What is the procedure for lining up the dowels properly between the stock and the tip for attaching a forend tip? thank you.

I do mine in the mill; .600" from top of stock and .375" between the dowells centered in the stock

Two small transfer punches inserted into the dowel holes. Set stock upside down on flat surface, line up the tip, whack the back of the tip with a mallet.

Drill the newly made punch marks.
Larry Potterfield has a good vid on it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTOKzgUNJcQ

Jeremy

I have a Starrett 59 dowel jig Makes holes perfectly perpendicular and spaced deadnuts. I believe these are discontinued, but can still be found. May not be worth cost for a one off

There is another way.

Cut a single, large diameter "dowel" from the stock itself. Right or wrong, I'll call it a tennon, but a round one.

The only time I don't do this is if the forend wood is too short, or, if the grain flow slopes upwards too much in tip, this will also preclude this method.

If a widows peak is desired, this can still be accomplished, just inlet by hand below the integral dowel.

Doing the above works especially well on very slim forends, and can commonly be seen on vintage British magazine rifle stocks.

I'm certainly not saying it's superior to using dowels. It's a personal preference, and it was proved sound a long time ago.

Having the one, large diameter integral round tennon is definitely advantageous when recovering sound forend tips from water buffalo horn. Often it turns out the last vestige of the hollow in the horn can be bored out and cleared sound to mate with the tennon. I look for the natural "flaw line" in the horn and make sure that points up, towards the centre of the barrel channel. Even on horns with a lot of mass, this often allows an extra tip to be recovered from the horn, or a bigger tip (more mass further back).

I use steel threaded bolts. No wood dowells.
I guarantee they won't break.
Or sometimes I use 3/8ths hickory ramrods of which I have many here. Same guarantee.

thankyou much guys.

Well there is more than one way to skin a cat..

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
Well there is more than one way to skin a cat..

PETA won't like you for saying that.



PETA

I;ll just apologize and skin another one.

I use dowel guide pins. They come in various sizes and are pointed on one end. Drill the appropriate dowel holes in either tip or stock. Slide the guides into the dowel holes, align two pieces and tap together to make the starter hole in the other piece.

You don't need dowels.The marine epoxy is stronger than the wood. Clamp tip to forend while epoxy sets for 12+ hours.

But, the dowels do keep it from slipping and align the two before it sets up

Yes I get that. I used to use dowels. Most folks use dowels. They are not needed even to line things up. I do it regularly.
You can get marine epoxy joint stabilized without dowels. Devcon is even easier.
The clamp to use is a long Irwin type. Apply fast curing marine epoxy and let it set up a bit (tacky) before you put the two pieces in place and clamp them. Use dye in the epoxy. If you get the dye to match either the wood or the ebony cap, it covers up a multitude of sins in the joint.
Mask the wood right up to the joint. Where you can't mask use furniture paste wax as a release agent. Hold in place with your fingers for a couple of minutes while the clap is holding and the epoxy is setting. Wipe off all excess that oozes out of joint.
You can test this method with two small blocks of wood, it works. It would take less time than reading my long email. LOL

Or use dowels they work great too. I'm just saying that you don't have to. (chuckle)

I appreciate your response. I have made countless suggestions here, over the years on optional stock work methods and you are only the second person who ever responded. Thank you. I used to write long specific instructions and no one said a word.

Brian

PS. For example. I learned how to do an "Old School" wet sand Tung oil finish that rivals the best high end custom job. The traditional protocol takes hours of hand sanding work. My method takes minute spread out over several days. When I show my finished stock (c/w ebony forehead cap) to aficionados they are impresses and want to know where I get it done. My instructions are on these pages in past posts. ( I know that there are pro stock makers in this blog that have never tried my wet sanding method or just won't try it.)

I have literally used gallons of marine epoxy in boat building and other hobbies. I know how to use the stuff. I must sound arrogant to some folk. But, I am just trying to be helpful and meet fellow enthusiasts. Don't tell the troops, but much of this stuff is much simpler/easier than they want us to know. b.

Hi Brian,

Which marine epoxy do you use, if you don't mind sharing?

Thanks

I use Mas. for bigger projects. It has very little smell.
For small project I have been using Systems3 G2 Epoxy Glue and I like it. Do you know about adding thickener? Good stuff.
I have used Marine TEX for bedding. I liked it. I like Devcon 10110 best for bedding etc. It really stays in place.
Thanks for asking, Brian

End grain-to-end grain glue joints are atrocious. Even with epoxy you are only getting 20% or less of the bonding strength of a long grain-to-long grain glue joint. It is a recipe for failure. Been there, done it, got the t-shirt.

Epoxy is wonderful for this application, but worthless without a mechanical lock of some sort in conjunction with it.

I've used wooden dowels and threaded rod as mechanical locks and they work A-ok. Nowadays though I employ a floating tenon epoxied into a mortise cut in the barrel channel that subtends both the walnut and the tip. I do a simple end grain epoxy glue up and then mill the mortise and insert the tenon (while praying the whole time that the end grain glue up doesn't fail before I'm done).

You follow the epoxy instructions and apply a coat to both sides then wait 10 minutes and apply another coat then press together. Mine never fail. I wonder why yours do.
As they advertise. No mechanical fasteners necessary.

quote:

Originally posted by Brian Canada:
You follow the epoxy instructions and apply a coat to both sides then wait 10 minutes and apply another coat then press together. Mine never fail. I wonder why yours do.
As they advertise. No mechanical fasteners necessary.

I've done quite few this way. Zero failures.