Tapered Ramrods

[jerrywh]

Like Dave Race
     I taper the rod and the hole. A tapered hole has two advantages in my opinion. It makes the stock stronger in the lock region because it leaves more wood there. It also lessens the danger of coming out the bottom of the stock or blocking the front lock screw.
 I do not go to the bother of tapering the rod from the entre thimble to the muzzle but I may consider that in the future. I never saw a gun of Dave races that I didn't like. They just have a special look and maybe that is why. It's the little details that make the big difference.
  People tend to generalize about the originals. They were never always the same just as today. I am positive you can find them almost anyway you want to.  You can always find an original to justify any mistake you want to justify. 

[Dave B]

For those of you who have never seen the rod tapering tool sold by Mike Lea
this is one I picked up from him at the CLA show a number of years ago. They are spendy but work very well and I do not regret the price. It was $75 that I paid back in 2001, I am not sure what they are going for now.


You can see the various blocks with the size rod they will turn. It works like a pencile sharpener and requires the use of a drill or lathe to turn the rod while you apply pressure to the bar just above the wood stop block. The cutter stops cutting when you bottom out on the block. I saw a similar tool on E-bay that was found in england. It was made of box wood and used a single blade. It  was about 4" wide with the hinge  and cutter on oposite side of the handles and you sqeezed the handles to gether to cut the rod down to size. The discription was for a fishing pole turning tool. It was the only one I have ever seen.

[Stophel]

Wow, I taper my rods with a block plane and a scraper...

I taper the hole to aid in clearing the front lock bolt (it needs all the help it can get), and there's no sense in having a straight hole if you have a tapered rod, plus, it's just a neat feature that very few people do.  I can do it easily enough, so why not?

If both are tapered, the rod won't stick, or at most, it might get tight, but you still have a chance of getting it out, whereas with a straight one, you're screwed. (the same as with tapered dovetails for a wood box lid)

[Benedict]

It has taken a while to catch on but I finally did.  Several people mentioned tapering the hole along with the rod.  Tapering the rod can be done several ways.  But while I can think of ways that MIGHT work to taper the hole, I am not sure any of them would work.

How do you taper the hole?

Bruce

[Stophel]

I drill the hole with a 5/16" bit, then ream it out with a square tapered reamer I made from a piece of 3/8" round.  It was a LOT of grinding and filing to make it, but it actually works, and works quite well, which still surprises me.

[Benedict]

That sounds like an interesting tool and I can imagine that it was a lot of work.

Where does the hole actually end up?  If your channel is 5/16 and the reamer is 3/8, then i would guess you have to open up the channel to accomodate the 3/8 rod.  Then do you deepen the channel or just widen it.  If you deepen in then your tapered hole center line remains the same.  If you widen it then it seems that your original center line will have to move down. 

It would be great if you could keep the top of hole where it is and taper the bottom up.

Anyway it is something to consider.  Thanks.

Bruce

[Stophel]

I just cut the groove at 3/8", and lay in the 5/16" drill, and drill away.  I actually don't fret as much over it as I used to.  Then I put in the reamer and ream it out.  When I do it this way, it tends to ream more on the bottom, evening it up with the rod channel, and keeping the hole from (hopefully) running into the front lock bolt.