Thread: Another Paulownia CF stock build

My second effort, this one for a REM Model 7 708. Pretty much copy of Model 7 factory stock but with a longer LOP to suit the shooter (long arms) plus a slightly raised comb and a check swell.
Pictures tell the story easier than words.
Starting with shaping of the 10x2 Paulownia block, cutting out rough profile, then start shaping the butt section first before working into wrist area.
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Next marking out and cutting the barrel channel, action and action screws, bottom metal cut out, etc.





Once happy with action and barrel fit then set up bedding pillars before bedding the action using Terminal Ballistics kit. Then final cut out of mag and trigger wells prior to shaping of fore end and final tidy up of wrist & butt sections. At this stage wood stock with bedding job weighed in at 424gms, plus another 132gm for the Limb saver recoil pad.






Now the “fun” starts - filling barrel channel and action areas with plasticine before base epoxy coat then the CF wrap once the base epoxy reaches tack stage. I have yet to find a good way to get the CF to stick down neatly in areas like the wrist and pistol grip. Large flat surfaces & one dimensional curves are pretty straightforward but tight complex curves and ends are tricky. This is the ugly duckling stage , CF on and epoxy coated.


After 24hrs then clean up of the CF epoxy by sanding back the raw edges and joins then full sand with 120 grit before next 2 coats of epoxy. Starting to look better. A few areas around wrist needed patching with epoxy where there were defects from the wrap stage. Fill, sand rinse and repeat.


Third coat of expoxy before cutting out the barrel channel, action and bottom metal and removing the plasticine. Then a fine sand (180 & 240 grit) before final coat.




Pretty happy with the end result. Finished stock weighing in at 586g and 723g with recoil pad. The factory stock is around 1100g, so a weight saving of ~400g.





All up with bare rifle weighing 2.393 kg or ~5.3lbs, a 16in bbl.

Awesome work, where are you getting your paulowina from?
How far "undersize" do you make it before you build it back up with carbon?

Great to see you popping them out. I'm at the CF stage for a sako finnbear, i wasnt going to CF it but gave in lol. I've been giving them a spray coat with a Matt lacquer after a final sand. takes the gloss out all together

Looks good

Would there be any problems/challenges in building one of these for a Blaser R8?

Originally Posted by makka

Awesome work, where are you getting your paulowina from?
How far "undersize" do you make it before you build it back up with carbon?

Thanks
Paulownia from Graham Smith info@paulownianz.co.nz

First one I built I made the mistake of not thinning it down enough thru the wrist area. This one worked out much better , the epoxy & CF adds about 1-2mm, but can be more in places if the CF cloth does not bind down tightly to the base epoxy when you apply it. As I mentioned in the write up some areas are hard to get the CF to stick & not distort.

Thanks Scott, yeah been debating a final matt coat with the rattle can

Awesome job well done

Originally Posted by chainsaw

Thanks Scott, yeah been debating a final matt coat with the rattle can

Or 1200 wet n dry sand paper to take the sheen off

Originally Posted by Rich007

Looks good
Would there be any problems/challenges in building one of these for a Blaser R8?

Hi @Rich007 I’m not familiar with Blaser rifles but from memory they have a unique receiver design. I imagine the cut out and fitting of this might be quite tricky.

what are your dimensions for the paulownia?? neighbour's are possibly going to chop down a huge one shortly and it has a good size trunk on it.

10x2 in

Originally Posted by chainsaw

Thanks
Paulownia from Graham Smith info@paulownianz.co.nz

First one I built I made the mistake of not thinning it down enough thru the wrist area. This one worked out much better , the epoxy & CF adds about 1-2mm, but can be more in places if the CF cloth does not bind down tightly to the base epoxy when you apply it. As I mentioned in the write up some areas are hard to get the CF to stick & not distort.

Have you tried using vacuum bagging for the epoxy, you can make a cheap set up using an old fridge compressor, I use to make kite and surf boards out of paulownia with fliers and fish tails and the vac bagging helped in getting the carbon or FG cloth to fit complex curves. The other benefit of vac bagging is that you will get a lighter finished product as you dont tend to use as much epoxy as hand layups

Bloody looks good chainsaw, well done I always thought paulownia would make a good stock with glass over it, I have built a few things from paulownia in the past and its a real nice timber to work with

@Rich007 @chainsaw an R8 stock would be doable but would need to be a bit inventive. The chassis insert wouldn’t be too much of a problem with a router/mill. It is mainly rectangular. The rear bolt into the chassis comes up through the pistol grip, getting the angle right need need some careful alignment. The slots that the bolt rail slide in can get quite thin walls. You would also need to have a threaded sleeve installed for the front “washer” to be screwed down onto.

Originally Posted by stug

@Rich007 @chainsaw an R8 stock would be doable but would need to be a bit inventive. The chassis insert wouldn’t be too much of a problem with a router/mill. It is mainly rectangular. The rear bolt into the chassis comes up through the pistol grip, getting the angle right need need some careful alignment. The slots that the bolt rail slide in can get quite thin walls. You would also need to have a threaded sleeve installed for the front “washer” to be screwed down onto.

Thanks @stug