Norm,
Really enjoy your posts and hope after WKU is over, you will continue to post your photos of your progress and comments on your successes and pitfalls. We all learn from guys like you and Curtis. Just don't be like so many of the rest of us that still have rifles from WKU that sit in our shop or gun safe unfinished. Thanks for your sharing.
elkhorne
Elkhorne,
Thanks for the nice words and encouragement. I will certainly post my progress as I continue to work on this gun. I now have it to a point that I can do more work at home on it. I started last year, but did not touch it until arriving at WKU this year. And I am glad I didn't, because I would have made mistakes without the amazing instruction I've had here. just when I think I know the next three steps, I find out I was wrong....
if you have the plans for the Oerter rifle, then you could build #43 as well since the profiles are quite similar (same shop, not exact, but very close and discernible only by the critical eye). If you have photos, then you could see the difference.
I built this gun using an order of steps that was not optimal, because I wanted to capitalize on time in class with an instructor. I will do it more rationally the next time.
At the end of two 9 day classes, this is where I ended up. I am not fast, and that's okay for now. Speed will come with repetition.
Lock, trigger, and trigger plate are in. Trigger guard is mostly in, but I wanted to establish the trigger guard mortise so I could do some shaping (because I wanted to optimize learning).
I did not pin the trigger guard because I knew that I would likely remove wood at the nose of the guard and have to inlet it further. Again, out of order to maximize learning.
The ramrod entry pipe is now inlet. I learned a lot forming and inletting it. The optimal way to do it is to form the tail over a shaped mandrel. I did not do this. The next optimal way is to gouge out the correct profile into a piece of hardwood and peen it into that. I did not do this either. Instead, I created a 3/8'ths inch dimple in a piece of plywood and peened the bump-up on the entry pipe thimble over that. Needless to say, it was rough ( I did feel a bit craftsman-ish about it though....). I will not do that again.
I eventually got the finial somewhat close the profile of the stock, and figured I would inlet it, then beat it into shape and then file it to final shape. That's pretty much what happened in the end. Again, I would recommend creating a mandrel or at least a wood form. Another guy in class created a wood form and punched his entry pipe finial into it and it came out beautiful right away. Mine, not so much. Here we go:
high res image hostingLots of filing left to get it right.
Lastly, here are some hand made RR pipes, placed randomly and not inlet.
Please consider this to be a build along, and criticism is quite welcome. I intend to show the learning process, not expertise.
Cheers,
Norm.
