When to pin barrel lugs and ramrod pipes?

[Grischi]

Do you drill and pin your barrel lugs and ramrod pipes prior to shaping the stock or afterwards?
Thank you for your advices.

Christian

[TommyG]

Much easier to do when the blank is square.  Whether with a drill press or by hand, it's much easier to pick up an accurate hole location on a flat surface as opposed to a contoured one.  So, yes before shaping. 

[smart dog]

Hi,
TommyG is right except I urge you to trim as much excess wood off the fore stock still leaving the stock square before drilling the holes.

dave   

[Mike Lyons]

   Here’s a tutorial by Mike Brooks that will guide you through the process.  I’m on my 5th blank and I still follow it. https://americanlongrifles.org/PDF/tutorial.pdf

[Rt5403]

Do you drill and pin your barrel lugs and ramrod pipes prior to shaping the stock or afterwards?
Thank you for your advices.

Christian

Where did you get that kit or did you piece it together yourself?

[Grischi]

Thank you all for the advices.
Summary:
I will inlet the pipes but leave the shape square and slim the sides down nearly to the width of the finished stock. Then drill everything and pin it temporarily with longer pins.
Sounds manageable. 😀

Christian

[Grischi]

Do you drill and pin your barrel lugs and ramrod pipes prior to shaping the stock or afterwards?
Thank you for your advices.

Christian

Where did you get that kit or did you piece it together yourself?

The kit is from Stifter's Gunflints, a german dealer. I assume he puts his kits together from parts of his shop. He has a good range of parts imported from the U.S. in stock.
The barrel for this kit is a 31", .50 cal. Rice Jaeger barrel and the lock is Davis Jaeger lock. The stock is a plain maple stock, manufacturer as for the other parts not indicated.

Christian

[flehto]

I do the drilling of the RR pipes and bbl lugs after the stock is pretty well shaped. As shown below, my drill press setup using my  very  accurate vise and w/ the top bbl flat clamped against the permanent vise jaw yields holes that are perpendicular to the bbl and stock.....Fred

]

[Bigmon]

My first projects were all from somewhat rounded or preshaped stocks.
Then when U had my own tree wood I went totally from the plank, squared.
Everything as far as drilling holes straight and trued were so much easier, and the results so much better I now leave everything square or at least some areas flat and square as long as I can.
I think that is why most preshaped stocks I have seen still have square and flat areas, to aid the builder.
It was alot tougher for me to work the stock into shape I wanted, but in the end, worked out just fine.  And for me at least more of a sense of accomplishment.
But to each his own.
I am not very good at most of the aspects of gun building, but I am purty decent at hole locating, drilling and pinning.
Finally, I leave my pins long so I can just pull them rather than remove with a punch.
Adios and good building

[Bob Gerard]

After lining up the lock placement and getting it inlet, Followed by the trigger, I like to begin working on the buttstock first. Then I do the fore stock and work my way towards the lock and wrist area from both directions.
When I get to the pinning part of the forearm I like to pin the ramrod pipes in first so the tabs can be cut and filed so they are flat to the barrel channel. Then pin the barrel afterwards. It may not be the best way but it seems to work for me (an amateur kit builder).
The metal tool is a pinning jig by Bob Boggs. (The wood thing is a depth gauge I made to determine where the pins would go.) The pinning jig is very helpful in guiding and drilling quite precisely even if rounded sides. Simply locate entry and exit locations and tighten it. I make a small divot pilot hole if I am pinning through rounded surfaces like a precarved rifle forearm.

[flehto]

The "C" type drill jigs do work and are accurate but are very slow compared to other setups....as w/  my setup shown  in a previous pic.

Forgot to mention that 2 parallel clamps are used on both sides of the bbl lugs when drilling w/ my setup to ensure that the bbl is tight up against the stock and  before releasing the clamps, a pin is inserted into the hole and the clamps moved to the next hole location. A size dowel that's shorter than the pipe is inserted and  the pipe  is then  clamped down into the inlet for a very tight fit.....Fred

[Grischi]

Thank you all for your suggestions and thought.
Recently I aquired a Proxxon FF 230 milling maschine. It can be used as a drill press as well.
I think I'll it a try. The fore stock will not be shaped prior the drilling.
Unfortunately, I have to wait about 4 weeks continouing my build due to an injury.

Christian