in laying swamp barrel

[welafong1]

how do you inlay a swamp  barrel [i think thats how you spell it swamp barrel] the way the barrel is shaped  seems to me a hard task on my figuring out how to cut this with a router is there a jig i can use ?
thank you very much in advance
Richard Westerfield

[Paddlefoot]

I'm finding it easiest to work from the ends toward the middle. I'm doing my first swamped barrel and first gun from a plain blank right now so sure no expert, just how I'm going about it. Once you have though through your whole design and allowed for cast off and cheeck pieces and so on you should have decided where your centerline for the barrel is going to be. Also where the breech and muzzle are going to end up. I set the barrel on the top of the stock and marked where the bottom flat sits on that center line. I clamped the barrel in place the used a marking knife with a flat back to follow the side flats and mark the barrel profile for a few inches on muzzle and breech end. Breech plug is removed before starting this. As the ends are inletted deeper into the stock I am marking more of the barrel profile and working toward the center. I'm not trying for speed here. I'm doing it so I can look things over carefully as I proceed.

[rich pierce]

The most common techniques are:
1) Get it done by someone else with skilz and machines beyond your own
2) the "rails" method where rails with screw holes are placed aside the barrel as it sits in the stock, screwed down to follow the taper, and then the side walls of the barrel channel are cut in to the minimum depth.  Chisels, gouges, scrapers.
3) the freehand method- scribe the sides of the channel, gouge out or plane out the center to get the bulk of wood out, then use chisels, gouges and scrapers.
4) The hand saw method- after scribing the sides of the barrel channel, use a saw with the kerf removed to cut the sides of the inlet, with or w/o rails, then chisels, gouges, scrapers
5) the router method, of which I know nothing.  Sorry, I know that's what you asked for.

[Ron Brimer]

  Richard
        Try Knob Mtn, to run your channel. A "router" set up is very costly indeed.  or do it by hand as above. oh yea its not just a router ,good luck.
    RonB

[welafong1]

thank you
Richard Westerfield

[Dave B]

I inlet  a swamped  barrel  using  set  of fostner bits  and a hand  brace  to  get the the depth  of  the bottom barrel flat  then  use  the wider  ones  to match  the width at each portion and  to the depth of the  side channels. The rest was done with  a  chisel  and plane.  I did it as a  demonstration at  a rondy.  It  took me the better  part of a  Saturday  to get it done. I think everyone should do it once then you can feel good  about letting one  of the fellas that are  setup  for inletting do their work. Its  well worth the  cost.

[welafong1]

thank you
richard westerfield

[Stophel]

Here's how I inlet barrels.  The photos are in reverse order.

www.photobucket.com/albums/v326/Fatdutchman/Flintlocks2

Not exactly an exhaustive tutorial, but maybe you get the gist of it.  

I have gotten it down to where I can inlet a barrel (assuming all goes well) in around 4-5 hours.

[Jim Kibler]

For efficiency I think the best route is to work the channel out U-shaped at least to start.  Once it's down in this channel, you can inlet the corners of the flats if you desire.  The fit does not have to be anywhere near perfect in areas that can't be seen.  As long as there is contact here and there it is good enough.  Original practice was to leave the round channel and perhaps square up the breech and muzzle.  Nothing wrong with this either.  A compromise might be to inlet the corners a touch, but not worry about fully mimicing the contour of the barrel.  

Here is one approach to creating such an inlet.  A large gouge is the first tool used to create the rough channel.   The barrel can then be set in this rough trough and the profile transfered the the stock with a marking knife.  Cut a little closer to your marked line with a gouge or plane and then stab straight down with a big chisel (2" or so wide if you have it).  This will establish the outline.  Cuttin the rough trough close to this line will allow the stabbing in to go easier as there is a place for the otherwise compressed wood to go.  Continue to work the channel with a plane, gouges and chisels until the barrel is fits and is nearly fully down to the proper height.  Smaller chisels can then be used to inlet the corners a touch if desired.  A dogleg type tool that has rows of teeth filed in and hardened works well for this work as well.

[cmac]

James Turpin's DVD Building Muzzleloaders he shows inletting with a router(volume 1 I believe). Track of the Wolf has this dvd

[louieparker]

Seems there are several way to cut in a swamped bbl ..I recently cut one in that was about 63/64 at the smallest point . 1 1/8 at the breech and 1 3/32 at the muzzle   and 47 inches long  . I used a wood shaper with an octagonal blade that was  15/16. Cut the groove to the proper depth for that point on the bbl.then went at it with a chisel .Even with that much wood remove there was still several  hours of tedious work . Louie Parker

[Bioprof]

This is how I laid out the side flats:



I then used a saw to cut the side flats.  I first laid the saw along side the barrel and drew a line corresponding to half the depth of the barrel plus the height of my rails.   This was so  I would know how deep to go.   



Then I used a depth gauge to measure the depth of the bottom flats:



Then you just cut off the excess on the diagonal flats.

Pretty easy.....

[Long John]

I have nothing against the folks that let in barrels for you, I just like to do it myself.  I do it totally by hand and it takes me between 8 and 12 hours to let in a 4 foot barrel.

If you want a copy of my MSWord description, email me and I will send it to you.

Best Regards,

JMC