you'll need to compress it. I used my bench vise and made sure that I cleared out the run off inside the holes. You can tell when the epoxy is set by using the mix that you have on your mix paper to test.

Here is a good way to make sure you have this centered. Take the spade bit and without it being in the drill, place it into the receiver hole. Eyeball it up and gently tap with a hammer. The two protrusions will leave a mark. Check to see if the marks are centered...if they are then use your marks as the place to begin your drilling.

Now, you want to be very very gentle at this point. Start your drilling, and if at all possible use a drill press. You want to use the outside protrusions to go to a depth of about 1/16".

Here is what you are trying to achieve.

You see that there is not much wood removed at this point. The spade bit will also give you some 'tear-out'. This means that the outside edges will be slightly larger than the 3/4" of the drill bit. This worked perfectly with my washer and I didn't need to grind any of the washer for a fit. Do you see the area inside the outside edges of the drilled area? Well this needs to be chiseled out.

Using a small chisel takes just a few moments to remove this material. The overall goal is to have your washer/nut combo to be slightly higher than the original bed.

Once you have this done, now let's drill out the area for the nut. Remember I said that I ground down the nut to be slightly less than 3/8"? Well we now want to use the next larger size drill bit, a 7/16" bit. Measure the overall thickness of your nut and mark your drill bit with some tape to give you a reference for depth.

How do we center the bit into the original receiver screw stock hole? If you have a drill press, chuck the drill bit and bring your stock onto the platform. Without the power on get a general idea where the drill is to make contact. Now without a lot of pressure on the stock, turn on the power to the press and GENTLY, GENTLY lower the bit until it barely makes contact. The stock will move as the spinning bit will center itself...now clamp the stock with your hand and drill out your hole.

If you have not done this before you might want to practice with another piece of wood...it works pretty good.

Notice that I have now taken the Dremel tool and routed/grooved the area for the bedding material as a barrel support.

With the holes drilled, check for fit. Again the ideal is to have the washer/nut combo to be slightly higher than the surrounding area.

The epoxy I used for the pillar bedding was some of the inexpensive Harbor Freight 2 part stuff and some atomized aluminum powder.

Tape up the bottom of the receiver and put a small hole so your receiver screw will fit. Use some of the Release agent that came with your Brownells Acra Glas kit. If you don't use Brownells then some Lubriplate grease or any quality lithium grease should do. Make sure you use some grease inside the receiver screw hole and on your receiver screw. Coat all areas where you can think that epoxy might come into contact with wood or metal.

Mix your stuff, insert the barreled action and tighten. You want the barreled action to give you plenty of space in your stocks barrel channel. Mine was up buy at least 1/8" and it was perfect. Let it dry...and leave it alone to cure.

Next we want to tape off the stock and make a dam for the bedding material with modeling clay.

Once you have this done, now take your barreled receiver and tape the bottom and then start applying Release agent. Make light coats. I used three coats and extended the coating along the barrel and into the flutes. Remember Mr. Murphy? This is where he can show up. Apply Release agent to everything...two or three times. If you make a mistake here, you'll have to cut your stock in two and ruin it to get it apart.

Scared? Don't be...just have a healthy respect for the power of this bedding material.

Mix you stuff and if you want to add the coloration to try and match you stock, go ahead. Here is where I made my mistake. Notice in the photo below that the 'cured' bedded flutes are misshapen. What I did was to mix my bedding material, color it and fill up the dammed area. I pressed my bedded action into the clay and inserted the receiver screw. That's how you should do this. My mistake was that I didn't allow for the flutes. They took alot more material than I thought. Once I screwed the action down, I didn't have much in the way of 'squeeze-out.' Squeeze-out is the excess bedding material that should squeeze out of the action. I knew I made a mistake the moment I screwed things together, however, I let it harden to see exactly what I had. This stuff takes about 8-10 hours to harden.

Take a rubber mallet and whack the action to get it to pop out of the stock. Before you do, make sure you remove the received screw (duh) and take an exacto knife to slice away any of the material between the stock rails and the barreled action.

I had a decision to make here. I had abvout 1/3 of the holding area I wanted. So I could leave it alone and be satisfied with a crap job, or chisel the entire thing out and start over, or used this as a base to build on. I decided to take the Dremel and sand out the flutes and rough up the are. I'll redo the bedding part, with an emphasis on filling the flutes.

Now, Mr Murphy decided to poke his head in...I was completely out of brown dye. So I decided to use the Black dye and try to match the color of the barrel. I reapplied the Release agent, made miy mix and re-did my action.

