Hi everyone,

Contemplating buying a router for a local gun store that needs several hundred Mauser stocks (and potentially further projects beyond that) but I am unsure what the cost is on a suitable blank.

Birch or beech is what was requested, I'm figure I need at least a 36'x6"x3" block of wood. With a significant quantity, where could I find material costs? I see other sites selling Mauser stocks for $40, which is the price point I'm doing calculations with to see if this is a feasible project.

I question the marketing strategy of a firm who requested birch or beech stocks. Not that they won't work great; they just look bad. Walnut blanks are not much more and they look better. It is hard to compete with the CNC stocks that come out of places like Boyds unless you have very low overhead and wages.

This wouldn't be a Swedish M94 stock would it? Try Alibaba online and see if you can connect direct with a supplier.

I don't believe I'd be contemplating buying a duplicator just to get "nickeled and dimed" to death. $40 each won't even feed the dog, let alone pay for a duplicator.

you will be doing good to find birch for 15-20 I was paying more than that for pattern blanks
Then toss in shipping. A small duplicator will take you 2-3 hrs assuming you can remove a bunch of wood with a band saw.

Leave that project to a multiple head cnc

Heck your trying to compete with a company that all ready selling them for 40 dollars.

Good luck that doesn't even pay for machine time for a hour.

Unless your working for starvation wages.

Sounds like a fast way to starve to death.

Clarence

What is the router for??? Did you mean a 3D panto-graph machine?

If you are talking about making 100 stocks from boards, forget it. Making stocks from scratch is a long tedious project. It takes years of practice to get halfway good and reasonably efficient at it. I would not attempt to do one for a paying customer for less than $1000 labor. Unless you have such experience and skills let somebody who does make the stocks. You will be way ahead financially.

Boyd's took over from Fajen, maybe they have something that meets your needs. Possibly quantity discounts, dunno.

I infer you might be making sporters from Turk mausers. If so it is a poor idea. Today's factory rifles are better and cost less. Notice how nobody is in the business of sproterizing military rifles anymore?

Gibbs Rifle Company was one of the last. They were converting $20 P-14 drill rifle into 45-70s. Probably worth it if you can get a $20 action and don't spend much time on it, and they didn't. They stopped when he actions ran out.

Today, a sporter is probably worth less than the original unmolested military rifle. I don't see a market.

Further info guys:

Potential customer bought a boatload of old rifles. Metal is in "ok" shape, the stocks are in pretty bad shape.

These wouldn't be sporter style stocks, simply replacements for old nasty ones, same shape. Potential customer already told us wood type doesn't matter, whatever's cheapest.

The plan was to buy a 3 axis CNC router with a 4th rotary axis, and using solidworks to make the design...or 3d scanning it in. Primarily used for cutting designs into doors, but I have been told by the manufacturer it will work fine for cutting out stocks. We have a line on one at a really good price.

My partner and I have design experience, so I'm not thinking the design will be an issue, it really isn't too complex.

I should add we weren't hoping to do this is a long term thing, or to live off of. We have a much higher profit project in the works, which would be done on a 4 axis cnc mill, and we could be doing both at the same time.

My simple thought you will lose your shirts
The small cnc routers will be VERY slow and not long enough tp handle your length without moving



You asked and everyone has said run away

I have a CNC router that I use for making stocks. The router is pretty good and leaves a good finish with very little rasp work to do afterwards. BUT, it's a long road to get to a finished stock. You can plan on WAY over 100 hours just to get a solid model that's anywhere worth a damn because you cannot feel the shape of the computer model. A lot of investment just to do a few hundred stocks. I would see if I could make a deal with Boyds to make the stocks and save you and your partner a shitload of money. Their stocks aren't as bad as some people claim and the M1 stocks they make for the CMP are really pretty good.

If you aren't making sporter stocks, then what are you making? Military stocks? I can't fathom the project at all from a marketing standpoint. Nor from any other view either.

Please get some serious advise on the business end.

Enthusiasm, attitude and skill are all necessary. But they do not guarantee success in business.

I bought my business 9 years ago and only God has held me above water.

I have now started a full time job as well - again God's grace only!

Take care.

Meh...sounds more like a favor than a profitable job.

Tyler, I think I know where you are coming from. If I were you I would throw out the idea of looking for "stock blanks". Winchester, Savage, Remington and Ruger do not purchase "stock blanks" for the thousands and thousands of wood stocked rifles they make. They purchase suitable lumber. Lumber was used as the stocking material for millions of Mausers, Enfields, Springfields, Garands, etc.

