novice lesson number 237

[foresterdj]

Well, OK, I have not actually been counting, but this hobby seems to be full of tiny lessons.

Yesterday I decided to start the inletting of the fancy Jaeger entry pipe with it's long top piece. I had read somewhere that it helps to get the barrel portion inlaid down to depth fist, so the inletting of the finale can just slowly work its way down. So I took one of the forward ram rod pipes as a pattern and got the barrel inlaid down it turned out nice and tight on the sides and nice and flush with the bottom of the channel. Certainly the best ram rod pipe inlay I have done to date.

Then I started working the actual entry pipe, pivoting it down into the existing inlet as I went. After a few hours, with it about 80% there, I noticed how gappy it was along the sides. I thought what the heck, I have not cut anything there. So I grabbed the one I used as the inlet pattern and it goes in nice and tight. What? I grab the calipers and the entry pipe is 0.045" smaller than the forward pipe that I used, so a gap of 0.0225, the thickness of a good patch, on each side. Well $#@*, chalk that up to lesson 237.

I will fill it with something later.

[rich pierce]

On my current build somehow the ramrod groove got wider than desired and when I inletted the thimbles I didn’t like the look. So those thimbles went in the box and I made 3 a little larger.

[Nordnecker]

Ah, Yes. The old “sudden design change”. Been there, done that.
I haven’t built a longrifle for 4 or 5 years, now. But I do remember that the entry pipe is a tricky thing to get right.
I’ve been building guitars. Often times, the thing that gets you is confidence. You think, I’ve done this before. I know I can do it. But you aren’t as careful as you were the first time you did it. You didn’t spend hours anguishing over every little detail, or I think, Maybe I can get this done before going to run an errand or something. You miss some little detail and you don’t realize it until it’s too late.

[TommyG]

I have never bought into the "inletting a front pipe first" technique for the entry pipe.  Maybe because for the most part I fab my own pipes and know that they will for sure be deviations in the sizes, not by much, but there will be differences.  I simply level the gun with a small line level, then insert a tight fitting dowel into the entry pipe and take it home that way using the line level on the dowel to check every now and then as to keep the pipe level as I inlet.