Latest gun

[scallywag]

Just thought I'd share my latest effort.
Its a short low viz/night fishing gun of around 60cm long.
Made of a mahogany type of wood (an old door frame!) with a Pursuit bottom line release trigger mech. Almost done now but will post more, better pics when its done.

 

[scallywag]

more photos..................

 

[Dai ASBO]

You are clearly a very talented man. Respect.

 

[foxfish]

Looks great but, those pics don't really dont do your work any justice.. you need a better camera or flash!

 

[scallywag]

Pictures were a bit of a spurr of the moment thing. Should have it finished by next weekend so will post some better ones then.

 

[Jegwan]

Wow, nice wood work. A good looking shortie...
Jegwan

 

[dfroggy54]

loookin good!

 

[onobill]

The light and dark woods really accentuate the contours. It's really going to look good when you get the finish on it. What type of finish do you plan on using?

 

[scallywag]

The use of the contrasting wood was purely accidential, they were just offcuts from a previous build.
I thought I'd try somthing different this time and stain the gun black to contrast with the stainless hardware.
I had a few problems with the first coat of varnish going off, but I applied the last coat today so by the weekend I'll have it all rigged and finished so will then post pictures of the finished item.

 

[scallywag]

Well finally finished the gun last week. I had a bit of a disaster with the finish but it all came good in the end.
I decided for a change to use a black stain to give a dark/black finish but still being able to see the grain detail. After a fruitless search of local supliers I sourced some sutible stain on-line.
Eager to get it finished, I applied two heavy coats allowing it to dry overnight before varnishing.
In hindsight I should have applied several thin coats of stain, wipping off excess in between because that first coat of varnish took a week to dry!
Further coats of varnish caused the stain to lift leaving a blotchy finish.
At this point I made the decision to go down the cammo route with a few coats of satin black aerosol paint, green and brown patterning and varish top coat and I'm pretty pleased with the results.

 

[scallywag]

The band is 19mm which if truth be told is too much but it was the only rubber I had to hand at the time. Think less long distance sniper rifle and more sawn off shot gun!!!

On a seperate not I've been playing with the idea of selling guns in kit form. A kit of parts with all the routing done so all the builder has to do is glue the laminates together, shape the gun to the template provided, fit the trigger (provided) varnish/finish, make the band and bungie and fit the hardware.
Everthing needed would be in the kit apart from glue and varnish/finish.

I'm thinking of a euro 80 style.

Any thoughts?

Thanks, James.

 

[foxfish]

Ah the joys of gun building! I have always found the finishing touch to be the trickiest part of guns building but I eventually got it right after years of messing around with epoxy & just getting a poxy finish!
I have been building & selling guns (& laminated walking sticks & didgeridoos & banjos & loads of other things) all my life & I can honestly say I have never made a penny LOL
Selling kits, why not give it a go, as long as you dont need to make money out of it then you cant lose..
Your gun looks great by the way

 

[scallywag]

No, I dont need the money, just want to share my hobby and if I can make enough so I can buy some teak an a top quality trigger mech for my ultimate gun, so be it.
I know when people start out building they search the net for plans, I know I did, so why not buy plans and parts from one source as a first step on the ladder.
Make your first gun then improve it, correcting your mistakes second time around. Then one a bit longer,then shorter,And so on................

 

[foxfish]

What about the postage & VAT - do you think you can still sell a kit at a reasonable cost?

 

[scallywag]

Don't know, all depends what people will pay. I was thinking of making up 5 kits an putting them on an eBay listing to see how it goes. The detail parts I'll make myself so it just the trigger wood and rubber I'll have to buy in.

 

[scallywag]

What would you define as reasonable cost? What do you think people will pay?

 

[foxfish]

Who knows mate, we are talking about such a small, niche market!
I have made guns to order that only cost £100 in materials but, took me more than a week to build (35 hours) & I sell them for £300 - £400 including P&P & VAT. I can earn 4 x that on a building site!
You would have to revise the custom market to see how much the average hand made woody cost & perhaps half it to get an idea?

 

[scallywag]

I was thinking in the region of £150 +p&p give or take. That's for everything to build a wooden speargun including band with detailed instructions, except for glue and varnish or other finish.

 

[winky]

This is possibly something I would be interested in buying as it seems a great starting place in making your own gun, something I can imagine is one of the most satisfying things a spearo can do, especially when you shoot your first fish with it!!

Just wondering if you did buy one of your kits what level of DIY / woodworking skill would be required to do a reasonable job of completing it?

Cheers,

Nick

 

[scallywag]

The plan was to make it as simple to assemble as possible. The laminates would be cut and planed to the correct thickness with the rail pre-routed.
The assembler would just have to glue the laminates together against a straight edge, cut the shape using a jigsaw then shape it using surforms or rasps or perhaps a dremmel type tool. If I go ahead I'll make a gun and write up a set of detailed directions with photos as I go. An average DIYer shouldn't have a problem.