I thought I had seen a thread recently about drilling the hole for a stock bolt in a 2 piece stock but I can't find it. Can someone point me to it?

I'm working on a stock for Ruger No. 1.

i think the thread you are looking for the guy drilled the hole with a drill press & has luckey enough to get it straight. not a good method. lathe and a gun drill. if you don't have access to the lathe and drill send it to jim kobe & he'll drill it for you very reasonably

This has been kicked around several times recently in the custom gun section. I have done quite a few lately, and the lathe route is really the only way that works well without some kind of custom jig. For drills, I have used a couple of kinds, all cheap ones from Lowes. Electrician bits are long twist bits which come in a lot of sizes. They do a good job in the headstock. Surprisingly, I have used a long spade bit several times, and they run rough but drill perfectly straight holes. I resorted to them after drilling a highly figured, really dense stock and almost starting a fire. In hard wood, any twist type drill will have to be cleaned and backed out a lot.

I found the best method is to lay out the stock on the blank, draw guid lines, and try to cut a small flat at the center point on each end which is parallel to the drilling line. It only needs to be the size of the drill bit. Center drill this then use the tailstock to push the blank onto the bit mounted in the headstock. Start with the bit barely extended from the headstock then advance the bit, don't move the tailstock. Drill halfway from each end. I drill the section from the butt last and use a larger bit for the increased diameter required. Don't drill the larger hole all the way to the required depth until you turn the stock so you can measure it accurately. Someone here had a great tip that works. Use duct tape to tape a small stick or board to the handle to hold and prevent the blank from spinning while drilling. If you try to brace it on the cross slide or something, it will put side pressure on the blank and push the hole off line.

One final note is that I have never had a hole go offline this way, with the exception of the first one I tried when using a 1/4" bit. I have never had any problem with using a 5/16" or larger. Don't pilot drill and then finish, just drill the larger one to start with. Then use the hole to index the blank in the duplicator.

The problem wih that is you wil not have enoght travel on the quill of the drill press and will need to keep moving the table up and won't be able to remove the chips of wood. Not a problem with the lathe.

Jim

I asked the question in early January.

http://forums.accuratereloadin...491015961#2491015961

Why did Woodhunter's post disappear? That looked like a decent way to set up a stock in a drill press...

Jim that turned out to be one of the bigger downsides to drilling the takedown hole with a drill press. Getting it aligned from the get-go was the biggest challenge but elevating the table turned out to be a pain too.

Gotta agree with butchloc not necessarily the best method, but I can live with the results (sorry for the poor pic, but that hole is dead on)-



No pics while drilling, phone was dead and my hands were too shaky to take a good pic (only half joking there).

I usually drill the holes in the blank before duplicating. Today, I set up the duplicator wrong (180 degrees off) and had the hole the wrong angle. I simply glued a dowel in the hole, and drilled it again in the lathe. Came out perfect.

I start with a 5/16" center drill, go to a jobbers length 5/16" drill, and deepen it with a long 5/16" drill. Go through about half way, then turn it around and drill with a spade bit from the butt end the correct size for the bolt head. The holes met perfectly centered at the midpoint. Here's some pictures of the drilling and the tools.

dave

That's pretty much the same setup I use, except I simply use an 18" 5/16 bit and advance it instead of swapping bits. For some reason, mit is very important to use a 5/16. A 1/4 will wander but I have never had a problem with a 5/16.

It really needs to be a 5/16" as the stock bolt is 1/4". It would be a tight fit