Barrel Channel Gap

[greymount]

I am in the process of building a precarved 45 caliber 7/8 barreled Vincent Ohio half-stock rifle.  I had the barrel, tang, lockplate and trigger plate inletted and was ready to drill the tang bolt and barrel pin.  The inletting was tight, however, there was a small gap near the nosecap area probably caused a twist in the stock.  To solve this problem, I placed the barrel channel area in a bucket of water up to the breach area for about 2 hours and then returned the barrel to the the stock.  The stock was clamped at the tang, at the lug pin area and at the nosecap area.  Everything looked nice and tight.  After about 4 days, I looked at the gun and to my horror, there were major gaps on both sides of the barrel and even on the front portion of the tang area where it got wet.  Right now the barrel is extremely loose and there is a 1/8 inch gap along the barrel on one side and 1/16 inch gap on the other side.  Normally, I would think that wood would expand when wet and not shrink causing these major gaps.  To fix this problem, I was thinking of completing the process over and this time use hot water and clamp the barrel to the stock on the same areas and also on the sides and see what happens.  I could also bed the barrel, but I am concerned that this would be very visible because the wood on Vincent rifles is very thin and feathered along the barrel.  Any ideas?   

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

You might try wetting the wood, installing the barrel, and binding the whole forend tightly with bed sheet strips about 1 1/2" wide, and then maybe inner tube strips on top of that.  You have to hold the wood against the steel until it is thoroughly dry.  I don't envy your predicament.

[John Archer]

Taylor is spot-on as usual. The secret is to let the stock dry out before removing the clamps and/or wrapping material.
Soak the wood in hot water until it is saturated. Wax the barrel or cover it in saran wrap. Place the barrel in the stock and wrap the whole thing tightly with surgical tubing..leave a little space between each wrap to facilitate drying. Set aside until it is absolutely dry...this will take a few weeks. It'll be fine.

John.

[smylee grouch]

I had a similer situation and did the wet and tieup thing, only I put some wood strips inbetween forarm edge and surgical tubbing, dont know if it would have worked without that but it did work the way I did it. I left it for almost a week.  Good luck whichever way you try.   Gary

[Jerry V Lape]

Taylor

Referring back to a question I asked about straightening a ramrod, why wouldn't it work to heat the wood with a couple heatguns or heat lamps with oil as they use to bend buttstocks on shotguns.  Wrap the wood tight to the barrel as you progressed along from breech to muzzle and let the whole thing set to cool.  Probably need two guys to have enough hands to accomplish the task.  What do you think?  

[greymount]

Where do you get surgical tubing?

[rich pierce]

A slit bicycle tube will work as well and cost less and be easier to find than surgical tubing.  Go to a local bike shop and ask for a tube from a fixed road bike flat tire.  If you ask to take a pocketknife and cut it straight across at the valve, they'll trust you're not trying to get a tube to patch.

[Ben I. Voss]

Brownells has surgical tubing. Good luck.

[Mark Elliott]

Wetting the entire stock is just going to make things worse.   The outside will dry before the inside and you will end up opening up gaps.  You want to use the differential swelling and contracting to close up those gaps.   The way to do it is wet the inside of the barrel channel only and then replace the barrel until the barrel channel is completely dry.   DO NOT wet the outside of the stock.    What this will do is cause the wood on the inside of the barrel channel to expand opening up an even larger gap, but that is temporary.   When the inside of the barrel channel dries,  it will shrink some compared to the wood outside the barrel channel.   This will close up a small gap.   You can repeat this process two or three times.   I have used this a time or two to close up the barrel channel some.   The caveat is that the sidewall of the barrel channel must be even, no nicks or gouges. 

Mark E.

[Waksupi]

If it is necessary to bend wood, you are better off with strong ammonia. Soak the wood for a couple days, then bind it in place. It will evaporate away much quicker than water. I use this method when building violins and mandolins, to get the extreme curves required in the sides.

[Birddog6]

WoodCrafts has the surgical tubing, should that be wanted.

[Dphariss]

I just watched a demo on bending stocks (good grade English shotguns and such) a week ago. The only thing used was a simple bending jig (for cast off in the demo) and heat lamps.
No oil, no chemicals, no water. Just heat. But some experimentation may be needed with positioning the heat lamps to avoid scorching the wood.
Water and gunstock wood is a VERY bad mix if more than just a surface wipe.
Dan

[Ky-Flinter]

Something we taught in Boy Scouts......  If you have loose ax head, don't soak the head in water in an attempt to tighten it up.  The wood will swell, crushing the wood fibers, then when it dries, the head is even more loose.

Is this a similar situation?

-Ron

[ChipK]

Most hardware stores carry sugical tubing.  I have made many a sling shot out it.

[bluenoser]

I have purchased surgical tubing at Lowe's.  I agree with Rich regarding strips of bicycle tubing.  It makes a great and, as with surgical tubing, adaptable clamp.  It is amazing how much pressure you can apply with a few wraps of that stuff.  I try to always keep some in the shop.

Laurie