What’s the secret to Efficiently inletting an Allentown butt plate?

[J. Talbert]

I’ve been slowly walking in the heel extension on the Allentown BP in order to bring the lower portion of it into contact, but it is painstakingly sloooooowwwww.
It’s no doubt too late for any different approach on this one but who’s got a clever trick to speed up this process???



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Jeff

[rich pierce]

I’d get rid of about 90% of the extra wood. Roughly shape the buttstock. Then you won’t be working in a huge hole.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Rich is right!  Cut away most of the stock's wood down to the butt plate and it'll go much faster.  Here's an example:  Brian's rifle from last winter...

[J. Talbert]

Thanks Rich & Taylor.  I hear you about the excess wood, but I haven’t even gotten to the curvature of the bulk of the plate.  What I’m dealing with right now are the side to side taper on the heel and the radius at the transition from the heel to the face.  I guess I’m just to wimpy, but the slivers I’ve removing from the side walls and the top of the radius are moving the BP forward ever so slowly.

Thanks,
Jeff

[Eric Smith]

Pass the popcorn, please.  I'm watching to see how this is resolved. Butt plates are my enemy.

[Stoner creek]

Pass the popcorn, please.  I'm watching to see how this is resolved. Butt plates are my enemy.

Ha!!! Buttplates should be your friend, especially the brass ones! Entry pipes should be your enemy!!!!

[rich pierce]

If you get rid of the excess wood you will likely find it goes much faster.

[Dennis Glazener]

Pass the popcorn, please.  I'm watching to see how this is resolved. Butt plates are my enemy.

Ha!!! Buttplates should be your friend, especially the brass ones! Entry pipes should be your enemy!!!!

I agree with Stoner Creek, always enjoyed inletting a buttplate, crazy I guess, hate entry pipes and even though easy to do I don't like thimbles either.
Dennis

[Mike Lyons]

Keep on keeping on. Use some sort of inletting black to show you where to remove wood.  It’s slow going  at this point but will finally fit.  Keep an eye on your comb line.

[martin9]

I feel this is related enough not to start another topic....anyone have any tricks for inletting a long, intricate comb buttplate, like a Jaeger?

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

The bottom line with this and every other aspect of building muzzleloading guns, is there is no short cuts or tricks...just tedious work that little by little gets to the end.  Just a little hard love here...what's your hurry?  Enjoy the journey!!

[martin9]

That's what I figured. I've done 2 that required a long section of intricate inletting. Both took me nearly all day. Satisfying when they finally fit right though.

[rich pierce]

I feel this is related enough not to start another topic....anyone have any tricks for inletting a long, intricate comb buttplate, like a Jaeger?

I believe David Rase demo’d this. Main thing is getting comb area shaped and setting things up so you can inlet the buttplate straight down. That’s what I did on current build.

[martin9]

That makes sense and is what I was thinking on this one....without really knowing it:>)  I'm planning on getting the comb contour right then working at the comb/butt transition area so the plate sits close to flat on top and back then inletting straight down.  Thank goodness the butt is flat, don't think I could wrap my brain around this if the buttplate had a lot of curve in it.

[Bill Raby]

The secret is to enjoy the time that you spend working on it. I turn on a good audiobook and don't care one bit about how long it takes.

[Mike Lyons]

That makes sense and is what I was thinking on this one....without really knowing it:>)  I'm planning on getting the comb contour right then working at the comb/butt transition area so the plate sits close to flat on top and back then inletting straight down.  Thank goodness the butt is flat, don't think I could wrap my brain around this if the buttplate had a lot of curve in it.

Listen to the experts but,  I don’t know that your method will work.  If you inlet that buttplate completely in and then start going down,  your going to open up a gap in the lower of the curve.  Similar to a lollipop tang.  I’ve inlet three of these Allentown buttplates and always inlet them flush as possible with the comb line and then go forward.  If you look at Taylor’s picture and you inlet that buttplate down,  it would open a gap. Hope that makes sense.

[martin9]

I see what you mean, I think I can picture it and do it much better than explain it. I won't have the butt completely inlet. Not inlet at all actually. What I'm looking for is a good starting profile where the butt portion is as close as possible to the contour it will need after the comb is inlet. My first one I made a little template from scrap wood I could slide up and down the butt to get it as close as I could.

[Mike Brooks]

I’ve been slowly walking in the heel extension on the Allentown BP in order to bring the lower portion of it into contact, but it is painstakingly sloooooowwwww.
It’s no doubt too late for any different approach on this one but who’s got a clever trick to speed up this process???



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Jeff

Straight down then forward. Next time You needed to start your straight down a little closer to where you wanted to end up. You might knock off those walls on either side of the front finial to make access a little easier. I envision where the part needs to go then rapidly remove would to get it to that spot, but I've been doing this a while.

[J. Talbert]

Mike, you confirmed what I suspected.  Straight down, then forward is what I have done.  It was my lack of confidence in envisioning where the top will ultimately end up that caused my initial bite to be much smaller than it could have been and thus my frustration with the excessive distance left to move forward.


Thanks
Jeff

[smallpatch]

Looks like you’re down far enough.  Now head forward, but make sure to maintain that top profile as you do.

[J. Talbert]

Thanks all.  I’m good with the overall process.
Efficiently being the operative word in the original post.

Jeff

[smallpatch]

Some times you just have to gut it out.  There’s just no EASY way.
I hate buttplate sand entry pipes.

[Eric Krewson]

I made extra wood mistake ONCE, not knowing better I proceeded, it took me a month to inlet this buttplate, one tiny chip at a time. Again not knowing better I matched the inside curvature of the buttplate to the wood, this at least doubled my inletting time.

[Stophel]

I never could understand Lehigh buttplates.  Some have a step on the sides of the tang, those I understand, but the ones that just curve right on over..... how are those inlet without ending up with wood feathering out to nothing on either side of the tang???  Boggles my mind.

[Mike Lyons]

It feathers out pretty thin.  The corner area is an easy spot to mess up.