AWWWRG.........

[B.Habermehl]

I just "finished" a spec gun a couple days ago. I took a moment to look it over today. The sliding wood patch box that fitted so snugly that I waxed the dovetails to insure easy withdrawell now fits so loosely that the spring will no longer engage the butplate. The wet weather we have been having has been giving me trouble in my shop with water running across the floor and having to mop it up every day. This gun being built on a preserve the patch box lid must have come From a different piece of wood and has a seriously different shrinkgage rate than the rest of the stock. Luckily the gun has no owner waiting for it so after normalising a couple of weeks upstairs in the dry part of the house either the patch box lid will fit or I'll be making a new lid with the spare lid blank.
P.S. The spare lid blank is now upstairs to normalise........

[smylee grouch]

I wonder if a guy could shim up the dovetail and tighten the thing up that way? I dont have an idea as to how you could do it but someone here might have done something similer.

[bob in the woods]

I have used plane shavings, to tighten up dovetails on instrument repairs. Remember that on an a rifle, the dovetail lid only has to tighten up as it comes to the closed position. I'm not certain I understand your problem though, since the dovetails usually tighten up as the wood swells, not the other way around?
in other words, dry wood plus humidity = stuck patchbox lid.

[Jerry V Lape]

Put a little extra varnish on the buttstock portion of the dovetails and it will probably snug right up. 

[Long John]

When making a wooden butt-box lid I generally undercut the fron of the recess and extend the male dovetail across the front of the lid.  This way if there is shrinkage width-wise the front undercut and the latch at the back hold the lid in place.  The longitudinal shrinkage for wood is far less that the lateral shrinkage.  However, if there is water flowing across the floor of the shop ther ejust might be too much variation in dimension to keep that wooden box lid where you want it.  Perhaps that is teh reason why metal box lids became the norm.

Best Regards,

JMC

[Telgan]

Any chance you could show us a photo John?

[Acer Saccharum]

The dovetail at the head of the box pulls the lid down once the lid is in home position. The lid can be a little sloppy from side to side, yet it is captured pretty good once the head dovetail engages.

[cmac]

Seems as if the shrinkage is that great you could add a thin piece of wood to the dovetail and file as needed. Could even get decorative with it and add some thin silver or brass. I once had a lid shrink on me but it had too much play front to back and I just made a flat staple with some brass and tacked it in where the front flat of the lid met the lid mortice on the stock

[M. Wheland]

BJ,

 Sounds like you need to move the whole shop upstairs to normalize.

[Long John]

Telgan,

Acer beat me to the punch!  You can see that the front of his box cover will be captured by a corresponding undercut in the mortice.  When the spring clicks down into the butt plate the front is held by the undercut.  This allows for some extra space between the mortice and tenon of the sliding part of the dovetail without the threat of lid loss.

Thanks for the pic, Acer!

JMC

[Telgan]

Thanks Acer for the photo - And John for the comment. Wonder how many others are using this technique. Anyone seen a historical example just out of curiosity?

[B.Habermehl]

Yes Mark I'll have to agree with you. But my wife would not appreciate me making all the saw dust etc in the living room. So the troll has to stay in his dungeon. The next few projects will come upstairs after each nights work though.

[M. Wheland]

the nice weather we've had here in central PA this week makes you want to move your shop outdoors !