Pre-carved

[eddillon]

Oh the woes of a "pre-carved" stock.  Building a rifle for a charity auction.  Ordered a pre-carved kit.  I want it to be fairly close the original.  Original had .250 inch steel ram rod.  Yes 1803 Harper's Ferry.  The pre-carve came with a significantly undersized ram rod hole drilled.  Looks like about .210"-.215".  Ram rod has a smaller diameter threaded end.  About .210".  I am looking for advice.  I happen to have a brand new, unused .253" reamer for metal.  It is about 5" long.  If I silver solder or braze this to a piece of .250" drill rod, do you think I can open the RR hole without a catastrophe?  There is a shoulder or chamfer on the reamer that would allow it to enter the hole.

[smylee grouch]

I have done it but check to be sure the barrel loops clear your reamer when you go by.

[eddillon]

Plenty of room for the single loop.  Would like to do it before loop installed.

[smylee grouch]

I might be wrong but if I was going to do it I would have the barrel in the channel and use some bees wax on the bit and clear the chips often.

[eddillon]

Barrel will be in the channel with the rib in place but no barrel loop.

[KLMoors]

I find that lots of ramrod grooves need to be lowered (towards the barrel) on pre-carves.  That is pretty easy to do to the exposed groove, but the section that is hidden is obviously tougher.

I've opened them up a little by getting a rat tailed, round rasp of the appropriate diameter.  Heat up the tail and bend it up to 90 degrees.  I glue a 2 inch section of 3/4 inch dowel onto the bent tail to make it more comfortable to hold.  Put the barrel in, flip the gun upside down, and press down towards the barrel while you work. 

I don't know if this will work to take off as much as you are talking about though.

[P.W.Berkuta]

Oh the woes of a "pre-carved" stock.  Building a rifle for a charity auction.  Ordered a pre-carved kit.  I want it to be fairly close the original.  Original had .250 inch steel ram rod.  Yes 1803 Harper's Ferry.  The pre-carve came with a significantly undersized ram rod hole drilled.  Looks like about .210"-.215".  Ram rod has a smaller diameter threaded end.  About .210".  I am looking for advice.  I happen to have a brand new, unused .253" reamer for metal.  It is about 5" long.  If I silver solder or braze this to a piece of .250" drill rod, do you think I can open the RR hole without a catastrophe?  There is a shoulder or chamfer on the reamer that would allow it to enter the hole.

Why not attach a letter"F" drill bit to the drill rod and use that -- that reamer will get "choked-up" with the chips and jam in the hole. There is no clearence for the chips and will jam up the reamer. The reamer is for metal and designed to remove only about 0.010" max of metal from a undersize hole. The drill bit had deeper flutes and will not clog as fast.

[eddillon]

Thanks for all the suggestions.  I think that the size F drill bit is my best solution.