Inletting a rifle stock

[JimEE]

Does anyone have experience with producing a drawing of a rifle stock for machine inletting?

[TReischl]

Well, not to be a smart mouth, but I am sure someone does.

All rifle stocks are different, so that is probably why you are not getting any responses.

Also, you are not clear what you are looking for, a 3d model of an entire rifle stock or just the drawings for the inletting?

It would seem to me that if you have a sample of the rifle stock you could take the measurements and draw it up. Otherwise, the vast majority of rifle stocks do not have drawings publicly available.

So, what is it you are trying to do?

[JimEE]

I want to make a Kentucky rifle stock, the whole thing. I really am looking for technique, inletting and carving, someone to mentor me through my project.

[TReischl]

If'n it were me, and I wanted to custom build one, the first thing I would do is get a kit from someone like CVA. Or maybe you already did that but are more interested in carving a custom stock?

It would also help if you told folks about your level of experience. Asking others to "mentor" someone who has no experience at all is a lot to ask anyone. If you have a good working relationship with your machine, understand the techniques of fixturing multiple sided jobs, etc then what you could do is get started and then ask specific questions.

Your posts are not very specific.

Here is the deal. Some of us have been doing this for a very long time, we have machining backgrounds, understand standard shop techniques. Trying to convey that information to someone with little to no experience becomes quite tedious. Sure, we have no problem helping beginners, but they need to understand they have to apply a lot of effort on their own.

It is an intriguing project, that is for sure. Quite a few years ago I built a .50 cal from CVA, turned out pretty nice. I never drilled the touch hole (at the time, if I did that in the state I lived in, I would have been wading through paperwork for months on end) so it is just a display piece not capable of firing.

Oh, one thing that helps is if you include your location. Yea, it is the internet and we have all heard the paranoid rants, but no one here has disappeared mysteriously in the ten years I have been participating. You never know, someone who is nearby may see your post and be willing to help out.

[rscrawford]

If you have a stock you want to copy, there are services that will create a model for you from an existing stock. That would be the easiest way to do it. Then you would need fixturing to cut the 3 (or possibly 4) sided cuts.

If you are talking about modelling a stock from scratch, well that is a master level project. It is very hard to model something like a rifle stock unless you are EXTREMELY familiar with exactly what you want, because it needs to 'fit' your hands and arms properly. Most commercial stocks are hand carved or modelled in clay and then scanned to create the model so they can produce many of the same stock.

So if you are only making one stock, I would say its easiest to cut the top at the CNC, then use a bandsaw, and pattern makers rasps to shape the rest.