Crickett custom stock

[WestKentucky]

I had another post on where I bought a really ugly crickett rifle. The stock was the ugliest part, and yes I could buy a new one and have less money in the gun than buying a new one, but there’s really no fun in that, so I have decided to try my hand at building a stock for it. I got a really solid start on it today and I will post pictures as I go. Wish me luck.... and let’s all hope this doesn’t turn into a forever project, I have plenty of those.

The rifle as purchased... $72 in it as is counting tax, title, dealer prep... The laser worked and was repurposed and I’m giving that a $10 value as a used item, so $62 in the gun itself.

The Gunbroker pics were decent pics.

 

[WestKentucky]

I have a few pieces of material to use and had trouble picking between them. A coworker buys buildings to salvage lumber and had given me some really nice pieces that are to small for him to fool with as he turns replacement table legs and such as a side business. I also have a block of 7075 aluminum but decided that was too expensive and heavy to fool with. I’m used to cutting metal, but wanted different. I had pieces that appeared to be walnut and red oak. The red oak was beautiful and I decided to go that route. It’s out of a local home built in the late 1890s and it is dry as a bone. Planed down as he had it with a quick spot of boiled linseed oil it was screaming to be used.

Again, I’m used to metal and have a rigged up drill press mill that is fully refurbished and tight so light milling is fine. I DO NOT hog out material with it, even light stuff takes several passes. So I made a couple cuts to see how the wood reacted on the mill. It did fine.

 

[12Bravo20]

Cutting wood on a milling machine is like cutting Delrin or other hard plastics. Run the cutter at a faster speed than you would for aluminum.. It's been a long time since I've machined any Delrin or wood and I have forgotten what the actual speed were that I ran.

 

[WestKentucky]

Moving on and getting things tidied up. This will have 3 linear areas of contact and should be very solid. I will probably bed this when I get done anyway. I used a chamfer tool to bevel the edges. 2 passes each side.

 

[WestKentucky]

This is where I stopped for the day. Had to wrangle 2 little girls who decided to do what siblings do best...

Trigger pocket is roughed and the takedown screw hole is cut. I’m going to slant cut and have a roughly 1/2” gapped floating barrel. On the back end of this thing I plan to add a 1/4” aluminum bar stock set up as a folder. Still trying to decide how to do it, but I left a couple inches of material back there for when I make that decision. I have a few ideas of a side folder, but am also thinking of simpler things which will allow this to be handy as a front supported table gun as well. If I could use the shoulder pad as a front support with the gun folded then that would be great.

 

[WestKentucky]

Cutting wood on a milling machine is like cutting Delrin or other hard plastics. Run the cutter at a faster speed than you would for aluminum.. It's been a long time since I've machined any Delrin or wood and I have forgotten what the actual speed were that I ran.

Mine is a simple 5 speed belt drive. I was running it on the 4th slot. The 5th slot is too fast for anything other than drilling holes.

 

[12Bravo20]

From the pictures, it looks like you have the feed speed right for a smooth cut. Looking forward to seeing the finished stock.

 

[WestKentucky]

I blew out the stock. Seems like there was a crack that was hiding in the material and as I made a cut tonight it opened up and took a chunk of the material off which bounced around and got into the cutter. So I faced everything off about 5/8 inch down from where it started and it’s time to start over. It was looking good... and was coming out as a shape that I really liked so I will make the same cuts and simply redo what I have already done.