I am just curious if anyone here who makes their stocks by hand uses a Plunge Router to route out the mortises, and if so, how that works for you.

I did a muzzloader stock once using a router to cut the octagonal barrel channel. I used fences to keep things straight and it worked just fine (I made 3 passes with 2 bits: flat bottom and 45 degree cutter for each side).

I did not try to use the router for any plunge cuts (although I thought of it). Was fine for the barrel channel, but there the router was contained by a fence. I was too afraid that the router would get away from me in the lock inletting!

For me, that howling machine is not conducive to slow, careful correct inletting. No reason why it would not work if you were more of a router expert than I though!

JOhn

I have done a couple of barrel channels with a router...but have never had the guts to try it on more precise areas of inletting.

As a general rule, I have not had real good luck with hand-held power tools when working on firearms. Perhaps it is my level of skill with the tools...but it’s just too spooky!

You can destroy a stock in a spit second with a router. Dremil made a router attachment, they might still, and it is quite usefull for muzzleloader lock inletting. Big routers can get away form you real fast.

Time wise, most of the inletting is spot and scrape. The hogging out can be done relatively quickly with chissels and gouges. You need to have the experience, guts and tools to do much "hogging" though. I guess I would risk roughing out a barrel channel on a square blank using a router. That would only be if I could not borrow a mill.

Scota4570’s comments are dead on the money...and should be listened to by anyone contemplating using any hand held power tool on a rifle stock.

The temptation is always there...but should be avoided at all costs if possible.

i kinda use a plunge router...
porter cable 690LR... but it's in my stock machine!!

jeffe

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
i kinda use a plunge router...
porter cable 690LR... but it's in my stock machine!!

jeffe

jeffe,

Just out of curiosity, do you run those routers at full RPM or do you slow them down with a rheostat of some kind? With multiple ones running at full RPM they must make you real popular with your neighbors!

I have used a ‘light industrial strength’ plunge router (1800 watt motor, 1/2in collet chuck) for making some of the basic inletting cuts on stocks, when starting from plain blanks. I believe this approach has some SMALL advantages over doing the inletting work entirely by hand, though I would be hard-pressed to prove it.

Other posters who have commented on the potential risks of a router going out of control and wrecking a blank are quite right. For this very reason, I only make straight cuts parallel to the centreline, using a solidly mounted side fence on the router, and stop blocks fore and aft clamped on to the blank. With this set-up, and the depth stop on the router firmly clamped, the chances of accidently over-cutting are fairly remote. Then it is back to the traditional chisels, gouges and scrapers.

I wouldn’t even consider using a router on a stock in ‘freehand’ mode – the hazards are far too great.

Sometimes, in idle moments, I have pondered over the practicability of making up templates to enable something like the full inletting of a stock to be routed out, but I have always finished up deciding that it was a total ‘no-brainer’. There would be a considerable amount of labour involved in making the templates, and I’m not sure that the end results would be satisfactory, anyway.

A friend who is an avid DIY gunsmith – and a good one – has a number of rifles with cylindrical receivers of about 1.35in diameter. He had a core box router cutter of this diameter made by a local toolmaking company, and he reckoned that it proved very useful. He could do most of the action inletting of a Rem 700 or Savage 110 action in a just few passes with this cutter in his router.

However, it’s a very different story with actions like, say, the M98, with a mixture flats and rounds, ins and outs, ups and downs and you name it all present below the ‘water line’. For these, I can’t see any alternative to using hand tools and ‘spotting in’, unless one is prepared to freely over-cut the inletting, pile in bog filler, and not worry about how much of it is left visible around the edges. I’ve seen rifles in stocks obviously made this way which actually shot quite well, but appearance-wise - ‘YUK!’

Rick: The router I use is a German-made Elu, with an electronic variable speed controller built in. I turn the revs down a bit when using larger diameter cutters, but it’s still a noisy brute. I sure wouldn’t top the popularity poll if I used it late at night!

What happened to using the drill press to rough out the mortises??? That still works.

I often toyed with the idea of creating a template of a Mauser action and then running it in the template with a bushing to cut the outline...

quote:

I often toyed with the idea of creating a template of a Mauser action and then running it in the template with a bushing to cut the outline...

I have the idea lurling in the back of my head to use a CNC mill. First off, I have no CNC experience. Intutiion tells me it might be possible to glass the action into a chunk of junk wood and take readings off the inletting to program the machine. I am seeing a stylus in my mind probing the glassed surface. The mill can then be used to cut the real stock with precision. Only problem is setting up would take more time than doing it the old way.

bridgeport