Thread: A Lee Speed stock

@Shamus if you think that's good wait till you see the finished result. Whilst I haven't had my hands on one of his rifle stocks, they can only be described from the pictures as spectacular.
A lot more people would appreciate them once done with a proper classic sporter style stock

With the spare action inlet down to depth it was time to sit the actual B/A in the wood as far as it would go and mark the barrel channel then start the inlet with a wide flat chisel



With that started the rest of the inlet tool are set out and given a sharpen. A round chisel I shaped to do, the flat cuts at front of action and at the front of the reinforce. A large and small round ended scraper and a pair of small gouges make up the balance of needed tools at this stage.



The first part the needs attended to is the barrel reinforce before the rest of the barrel can be started into the stock.



I take the diameter of the barrel right at the end of the stock where the fore end tip will be fitted and a half of that amount is marked on the face of the stock end as that is where the barrel needs to be set down to.



So still a way to go at this stage.



After some time there is starting to be a show of the smoke marking on more of the channel and when it show the full length and the barrel is down to depth it is time to stop.





With a good clean up of the B/A it is time to leave it for the day.

With the B/A tight into the inlet the unit can be turned over in the vise and the TG sat in between the fixing ears and lined up with the center mark on the underside of the fore stock and fine pencil lines marked for where the start of the inlet will be.



Then there is some short mark, cut and check intervals where the rear portion is settled into place, checking alignment regularly This is a slow process as a very small amount can be removed at a time as the T/G is slowly set down. One thing to remember with the T/G is that the rear surfaces must have clearance for eventual accuracy's sake. There was a bit of chipping with the grain structure at the initial mark out but as there is some depth to go yet that will all be removed later and as there is draft on the metal this allows for cleaning up all inleting as the final depth is achieved.



With the T/G in place there is still some depth to be realised.



This gap is how much the T/G has to be settled in yet but that will be for another day.

This morning saw the trigger guard settled into place and then the magazine cut off plate was also fitted with the appropriate wood removed to allow it to operate. Slow and methodical with a great number of file and fit try's but that is the only way to do this.



It is easy to remove a lot more than is necessary so I prefer to remove a little and try fit without the T/G screwed to the B/A and when that is done screwing the T/G in shows that more is needed and that way there is less chance of over doing the inlet if simply done by measurement

Was able to get back to this today and got the mag well sorted for a nice slide fit for both 10 and 5 shot mags



After that was done I did the reinforce across the rear of the forestock. A channel made and a length of threaded rod in place, it will be epoxied in place and left for the epoxy to set overnight. I have done it this way on all the LE stocks I have done as it strengthens the area but is not visible with the stock in place. Much preferred to the riveted through pin on the standard LE stock.

Outstanding. I was looking forward to the next installment.
I've stocked a Martini and R700/Mausers, but something about the Lee Enfield always just looked too hard.

Originally Posted by Ross Nolan

Outstanding. I was looking forward to the next installment.
I've stocked a Martini and R700/Mausers, but something about the Lee Enfield always just looked too hard.

The big problem with the Lee Enfield action is the back slanting rear of the action Ross so having to inlet with it going forward as it goes down makes for the difficulties.
I have done full stock 577/450's, the 303 Carbines and the cadets as well as many Mausers among others (Rems, Howas, BSA's etc) which are all reasonably straight forward inlets, but the Lee Speed styled stocks on the MLE or MLM are really satisfying to get done, and having had actual Lee Speeds in hand gave me a real affection for them. I have been priveledged to have done about 9 or 10 of them and have done a couple on the Mk 3 LE as well.

Time now to do the forend tip so a piece of buffalo horn had the face trued up on the grinder belt and cut to length



This piece is barely big enough but with very careful measuring it will fit but will leave no room for corrections later. Cleaning up the top face gets it ready for the dowels.



