Hollow under rib

[Mike C]

Does anyone have any tricks or advise for fitting a hollow under rib to a swamped barrel? I am planning a late flint half-stock English rifle and will be using a hollow under rib to save weight. The rib will have to be filed to mate with the barrel flat and the sides of the rib will need to be pinched together or spread to match the varying width of the barrel flat. Trying to do all that bending and filing while keeping the rr groove straight sounds tedious.
Mike C

 

[mark esterly]

check this,  also put  your question in the search box.
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=29600.0

[Ryan McNabb]

It's a fussy fitting and soldering job, but should go smoothly enough.  What exactly do you mean by keeping the RR groove straight?  Straight in reference to what?  Do you mean a straight visual line from muzzle to breech?  I don't see why it can't parallel the bottom line of the barrel...is this rifle based on an original?  What was done there?

[bob in the woods]

If you want to save weight, you can be authentic by using a wooden under rib.  I have seen a couple of guns built in this manner.

[Dave B]

Mike, I have done one that was round taper and flared. I used a combination of squeezing and grinding. I first put the rib on and used a series of clamps to hold it in place and check the areas of most concern. The interesting thing was I though I had done a good job of cleaning up the barrel in prep for the soldering but putting that under rib against the swamped area showed all kinds of uneveness. I marked the front section for the grinding and went at it slowly. I used Prussian blue on the barrel to transfer on to the rib for making the fit precise. Here is a shot of the barrel with the newly soldered rib in place.

[Pete G.]

My vote goes to the rivet method for an octagon barrel. I've done a few like this and it really comes out well. Although I have only used this method on both a straight and a straight tapered barrel, a late styled swamped barrel should not have very much flare to it either, so  the rib should fit up fine.

[Mike C]

Thank you all for your responses. One of my issues is the fact that the under rib I have is not milled but formed from .032" sheet. I am afraid  it would be too flimsy for rivets, and the waist of a C-wt .54 swamped barrel is only .79 giving a wall thickness of about .125 not including the groove depth. I am not up to sinking rivets in that thin a barrel.  My intention is to hard solder the thimbles to the rib, then soft solder the rib to the barrel.
The original English rifles I have been able to handle have straight RR groove that is slightly diverging from the bore going from muzzle to breech. The base of the rib must then be filed to the contour of the barrel flat and the sides of the rib bent or filed to match the varying width of the barrel flat. I am sure it would be much easier with a milled rib.
Mike C

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I used one of those sheet metal ribs on my own Hawken build.  I bought it from LC Rice at Dixon's fayre in '09.  Chuck Dixon was also selling them in his store on that same weekend.  It didn't take a lot of filing to get it to fit the taper perfectly and a swamped barrel is just a double taper with perhaps a short straight parallel section.  I cut recesses to receive the rod pipes, silver soldered them to the rib, and then soft soldered the rib to the barrel, just like Dave did above.  I agree that the 1/32" sheet metal rib is too thin to rivet to a swamped barrel, unless you were to use copper rivets, and go shallow in the thinnest section of the barrel.

The rib I used on this latest Hawken build I bought from MBS and it is milled and is considerably thicker than the sheet metal one.  It took rivets wonderfully.

[Acer Saccharum]

I'd get myself a solid rib that I could mill/file and rivet without issue.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

In all of the original under ribs I have seen on antique rifles, including images of like guns, the rib has a much thicker section along the inside of the rib next to the rod concave, if that makes sense.  There is lots of metal there to take a countersink and a rivet head, but the sheet metal one is not heavy enough for this.

[Dave B]

One of our members posted this photo and I copied it to my stash of pic's. It is from an original rifle cut back through the rivet and shows clearly the style of the forged under rib. The new milled ribs that LC Rice is making are comperable.

[Mike C]

I picked up an English style barrel from Rice at Friendship earlier this month and was planning to get a piece of rib as well.  They no longer offer it.
Mike C

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I like the ones Muzzle Loader Builder Supply offers, on the recommendation of Herb.  Excellent rib, after filing to improve the sides.

[ironwolf]

  An ebony rib would not be out of line on this rifle.

  Kevin

[Old Ford2]

I "HATE" ebony!
I have worked with it many times.
It is hard to see the grain, every thing is going great.......then all of a sudden a crack appears, and zip your work is screwed.
Try and turn a small piece on a lathe!
Black painted aluminium is much easier! Yech!
Back to ebony
Seriously, I have taken hickory and soaked for several days in Fiebing's black leather dye, it works well, and you can't tell the difference.
Fred