Pinewood Derby Soddy Daisy

[flinchrocket]

Daniel,some of G.W Hatfields later rifles had copper ramrod pipes. They were made in Indiana but he learned to be a gunsmith in Fentress County Tennessee.

[Bob McBride]

Dan, watching your build with interest. Thanks for taking the time.

[Clint]

I know of one smr with copper pipes, because I made it (black cherry with a southern accent  on this forum) I like the copper pipes and will use them again. I actually try to put a little bit of copper on all of my guns just for color.
Clint

[Daniel Coats]

Dan, the Bridger Hawken has the toe plate and butt plate riveted together.  When the Green River Rifle Works had the rifle in 1977, they took the assembly off in one piece.  I think maybe the toe had gotten broken off, there is about 8 inches pitch down at the muzzle compared to only about 3 inches on the Carson Hawken.  I riveted my first copy of the Bridger Hawken.

Thank you Herb!

My plan also is to rivet the toe plate and butt plate together. This will be done during construction to help hold everything in place and before the final shaping. This should also protect the delicate wood area in the toe against breakage in the shop.

[Daniel Coats]

Daniel,some of G.W Hatfields later rifles had copper ramrod pipes. They were made in Indiana but he learned to be a gunsmith in Fentress County Tennessee.

Thanks for the reference to original rifles using copper ramrod pipes. Also good to know the location!

Much appreciated!

[Daniel Coats]

Dan, watching your build with interest. Thanks for taking the time.

Bob I appreciate you watching and feel free to comment if you see something that needs attention! This rifle really speaks to me and I'm thrilled to share the experience. One of the main reasons for my documentation is to record it for the time when I can no longer remember how I did it and why!

[Daniel Coats]

I know of one smr with copper pipes, because I made it (black cherry with a southern accent  on this forum) I like the copper pipes and will use them again. I actually try to put a little bit of copper on all of my guns just for color.
Clint

Man Clint your rifle looks fantastic wearing that copper and black cherry outfit! I've often thought copper has a certain warmth in how it looks. I hope my rifle looks as well as  yours when I'm done!

[Daniel Coats]

Still working from home with Covid going on but managed to get a bit more done today. Got the end of the tang shaped the way I want it and started the in-letting. My plan is to set the top line of the wrist and inlet the tang all the way along the center-line of the barrel. This won't be necessarily the center-line of the stock because of the offset I made to leave extra wood in the lock area.

[smylee grouch]

This under lug I hope will help keep the web thin on my current build. The lug will be dovetailed only about 1/32nd inch deep and the key is about 80/1000 thick. Part of the keys thickness will be in the dove tail and the rest of it will be in the lug as I have cut the center of the lugs base out to allow the keys passage. Lug was made out of a scrap piece of over head door opener track and is thick so will take some extra work to dress it down. I don't know if some thing like this will help Daniel keep his web thinn or not but might be food for thought.




upload a photo

[Daniel Coats]

Hey thanks for the idea! I've often used scrap material laying around. I once built a southern mountain rifle trigger guard out of a piece of angle iron from a bed frame. The copper material I've been using lately is also scrap I had laying around. Keep those ideas coming!

[Daniel Coats]

Well Sally got her tang installed today. Had to make a judgment call on the wrist profile but I like it better now that it's rounded a bit. Also cut down the long tang to the length I wanted it rounded it and then got it inlet as you can see from the pictures.

[AMartin]

Hey Dan ..
Is that stick of walnut working okay? .... Your project is looking fine !!

Al

[Daniel Coats]

Hey Dan ..
Is that stick of walnut working okay? .... Your project is looking fine !!

Al

Thanks Allen for helping pick out the perfect stock for my project! It was fun talking it over with you and then you hand selecting what could work out leaving me with a choice between two candidates.  That blank curls out pieces with a gouge like an ice cream scoop through Chocolate ice cream. I noticed too what you mentioned about it being dense and sounding like a piece of hard maple when the end was set down against the shop floor.

