About Me: A certified yet non-professional gunsmith learning the trade through trail and inspiration

Monday, May 29, 2017

The Ruger 10/22 LTR Project part 3

Don't forget to fly Old Glory and spend at least a few minutes remembering why we have the day off....





In part two we cut the stock and installed the necessary wood pieces and fitted rear grip anchor.

See the previous posts here:

Now we will focus on the construction of the butt stock and its attachment

Starting with the anchors for the butt stock, I clamped the barrel nut in place and drilled the first two holes



After countersinking the holes, I put some clay in the nutserts to protect the threads, filled the holes with 5 min ClearWeld epoxy and gently tapped the nutserts in place


After the first 2 anchor holes cured, I installed two of the bolts in the new anchors (for proper alignment) and drilled the last two holes.



Then repeated the process


 While the epoxy was curing I shortened the bolts to the correct length

Once the epoxy cured I did a trial fit


I started on the butt plate. I cut this piece from some 2" wide x 1/4" thick aluminum, I used a template to trace an arch



Then used the belt sander to round it off



After sanding and radiusing the edges, I glued a piece of flip flop to the plate


After it cured, I trued up the two using the 400 grit belt on the belt sander



Then I started figuring a way to connect the butt plate to the stock tube. I don't have access to a heliarc welder and didn't want to bother with trying to solder it, so I decided to use JB Weld. I stuffed some paper in the end of the tube to stop the JB Weld from running down inside.
Once I gooped it up good, I joined the two and pushed the paper down against butt plate, forcing the JB Weld against the butt plate.




I mixed up some more JB weld and forced it into a small syringe.
I then carefully spread it around the joint, cleaning up an mess with acetone and a cotton swab




While the JB Weld was curing, I started on the front picatinney mount. The 10/22 stock has a rounded bottom, I'll need to flatten it out some


After some work with the file I marked the center line
 



Then I drilled the holes and temporarily mounted it, the bolts will be trimmed after I figure out how to use them to secure the barrel shroud as well.



here it is with both fore and aft grips and the butt stock in place



Stay tuned for part 4