Thread: New lightweight stock

Looking forward to the progress shots.

Bit of catching up to do here - mostly recovering from my catastrophically dumb mistake. If you missed it, there's the perfect amount of clearance to cycle the bolt, but not enough to remove it! It's pretty embarrassing, but that's what prototypes are for.

First step is to chop out the absolute minimum of material required to remove the bolt:


You can also see here that I've bedded the action.

Then comes blending the new shape in. A lot of work with rasps, files etc:

This was a bit scary as I was more or less free-handing the design, rather than having spent hours working it out in CAD and letting a robot do the fine work for me.

Then I shaped a plug to go in the cavity that was left behind, and glued it in place. I should have taken more care with the fit of this, as I'm not really happy with how it turned out - but the next prototype won't have this mistake to cover up, so I'm not too worried


When the epoxy had cured, I started sanding off the machining marks and smoothing things down.


Because the timber is so sensitive to grime and dirt, I layed down a thin coat of epoxy just to seal everything up. Really brings the colour of the wood through!

I spose I can probably skip ahead a little bit now, got a few new bits back - shortened barrel, DPT, fluted bolt and unnecessarily expensive trigger guard.
I ended up rushing the last bit of sanding on the epoxy, but I'm confident I can re-finish it pretty well.



I've already got a big long list of stuff I want to change for the 3rd prototype;
- re-design the comb for a bit more fatness, and the proper clearance for the bolt
- recess the trigger guard properly, and just buy a Remington aluminium one (or similar) rather than get one CNC'd in China
- flatter forend for better sitting on a bag or harris-style bipod
- skinnier grip (particularly at the very bottom
- figure something out for grip... not super keen on going down the path of chequering, but I'll see.
- better channel forming around the barrel, and less ridiculous structure in the forend (sling stud reinforcing)
- design the swivel sling studs into the stock, rather than add them later

A whole bunch more stuff will no doubt shake out as I use it some more, but for now I'm very happy with how it handles

More pictures for those of us that lack imagination please!

Sent from my SM-G800Y using Tapatalk

Just read the whole thread and what a talented bugger you are.
Awesome work.

Very nice.
For the grip, there is a technic where you braise together three rounded point nails so their points are at the same level( you might have to cut the heads of two of them) and you gently mark the grip area buy hammering them in your stock. It is the style of finish of a lots of target rifles handles.

What an awesome thread. As I was looking through I saw your mistake with the comb height on the redesign and thought "Its too high, the bolt will foul". an idea for grip though lay out a pattern and use a ball end on you dremel to make round divots, you won't have to cut in far. Glad you went with Talley one piece rings rather than a rail. I'm guessing that's where you ended up with the high comb height.

Great stuff, well done.

What ply wood were you using when you were looking at making a laminate one?

The 1st prototype in ply was just cheapo pine. The 2nd prototype is 4x red beech laminates. I dunno if the laminates are strictly necessary, but it gives me peace of mind that it's very unlikely to move with normal moisture / heat fluctuations.

awesome awesome chalkeye , how you like the exped?

"figure something out for grip... not super keen on going down the path of chequering," what bout inlet epoxied rubber strips?

I'm still keen to hear about the next run,
Why have you chosen not to use he factory bottom metal? is it just to reduce weight?
I'd be very keen to use the original plus the other mods you mentioned,
I was planning if you could machine me the roughs to do my own stippling in the grip and fore end.