Teak 80 - Part one: The stock

[Old Man Dave]

Looks great Ed. You've done a great job. Definitely be round to see it in the flesh, soon as.

Your hand crafted teak 80 versus my hi-tech camo Mamba with its new laser sight. Could be interesting.

Dave

[Dobs]

Ed, it looks beautiful, mate!!!
Poor Guernsey basses have no chance at all
Your arsenal is almost complete now: Totemsub 100, Mamba 90, and now this... All you need is that 107 cannon and you are ready to decimate the fish population

[portinfer]

Cheers guys !

Dobs - any tips on balancing a gun ?

I took it in to the water this morning and attached strips of lead at the nose and trigger end so that it was horizontal in the water and neutral (just rising when loaded). Without any lead it is very bouyant.

Planning on drilling holes and then pouring lead into scrap wood with holes of the same size ... then plug cutting some teak and covering the hole in the handle and the hold in the nose (after inserting a plug of lead - all ideas curtesy of OMD - I was all ready to pour lead straight into the holes in the gun ...ooops)

I think this is how my Totem is balanced and I like it - you hold it gently between finger and thumb at the trigger end and it is perfectly horizontal.

Tried the same with the Mamba and the nose plummets !

ed

[Orangekiwi]

Ed, very nice job! Old man Dave, thanks for giving the advise. Ed, you can get a Abellan mech from subprof.com
Most people seem to use a s/s cassette type mechanism? Can anyone make any comments or give me suggestions about a picasso basic mechanism? As far I know these are nylon encased, picasso has been around for years so can't be bad? And the price is certainly a lot cheaper?

thanks

[Bjordnolf]

Sorry if I missed it, but how did you go about cutting the wings and tapering band slots?
thanks

[portinfer]

I used rifflers... have a look here : http://www.axminster.co.uk/product.a...sfile=1&jump=0

THey are pretty good at carving specific bits of wood - now I have some small gouges so would use them in the future - they cost alot more but are very sharp (I have a 3mm shape in my thumb and the other thumb has a 2mm flat chisel mark - the nerves have more or less grown back - so if you are clumsy likeme then use the rifflers !)
Ed

[Bjordnolf]

Thanks for the reply.

[Orangekiwi]

Need some more advise please,

I just got hold of a nice piece of ironbark 110mmx25mm but have been told it is too heavy, and yes, at home it sinks when dropped in water. Still thinking of using 1 strip of laminate and use other timbers around it. Believe that being so hard would make an excellent spear rail groove.
Need the advise on wanting to know to what size you machine the strips before you laminate them?
Also want to know ( if I make a gun like arbalegno.com ) what size hole do you drill for the rubbers? Do you drill a 18mm hole if you use 18mm rubber or can the hole be smaller as the rubbers get stretched anyway?
Reason I am asking is that it looks like the muzzle end on this spear is going to end up pretty wide, 2x20mm for rubbers, approx 1 x 8mm for spear groove and have to allow for extra bits.

thanks,

[portinfer]

Hey Orangekiwi - you can certainly lam up the wood - design the overall dimensions and then work out the lams from there. For example if you want a gun stock (stock = before any work done to it - just the block o' wood ready to get shaping - at least that is what I refer to by stock) that is 65mm wide by 35mm deep by whatever length then you could work out the central lam size.

This is roughly the dimensions of gun number two... still in stock form

I laminated mahoghay with maple - not sure if maple is heavy but I know it is hard as nuts ...

The ironbark should be ok if you choose a lighter wood - not sure of specific densities but you could try a library - I found a good book on density / characteristics of wood.

Teak is a popular choice for marine use... high silica content so will blunt tools - reasonably 'floaty'

Red cedar is light as hell and easy to work and quite resistant to warping and the marine environment ... but it is soft and will dent I think in a gun (good for kayak paddles though).

Mahoghany might be a good choice... or iroko... not sure ...

Douglas fir is ismilar in some respects to red ceadr in terms of advantages (light) and disadvantages (soft - but in this case will rot in water too).

I am no expert on wood.

What is the other dimension of your wood ? 110 x 25 x ?? ...

You can make the central rail guide laminate about 10 to 15 mm .. somewhere in that area depending on the overal gun stock dimensions.

A good depth is about 35 to 30mm.

As for the holes ... the rubber will compress to about half the size in the holes.

You can make smaller holes than 18mm but the additional build up from the finish coats (epoxy/varnish) will reduce the diam anyway. Also if they are too small you will hav to resort to washing up liquid/soap/the lubricant of your choice... to slip it in the hole

Good luck mate...

[mcoaker2]

Hey everyone, first time to visit and post here and I've already gained some valuable knowledge. I've been diving and spearfishing for almost 10 years now in the northern Gulf of Mexico with store bought guns, but I'm ready to build my own.

Only a couple of questions for now. First, what is a good thickness for the teak strips used in building a laminated stock? Second, do the trigger mechanisms that are shown in some of the thumbnails have a safety, or some way to ensure the trigger is not unintentionaly pulled? If these do not, are there some trigger mecahnisms available that do have a safety?

I'm sure I'll have more questions as I get into actually building the gun. I appreciate any responses.

Matt

[portinfer]

Matt - the only safe gun is an unloaded gun - in my opinion safeties give a false sense of security... The triggers here have no safety. You can certainly buy triggers with safeties.

You might need to look into what shaft you use - triggers may only accept certain shafts but I am sure that if you go American then you will get the correct trigger/shaft combo. Have a look at the Wong/Aimrite guns - they seem nice

Lam thickness depends on the final dimensions of the gun. Try to get the central laminate wide enough to have a shaft rail. ie whatever you decide to make the gun width wise divide into 3 or 5 or 7 and then the middle lam will not have a central join - the shaft will sit on wood and not a join... rambling but hopefully you get it

Good luck building your own - very rewarding !

__________________
Edward