Thanks too for your comment on my project! 

[Daniel Coats]

Okay, the next three pictures fall under the category of things that matter but don't count. Just like preseason football! I did want to take some critical data just to see where weight and balance point are going.

The first picture shows the current balance point at the rear ramrod pipe.

Next picture shows how I rigged up to weigh the rifle country boy style. Y'all got to have a John Deere dog leash and a set of turkey scales suspended beneath one of the family cattle brands.



There's a ton of wood yet to be removed and I'll be adding on hardware but this is where we're at at the moment. 8 1/2 pounds or so for now is on target.

Hope you enjoyed the morning ranch report! 

[Daniel Coats]

Installed and inlet one of my experimental copper barrel lugs. Turned out to be successful and did not break into the barrel channel. Ended up being a little less than 1/8 high. These were super easy to make and look good. One day someone's going to take the barrel out the stock and do a double take! 

[smylee grouch]

That lug looks good  nice meat job.

[Daniel Coats]

Progress report for Long Tall Sally on Mother's day. Got the handsaw out and cut two slabs off the sides of the forearm. Finished up making the copper barrel lugs, installed, drilled and pinned to the stock. Barrel smoothed up draw filed and muzzle crowned just a skosh.

[JWrightsman]

Daniel, really enjoy reading along as you build this rifle!!! Good job on the ramrod/barrel inlet method. It sure makes it easier for me doing it this way. Its going to be a fine looking rifle!

[Daniel Coats]

Daniel, really enjoy reading along as you build this rifle!!! Good job on the ramrod/barrel inlet method. It sure makes it easier for me doing it this way. Its going to be a fine looking rifle!

Thanks Josh!

This is my first attempt using this method and it really works well! I'll probably do it this way from now on. I watched your video so many times I had your voice stuck in my head the entire time! LOL 

[JWrightsman]

Thanks Josh!

This is my first attempt using this method and it really works well! I'll probably do it this way from now on. I watched your video so many times I had your voice stuck in my head the entire time! LOL 

Oh geez now thats a scary thing!! Ian Pratt did that to me one time. Had to drink a case of PBR to make it go away so I could finish engraving a rifle. 🤣

[Jim Kibler]

Installed and inlet one of my experimental copper barrel lugs. Turned out to be successful and did not break into the barrel channel. Ended up being a little less than 1/8 high. These were super easy to make and look good. One day someone's going to take the barrel out the stock and do a double take! 

You might consider not making the dovetail so deep.  They only need to be around .030 or so.  That is with an iron underlug.  I don't know if a copper one will hold as good at this depth.  perhaps a reason just to make them out of steel or iron.  You can fold them out of thin steel and braze just as easily as something like copper or brass.

Jim

[Daniel Coats]

Thanks Jim, I believe mine are about .06 deep but didn't measure the depth. They felt really solid.

[J. Talbert]

Word of caution concerning the depth of the dovetail for the barrel tenons...

I believe the point of Jim’s post is to cut the dovetails only as deep as necessary, to avoid creating a weak spot in the barrel.
I didn’t see the dimensions or caliber of your barrel, but I can tell you that years ago I had to replace a .45 caliber, 13/16 “ barrel because it had a bulge in the bottom of the bore that exactly coincided with the position the rear barrel tenon.

Jeff

[Daniel Coats]

Word of caution concerning the depth of the dovetail for the barrel tenons...

I believe the point of Jim’s post is to cut the dovetails only as deep as necessary, to avoid creating a weak spot in the barrel.
I didn’t see the dimensions or caliber of your barrel, but I can tell you that years ago I had to replace a .45 caliber, 13/16 “ barrel because it had a bulge in the bottom of the bore that exactly coincided with the position the rear barrel tenon.

Jeff

Point well taken. Thanks for the comment!

[Daniel Coats]

Reamed and polished the inside of the copper ramrod pipes. Started making the trigger guard. Lock shipped today!