bobw wrote on May 28^th, 2026 at 10:12pm:

Can't wait for the Jersey City book and looking forward to watching your most intersting Singer build. Always amazing work

I made a comment, in another thread, about how tough it is to head up a chunk of wood to a Winchester action.  Not exactly something I want to do everyday.  And, in my opinion, it rates right up there with stocking an L C Smith shotgun with sidelocks, which I have also done and, did not enjoy!

The problems being the coned inside feature of the action, the very thin edge that's fits to the wood, which shows that fit on the outside, and then the keyed lower tang.   

Last I added to this thread, I was working on the upper tang.  In this first picture it is fitted, along with the head of the stock fitted into the coned area at the rear of the action.

In this second picture the lower tang is pretty much in place.  Because this tang is keyed into the action it has to be inlet straight back into the stock.  I use the top tang as the constant, when inletting, this lower tang, and it must be carefully inserted the same every time or there will be problems with the fit to the coned area of the frame. Hopefully I have explained this so it can be understood.  If not, you will just need to do one, so you can appreciate how much fun it is.

This third picture shows the lower tang inlet and the coned nose that fits into the back of the action.

The last picture is of the top tang inlet and the coned wood again.

The true test of how I did on this, will be when the wood is cut down to the action surface....we will see!
Bob

Photo 1.  I then turned a drill bit centering/alignment plug for the top tang hole.  This plug is stepped and fits the screw shank hole with a slight finger press fit.  The center hole was drilled, while in the lathe, with the same drill that will drill the pilot hole through the wood for the reamer to follow.

Photo 2. The first step is to align the the lower pointed alignment tool with the center of the mills spindle.  This picture shows this alignment.  It is done by simply eyeballing the points in both directions.  Once this is complete, the mill table can not be moved for any reason.

Photo 3.  The action is then mounted in a solid vice with the lower tang plug pilot hole firmly set into the table alignment tool.  Then the spindle mounted tool is placed in the center of the upper drilling bushing.  The action is then adjust in the vice until the two tools are aligned.  The tool shown in this picture is a precision tool used to center the spindle over any hole.  The red arrow shows how far off the alignment is.  The lower disc section must align in all directions with the upper section.

Photo 4.  This picture is just for reference, showing the tool upper and lower sections closely aligned.  The aligning process is done by moving the action, not the mill table.

Photo 5.  I'm now ready the get the wood in place and drill the pilot hole.  In this picture the drill bit depth is set to stop before it touches the lower plug in the tang.

If you go back and look at the reamer you will see the pilot that guides the reamer through this drilled pilot hole.  The problem being, this lower tang plug is in the way of the reamer pilot getting into the tang hole.   

It needs to be out before using the reamer.  So I drilled the hole in the wood until the drill bit stopped.  Then then removed the lower alignment tool.  I then reset the drilling depth and continued with the drill bit until it hit the plug.  The plug slot shoulders then caught the the drill bit and unscrew the plug, down and out of the way, for the reamer pilot.
Bob

Now that the action is hooked up to the wood, it's time to figure out the buttplate.

Since I was unable to find a buttplate that was acceptable to me for this rifle, I decided to make one.

As many of you may have heard me say, this is not something I enjoy doing, and would really prefer not to!

I know some folks have made them by welding pieces onto a base plate but that's not really what I care to do.  

The other option was to make a pattern and have one cast in either steel or brass.  This option would be the best, but not being real familiar with casting, I would need to study all the details of making the pattern.  Making a pattern would not be hard to do, but they do need to be over sized, to allow for shrinkage of the material used, and I'm not familiar with how much or where to oversize a pattern.  In the end I decided to just spend the time, for this one off plate, and carve it out of solid steel and be done with it.  This is not the most efficient way to get a plate and is lots of work.  But, when done, it's done.

So here are several picture of how I do these.  I started with an over sized plate of mild steel, milled to 1.5 inches thick.  This thickness is the maximum width of the finished plate.

This first picture is just a refresher of what the stock and buttplate look like.  

In the lower right corner of this drawing I am showing the buttplate from the rear view.  The cast on the original gun is 1/4 inch at the heel and 1/2 inch at the toe.  I wasn't sure I could get this done with the blank I have, and also get the cheek rest in, so I drew this out to test if it was possible.  The drawing say I can.  The buttplate is easy to see, the center small square feature is the head of the stock where it attaches to the frame.  The large outer square is the block of wood.

Photo2.  The buttplate is laid out on the steel.  I am about to start drilling holes following the inside edge of the pattern.

Photo 3.  All the holes are drilled.  The holes are 9/16 inch.

Photo 4.  With the holes drilled I started milling out the metal between the holes and roughing out the shape of the plate.

Photo 5.  Here the shape is roughed out along with the base where the plate touches the wood.  Just for reference of the size, the lower tang is 4 7/8 inches long.
Bob

Photo 1.  I mostly use 6 flute carbide end mills.  The only reason for this is because there is a manufacturer here in town that uses this end mills until they have a certain number of cycles or the finish degrades to under specs for that finish.  As far as I'm concerned, for what I do, they are still new!  A friend who worked there would get them for me.  Since I manual mill everything one wrong move can be tough on an end mill.  The short mill in this picture was the one I used to clean the steel out between the drilled holes.  I use damaged mills when I start roughing something like this and this one already had a chipped tooth.  But, I hooked the steel with it in a climb milling direction, which I avoid, and this is what happens.  The long mill was already damaged but since the sides are still good I used it to finish mill to the lines on the plate.

Photo 2.  Here I have started the first of two final passes.  On the right I am done, and the left is still to be machined.  Since I do not have CNC, I do this work manually, working the table in both directions by turning the cranks.  Since the pattern was marked around the outside of it, I will be completely removing the black line in the final pass.

Photo 3. Here I am rough sawing the outside lines of the pattern.  It also shows the inside and base now being finished and the black lines gone.

Photo 4. Back in the mill and starting to finish the outside of the plate.

Photo 5.  The plate is now profiled out and ready for the next step.
Bob

Needed to remove some weight and excess steel from the buttplate.

This first pictures shows the rough layout, for the sides of the plate where it fits to the wood.

This second picture shows the layout lines for the tang and ball on the end.

Photo 3.  Showing that I have started thinning the width of the ball ends of the tangs.

Photo 4. Set and ready to take some off the sides of the tangs.

Photo 5.  And the sides roughed out.
Bob

Here I am, fascinated by the process that creates your delicious rifles. Each one, in turn, becomes as desirable as any smith's  work ever done. Bravo

looking better and better. but, of course it does, always.
I'd like to ask how, from the earlier post, did you mill that depression into a surface that humps up and down on the inner face of the butt plate. I can only imagine straight lines on any milling I ever had done. Engine blocks are supposed to be flat and that kind of up and down is eliminated- end of my knowledge.