Ramrod Problem

[JLayne]

Working on final assembly of my Woodsrunner kit, and it appears that oil finish has run down the ramrod hole and now the ramrod won’t fit. Problem is I already finished the ramrod as well. Any way to clean up the hole a bit, or do I just need to sand down the rod and try again? The pipes slide over the hole length of the ramrod easily. The finished rod just doesn’t fit the hole anymore.

The rod was stained with LMF and has 2 coats of Permalyn sealer and one coat of Chambers oil.  The stock got the same treatment, but with 3 coats of Chambers oil.

Thanks,
Jay

[Eric Krewson]

Take a piece of 5/16" rod, peen a small hook on the end, sharpen the hook with a stone and used this scraper to clean out your ramrod hole.

I had a pre-carve with a bowed ramrod channel. I didn't notice this until all my pipes were in place, my ramrod was hitting the opening in the forestock at an angle and wouldn't go in. I made this scraper and easily removed enough wood to have the ramrod slide in like it was supposed to.

This would work well if you had some front lock bolt interference with the ramrod and needed to remove just a little wood under the lock bolt.

[smylee grouch]

Scraping should work,you could also sand it with a strip of sandpaper slipped through a slotted tip on a long cleaning rod

[smallpatch]

Leave the stock alone, redo the ramrod. Much higher percentage of a good outcome.

[Jim Kibler]

Leave the stock alone, redo the ramrod. Much higher percentage of a good outcome.

Yes!  I can't tell you the number of times customers have tried to open up the hole because the ramrod didn't fit.  Bad outcomes from this are all to common.  Sand or scrape the ramrod to fit the hole.  We drill the hole the same size as the rod, so there is a good chance it won't fit from the outset.  This is where tapering the rod in the region that enters the stock comes into play. 

[B.Habermehl]

I’d start with burnishing the ramrod. Simple process set, the rod on reasonabley firm surface. Work bench etc rub the rod with firm pressure useing a polished steel rod. Such as the polished shank of a modern screwdriver where the binding occurs. Try fit and continue. Usually a few go rounds of this will do. In theory this compresses an strengthens the rod as well as reduces the diameter of the rod enough to work nicely. If this fails sand or scrape the rod a bit. BJH

[smylee grouch]

So the rod fit and slid down the hole before you oiled it up? Do you just need to clean out the hole and not expand it?

[JLayne]

Hi Smylee,

Yes, the ramrod was test fit before finishing and everything worked smoothly. In fact, the rod still slides through the pipes without binding. But it will now only go about 4 inches into the stock. My guess is the  oil finish that got into the hole caused the hole to swell a bit.

Thanks,
Jay

[Goo]

You could make reamer or hand turn a long RR drill bit to get the finish out.  It is possible that the wood swelled on the stick and RR.

[Eric Krewson]

I can definitely see how John Q Public could screw up a gun enlarging a ramrod hole. I have a friend who bought a Kibler SMR kit who had "0" experience in building a rifle. I talked him through the process and he still made plenty of goof-ups, what would take me a few hours took him month. He repeatedly did stuff I specifically told him to watch out for and not do. Some people are like the preferable bull in a china shop.

I have built enough guns to finesse a problem and fix it instead of causing more problems.

[bobw]

This is what the guy that manufactured the kit says. “We drill the hole the same size as the rod, so there is a good chance it won't fit from the outset.”

So I would listen to him and if you had not tapered the rod before, it would be a good idea to start there.

[P.W.Berkuta]

I ALWAYS work on the part that cost the least to replace if I screw up!

[Not English]

Jay

 I don't know what diameter ramrod ends Kibler supplies with their kits. I learned to taper my ramrods down to the next size smaller rod end. If you taper it down 1/16" it will fit. You can do this with a small hand plane with blade set very shallow. Pay close attention to the grain. IT WILL SNAG. Do this on a flat work surface. After rough shaping with the plane take some sandpaper and and sand out the ridges and fit the smaller tip. If this doesn't take care of the problem, you need to start looking at the ramrod hole itself, which can be a whole 'nother story.

[JLayne]

Thanks to everyone for the helpful advice. I had tapered the ramrod to fit the hole prior to applying stain and finish to both the rod and the stock, but the ramrod would only fit into the stock about 4 inches once the finish was dry. So, I ended up sanding the ramrod some more with 320 grit paper and got it to fit again. I was fortunate not to break through the stain job on the rod too terribly. It seems what happened is I got one or more dried blobs of oil finish down the hole that was causing it to bind. After some light sanding of the rod, I was able to work it in and out of the hole until it gradually wore the blob down. I will likely leave well enough alone at this point.

Thanks again,
Jay

[TDM]

I can definitely see how John Q Public could screw up a gun enlarging a ramrod hole. I have a friend who bought a Kibler SMR kit who had "0" experience in building a rifle. I talked him through the process and he still made plenty of goof-ups, what would take me a few hours took him month. He repeatedly did stuff I specifically told him to watch out for and not do. Some people are like the preferable bull in a china shop.

I have built enough guns to finesse a problem and fix it instead of causing more problems.

Not meaning to disagree with Jim, but I agree with Eric on this. You can use Eric's method or tape a roll of sand paper on a suitable sized range rod and clean the ram rod channel out. That, plus a ram rod taper will work.

[Eric Krewson]

I used a piece of leather to shim my scraper so it cut exactly where I wanted it to, like any small scraper it takes out dust instead of shavings and is very controllable because it only cuts on the raised side.

[TDM]

And with Eric's method you don't run the risk of loosing your sandpaper inside the channel as I've done. But I've always managed to get it out, sometimes with great difficulty.