homemade 130 euro

[jtkwest]

well this is the first of 14 guns i will be making. i got a bunch of teak from work and i cut and planed and glued 14 laminates and they are aging under my couch right now. i am working a couple of the older ones now and i have one done. it is 139 cm 55"from trigger to muzzle and 155 cm overall 62" . it is a fully enclosed track with delrin insert. it has a neptonics tuna trigger and handle frame. with teak handles carved by me. it is unfinished in these pics. but it is in the process of being oiled now. i am using riffe oil kit. i wish it would come out darker though. will tung oil darken it? can i use it after teak oil? what about varnish? anyway it shoots a 63" x 9/32" spear with slip tip it is made of teak and ipe . the ipe is in the center and bottom with teak on the rest. i am not sure what to put on the butt yet if anything. the ipe i used was hand picked by me from 2 tractor trailer loads. it actually floats!(ipe usually sinks) it has added ridiculous strength to my gun plus helped ballast it without losing bouyancy. and i cut the strips for the laminate in june and glue the stock in august and it is still true. the barrel is 1.5 inches wide and 1 3/8 tall

 

[jtkwest]

i messed up a few thing on this gun. the biggest of which is the grain of the laminates, which i NOW full understand . oh well next time. this barrel doesnt flex much it fells super solid from the ipe.

 

[blaiz]

If your wood has had a chance to fully dry I wouldnt worry about the warping too much.

I was thinking about making a gun completely out of ipe. Do you think it would be too heavy?

Also a few thoughts on the neptonics handle. What type of epoxy did you use to laminate it? I used west systems and the sides popped off twice. The cavity in the handle makes the handle very buoyant and my gun wanted to turn over under water. Was really annoying. I ended up boring out the center of the handle and drilling a hole in the bottom to allow water in and out of the handle Works a lot better now. I also had to end up using through bolts to clamp the handle sides in addition to the epoxy. I wish the epoxy alone would have held but the small bolts dont look too bad. I just counter sunk them and now it works great.

 

[jtkwest]

what i did was screw it from one side with screws just long enough to attach far side without going through it. i didnt glue it at all. did you know there are two different handle frames available? one is aluminum (labeled light )one is SSteel,(lbeled heavy) they are both the same price you just have to tell josh. he also is sending me a handle frame jig ,(whatever that is )for 10$ it should be here wed. i will let you know what that looks like. i figured if i didnt like the handle pieces , i would redo them later . i was thinking ipe because it is neg. buoyant.,(should help with flipping over you are describing. and the BEST way to do the handles is to get pins ,(the same as hold the trigger , only smaller) and drill slightly smaller hole and pin them, i was just in a bit of a hurry to get one gun done. i just got back from the shop ten minutes ago, and i am building two more guns this week, one 140 cm rear handle 9/32" x 65" spear , and 1 90cm little gun for 9/32 x 50" spear. both will be done in a week or two. i want to experiment with tung oil and varnish for the finish this time, though. and one other thing, ipe sinks. i picked a piece out of hundreds to find one that floated BARELY. i actually laminated an all ipe barrel to see if it would work , but i think it would be too heavy to hold on to with the spear increasing the weight even further. some one said it would be good for scuba spearos since they really dont wnt the gun to float,(it is more of a pain in the ass) i used two strips of ipe out of 6 total, with the rest teak, and it seems to be the perfect combination. also, the wood i have is true ipe and hence denser than cumaru, for instance , which is commonly sold under "trade name ""IPE" but is not usually as dense, so would probably be a better choice, but it still sinks, unless you find an extra light one. i will tell you what i was told by an old timer woodworker who i have been consulting with lately, he told me to buy a bit of 1/4 sawn BUBINGA. a straight block of this stuff doesnt need to be laminated it is way way more snappy and resilient than teak at 1/4 the price and actually would be better than teak in strength characteristics, as long as you oil it, it will be perfect in water. just START with a sraight block of that, and the rest is down hill.

 

[CaptainCanuck]

Mistakes or not, looks like it's gonna be a beautiful gun. Would love to see it when it's finished.

 

[Brett_C]

looks good so far mate, keep the pic coming as you go.

 

[settingsteel]

Looks nice Jason, BTW who you calling old timer:martial...I have used Bubinga on at least half of the guns I've built and quite frankly prefer it over teak, but I recommend you lam it. Blaiz Ipe will sink, as will cumaru, the less dense outer parts of the tree trunk will be "lighter". I have used Ipe/Cumaru as my "track" on quite a few builds and think it is awesome, sand to a metal like finish, but just too heavy for the entire gun. As for the handle, I've never seen one up close, but if it has holes on the metal some poxy and WS 404 HD fiber will do the trick.

JTK tung oil, teak oil are about the same and yes both will darken the wood but as the oils evaporate with gun use the wood will lighten up which indicates it time to re-oil. As for varnishing you should NOT varnish over oil just oil alone. Good luck on the build.:friday

 

[jtkwest]

Looks nice Jason, BTW who you calling old timer


not you man , i was talking about the guy in the picture, my friend jay. i forgot you were the one who mentioned bubinga. (when jay mentioned it, it sounded familiar) sorry. besides you are only like 20 years older than me right ? kidding! i am 37, what r u ? 39?

 

[jtkwest]

Looks nice Jason, BTW who you calling old timer


sorry, i forgot attachment

this is jay, he makes fine jewelry boes, ukeleles, and custom funiture. also, now, speargun building consultant
he IS an old timer,(kinda) haha