doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DIY Gunsmithing @ doublegunshop.com Checkering Cradle Head and Tail Stock

I've updated the cradle design and thought I would share in case others are interested:

The tailstock ABS pipe cap threading wore out quickly, so I came up with a solution. A short bolt the same size passed through the pipe cap and a long nut to join the tailstock bolt to the cap. This worked perfectly but it also made a bulge in the center of the cap which was counter productive. So I filled the cap with epoxy to cover the bolt head, the inserted the rubber fitting piece over the epoxy creating a concavity. Lastly, a scrap of goat leather over the rubber:








This left one other weakness of the cradle, which is the inability to tighten the space between centers. If I remake the end cap version, I will make the bolt long enough to do a version of the following method.

To make a center pin version of the cradle, I cut a piece of all thread to a length that inserted filling into the nut leaving about an inch protruding. The end was chamfered to a blunt point, and flats were filed near the end to accommodate a wrench. I first used two jam nuts but the realized I could just use one with the same effect and leaving some adjustment room. This way, the forend of a rifle can be clamped in the head stock vise and the bolt tightened on the tailstock until the gun is securely between centers. Then the jam nut is tightened to lock it all in.






To save money, the plumbing cap and bolt could be used as head and tail without the clamp, but this system seems like it will handle just about every situation