This is what a good squeeze out looks like.

This is what your completed bedding job should look like.

Here are some photos of steaming out a dent.

After you're finished with your bedding job, now finish up the stock.

This is the Gabon Ebony forend piece after sanding and forming. I really like the variegated white color that runs through this wood.

And the finished rifle.

What do you think about this?

Knife Project-Sharpening and Restoration

2009-06-24T03:39:00.000-07:00

There is a saying that you'll hear around the Bait and Tackle stores, "Most fishing lures are designed to catch fishermen not fish."

The same thing can easily be said about knife sharpeners, gun cleaners, hunting equipment...let's face it guys, we're money targets! :-)

I've sharpened knives for many years. I started like everyone else with a Arkansas stone and oil. When I was stationed in Alaska, we'd spend those long and brutally cold nights working on our Buck 110's.

In time I migrated through the ceramic sticks, diamond stones, leather hones, wet sandpaper etc. Finally I decided to buy a small bench belt sander...and haven't looked back.

Here is what I use:

Here is a description of the belts

A. 15µ (Micron) Silicon Carbide
These have electrostatically oriented particles (on a mylar backing) that cut quickly, but leave a near mirror finish. The belts become finer in use as the silicon carbide particles are reduced in size through fracturing. Very controllable, they are ideal for carving tools, but are equally usable on straight-edged tools like chisels. 15 micron is the equivalent of 1000x in Japanese water stones.

B. Blue Zirconia
Zirconia belts are a combination of aluminum oxide and zirconium oxide, extremely hard, long lasting, and very resistant to particle dulling. Designed to grind hardened steels of all kinds, including stainless, the 40x is used for major stock removal (e.g., lawn-mower blades), while the 80x and 120x are for hand tool blades.

C. Aluminum Oxide
Our aluminum oxide belts are all semi-open coat with resin-resin bond and X-weight cloth suitable for general sanding.

D. Grinding Belts
Ideal for use with hardened tool steels of all kinds, these belts are especially well suited for knife sharpening. Their bonded coating differs from the slurry coating found on most sheet or belt abrasives. Made by 3M with electrostatically oriented particles bonded to the mylar backing in a heat-set resin, the belts are durable and leave a consistent finish. Depending on the amount of shaping required before final honing, optimal performance and best value are obtained when several successively finer grades are used. The 1200x belt is suitable for final honing in most applications.

E. Leather Honing
Use these lap-joint leather belts on your belt sander to hone chisels, plane blades and carving tools to a mirror finish. In 1" x 30" and 1" x 42" sizes to fit many disc/belt sanders. We recommend our blade honing compound for use with these belts.

Basically here is how it works, you start with a heavier grit belt to profile your edge and work down in grit size until you get to the leather hone belt. I've never had a system where I could get my blades scary sharp anytime I wanted to.

Here is a word of caution. If you work with knives long enough you'll end up with some cuts. There is a difference between scary sharp and just plain ole sharp. Scary sharp will slice you to the bone if you're not careful. It happens to all of us at one time or another.

Here is a recent project that I just finished. The knife is an old one for sure. I would guess that it is at least 50 years old. The blade was corroded and pitted with it's tip broken off at some point. In looking closely at the blade I see that the person got a lot of use out of it and although it shows a lot of wear and tear, there is probably a great deal of sentimental value for it.

I decided to do a good cleaning of the blade, reconstruct the tip, and then give it a sharpening. I also decided NOT to make it scary sharp, just a good clean edge. Here is the project knife next to an old Western knife which is about the same age.

First of all I dulled the blade. It wasn't very sharp to begin with, but I really didn't want any surprises.

This is the blade tip after re profiling it.

I started cleaning it with my Dremel tool and a felt pad with polishing compound. Here we are halfway complete.

And now with the blade cleaned.

To sharpen, you move start with a medium or heavy grit belt. I started here with a medium grit as this blade is Carbon steel and wasn't in need of some serious metal removal. Three or four passes horizontal in both directions and the main section of the blade is complete.

When you move towards the tip, you'll need to slightly tilt the blade up and rotate it away, making a greater angle on the tip than the belly of the blade. If you don't do this, then you'll remove metal from the tip.

Hopefully this image will show the metal wire which is formed as you move through the belts. You know you're on the right track when you regularly make a "wire" on the blade. The final leather strap polish will remove the wire.

Finished, with a mirrored sharp edge.

What did you think about this post?

