Building from a blank: do you make a blueprint every time?

[rich pierce]

This is sort of a poll. Maybe indicate if you are at the newbie (in regards to building from a blank), journeyman (plenty o times) or pro builder level.



Situation #1: you have a blank and will hand inlet the barrel and make your ramrod groove and drill the ramrod hole. Will you make a blueprint for your build using your parts as a guide?

Situation #2: you send your blank out to have barrel inletted, ramrod groove made, and hole drilled. Will you make a blueprint for your build every time using your assembled parts as a guide?

Do you you find you can use a purchased blueprint and that is perfectly sufficient or you tweak it because of custom parts or architecture needed?

[jerrywh]

 Every gun I build is different so I have to make plans for every one. I don't buy any parts any more for my top guns. I cast all my own parts or fabricate them. The only thing I send out is if I need steel cast. I make patterns and waxes for the steel parts.
 Long rifles are different. I buy parts for them but usually modify them. I haven't built a gun from a kit since 1963. The first one cured me. I have only built one percussion gun in my life. About 20 years ago I got tired of inletting barrels and made a pantograph for that.
 
 

[mark esterly]

I'm not in the same league as you guys but I did just finish my first one from a plank using only hand tools except for the touch hole liner. no blueprint was used.

[KLMoors]

I've only inlet one swamped barrel by hand.  Don't want to do that again. I also had to inlet the double barrels for the shotgun I built last year. That wasn't too bad.

 I am assuming you mean a blueprint for a new gun that I've never done before. For that, yes I drew a full print for the two completely unique (to me) ones that I have done. (A Twigg "copy" and a double barrel flint shotgun.)

All of the others that I've built from blanks were very similar to pre-carved guns that I've built before. So in that case, I don't draw a plan.  Just draw the pattern on the blank and send it out to have the barrel inlet and ramrod hole done. I go back to the pictures I took of the  one I built prior and go from there.

[P.W.Berkuta]

I first square up the stock blank then I draw a rifle profile of what I am building on the wood.  I draw on my barrel, lock, trigger/s, & butt plate location on the stock blank. When I'm happy-- I inlet the barrel then do the ram rod channel & drill it, trim off excess wood, then inlet the lock, then the trigger, then the butt plate (after it is shaped on the inside & rough sanded on the outside). I then start to refine my rough shape from the butt to muzzle and keep going from there . Probably missed a BUNCH of in-between steps but you get the idea .

[bob in the woods]

I guess I'm a bit weird, 'cause I don't find the inletting of barrels by hand to be a hardship.
I just finished an oct/round .62 swamped barrel inlet and it was done during the course of a day in the shop. I stop at times to do other things.  I tried using "rails" but found they were more trouble than they were worth.  Sharp chisels , gouges and proper sized scrapers make the work go quickly.
I make plans for locating the major components so that I get the basics done right. Sometimes the wood will convince me to change the architecture 

[bama]

I layout the rifle on the blank, locating all the major parts, lock, triggers and guard, face of the breech plug, thimbles and lenght of pull. I also hand inet my barrels and drill my ram rod holes. I have found that I can do a rifle quicker and for less cost inletting my barrels by hand. I have less down time in my build, I don't lose the days cost by shipping and I save the cost of shipping stock and barrel both ways. I can inlet a barrel in 6 to 8 hours and do a ram rod in about 3 hours and they are where I want them to be.

[oldtravler61]

Never do blue prints either. 39 years in a machine shop cured me.Not a pro by no means.I look at pictures. Get an idea of what I want an wing it. Laying out the parts on the stock really does help. But blue prints some how make me feel like I'm doing what someone else has all ready done. Imho

[PPatch]

I find drawing and sketching helps tremendously when planning/visualizing a project. I don't do a full length drawing if I know the style and have a plywood template for that style. But just to know I'm heading in the right direction I'll do a pretty detailed drawing from the lock panels back and I will use the actual barrel, lock, triggers and butt plate for that gun to aid in drawing/locating everything. Once I get the stock blank squared I transfer the dimensions to the blank and draw it in pencil on the blank although not in great detail, just enough to know where I'm at on the blank.

So far I'm doing the barrel inletting and RR channel myself, sure takes me longer than some have mentioned, two, two and a half days using chisels a homemade scorp and rails for the barrel channel.





I guess that puts me in Situation #1.

dave

[Mark Elliott]

I only do Situation #1.   I make/prep all my parts/mounts first and then I layout everything on the stock blank.   Stoking is the last thing I do.   I make sure I have lines for the barrel and buttstock centerline as well as the outlines of the stock on both the vertical and horizontal.   I locate the touch hole and the sear bar.  I trace the bottom line of the barrel very carefully and layout bottom line of the web from that.   I also mark the upper/lower forearm transition point.  I also make sure I have the line of the bottom(top?) of the ramrod groove/ramrod hole established very clearly as I will use it to cut that line.  

