wahoo
08-30-2007, 09:00 PM
Been working on this gun for a friend for quite some time. No extra time with school, work and family but the main issue was a mistake I made in my haste.
It was winter, cold as hell and so instead of doing a temporary ballast and a float tst in the pool I just estimated the ballast. This gun is big 65", with a big shaft 3/8 x 65" and will have 4-5 5/8' bands so I wanted it as heavy as possible to minimize recoil. Well, my estimation was way off and the gun was really negative with the shaft out. Initially, I was not upset because I have never made any wings or sidestocks and looked at it as a design challenge. I added two sidestocks to the rear of the gun and built two sets of wings that were ok asthetically but were not big enough to make the gun float. The third set of wings were bigger and tapered front to back from large in the front and came 3/4 of the way back down the gun. These wings floated the gun but after using the gun it was back to the drawing board because the gun was just too heavy and bulky with these wings.
I gave up on the idea of wings and took most of the ballast out of the gun. The repair is not noticable and the gun floats and looks great. I'll let you know how it shoots when I get it wet.
Custom handle made from aluminum and spalted maple, made with the help of KJFLYFISH (thanks for the help Koltcito ). Gun has 5 coats of penetrating epoxy.
The lessons I learned are unfortunately not new ones:
1) TAKE YOUR TIME
2) HAVE A PLAN
3) BE PATIENT IT IS QUICKER TO TAKE YOUR TIME AND DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME THAN HAVE TO FIX A MISTAKE:cussing:
One of the most famous wood workers in the world ( I can't remember if it was Sam Maloof or James Krenov) said something like:
" Judge a craftsman not just by the quality of the final product but by his ability to fix his mistakes"
Following this criteria I feel that I am a much better craftsman than when I started this gun.
It was winter, cold as hell and so instead of doing a temporary ballast and a float tst in the pool I just estimated the ballast. This gun is big 65", with a big shaft 3/8 x 65" and will have 4-5 5/8' bands so I wanted it as heavy as possible to minimize recoil. Well, my estimation was way off and the gun was really negative with the shaft out. Initially, I was not upset because I have never made any wings or sidestocks and looked at it as a design challenge. I added two sidestocks to the rear of the gun and built two sets of wings that were ok asthetically but were not big enough to make the gun float. The third set of wings were bigger and tapered front to back from large in the front and came 3/4 of the way back down the gun. These wings floated the gun but after using the gun it was back to the drawing board because the gun was just too heavy and bulky with these wings.
I gave up on the idea of wings and took most of the ballast out of the gun. The repair is not noticable and the gun floats and looks great. I'll let you know how it shoots when I get it wet.
Custom handle made from aluminum and spalted maple, made with the help of KJFLYFISH (thanks for the help Koltcito ). Gun has 5 coats of penetrating epoxy.
The lessons I learned are unfortunately not new ones:
1) TAKE YOUR TIME
2) HAVE A PLAN
3) BE PATIENT IT IS QUICKER TO TAKE YOUR TIME AND DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME THAN HAVE TO FIX A MISTAKE:cussing:
One of the most famous wood workers in the world ( I can't remember if it was Sam Maloof or James Krenov) said something like:
" Judge a craftsman not just by the quality of the final product but by his ability to fix his mistakes"
Following this criteria I feel that I am a much better craftsman than when I started this gun.