inletting advice

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Ok.  So now I am to inletting the entry thimble.  I started by inletting one of the forward thimbles first and now have to inlet the tang.  There are times when I press the thimble in place and the only black that transfers is along the border.  I am getting nervous about trimming away wood here because that is where the erros will show making the inlet look sloppy.  Do you trim the borders until no more black transfers?  Or do you want to see that black?

If you leave the black around the edge, what do you remove if that is the only place that transferred?

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

First, the pipe must be inlet until a rod will slide through it easily in the rod channel.  Second, a perfect inlet will be ENTIRELY black from the transfer pigment.  So keep removing wood until you achieve that, and the pipe is flush in the rod groove.  Same with the entry pipe, but not as easy as forward pipes.

[Keithbatt]

I'm no expert. Taylor is certainly correct that a perfect inlet will be black everywhere. However it sounds like you may have already inlet deep enough so the rod slides through. If that's the case, and you are only seeing inlet transfer along the edges, then you may not be able to achieve a perfect inlet because portions are already too deep.  Certainly for aesthetics, you want the edges to be uniform and showing no gaps.

If the thimble can still go down without the rod binding, slowly do so to obtain more even contact, if not, stop where you are. I know it's sacrilege to some, but if you want more contact, or a tighter fit, a bit of acraglass might fill the void of a too deep inlet. 

[Dennis Glazener]

I find that using a short piece of ram rod (that fits the pipe) works well for me. I put my Prussian Blue on the entry pipe/extension, set it in place then use a clamp to pull the ram rod down in the rr channel. Keep removing wood until you get a pretty solid contact all around. Stop when the rr slips in and out of the thimble with out snagging on the bottom of the thimble.
Dennis

[54ball]

There are times when I press the thimble in place and the only black that transfers is along the border.

  This works for me. With a sharp chisel sideways carefully scrape the black away or go straight down with the chisel flat side to the work. This is done by hand with a bench chisel...no mallet,  the chisel needs to be sharp.

Do you trim the borders until no more black transfers?  Or do you want to see that black?

 Only if it needs it. You have to think when you use the black. It's very easy to become a black removing automaton. Tight sides will show black,,,that's what you want. If it has already moved past there's no need to remove the black.
 Example......
 Your rod slides easily into the the entry thimble but the tang is still proud on the fore stock, the inlet shows even black. If you remove all the black the tang will still be high. To bring the tang of thimble down, only remove the black from half the pipe back since the front is where it should be.

Do you trim the borders until no more black transfers?  Or do you want to see that black?

 If you remove all the black, eventually the stock will be gone.

If you leave the black around the edge, what do you remove if that is the only place that transferred?

 If you are high and have black on the edge and nowhere else, That's what's holding you up so it needs to be removed. Round thimbles will mark very thin lines on the edge like that.

 

I am getting nervous about trimming away wood here because that is where the erros will show making the inlet look sloppy.

 On the Gillespie I took the rails of the ramrod channel down to reveal 3/4 or more of the ramrod. A good bit of my careful pipe inlets wound up as dust on the floor.
 Always think ahead....The lock inlet was great on that rifle when the wood was high.....when I took the wood down little gaps opened up. It worked out but that's why you need to be neat and true even beneath the surface. The surface now....likely will be shavings and dust on the floor after shaping.

 A lot of this is just doing. It's a skill set that takes time and the only way to really improve is to do it and learn from mistakes and success..




 

[Mark Elliott]

Don't neglect to LOOK at your inlet.   You judge when you are done by when the inlet is tight and the thimble Is flush with the bottom of the ramrod groove.   I don't worry too much about how the inlet looks under the thimble.  I just try too get it relatively tight around the edges and to bottom out without rocking.

[EC121]

Don't do like I did and beat on the tang.  It will spread sideways and only hit on the edges.

[Jerry V Lape]

I find it pays to really stop and think about what the black is really telling you.  Sometimes the black around edges is there because you didn't insert the part cleanly, or rocking against something.  Need to translate the message. 

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

I started by inletting one of the forward thimbles first and now have to inlet the tang.

I don't think I was clear with this.  What I meant was in order to inlet the entry thimble, I inlet one of the other thimbles in place of the entry thimble.  Thus leaving me to inlet the tang-part of the entry thimble.

It is that tang that is giving me grief.  I blacken the inside and right now it only transfers black to some of the sides of the inlet. Unfortunately it is not ready to quit yet.  It transfers black to two sides, but it is nowhere close to flush with the stock.  The back end is still proud. 

Second, a perfect inlet will be ENTIRELY black from the transfer pigment.

  I hope this is to be considered more of an ideal than a minimum necessity!

[Mike Brooks]

I find it pays to really stop and think about what the black is really telling you.  Sometimes the black around edges is there because you didn't insert the part cleanly, or rocking against something.  Need to translate the message. 

There you go, best advice you could possibly get. You might take a look at my building tutorial, it probably covers this.

[Cory Joe Stewart]

This is one of the trickier parts of building for me.  I think the culprit may be what EC121 is mentioning.  The sides may have gotten flared out while working it. 
I have found success with starting with the tang inlet.  Imaging the tangle and thimble being lowered straight down.  Which means the thimble itself is the last potion to inlet.

Coryjoe

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

What I'm getting from your post is that the pipe part of the entry thimble is inlet fully, but the tail is still not down into the wood.  If that is the case, your entry pipe has too great a step from the pipe to the tail, or you don't have enough wood along the bottom of the stock.  The solution is to remove the tail from the pipe, reduce the height of that transition, and silver solder the tail back onto the pipe. Pictures here would be very telling...