My first scratch build.

[Ranger]

I have put together a few kit builds in various stages of completion. However I have never done the from a chunk of wood to finished piece scratch build. I will try to document all the build as I go.

Here is what I'm starting with...


I made this barrell from 4140 a few years ago. It is a 62 cal smooth bore, octagon to round with a cannon finial at the muzzle.


Here is a pic showing the figure of the stock blank. It some pretty wood but I would rather do this in walnut I think...


Here is pic of the brass furniture after a quick clean up on the belt grinder...


I started this last night. I hope to get started on the barrell channel tonight when I get home. I'll keep you updated as I go.

[gordy]

           I would like to thank you a head of time for sharing your project in both text and photos. When someone embarks on such a project and shares it with the rest of the group , it often encourages others to try their hand. Again , thanks for sharing.
                                                         

[crazell]

Looks like a good project. Can hardley wait to see it finished!!

[texasranger]

love the barrel and I am sure it will look great when finished and shoot straight. pics when your finished please.

[William]

I'm watching this build too, thanks for posting it.

[Ranger]

I started inletting the barrel this past evening. First I laid out the center of the blank and scribed it into the wood. Then I measured the narrowest part of the barrel which is 3/4" and the scribed out a 5/8" wide channel to start for doing the rough removal of wood. I also figured where the lock would go in relationship to the barrel and trimmed off the excess length of wood.

Here is the beginning. I scribed the center and marked out the channel and I am simply outlining the outer scribes with a flat chisel to keep the cuts from going to far beyond my intended area...


After outlining the area I started removing material with my gouges. They were not as sharp as I thought they should be so I tried to sharpen them up. I got them a little sharper than what they were but still not very sharp. So if anyone knows how to sharpen gouges, I would surely appreciate a lesson. Also, I only have a few gouges in 1/8, 1/4, then it jumps to 1"! Therefore I had to work with a 1/4" gouge for bulk wood removal. This is all the further I progressed last night...


I can see a mill in my immediate future...   

[SierraMan]

I am finding this fascinating, Ranger.  This is one of the desires that drew me to this site.  I look forward to every post and copy them all into a file I started called Gun makin'.  Thanks!

[FrankG]

I found this link for sharpening , and there are a bunch more .
http://www.ehow.com/how_12068_sharpen-chisel.html

What you should do before going further is lay out where everything goes on the blank . I put a layout plan in this forum . After laying out parts placement you need to cut away the top portion of wood from breech to muzzle half the width of barrel dimention . For hogging out bulk of wood , a set of Stanley chisels from hardware store or WalMart polished up with very fine sand paper and stones will make removel of the wood quick.
Leaving the top wood on when using chisels to inlet channel leaves chance for error when going to depth.
If you have an old Chinese chisel close to width of smallest dimention of round portion of barrel , grind it so its round on end with no bevel or chisel shape and use it for a scraper for the round portion of barrel channel . 

[FrankG]

Adam, 6&7 post in the following shows the scrapers for evening up the barrel bed.

http://traditionalmuzzleloadingcheap.com/forum/index.php?topic=308.0

[Ranger]

Thanks for the advice Frank! I will make some scrapers up so I can work on this again. I was ready to throw it in the mill. This would have worked but not the way I had intended on doing this build. I laid out the lock and stuff I just need to take another pic and go from there. Going fishing on Erie this weekend  so I'm not sure I will work on this for a few days.