Building a rifle from a plank (My question thread)

[Tennessee.45]

I'm just going to make one page for my questions.

I'm in a mild panic right now, I'm in the process of inletting my barrel in the blank and I know that the inlet is ugly but I have no idea how to get the flats in the barrel channel. I want to do this myself just to say it's mine, but I'm really temping to send it off.

[Sidelock]

There are a whole host of answers here - I'll just make one suggestion - others will fill in more I'm certain.  Most original guns had a rounded barrel inlet channel, little or no attempt was made to carve flats in the inlet that match the barrel.  Since you have already begun the inlet job and are having problems I suggest you just shoot to get the barrel set into the stock at proper depth and not worry about full wood to metal contact in the barrel channel.  Save that detail for the next one.

[little joe]

If you have a good side fit do not worry about it. If you are worried about it use some bedding compound and get on with the project. I do all of mine from a plank. If you want to be a gun stocker and not a kit assembler you this is the only way you will learn. Built my first gun 45 yrs ago and it was  sight to look at, mismatched hardware no correct shape but pretty good inletting A nice shooter it was  and a nice sows ear. No American Longrifles then to help you and no internet photos.  If you keep at it you will get better.

[smallpatch]

I'll have to disagree with previous posts.  Don't bed the barrel, inlet the @!*% thing.  If you've got a good fit on the sides, blacken the bottom flats, and scrape/chisel for full contact.  True, it doesn't show, but it will be good practice in a place that only you know, and you will be much more proud of the completed job.
Don't start sloppy habits now, and you'll be a better builder for it.

[T*O*F]

If you are starting from a plank and are using a straight barrel, lay the plank barrel side down on the floor and put your barrel against the front.  Draw around the octagon.  Using this as a reference, cut a square channel that is the depth of the bottoms of the right and left side obliques.  Then smoke your barrel and place it in the channel.  It will show where the bottom flat is.  Cut another square channel to the depth shown on your outline at the front.  Then proceed to remove material from the sides until the barrel bottoms out. 

This can be done by hand or by using a router, in which case you would use straight cutters for the straight channels and a 45 degree cutter to remove the side material.

[Tennessee.45]

I'm using a swamped barrel, I stil have a bit of wood to remove before I get to the final depth

[David R. Pennington]

I lay out to the smallest dimension of swamped or octagon to round and start there. Gouges and chisels will get you close. Knife cut to keep from tearing out along lay out lines. I made scrapers from old files. Inlet black, candle soot, or even cheap lipstick applied with a brush will show you where wood needs to be removed as you start to set the barrel in. Just be careful as you get close it is easy to take too much out at the breech because as you pull the barrel out muzzle first it tends to mark more in the breech.
I will also use table saw sometimes to hog out and set depth. I plane top and right side square and true and lay out. Use rip fence and set depth to correspond and make the cuts for minimum dimensions, then chisel out the waste, and scrape.

[Long John]

Tennesee,

Send me an email and I will send you a MSWord file on how I do it.  It is actually not that hard if you take it one step at a time.

Best Regards,

John Cholin