wood stock

[beta678]

Out of curiousity, how difficult would it be to build a complete wooden rifle stock, something similar to a M14, garand, or kar98, from scratch? Disregarding the whole time factor of course.
-beta

[beta678]

hm... no replies, let me rephrase the question, has anyone attempted to scratch build a full wooden rifle stock for airsoft successfully? How does one start a project such as this? thanks for any help.
-beta

[DarkAlman]

yes. The trick is patience and planning. Having a fully equipped wood shop at your disposal helps too.

I acquired a real steel FN stock to use as a template. Using it and the airsoft plastic stock as a reference I drew out a 1:1 diagram of what I wanted on paper. I had to make mild adjustments to the size for it to fit on the rifle, to fit the battery inside and for general comfort.

I made it of of 3 sheets of wood laminated together. I roughly cut out the 3 pieces but left them separate. That way I could carve out the battery slot and the wiring harness slots in the center piece ahead of time. Then using it as a guide I carved out a small bit of material from both exterior pieces using a router (in order to make the internal cavity wide enough for my battery)

Then I glued the sheets together and using a band saw I gave the exterior its shape. The rounded edges were made with a sanding block and a lot of patience.

After that I stained it and gave it 3 coats of matte varnish.

http://www.airsoftcanada.com/showthr...&highlight=fal

[beta678]

Thanks for the info DarkAlman! Not exactly what I had in mind but informative none the less. (nice FAL btw)

To clarify what I meant as in stock was more in terms of something like an M14's, which might be easier to make out of a solid piece of wood, though your method gives me ideas for building other things.

The reason I'm asking is because I would like to build an SVT40, and as I soon discovered, its near impossible to find a RS wooded stock to buy and modify . So I'm thinking about scratch-building one.

-beta

[Kokanee]

What base rifle were you thinking of using for the receiver / moving bits?

[beta678]

not too sure what you mean by that... at the moment I'm just trying to plan out what i would need to start this airsoft build, and if it would be possible to even start it. But if you mean what I'm gonna use as internals for this.. well, I'm thinking either an M14 gearbox or a g&g L85 gearbox would work... but leaning towards the L85 one.

Externals like the piston covers, bolt covers, etc I could probably order off here http://www.e-gunparts.com/productsch...rModel=1930z40. But the reciever bit, which would be just for looks, would probably have to be made somehow, not too sure how to do that at the moment.

Everything else I have a general idea of how to do, so its just the stock I need to figure out how to build, need to find measurements and stuff. Oh and the battery could fit somewhere in the stock, a 48 inch long rifle has to have room somewhere, but not sure if I'd be able to put it in the rifle butt...

Probably overlooked something... gotta put this on paper and figure everything out.

-beta

btw, totally open to suggestions and additional ideas.

[Dracheous]

The easiest, fastest, and CLEANEST way to do this, is order the real steel component and modify it to FIT the airsoft version. You WILL run into fitting issues and getting perfect seems, but leaves an over all cleaner realistic finish.

Doing it from scratch is fun and more full-filling, but if you really want some help or how too's, gonna need to answer Kokanee on what rifle exactly you are doing. Also, you're going to need a decent area/set of tools. A GOOD band saw and table saw are a must for most rifles in the design you outline. A good wood router is a handy tool as well, but these things can bite and when they do its not just painful but life-changin' ((trust me)). And lastly, you WILL need a good belt sander, its damn near impossible to do a good rifle stock in the type you're looking for with out one.


For the M14, I suggest if you're building entirely from scratch to NOT do it as one piece, there is SIMPLY too much hollowing out to do by hand if you do not have the proper drilling bits or drill. I'd start with two haves, and router out the internal openings for battery and motor; for the barrel you COULD do this on the table saw if you set up a jig, and would be how I do it ((I usually tape up my height adjustment so that I can increment any "round" areas when cutting, with a stop block to grab the end of the piece, of course this is with the two haves "biscuit jointed" and glued together)).

There are hundreds of ways to do up rifle stocks, and I've made a few wooden stocks for real steel hunting rifles. I have a few in the works at the moment in fact and each one has a different design and procedure to build. Most of them I have run into some some small hitch where its either not lookin' like I planned or just got put away when I ran my fingers through the router a while back :P.

[Naglfar]

For that gun, buy a Thompson and fit the parts into a SVT40 stock.
Do not use an L85 gearbox as you don't want to have to deal with moving the trigger and magazine feed, also I think it might make the motor not fit.

I plan to sometime construct my own wooden M14 stock for my TM...I'll definitely be building it in either 2 or 3 pieces sandwiched together, it will look very nice is you use the same piece of lumber for the sides (cut down the middle so it has matching grain and a different piece for the middle. Shellac it for about 5 or 6 coats, it will look many times better than stain and urethane.

[beta678]

Ok thanks, sorry if I wasn't clear on which rifle I wanted to build. But its the:

TOKAREV SVT-40

[Kokanee]

I'd prolly use King Arms SVD internals and make a sniper rifle out of it if I were tackling this project...


Tough build, do'able but very tough. Best of luck with it.

[Naglfar]

Sorry I thought you meant the submachine gun. In the case of those 3 pictures, buy a TM M14 and build a modified stock. Modify the receiver with extra metal parts to make it look like the SVT and mod the safety lever to wherever it is on the real steel.

To be perfectly honest with you, buy an AEG that you like first, and play games with that before anything. Then buy the M14 and modify it in your spare time, because it will take a long time and a lot of work to finish.


Kokanee - do you suppose the KA SVD internals would be better because of the mag placement and trigger group? I was thinking M14 because there appears little that is needed to modify by way of front section and mag, but the 14 lacks in the receiver area.

[Kokanee]

I went w/ the SVD internals for a number of reasons;

1) That rifle (SVT) is not suited at all for use as an assault rifle, henceforth would be more useful as a sniper rifle.

2) Ease of conversion, the parts for a spring cocking rifle would be far easier to fit than a full AEG conversion

3) Realism - the SVT was not an automatic weapon, it was single shot w/ a 10 round mag. There was a full auto variant produced called the AVT-40... but not the rifle we're talking about here.

[beta678]

hm... maybe I'll do that... but I strive for accuracy & realism so I still aim for making it semi auto. I could always make a svt40 carbine though.. and that would be possible by modding an m14 stock.. plus it'll be shorter, but I like the length and look of the svt40... argh...

btw, does anyone know where I can get some accurate measurements of the svt40's stock? I've been looking around and all I've found is the rifle's total length and the barrel length, need stock measurements. thanks

[Kokanee]

indeed you could! The M14 stock is a pretty good match for the SVT one right up to the bolt area, and the rest is nothing some creative sanding couldn't fix.

Have you shopped this idea around on Red Alliance? It's the premiere site for soviet/russian enthusiast airsofters. Alot of very experienced people there when it comes to scratch builds.

[beta678]

Nope, haven't been on Red Alliance yet. My interest for this build came from http://www.ww2airsoft.org.uk, I think a couple of ASC members are on those forums too.