Wooden under rib

[okawbow]

I had a beautiful but wormy piece of curly maple, a 42”-.45 cal barrel and a Bedford lock kit, so I decided to make a Halfstock rifle. I bought a steel under rib, but found that it weighed over 1/2 pound, and needed to be soldered on the barrel. Yesterday, I decided to ditch the steel rib and make one from oak. Made up a couple thimbles and I think it turned out ok. Much lighter than steel and looks like it belongs.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Perhaps a little deeper than necessary, but certainly works well.  I put one on one of my brother's rifles when the forestock was ruined, making it into a half stocked gun.

[Dennis Glazener]

needed to be soldered on the barrel/quote]
How did you attach the wooden on? I am considering doing one with wood, thinking of using something like JB Weld. I used it to attach a silver sight on my flint fowler about 5 years ago and it is still holding fine in spite of heat/cold.
Dennis

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Dennis:  when I did one for Daryl, I inlet dovetailed tenons (4) into the bottom flat, then cut slots in the rib for the tenons, finally, pinning them just like you do a thimble in a stock.

[okawbow]

needed to be soldered on the barrel/quote]
How did you attach the wooden on? I am considering doing one with wood, thinking of using something like JB Weld. I used it to attach a silver sight on my flint fowler about 5 years ago and it is still holding fine in spite of heat/cold.
Dennis

I made the wooden rib the same size as the steel rib and attached with 4 screws to the barrel.

[Gtrubicon]

I just did this on a rifle I’m building for the same reasons you stated.

[Frozen Run]

You can also rivet it on.

[okawbow]

Though about using rivets, but wanted to be able to remove the rib to work in things. I already had the screws and a bottoming tap. Only made the holes .150” deep. Worked out well, but be careful drilling the holes. Set a stop on the drill press.

[Tim Crosby]

  Dennis, scroll down through this one, David has a bit of a write-up on how the wood under rib was done and some good Pix of it.

  https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=63600.msg637752#msg637752

     Tim

[Goo]

Could the wood rib not be attach using 5-40 screws?   I should think this would be possible because using screws was how its done on Hawken and Dimick rifles when you don`t want to solder it on. Unless of course the wall thickness on the barrel is too thin.   What about using a hollow rib instead of a solid one this was done on many original rifles.

[JTR]

Dennis:  when I did one for Daryl, I inlet dovetailed tenons (4) into the bottom flat, then cut slots in the rib for the tenons, finally, pinning them just like you do a thimble in a stock.

The original barrel I have has the wood under rib attached as Taylor points out here.

[Ross Dillion]

That rifle by David Rase is a thing of beauty.  It’s renewed my interest in building one for myself.  Simply incredible job.

[Dennis Glazener]

Thanks guys, thinking back years ago I built a Gillespie rifle using n original Harvey Gillespie barrel where someone had converted it to a half stock with metal rib. They used the original dove tails in the barrel with metal rivets with dove tail that fit the barrel dovetails. The problem is this Flint fowler os an original barrel that I think is too thin for dove tail slots. Doubt if I would ever try to shoot it so may still epoxy or JBW the rib on. I know it will hold since I used to use it for things that had as much or more recoil. Or may solder a base on the barrel with a soft rivet through the wooden rib.
Thanks
Dennis

[Eric Laird]

On one I built (well, still building - it's my "experiment" rifle that I try new things on, but that's another story) I pinned the rib and the thimbles both together to the barrel. I slightly offset the underlug, and when I made the thimbles I left the tab double thickness (normal practice) front and back but in the middle section I cut away one side to leave only a single thickness. This "slot" then fits down over the barrel lug and the pin goes in through the rib, then the barrel lug, then the thimble tab and then out the other side of the rib. My reasoning was that this pinned the thimble to the barrel and any stress placed on the thimbles (snagged ramrod, etc) would be taken up by the barrel, not by the thin wooden underrib. Plus, the longer surface area of the thimbles would do a better job in keeping the rib flush against the barrel as opposed to a skinny 1/16" pin alone. Additionally, where the rib meets the forestock I shaped the rear of the underrib into a dovetail shape and cast a small pewter fore end cap around it - it locks the rear of the rib in place but separates out easily when pulling the barrel from the stock. In reality, shaping the tab/extension into a dovetail shape was probably overkill - just a flat tab probably would have worked as well - but like I said, this is an "experiment" rifle....

If the explanation is confusing and anyone wants pictures let me know. I recently retired and we moved so I'm still getting things set up, but I can dig it out and get some pics. Hey, maybe now I'll actually have the time to experiment more - or even finish up the rifle!