For stock outlines I have made before,  I have templates that help me with the layout.   It takes an hour or two to do the layout once I have all the parts and a template.    

[smart dog]

Hi Rich,
I draw all my own plans regardless whether the barrel is inlet by me or someone else.  I would not dream of making a gun without a plan because the I pay so much attention to design.  None of my guns would be successful if I did not.  I could never have made my recently posted swivel breech gun without a good drawing.  I could never have gotten the architecture right for the "Star of Bethlehem" if I did not draw a plan. I could never have gotten my Wogden pistols right without a plan.  Planning and drawings force me to think and by thinking I avoid a lot of mistakes.

dave

[Acer Saccharum]

I used to make a drawing, now I don't.

I use an inlet service for the bbl and RR. With barrel in place, I then get an idea where the touchole will be, and position the lock. This gives a Length of Pull, so I can fix where the buttplate will be. Now I can make the stock profiles, from the side view. I then inlet the butt plate and lock, which gives me enough info to make the profiles from the top view, and start the shaping process.

If I like the gun, I can then make a drawing from it.

[J. Talbert]

Well I haven't yet.
Might have saved me some trouble a few times.

Jeff

[okieboy]

 I do my own inletting. I fuss over the plan (but I am a fussy guy), that is the part that I enjoy the most. After I have my paper print satisfactory, I make a thin plywood template which I will keep. I layout the fore stock on the blank using a 48" straight edge and high grade machinist calipers, then align the plywood template over the fore stock and use it to trace the wrist and butt stock. I always leave the butt area a little long and trim it in after the lock and triggers are in so that I can control the length of pull carefully.

[flehto]

Send the bbl and blank out for inletting and RR work. Have never made a plan, or used a blueprintt. The layout is drawn on the blank w/o much detail......except for the web at the breech end and RR  hole....Fred

[Thom]

I built four Pennsylvania rifles starting in 1994, it's been a while. I drew all out full size on paper before touching the stock. I inlet the barrels by hand and drilled my own ramrod holes.

Building from a blank adds a whole nother dimension to rifle building that those that have only built from precarves miss. There is a plethora of possible mistakes that cannot be made working with a precarve.

Thom

[Mike Brooks]

I don't inlet my own barrels. I inlet the first 16 by hand then found Fred Miller. I make a paper pattern for every gun I build. I then use that pattern for a template on the side of the blank.

[Jamie]

I'm a rookie, just about to get my feet wet.  I'm ordering parts parts and a blank stock from Chambers.  Doing some reading, I saw where one builder recommended making a full size template.  I plan to do this as it will let me check how it fits me as well as getting the bits and pieces in the right places.  I'll trace the outline onto the blank then redraw the plan on the blank.

Jamie

[L Moler]

The first few years I built, I made a full size drawing of the rifle I intended to come out with on paper.
Any more, I just draw the profile on the side of the stock blank so I can saw it out on the band saw.  Then everything else comes right out of my head..
I have an idea of what I want the gun to look like and order the parts before hand.  However, haven't ordered any parts in a number of years, just working with stock on hand.
I generally have Dave Rase inlet my barrels for me..  I don't have any problem doing it, but Dave makes it easy.

[Thom]

Good for You Jamie, for using a blank for your first build. I am a retired engineer and draftsman, so I enjoy the drawing part. The fact is that if it doesn't work on paper it won't work with wood and metal.

Thom

[Mark Elliott]

I wanted to clarify my no plan statement.   I don't do a complete technical drawing, but I make lots of sketches and do lots of figuring.   I sketch out all the decorative components before hand and I sketch out the mounts I will make.   These are just sketches and I often vary from them in the execution.    I approach what I do as an art.   

[jerrywh]

 L Moler.
 Are you Loyd Moler of Idaho?

[Dave B]

Hi  Jerry, He is the very same. He and Dave Peelgren have a great mountain rifle restoration that I think sold here on the site awhile back. I got to get finger prints all over it when I visited David in Spokane this last summer. A very cool piece of work and a honey of a rifle.  I like drawing out a plan to make sure of my direction. But the last couple I have laid out have been just drawing on the side of the blank. I use Dave Rase to do my barrel channels and RR groove and RR hole. Top notch workmanship. I will never inlet a swamped barrel again as long as Dave is around or his wife. She can run the pannograph from what Dave tell's me when she's not working the horses.

[WadePatton]

A neophyte I am, but I've only built from a blank.  I've had assistance with the ramrod groove and hole each time (2 are "in process").  Layout is done on the side of the blank.  Barrel is let in, then everything else, then pared to shape.

Have commercial full--sized drawings for general reference.  Also have my first little "bundle of errors" for reference on how to _not_ do some things.

[jerrywh]

 There are a lot of good gunmakers in the NW. that most people never heard of. Dave Pelegreen is one. I haven't seen Lloyd for about 10 years or more. He has a great personality.