I use a marking guage to set the lines with the horn tip to sit about 10 though higher for later cleaning up to mate the stock top line. Careful measurement with square and calipers has all positions transfered to both surfaces and then drilled in both the stock and tip with the channel taped so any overspill of epoxy is easily wiped off.



With slow cure epoxy mixed with a bit of black dye (concrete dye powder) and it is all clamped together with overspill wiped off it will sit now till after the weekend till I can get back to it.

Time to trim the buffalo horn tip and I find that the fine side of a horse shoe rasp the best for this part of the process and a spacer equal to the height of the teeth above the untoothed end makes a good guage.



With the spacer held under the rasp this allows for the part of the horn that is above the stock top line to be filed down to till almost level and then finished with sandpaper.



The lines for the barrel channel can be marked in and the bulk is removed via any method that works but l was able to use the mill with straight flute cutters to remove most of it then with a coarse rat tail file with the taper is taped up until the straight part is level with a flat surface and that way I know it will not cut outside of the direction I am pushing it. Slow and steady gets the channel to very close and then it needs sandpaper to finish it off. Care needs to be taken so the part where the tape is does not go past the straight section of the channel or damage is done to the chamber end of the channel.





An old barrel is the perfect tool to wrap the sandpaper around for the finishing up of the channel and the beauty of the old barrel is that it can be slid one way or the other untill the right diameter is matched with the channel. It also has the ends ground square so it can be used as a push scraper in the channel during or finishing the process.

With that done it is now that the shaping lines are drawn in and for the bottom line I mark round the top of the trigger guard.



Next I mark in the forestock taper and for this I have a tapered piece of walnut that I have shaped to suit and use it for all barrels although for some rifles with heavier recoiling cartridges, I will add 20 thou extra at each end
The measurements are marked on if some of you may want to make a similar guide.



Straight lines and straight cuts are made to these lines with (obviously) cutting 20 thou or so outside the lines to allow for clean up.



My 2x72 belt grinder with a 60 grit belt is just thing to remove all the extra wood and bring it all to where some actual rounding is needed.



Using the action to mark in the actual lines there is still quite a bit of try fitting and then more sanding repeated till it is down to where I want it at this stage.



Having got the fore end rough rounded on the belt grinder it is time to "shoe shine" with a 120 grit belt until there is a complete round on the bottom of the stock. I have a barrel channel support to save too much vise pressure on the action end of the stock although I also have an old action set in it so there is no crushing of the thinner portion of the stock at that point and a leather protective cover.



Some time later the stock is all at 120 grit sanded so it will stay at this level until the butt stock is down and both parts will be finished at the same time.

Has been a few weeks of getting on top of the knife order book but was finally able to get back to the stock.
First thing was to get the blank through the thicknesser to straighten the flats then to square the top line.



Placing the pattern on the blank I made sure the toe of the stock would have correct grain flow for strength in that area while trying to get the best grain show for the finished stock. I then marked in the comb line, the wrist and the socket lines. Set the bevel off the top and set the saw to cut the socket face.



Cut of the un needed bits on the bandsaw.



Then I sit a spare action on the face of the socket nose and mark round the outside.





with the socket lines marked accross the flats and cut down with a small fine toothed tennon saw it is time to start on the socket tennon. Normally with straight grained wood I would do much of this with chisels but there was grain run in toward the socket on one side so I reverted to my extremely effective French hand stitched Logier rasp and this has been the very best rasp I have ever used, Expensive but worth every penny. Normal rasps have teeth lines up one behind the other do you end up with grooves when you use them but the Logier has teeth that are between each tooth ahead on every line so you end up with reasonably smooth cuts from this very sharp tool.

Video of the making of the logier rasps.

https://www.google.com/search?q=liog...09O3d8y9Q,st:0

Along with the Logier I have a flat and a 1/2 round Japanese Iwasaki cabinetry rasps (https://protooling.com.au/products/s...-file-wide-cut) and the flat is handy here as it has safe edges so after using the Logier to take the bulk of the waste away the Iwasaki is used to clean things up in the corners and at the socket edge.



