Thread: Stock duplicator. Who's got one ?

I look at the concept,see just how popular carbon fibre stocks are...pick up my huckery ugly super light paulawina stock and can't help think there is a neich for basic super light semi finished stocks. The fitting action bits the hardest most fiddly bit. If machine gets it close the rest should be much easier.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

I look at the concept,see just how popular carbon fibre stocks are...pick up my huckery ugly super light paulawina stock and can't help think there is a neich for basic super light semi finished stocks. The fitting action bits the hardest most fiddly bit. If machine gets it close the rest should be much easier.

I will admit that the practicality of synthetic stocks in NZ is hard to beat, how many stocks can spend a few weeks in Fiordland and then the summer in Central Otago and maintain the same point of aim impact with the first shot.
Saying that NOTHING beats the beauty of nice wood, but lets face it, the majority of wood stocks aren't sealed properly for the rain, low humidity, heat and high humidity New Zealand hunters actually hunt in and even well sealed stocks will move.

Is there a market for wood stocks in New Zealand where the blank is taken and turned into a slightly oversize finished stock with the majority of the inletting done?
How many here would like something like that?
How many would like to supply the stock blank? and how many would like the blank supplied by the person operating the pantograph?

Remember what you see on the outside of a stock blank is different to what you get on the inside, knot holes, checks etc can show up when a blank is finished

Just to give you an idea on the below stock the checks, knot holes etc were filled with dust from the stock blank and epoxy glue, while they show in this photo, they aren't obvious in the finished stock.

When you add in the other criteria we all crave....cheap... It becomes problematic. Can't help but look at adverts for 6.5x55 kits of the 80s. They came with semi finished stocks. We just don't see anything like that anymore. My carpentry skills are basic at best. Getting the action to sit right is the hard bit for me,the final shaping and exterior finish is no big deal for me...rather it be a tad rough so it gets used lol.

Also..,the wood warps thing. Yeah once upon a time it was a thing,but....rifles of that era were seldom bedded properly if at all.free floating barrel channel solves a lot of it.combine decent bedding job into Knox area with free floating barrel and stock doesn't have much to tweak no matter how much it tries. Sealing internal faces of stock is easy enough to do while it's apart. Ive killed far more scopes than ever had point of aim move because of stock movement.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

When you add in the other criteria we all crave....cheap... It becomes problematic. Can't help but look at adverts for 6.5x55 kits of the 80s. They came with semi finished stocks. We just don't see anything like that anymore. My carpentry skills are basic at best. Getting the action to sit right is the hard bit for me,the final shaping and exterior finish is no big deal for me...rather it be a tad rough so it gets used lol.

That word in red is the problem, while you have the fixed cost of the stock blank maybe $150 to $2k+ the real cost is the time taken to prep the pattern for the required project, the time taken to actually perform the work, the return on the machine, maintenance, cutters etc.
If producing a corncob finish then the action area and outside take more finishing but the cost is less, if producing a 1mm oversize finished product with minimal work required to finish the inletting then the cost increases.

Everyone wants everything CHEAP but no one wants to work for nothing or receive 80% of what it costs to produce.

I can't get over how cheap some of this stuff coming out of China is, especially when you can't even buy the materials to make it here at the cost of the finished product out of China.

Those kits in the 80's were bargains but there was a lot of cheap Walnut back then and those kits took quite a bit of finishing.

To give you an idea, that two piece stock above was US$1200 for the blank and duplicating, how cheap do people want?

Currently duplicating one by digital eye ometer

Originally Posted by akaroa1

Currently duplicating one by digital eye ometer

Attachment 262866

Attachment 262867

How much time have you got in that so far?

I will add there are exceptions,
The below was a US$80 blank off ebay, shaped on a duplicator then finished the owners friend who is gunsmith with excellent stock making abilities.





The below shows the finished stock from post 30, I sent a couple of blanks of NZ Walnut to my friend as a gift both of them are in this pic and both were shaped by Mike Kokolus who did this for a living.


I have thought about building a stock pantograph, but so far have resisted the urge

Beautiful...simply beautiful.