Author Topic: Barrel & ram rod channel machining  (Read 5409 times)

Offline Keb

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1193
  • south Ohio
Barrel & ram rod channel machining
« on: April 06, 2014, 08:20:03 PM »
I've been cutting in my own for ever but decided to take a blank to a stock carver to save some time & effort. I got a quote and dropped the stuff off and waited for the call. It didn't take long, maybe 2 weeks. I went to pick the stock up and the ram rod hole busted out of the bottom of the stock. I looked at it and tried to figure out what to do. Well, the machine man got angry when I told him the stock was fire wood now and I could never sell a finished gun with a patch like it would need to cover it. He proceeded to tell me how it was my fault because he cut to a pencil line on the stock AFTER the barrel channel was cut. He told me it wouldn't have broke out if he had not cut it. He then started banging a piece of wood on the work bench, telling me how much he gets an hour for his work, what a poor gun builder I must be, and more stuff I choose to leave out of this post. Anyway, More words were exchanged and then I ask him the price for the stock. He said nothing so I didn't pay him. I took my stuff and left. As I was going out the door he told me to never bring him any more wood to cut. I told him I didn't see that as being a problem after the customer service I received. After I got home and was looking it over, I noticed he had a price penciled on the stock. $90.00 for the barrel channel and N/C for the ram rod hole.
I have thought about what happened for 2 days & I think I am going to send him a check for machining the barrel channel anyway.
« Last Edit: April 14, 2014, 05:27:25 AM by Keb »

Offline rich pierce

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Posts: 19453
Re: Barrel & ram rod channel machining
« Reply #1 on: April 06, 2014, 08:22:20 PM »
You're a peacemaker, Keb.  Good man.
Andover, Vermont

Offline tallbear

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Posts: 4051
  • Mitch Yates
Re: Barrel & ram rod channel machining
« Reply #2 on: April 06, 2014, 08:24:34 PM »
Keb

Send your barrel to Dave Rase or Mark Wheland next time.I can attest to the fact both stand behind their work!!!!!!!!!!!

Mitch Yates

Offline Keb

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1193
  • south Ohio
Re: Barrel & ram rod channel machining
« Reply #3 on: April 06, 2014, 08:26:17 PM »
I've pretty much decided to continue cutting my own in at least until the arthritis stops me.

Offline Mike Brooks

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13415
    • Mike Brooks Gunmaker
Re: Barrel & ram rod channel machining
« Reply #4 on: April 06, 2014, 08:44:59 PM »
I wouldn't pay for. I'd also ask for a replacement stock.
NEW WEBSITE! www.mikebrooksflintlocks.com
Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'?

Offline Dennis Glazener

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Posts: 19466
    • GillespieRifles
Re: Barrel & ram rod channel machining
« Reply #5 on: April 06, 2014, 08:49:54 PM »
Quote
After I got home and was looking it over, I noticed he had a price penciled on the stock. $90.00 for the barrel channel and N/C for the ram rod hole.
I have thought about what happened for 2 days & I think I am going to send him a check for machining the barrel channel anyway.
Keb,
You always have to live with yourself, I would probably do the same then later think how dumb I was for it but if I didn't do it then I would feel even worse!
Just because some people act like the north end of a south bound mule is no reason for us to follow suite ;D
Dennis
"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend" - Thomas Jefferson

Offline bob in the woods

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4557
Re: Barrel & ram rod channel machining
« Reply #6 on: April 06, 2014, 08:59:23 PM »
I would never have anyone do any work on a stock/blank, who wasn't familiar with long rifle stocking.
Same as a " carpenter/ cabinet maker is not the guy I'd choose to repair an acoustic guitar or violin.
Just my 2 cents.

Offline T*O*F

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5118
Re: Barrel & ram rod channel machining
« Reply #7 on: April 06, 2014, 09:15:49 PM »
I'd probably pay him for the barrel inletting, then fill the ramrod hole and re-drill it myself and cover the breakout with a forestock inlay.  Stuff happens!!!  If I was on his end I would have asked you, "What do you want me to do to make things right."  Anger solves nothing on either end and everything goes south when it happens.
Dave Kanger

If religion is opium for the masses, the internet is a crack, pixel-huffing orgy that deafens the brain, numbs the senses and scrambles our peer list to include every anonymous loser, twisted deviant, and freak as well as people we normally wouldn't give the time of day.
-S.M. Tomlinson

kaintuck

  • Guest
Re: Barrel & ram rod channel machining
« Reply #8 on: April 06, 2014, 09:29:19 PM »
So....your wanting to pay someone for ruining your stock?
Like paying your mechanic for fixin a flat when busted the windows out of the car door...... :P

Nope.....I don't give bonuses out for bad work, or being treated bad!

