doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Machining a Blank- How much?

I have a blank I got for pretty cheap. It may end up not being usable as their is some white wood in it. I was wondering how much it would cost to have the blank roughly cut down into a stock, just to see if I would like to continue with it or not. Any figures or references would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Alex

Wenig's will do it for anywhere from $150-$250, you will still have a bit of work to do and they won't quote without the wood in hand. They have stock patterns, but if the gun you want it for is not in their inventory you will need to furnish the old stock. Tell them what you want or make any mods you to the existing stock by either adding wood & bondo or removing it as the case may be.I have been satisfied with their work and just fitting and finishing are plenty enuff work for me. If you're not sure about the blank you have look for better wood on ebay. Considering the milling investment and the effort involved in fit and finish, you'll appreciate your work with a decent end product. You should be able to find something pretty good for $150 tops, and usually for quite a bit less.

You don't mention what the stock is for: rifle, shotgun (boxlock?sidelock?). Degree of inletting (95%-100%). Hansli is correct except I have paid as litte as $75 for a butt stock without forend. The fastest work I have experienced, with good quality, is from Show-Me: Route 3 South Wanta Linga, Warsaw, MO 65355 Phone: (660) 438-4568. Great American Gunstock Company 3420 Industrial Drive Yuba City, CA 95993 Phone: 530-671-4570 http://www.gunstocks.com.

Turning cheap wood is usually a waste of time. It is very easy to buy some better wood turned from any of these guys. Check it out and decide for yourself. I am working on two stocks (Turkish and English walnut) now and loving it!

Jim

I and many others have had horrible experiences with Great American. Be careful, Mr Pohl is a but stubborn. He sent me two stocks that were far from what I wanted. Returned the first, tried to return the second, got a sob story, gave up. There is a thread going on over at SSM about him presently. A few have had a perfect experience, but many haven't. My stock looked like it had been carved out with a spoon, and the inletting was not straight, producing about 3.5" drop requiring me to realign it. It would have been faster to start with a blank and do it all from scratch myself.

Storms - depends on "how rough".

Take some pics of the blank, especially the sides showing the sapwood. Some of the experienced eyes may help answer whether the blank is usable.

If you do need to perform exploratory surgery to expose the extent of the sapwood, then maybe a friend with a bandsaw is all that's required. Remember to leave AS MUCH WOOD AS POSSIBLE on the the blank. Every single $&#@ing time (TWICE!!! Two EFFING times!) that I've fired up the bandsaw before inletting I've regretted it - but I got some very nice kindling and plenty of scraps for handgun grips.

Getting a stock "duplicated" or machined is a process unto itself that I don't know much about.

Alex,

As Jim has asked "whats it for?". That may be the biggest factor in determining whether the blank you have is good enough or not. If your going to restock a Savage single barrel (I have one so I'm not picking on Savage single barrels) then most any piece of walnut will probably do. If, however, your restocking a high grade Lefever you might want to spend some big bucks on the wood to start with. An Optimus grade Lefever would look pretty bad with a $50 piece of wood on it.

As to profiling (if I don't do the stock from the blank) I'll use someone that has a Hoenig machine if the stock is complicated, because of the extreme accuracy of the machine. This accuracy comes at a cost - $400+ for the job. If the job is simpler and I'm lazy,like for a Beretta 391, I use Wenig's. Fred does an excellent job for considerably less money. Fred is also set up to do forends with big holes in them like a Beretta 391 and a lot of the Hoenig guys are not. Incidently this has nothing to do with the cost of the blank because the blank I just received from Wenig's cost $1250.

You'll also notice that I didn't mention Great American Gunstocks (aka GAG)

Doug

On Jim's recommendation, I phoned Show-me and ordered a buttstock and forend for a No.2 frame Parker VH because the man I talked to made me feel I was in good hands. Cansay please an estimate of how many hours by a conscientious and competent woodworker to make a good fit before sending it off for checkering? Thanks.

Alex, I had Wenig rough cut a blank (I furnished the blank) for my SKB. The cost includeing shipping was 266.00. Doing the final inleting was a lot of fun and I am thinking that it was fairly simple as this is a through bolt gun. If you take your time you will get you will get good results.
Regards, Gordon

King, I would suggest it might take 20-50 hours depending on what tools and experience you have. I have never "clocked" my time as I may take a year or more completing a project because I do it in my "spare" time. The key is patience and sharp tools. Use some good transfer agent to mark the high spots and take off less than you need at first and keep fitting. You will make a few mistakes, we all do, just post back here and there are great folks who will help with the solutions!

Jim

Jim, my brother will be doing the work. A retired marine engineer who loves wood-work, he made a wonderful buttstock for a 20ga AYA from a vessel's teak rail; the fit was superb. Thanks.