Maidendeth13's 40" Midhandle Build

[maidendeth13]

Addition 1/6/10

Right, meant to post this up earlier in an earlier post, but with the excitement of getting the gun finished, and then settling back into being at school etc I managed to let it slip my mind.

Just wanted to give a quick thanks/shout out to Steve Veros of Poseidonsub. This gun build was modeled after a gun that Steve built for deckhandmike a few years ago. Mike lent me the gun for a week and I used it to see how everything works together, to figure out how I would go about making one for myself, as well as to have an idea of how I wanted to design mine. Turns out Steve's gun was so rad I made mine very similar to how he made the gun for Mike (although Mikes has a few features that I did not use because 1. Steve is a true craftsman, I couldn't put them on the gun if I wanted to as I had no idea how Steve did it. and 2. I did not want to make an exact copy of Steve's gun.) I've seen a few of Steve's other guns that he's built for Mike and they all look awesome. While I don't know him personally it looks like Steve is an awesome gun builder who uses true craftsmanship to produce awesome guns. Hopefully I will be able to get a gun from him for myself before summer to use on some paddyhopping trips.

Thanks again,

Gavin

Finally layed up my blank,

2 .625" lams of teak
3 .25 lams of an unknown wood from the mahogany family? can anyone identify it. (Yes I know using an unknown wood isn't greatest idea but I trust the guy who gave it to me with this stuff so it should work fine)
UPDATE 12/11/09 I think the wood is padauk, it has a density of 743 kg/ cubic meter and padauk is listed as 740 kg/ cubic meter

Here's some pictures







after unclamping (ya I used a lot of epoxy but it all squeezed out)


Update 12/1/09 More pics emailed to me of my blank.





Update 12/12/09 Better Pics of Blank and Parts



Ya I know I screwed up and flipped a piece an extra time, only warped about a 1/16" though so should be good...


I threw some left over epoxy on a scrap just to see how it would turn out. You be the judge.


and all the parts

[maidendeth13]

Update 12/19/09 Handle frame pocket milled out

Got a bit of work done today.

Trued up the blank, final dimensions are 42" x 1.88" x 1.25" I will be shortening it to most likely 38" as the shaft is 44". 1.88" came from having to trim down the sides to get them even due to bowing. 1.25" is a bit thin so I will most likely be gluing on the strip that I cut off the bottom onto the top or working out some sort of raised track idea so that I can raise up the trigger mech a bit.

Milled out the handle pocket today though as it was all that we had the bit for. Have to wait for the machine shops to open on Monday as Home Depot doesn't carry a 3/8" diameter round nose bit for the track...

Rather than square the handle pocket, I thought it would be cool to round the handle base to fit... I think it turned out pretty nice.



It's about time for another Update 12/27/09

Yesterday I routed the track, 3/8" for a 9/16 shaft. Gonna epoxy it though so can add a bit of thickness to make it thinner. It's about .25" deep. Also milled and filed the pocket for my trigger mechanism yesterday.

Today I milled a slot and pinned my remote trigger, routed a channel for the pushrod, and pinned my trigger mechanism.

The teak on top was to add depth because I cut the blank to thin and didn't have room for everything, so now unfortunately you can't see the center strip of paduak from the top. You'll see the side ones though when its done since i'm going to route the sides along the track (no idea how to explain it on here so it makes sense, but it makes sense in my head).





The trigger mech (pushrod is to short so Josh is sending me a longer one tomorrow unless a local metal shop has .185 diameter SS rods.)




Update 12/30/09 Now it actually looks like a speargun!

Yesterday I sat in my driveway with a dremel and got this done, today I thinned it out a bit so each side is a little less than .5" thick.


This is a better shot of all the stuff I got done a few days ago


And finally, got the band slot milled out, the notch on the track is for the line guide, the front is roughly rounded to shape, the line anchor is milled out (not shown)


Another shot of the same thing


Question whats the best way to connect the band slot to the route I made along the top on the sides so that the bands when stretched go from the band slot into that route relatively smoothly?
I was considering just sanding the top of the band slot flush but don't want to remove that much wood from above it...

[maidendeth13]

Update 12/30/09 Continued.

And the sides are routed down a bit so the bands can sit more flush rather than on top of the gun


Deleted old updates so I could add more pictures.

Update 1/4/10 Don't want to do homework, so posting pictures instead.

I got 2 coats of epoxy on the gun, and 1 on the handle. It's not gonna be used that much until summer so at the beginning of summer I am going to sand down and refinish the whole thing properly.

Anyways,

After the first coat of epoxy.


Putting on the second coat.