You can cut your own stock blanks from suitable lumber. When you purchase you can specify true quartersawn in your order. You need to make sure that it is well dried. Some wood is quick kiln dried but there are companies that also offer lumber dried naturally in special climate controlled warehouses. You need to get a grade suitable for furniture. Beech, birch, and Pacific maple might be some suitable woods. I suggest you speak with a hardwood expert for advice regarding grades and other potential types of wood. There are many sources for lumber of various grades and dryness levels and they will sell it to you unfinished, by the pallet, priced by the board-foot, and cut in 3"x6", 3"x7", or other suitable dimensions in 6', 7', or other suitable lengths.

Northwest Hardwoods has a very informative website ( http://northwesthardwoods.com). You can get a lot of general information there. Twenty years ago, I purchased a piece of lumber from their Tacoma location. Two of their men helped me search through hundreds of pieces of an exotic wood to locate a particularly attractive one with the proper grain flow. The board I purchased cost me $64 and was big enough for three rifle stocks with room to spare. A piece of birch would have cost me a forth as much and you don't need attractive, just straight grain. Northwest sells all across the US. They have a big selection of American woods and they are an importer of European Beech and other woods. There are several other, easy to locate, USA companies that can be your source of wood. All you need to do is get on the internet and the phone.

I agree with Grenadier. Go get some lumber, not stock blanks. A 6x6 that is 12' long can be cut down for 6 stock blanks for your situation.

With all due respect to Arron, Duane, and the other gunsmiths, Tyler isn't speaking of the sort of thing you are used to dealing with. A custom stock, even from a duplicator, fitted and finished requires lots of time and effort and is priced accordingly. But banging out plain wood stocks in cookie-cutter fashion is different. There is a lower cost of materials, little effort in finishing, and a huge savings to be had in the economy of scale.

To illustrate what I am saying, consider that Boyd's currently offers finished walnut Garand stocks for $82, front hand guards are $19 and rear hand guards are $16.25. Ammo Garand sells finished walnut Garand stock SETS for $129.95 and will install metal on them for only $9. And Dupage Tading Co. sells the finished walnut SETS with all hand guard metal components and a front stock ferrule with swivel already installed for the little sum of $119.95. All of the above stocks are walnut and are already sanded and finished with oil and those are RETAIL prices. Yet, these stocks could be made cheaper if they were made with a cheaper wood - birch being about 1/3 the cost of walnut.

quote:

To illustrate what I am saying, consider that Boyd's currently offers finished walnut Garand stocks for $82, front hand guards are $19 and rear hand guards are $16.25. Ammo Garand sells finished walnut Garand stock SETS for $129.95 and will install metal on them for only $9. And Dupage Tading Co. sells the finished walnut SETS with all hand guard metal components and a front stock ferrule with swivel already installed for the little sum of $119.95. All of the above stocks are walnut and are already sanded and finished with oil and those are RETAIL prices. Yet, these stocks could be made cheaper if they were made with a cheaper wood - birch being about 1/3 the cost of walnut.

Still a far cry from $40 complete and I would be those guys are using equipment that spit out 8-15 pieces at a time. Not a little cnc router.

Checking online kiln dried birch is around $5 a board foot. So Material is going to run around $15 maybe a touch less if you buy in HUGE quantity.

A Hobby shop can't compete with the big guys that are turning out huge quantity.

Tyler is exploring costs. Maybe he can do it for $40 and maybe he can't. But apparently it is already being done for $40 at retail.

quote:

Originally posted by Tyler Kemp:
I see other sites selling Mauser stocks for $40, which is the price point I'm doing calculations with to see if this is a feasible project.

Thanks for the furthered discussion. I have been out of town, but it seems that getting lumber that is roughly the dimensions I would need is the more economical way to do things, especially considering the machine wouldn't care about the exact dimensions.

It looks like if I were to make 400 stocks at $50 a piece, and each stock took around an hour on the CNC router, I'd still be making a pretty fair rate per hour. Not something I would want to live off of, but let me explain the situation a bit more.

My partner and I just formed a business making aluminum chassis, and we already do custom 3d printing and prototyping. All of these could be going at the same time, which I think would make the combo profitable enough to do full time.

Have you considered 3D printing of a stock?

Considered it? Yes. Is it possible...yes. But not with our equipment. It would take so incredibly long I'm not sure it would ever be worth it. You'd need a very large printer, which would probably cost at least $100,000, then you'd have the warping issues from plastic cooling while other sections are still printing, etc.

What we are printing is adjustable scope levels, and soon an angle indicator. Small things like that are much easier and more profitable.