What type of wood material…
is best for making a stock? I have an air rifle project I’m getting ready to work on and I need to make a bull-pup stock. This will be my first stock, so hopefully it turns out ok…
Cherry
Oak
Walnut
Pine
Plywood
Maple
Ash
Mahogany
Exotics:
Padauk
Bubinga
Zebra Wood
Lignum Vitae
I wonder if this too much…
Thanks guys…
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Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
Ply is the way to go as you can cut the silhouette out then layer the ply upto the required thickness of the stock. It would be much easier to shape the 12mm ply in layers to the contours of the breach / cylinder if you dont have access to a 28mm ballnose router bit . Then just paint with what you call over there ” bedliner paint “? if you want a textured finish or varnish.
Il send it this week ( maybe ! ) im abit on hold as ive trapped a nerve in my back ! and its a pain to stand at the moment. Think this gun has jinxed me !
Here is my homebuilt multi ply stock I made
there is a hole in the bottom for the torch switch, man I gotta clean this thing up, been up on the shelf in the office for quite of time
I designed it to support the tank, just a tad off on the tank bedding, had to remove the top tank cover 🙄 🙄 🙄 🙄
I would defiantly practice with something like the plywood to begin with, and once you hone your skills you can always make another.
We here at the TAG had a member who made awesome gun stocks, forgot who he was (rabbit?) anyway good luck, I found it quite easy to machine the channel for the AF gun, start out fitting the gun while you have something flat and square to work with, then do all the shaping stuff afterwords
SAW
I vote Curly maple Please note this image does not belong to me but came from http://doantrevor.com You really should check out his work if you haven’t all ready 
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I like the idea of plywood…when its shaped it has a neat look with the different layers. I’ve always been a clear varnish type of wood working guy as I love the look of real wood. I always hate to paint something that is made of nice wood…
In wood shop, WAY back in high school I turned a bowl made of birch plywood, with bubinga in it, IIRC it was like 8 pieces of ply and 7 pieces of bubinga, glued up with an oak bottom and finished it with clear lacquer…’turned’ out real nice with the different layers of the ply showing 😀
I might have to try the plywood idea…if it turns out looking bad, I can always rattle can it, or bed-liner it 😉
Thanks guys
for your first go around I’d play with the ply unless you have something laying around the shop, soft is good for shaping as well as lighter and remember it will be a learning process, so don’t spend too much… I have some alder slabs in the basement that will someday become a bulpup stock for the qb… some dam day…
I made one from baltic birch 13 ply 3/4″ ply
Glued up 3 layers of it, and finished it of with some
bedliner spray, light and strong, shoot you could probably
make 8-10 stocks out of a 4×8 sheet
I will post a pic later, just pulled the beast off the shelf and she is a tad dusty 🙄 😥
SAW
The bubinga is nice. http://www.oldtreegunblanks.com/shotgunblanks.html?woodid=14
also Royal Russian Circassian Walnut (towards bottom of page)
http://www.oldtreegunblanks.com/featuredblanks.html
or anything from above page.
Walnut, being a very stable wood, is the traditional norm for rifle stocks. For more budget-oriented stocks birch and beech are used commercially. Although unless properly dried and sealed, beech can be very unstable. Many exotic hardwoods and up being too heavy.
Don’t discount hardwood plywood, especially when this is your first. A good and inexpensive but sturdy material for experimenting. A bit lacking in the looks department, but can be painted according to the needs. Once you’ve found the right shape and have some experience, it’s always possible to go for something fancier.
Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
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I believe I ran a dado head on the table saw all the way through, then
glued a block in the from where the torch is, so happens, when I shaped the cradle of the tank with the front wheel of my belt sander it was at the bottom of the dado cut 😛 😛 😛 😛 😛
It has been a few years since I did that one, I think I glued up some extra blanks, I will have to check my storage for them.
SAW