More pics (I got hijacked )

Muzzle


Handle


Trigger Mech, Line release, etc. Did bad job of epoxying on the cap at the end but will fix it up at beginning of summer. The pad is part of a sanding block, I will shape it a bit with a razor blade as well.


Muzzle again


Handle Again


And one showing the finished gun. Pictures are in my dorm room so I got some better backgrounds for them.

[phil herranen]

Originally Posted by maidendeth13

Finally layed up my blank,

2 .625" lams of teak
3 .25 lams of an unknown wood from the mahogany family? can anyone identify it. (Yes I know using an unknown wood isn't greatest idea but I trust the guy who gave it to me with this stuff so it should work fine)

Here's some pictures







after unclamping (ya I used a lot of epoxy but it all squeezed out)


dry


and with a bit of water rubbed on it

do you have any better pics of the mystery wood ? in the pics it looks like a light piece of paduk
i like your reserve post idea so that you can post all the pics in the first couple post with out commentary
phil

[maidendeth13]

I have some better pictures but they are on my mom's camera as My camera was at school while I was home. The blank is still at my house but I'm gonna see if my mom will email me the better pictures.

I had a small block I meant to get the density of but I completely forgot it at home. Typical luck for me haha. it does float though, dropped a piece in a glass and it floated very well.

I'll post up the better pictures when I get them otherwise I'll post up again here in 2 weeks when I go back home. right now it's just sitting in my room so it can warp/cure while I'm back up at school.

Yup, saw the idea on another site and thought it would make this thread easier for people to look at without having to sift through pages of commentary.

[thereefgeek]

That teak has some cool striping in the grain.
X2 on the placeholder for pictures idea
6 page build threads become tedious reads after a while.

[deckhandmike]

Looking good! Once you get it perfect your showing me how you did it. I've still never made a gun, I can hardly build shelves.

[maidendeth13]

Originally Posted by deckhandmike

Looking good! Once you get it perfect your showing me how you did it. I've still never made a gun, I can hardly build shelves.

Go practice building some shelves then we'll work on a gun. You don't have to know how to do it yourself, you just have to know someone who does haha. Thats where I got lucky.

more pics added to first post Unfortunately limited to 10 per post. any of these better ones help with identifying that wood?

[berty]

that wood looks like purpleheart wood to me

[maidendeth13]

Thought that to but had a piece that we knew was purpleheart and after comparing side by side we don't think it is... doesn't mean we're right, but it's most likely not purpleheart. There is a chance that it is hard to identify because it is a very rare wood it's been in his shop sitting for who knows how long. He does a lot of projects and has used some pretty obscure/rare woods for some of them that it would have been easy for a scrap to get thrown aside and forgotten about for a few years.

[KillaB27]

Bear with me here as I try to guess the wood. I have an encyclopedia of woods and looked for anything that looked like the wood and had a description that mentioned anything like look like Purpleheart or Paduak. Here goes:

Try #1:
Bubinga aka African Rosewood
Characteristics - Very dense; fine grain; purpleish pink to slamon red, with dark purple veining
Workability - Generally good; irregular grain tends to tear when hand-planed; pre-bore for nailing
Finish - Excellent
Weight - 55 lb./cu. ft.
Price - Expensive


Try #2:
Cocobolo aka Nicaraguan Rosewood
Characteristics - Heavy, dense wood; straight to irregular grain; purple, orange, rust, and yellow color with black markings, darkening with exposure to a deep reddish orange
Workability - Satisfactory; significant dulling of cutters; blades should be extremely sharp; reduce blade angle for planing; very difficult to glue
Finish - Accepts finishes very well
Weight - 68 lb./cu. ft.
Price - Expensive


Try #3:
Pau Ferro aka Santos Rosewood, Jacaranda
Characteristics - Straight to irregular grain; fine to coarse texture; heartwood, light to medium brown or purple with dark growth lines; grayish sapwood
Workability - Ranges from fair to good. The dust may cause skin and respiratory problems
Finish - Accepts finishes well
Weight - 49-60 lb./cu. ft.
Price - Expensive


Taken from Time Life Books, The Art of Woodworking

[thereefgeek]

Actually I've seen bubinga around here for $10-12/bd.ft. That's about half of what teak's going for lately.

[maidendeth13]

Hmmm... pretty sure it's not cocobolo as cocobolo sinks it water, I dropped a small piece in a glass to test that and it floated.

it does resemble bubinga a bit. I am going to cut a scrap of it when I get home to some easy dimensions, get the volume, and then weigh it to find the density. there are a few websites that list the densities of a lot of woods so after that it should hopefully be easier to figure out I hope. Studying engineering has got me looking at this to scientifically haha.

[Mike N]

Looking good, Maidendeth.

MN