Dave keck at knob mountains, dunlops woods..great people,!!!
....develop better professional contacts, there are are those that will stand behind the work, and/or make it right!

Besides.....this guy didn't know how to drill the RR correctly.....I have done some myself by hand....I measure measure measure.....drill slow, clean chips every 1/4"......so far, I have 5x5 correct.....because I think I care when I do something. Sounds like he tried to blame you!.....it was his hands on the drill!

Nope....wouldn't pay him anything.

Offline Keb

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1193
  • south Ohio
Re: Barrel & ram rod channel machining
« Reply #9 on: April 07, 2014, 03:32:56 AM »
woods bob; the fella is a stock carver and has been in business carving BP gun stocks for years.

TOF; I patched the blow out which isn't the issue. I'm sure the patch will not be noticeable when the gun is finished. I had to add a 1/4 inch  patch to the belly leaving less than 1/8" between the belly & hole. I think it looks acceptable now but that patch will always reflect my work, not his.

Kaint; I'm going to pay him for what he did do, not for what got messed up. I'm not paying for the busted out hole. It's not that he didn't know how to drill the hole, he certainly does. He just cut too much off the belly I believe after the hole was drilled then blamed his mistake on my pencil lines. I was a tool & die maker for 35 years. The 1st thing I learned is everyone makes mistakes. Owning up to them is the hard part. Accepting the blame for one's own mistakes is humbling and hard on the ego.
« Last Edit: April 14, 2014, 05:28:02 AM by Keb »

Offline Topknot

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 463
    • www.yahoo.com
Re: Barrel & ram rod channel machining
« Reply #10 on: April 07, 2014, 04:09:20 AM »
Keb, your decision was the right one. What some must remember is that you went to him and asked him to inlet it, even though he didnt know what he was doing. I applaud you for holding up to your end of the deal.

                                                                 topknot
TIM COMPTON, SR.

    layover to catch meddlers!

Offline Acer Saccharum

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Posts: 19311
    • Thomas  A Curran
Re: Barrel & ram rod channel machining
« Reply #11 on: April 07, 2014, 03:50:50 PM »
I was a tool & die maker for 35 years. The 1st thing I learned is everyone makes mistakes. Owning up to them is the hard part. Accepting the blame for one's own mistakes is humbling and hard on the ego.

Very thoughtful observation.

Tom
Tom Curran's web site : http://monstermachineshop.net
Ramrod scrapers are all sold out.

Offline Pete G.

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2013
Re: Barrel & ram rod channel machining
« Reply #12 on: April 07, 2014, 04:12:28 PM »
Every thing you do comes back to you in one fashion or another. You did the right thing.

Offline Don Getz

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6853
Re: Barrel & ram rod channel machining
« Reply #13 on: April 07, 2014, 04:53:24 PM »
Many years ago, back when Jim Chambers made a pattern for his early lancaster rifle, he offered  a stock to me that had the
ramrod hole come out on the underside of the stock.    It was done by Bob Lepley and he glued a dowel into the hole and
redrilled the ramrod hole.   I bought the stock from Jim and I then talked Bob Harn into building a rifle from it.  It was probably
one of the best contemporary guns I have ever owned.  I had it for many years and sold it to a collector last year.   As for the
patched ramrod hole, you could see it if you examined it closely.   I also remember when Allen Martin came over to our shop
and he had a gun that he was building and it had a hole in the wood just behind the entry pipe.  Allen just removed too much
wood and went thru to the ramrod hole.   We talked him into finishing the gun and to just make the hole to look like it was
just "worn" thru.  He did and it was a great gun, sold it..........Don

Offline Keb

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1193
  • south Ohio
Re: Barrel & ram rod channel machining
« Reply #14 on: April 08, 2014, 04:10:19 AM »
It's not my 1st ramrod hole to bust out through the fore stock.
At least I did this one. And yes, that is blue paint. :)