doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Shaping a rcoil pad

I can tell you've free-handed around a lot of pad toes, Kensal. Any of them fair into the underbelly of the stock? I'd say you're pretty much full of it as the only pads and buttplates which fit perfectly are those which were screwed to the stock and then shaped, which is to say ground down together with an object to which they're attached. Producing the same result with the pad screwed to a finished stock might indeed require a nearly infinite amount of "hand work" to produce a flush transition. In a similar vein, how many stocks are filed flush to an engraved and finished receiver? Addons and retrofits produce compromises in the real world if not in yours and "perfection" is often produced by a highly rationalized (and not particularly skill-intensive) method.

jack

Well, it is a Parker, and a Trojan at that, so I guess I'm good.

Whenever I size a pad, I mount the pad onto the gun and mark it around the bottom with a regular #2 pencil. Then I use my Ryobi vertical belt sander to sand it down. I keep turning it over to see where I need to sand. The pencil mark won't rub off while I'm doing this. I tried using a scribe once so I could fill it in with chalk and it caused the wood at the very end of the stock to round off all the way around the gun, because I pressed too hard against the stock. Uh-oh. With a sharp tool, you take the risk of cutting the end of the stock, too. So, I just went back to using the pencil. If it does rub off, which it usually doesn't, I just put it back on the stock and remark it. I use a sliding t-bevel square to copy the angle of the toe and I set my sander deck to the same angle and it comes out exact. When I get it close, I put it back on the stock and sand it with fine sandpaper on a block until I get it perfect. If I have to sand close to the stock, I'll remove it, maybe several times until it is exact. Works for me.

I attach the fullsize pad to the butt and take 2 wraps of electrical tape (.010") around the wood tight to the proud edge of the pad. I use a coping saw to trim the toe....no closer than 1/4". Nevertheless, that's a good chunk of rubber I don't have to turn into dust.

This is not a pad job, but I freehand grind them on my highly sophisticated homemade stockmaking maching. I use a 60 grit disc and just kiss the electrical tape.



I peel off one layer of tape, leaving me with a .005" mask. I hand sand with a 220 grit bock until I scuff up the electrical tape. Then I remove it, replace it with 2 wraps of scotch tape (.002") and hand sand to 320 grit. I remove the tape and take the pad off the stock,take another swipe or two around it with the 320 block, break the knife edge on the pad with a piece of 400 paper, rub in a few drops of silicone oil and replace.

Most people can't remove a pad that's 1-2 thou proud and re-install it to fit perfectly all around.