Using the two rasps in tandem the tenon is slowly worked down with many try fits into the socket.



When the socket fits over the tenon to the stage that the mouth of the stock bolt nut is marking the tenon end it is time to drill the through hole for the stock bolt.



For this I have a 1/2 inch mild steel rod I ground a half flat and off centered cutting end and for the bolt head a larger shanked cutter with a stud to follow the main 1/2 inch hole. The standard drill bit is to allow the stock bolt nut to fit down into the tenon.




The next part takes a bit of setting up to get it exactly right starting with the back board. This is clamped to the edge of the bench so the back is flush/parallel with the edge as this is what keeps every thing in line.

I had a different drill to the one I originally set this up for so had to grind a bit off the top of the drill casing to keep the drill bit parallel to the back board. I am very carefull to get it parallel to both the back board and the bench top as this is one of the critical alignments.



Next is to get the blank in the right place to make the drill and here you can see that the blank needs packing up to center the bit at the correct height.



I have a few pieces of different thickness thin board and some squares of the heavy duty black building paper as they add a few thou at t=a time to make it the right height when clamped tight.

Next I set the drill bit so the flat is vertical and square down to the bench so I can run a line parallel to the back of the bench down far enough to connect with the rear of the blank which has the bolt hole center marked on it.



I had to add a 20 thou shim under the back board to correct the height alignment of the drill bit and with the rear sliding guide in place to stop any drill bit flexing between the drill chuck and the main bit guide fixed to the back board.



It is not a fast process as the bit has to be constantly removed to clear it and the drill itself heats up but it gets the job done.



The result you want to see is the hole centered on the blank and in line with where it is supposed to be.

The counter bore for the stock bolt nut is done and the fitting of the tenon into the socket continues.



And with it settled almost to full depth there is just about 15 thou left to fully seat it home so that is where I will leave it for the day.

Looking forward to the finished product.
Nice work VG

I had asked the customer for his preferred measurements were for LOP, pitch, cant and cast but there is no cant or cast and with the LOP and pitch confirmed, it was now that these came into the picture.
With a pitch of minus 3.5 degrees, I set the bevel at that.



I had been sent 2 butt plates with the preference stated for the one on the left as it has some engraving but it was quite a wide plate so must have been from a heavier recoiling rifle than the 303 so marked in the narrower lines from the other plate. It was strange for the top screw holes being out of center line for both plates, with one being to the left and the other to the right and that caused a bit of thought, as in, do I fix this, but decided that I would not as that would alter the face and top curve so it will be as it must have been on the previous rifle.



I left the plate a bit longer than the marks show and a bit narrower as well to keep the sleek lines the Lee Speed is known for. Having ground the sides I then needed to re-grind the flats on the back of the plate but decided not to take them to the knife edge they had originally been so it added a little more strength around the edge of the plate.


I made a jig many Lee Speeds ago to allow for sitting the comb against an alignment block so the LOP and stock bolt depth can be marked in.



Once that was done the bevel could be held on its top line so the correct pitch could be marked in and having that done the plate shape was marked in as well.



With the butt plate lines cut on the bandsaw, it was back in the vice and the depth marked on the drill bit so I could start the process of doing the counter bore.



With it down to almost the marked length a check was made



With the bolt tapped into place it showed me how much I needed to creep up on the depth.



Having done that I tried to bolt the butt stock into place only to see it try to rotate around a center and with some investigation, found that there was a bend in the bolt right at the thread bolt junction so I made another bolt for it from a standard bolt and cut a screw driver slot in the head. I also made a washer so when bolted up tight it would bear on the washer instead on the wood and this can lead to compression over time from repeated bolting up and removing it.



This then allowed to the first bolt up to show a nice tight bearing right round the socket.



And also the first pic of it in the completed form.