Finally finished the stock I ordered from Richards Microfit a few months ago.
10 weeks after placing my order, the stock arrived. They had told me 10 weeks when I ordered it, and it was right on time. After reading some of the bad reviews on the Richards stocks, I wasn't expecting much. However, it looked pretty good to me when it got here.
I ordered the "thumbhole target" model with the intention of flattening the final few inches to make it benchrest friendly. A few minutes with the belt sander, and I did just that.
The initial product is pretty rough. I spent a couple hours with 100 grit sandpaper getting rid of the machine marks. Nothing was overly deep, and everything was lined up nicely.
After the 100 grit, did the whole thing in 150 grit, then 220, then 320, and then fine steel wool. By the end of all that sanding, I was so sick of sanding that I'll be happy if I never sand anything again... EVER.
Sealed the wood after that with Tru-Oil diluted in mineral spirits.
After that, I did the pillar bedding and the glass bedding of the action. It wasn't initially going to be pillar bedding, but a mistake prompted me to put in pillars. For some reason, there wasn't a hole for the front action screw. I tried to be very careful when I drilled the hole so it would line up, but, of course, the **** thing was off. That REALLY sucked. Up till that point, everything was going perfectly. So, I had to fix the dang hole so it would line up, but by the time I was done, it was a big *** ugly hole. So then I said to myself "heck, it's big enough for a pillar now." So I went to home depot and made myself a poor man's pillar out of a narrow brass tube I found in the plumbing section. I figured I may as well make a pillar for the rear action screw, so I did that too. After the pillars were in, it was time for the Acra-glass. The bedding was uneventful. The release agent worked great. The end result was **** ugly, but all the ugly is in the inside where no one will see it but me.
After that, there was even more gosh darned sanding with oil to fill the grain of the wood. Did that twice.
Then I realized I messed up when I was filling the grain. I left too much extra oil sludge to dry. I should have wiped it all off. I then had to take steel wool to the whole dang thing again to get rid of the extra oil that had already dried. That was a HUGE pain in the ***.
Then I put three coats of Tru-oil for the final finish. After the first coat, I realized that the bolt would not come out of the rifle 'cause it was hitting the cheek piece. I had to dremel out a section so it would slide out freely. Luckily I didn't mess up the surrounding wood, so I didn't have to do any more extra sanding.
All that took me about two weeks. The hardest part was the initial sanding and fixing the mistake I made while filling the grain. The rest of it was pretty easy. The end result was much nicer than I ever thought it would be. Tomorrow will be the true test to see how well it shoots.
So, here are some pics. If you want to see all of them, goto http://www.pbase.com/wildewinds/cz452
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10 weeks after placing my order, the stock arrived. They had told me 10 weeks when I ordered it, and it was right on time. After reading some of the bad reviews on the Richards stocks, I wasn't expecting much. However, it looked pretty good to me when it got here.
I ordered the "thumbhole target" model with the intention of flattening the final few inches to make it benchrest friendly. A few minutes with the belt sander, and I did just that.
The initial product is pretty rough. I spent a couple hours with 100 grit sandpaper getting rid of the machine marks. Nothing was overly deep, and everything was lined up nicely.
After the 100 grit, did the whole thing in 150 grit, then 220, then 320, and then fine steel wool. By the end of all that sanding, I was so sick of sanding that I'll be happy if I never sand anything again... EVER.
Sealed the wood after that with Tru-Oil diluted in mineral spirits.
After that, I did the pillar bedding and the glass bedding of the action. It wasn't initially going to be pillar bedding, but a mistake prompted me to put in pillars. For some reason, there wasn't a hole for the front action screw. I tried to be very careful when I drilled the hole so it would line up, but, of course, the **** thing was off. That REALLY sucked. Up till that point, everything was going perfectly. So, I had to fix the dang hole so it would line up, but by the time I was done, it was a big *** ugly hole. So then I said to myself "heck, it's big enough for a pillar now." So I went to home depot and made myself a poor man's pillar out of a narrow brass tube I found in the plumbing section. I figured I may as well make a pillar for the rear action screw, so I did that too. After the pillars were in, it was time for the Acra-glass. The bedding was uneventful. The release agent worked great. The end result was **** ugly, but all the ugly is in the inside where no one will see it but me.
After that, there was even more gosh darned sanding with oil to fill the grain of the wood. Did that twice.
Then I realized I messed up when I was filling the grain. I left too much extra oil sludge to dry. I should have wiped it all off. I then had to take steel wool to the whole dang thing again to get rid of the extra oil that had already dried. That was a HUGE pain in the ***.
Then I put three coats of Tru-oil for the final finish. After the first coat, I realized that the bolt would not come out of the rifle 'cause it was hitting the cheek piece. I had to dremel out a section so it would slide out freely. Luckily I didn't mess up the surrounding wood, so I didn't have to do any more extra sanding.
All that took me about two weeks. The hardest part was the initial sanding and fixing the mistake I made while filling the grain. The rest of it was pretty easy. The end result was much nicer than I ever thought it would be. Tomorrow will be the true test to see how well it shoots.
So, here are some pics. If you want to see all of them, goto http://www.pbase.com/wildewinds/cz452
