bobw
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Posts: 1874
Location: NW, Iowa
Joined: Mar 19 th, 2013
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Re: Next Project, Hepburn Walker Patent Configuration
Reply #393 - Aug 13th, 2025 at 7:13pm
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These first two pictures were taken as I was fitting the plate. In these you can just see the pencil line just below the comb and how the wood stopped just above this pencil line. The 3rd photo was taken after the top screw was made and installed. Since the widows peak on the buttplate automatically centers the top, the screw is only needed to hold the plate against the wood. This screw is a fillister style. The next photo is after the lower screw was installed. Both of these screws, on manufactured guns, is generally a wood screw. The issues I have with wood screws is, first they have horrible slots, wide and many time off center. Secondly, they can change the position of the buttplate because nothing is holding except the screw head taper. This taper on most wood screw today is not made very well and acts like an eccentric. So as the screw change positions so does the plate. So on a buttplate screw, like this lower one, that not only holds the plate to the wood, but also holds it in position on the stock, I make a screw that does both with precision. Since the plate is not very thick, I use a combination of shapes to accomplish everything I want. The screw has the tapered 82 degree head like a wood screw. But above the taper it is straight sided so the head is actually set into the buttplate like a fillister head would be, but very shallowly. So it is simply a fillister screw with an 82 degree taper on the bottom. In addition to the head features, I fit the screw shoulder, the smooth area between the head and the threads, to both the plate and the wood. So the shoulder acts like a dowel pin, fitted to the plate and a matching hole in the wood. By doing this it correctly locate the plate no matter where the screw is tightened or how many time it is removed and replaced. The last photo is the fully fitted plate. It also shows how the plate is slightly lower than the wood. This allows me, when finishing the comb line, to end up with the wood flowing back through the top of the buttplate in a straight line. Without the plate raising or lower from the straight comb line. Bob Of course at some point the screw heads will be trimmed/adjusted for length and the slots timed.
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