Yucatan Rosewood

2009-06-18T08:14:00.001-07:00

I finally got the chance to work on some new wood that I just picked up. This is Yucatan Rosewood. This block has beautiful lines and figuring. I am still trying to get the Ruger MK2/3 grips to the point where they are sell able. Like the 1911's, it's taking me numerous sets and mistakes to get to this point.

I should have the MK2/3 ready to go in the very near future.

Yucatan Rosewood-Sample

Amboyna Burl

2009-06-16T03:10:00.001-07:00

I finished this pair yesterday. This is Amboyna Burl. I love working with this particular wood, except that it is so expensive it certainly gave me a case of the 'nerves' before I did any cutting or shaping!

Amboyna Burl was used in the past as a dash treatment for Rolls Royce and now because of it's rarity you just don't see much of this around at all.

Amboyna Burl-For Sale
Cut for Ambi safety
grip set #003

I have some grips for the Ruger Mk3 that I hopefully will be able to finish this week and post photos.

1911 and Bolivian Rosweood

2009-06-12T07:11:00.001-07:00

I wanted to post a set of Bolivian Rosewood grips I did for a guy over on the MD Shooters forums. I'm posting a photo of the before 'polishing' and then how they look when assembled.

I have enough of the Bolivian Rosewood left for a couple more sets, but when it's gone...it's gone.

I picked up a nice block of Yucatan Rosewood and will do a set for the Ruger MK3 when I get my Haz Mat suit in.

Haz mat suit? Yeah, that and an asbestos quality respirator. My body reacted violently from a build up of Rosewood particle dust, and that put me in the Emergency Room last Saturday evening. My woodworking buddies have all had similar experiences with various types of exotic wood particle dust, so I can attest that making gun grips has it's hazards.

Bolivian Rosewood--SOLD
Grip Set #002

(Before Polishing)

1911 with Wenge

2009-06-11T03:44:00.001-07:00

The wood on this Pro Carry is called Wenge. Wenge comes from the Congo area in Africa. The strange thing about Wenge is it's aroma when you are working with it, especially during sawing...it smells like brownies baking.

Wenge-Sample

1911 with Kingwood

2009-06-10T02:32:00.000-07:00

That in itself isn't that unusual but the wood itself it. First of all an end cut turns out very dark, while a rip cut shows it's magnificent lines. The wood is dense and oily and takes a polish very very well.

With these grips I use one coat of Tung oil. Now with other woods, the Tung oil will absorb in fairly short order and allow me to give another coat to seal it before final polishing. Not so with Kingwood. It takes over 24 hours for the Tung oil to absorb and then it's still tacky. This wood polishes great.

When I finish my pieces I use a combination of three buffer wheels loaded with various types of wax compounds. The wood smooths out and stays 'grippy.'

Kingwood-Sample

Brazilian Kingwood or as it is called in woodworkjing circles, Kingwood is very unique. First of all it gets it's name from the 17th Century when the Kings of Europe preferred that their furniture be made from it.

1911 with Camphor Burl Grips

2009-06-09T04:32:00.000-07:00

Camphor Burl is a joy to work with. The aroma from this wood is unbelievable. Camphor Burl comes from Southeast Asia. If the name sounds familiar it is because this is the tree where Camphor comes from, an aroma with an almost eucalyptus scent.

This burl is highly figured and will look very good on any 1911.

This particular wood is rare and scarce...therefore more expensive.

This particular set is numbered #001 and is for the 1911 model with no cut for an ambidextrous safety.

Camphor Burl-For Sale
Grip #001

Ruger MK3 with Brazilian Kingwood

2009-06-08T15:43:00.000-07:00

This was something new for me. The Ruger MK 3 Hunter is an excellent and accurate .22. I love banging rounds out with this one.

I cut some Brazilian Kingwood for a set of grips. The MK3 is hard to do as there is so much inletting on the inside which leads to higher than average failures...busted grips.

Anyway this was my first good set and I have too many errors to offer this one for sale.

If you'll notice that the griups are end cuts, which due to the nature of Kingwood are very dark. I have some 1911 grips which are rip cut and have a completely different look. Strange wood.

I am working on some Yucatan Rosewood for another set and will post photos when they are finished.

Kingwood-End Cut-Sold

1911 with Bolivian Rosewood Grips

2009-06-07T19:01:00.000-07:00

This block of Bolivian Rosewood has very nice figuring. It took a few attempts to try to get the photos color as close to the actual wood as possible. I guess that part of the business is still a work in progress.

I love how this grip accentuates against the aluminum and stainless Kimber Pro Carry

Bolivian Rosewood-Sample