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Slavia · Moderator

Back to the Mendoza. If I'm going to beat Roy and his R9, I had better get this right.

The reason for the wood addition under the forearm was to bring the stock down lower. When shooting offhand (at stationary targets), one plants their elbow against the body, and my arm is a little short to reach up to the stock. I had hoped to squeeze an accessory rail under there, but between the cocking arm and the rail's thickness it won't be long enough to be of any use.

I wanted to make the grip angle more nearly vertical, and move it closer to the trigger (to facilitate pulling the trigger in a line parallel to the compression tube). This profile is a compromise between my Slavia 631 and my Marksman 2004, both of which work well for me. There will be a palm shelf that will lengthen the grip a bit, and a deck screw down through the original wood to reinforce it.

I tried to get the forearm glue line to fair into the curved glue line of the grip. There is a color difference between the original wood and my additions, but I'll stipple up to the glue line (and stain) to disguise it somewhat. The grain of the added grip wood runs diagonally to reinforce the wrist, but the stippling will make it disappear.

If you look at most rifles, the bottom of the butt section runs in a straight line from the grip to the butt. Mendoza's (and also Argentinian Menaldi's) have a little "swoop" right at the butt. I don't know; maybe it's a Latin thing. I had the opportunity to straighten it out when I cut the new transition behind the grip, but decided to leave it to preserve the gun's "Mendozaosity."

Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

Hi Slavia I have visited this post every now and then through out my life, Laughing

and I haven’t made any comments on the Crosman RM577 because I know absolutely nothing about them. Embarassed

But reading the new posts as they appear and marvelling at the ingenuity you use to solve problems is nothing less than inspired. I just wish you had a lathe then you could really let rip, and achieve your full potential. YouAreAGod

Nice one!

Al

Slavia · Moderator

Thanks, Alstone. I've seen your work on this forum, and I take that as a compliment indeed.

A lathe, mill, surface grinder, etc. would be nice. Then I realize that guys 200 years ago did amazing things without them, and it becomes a question of how to reach my goals with what I've got. Usually, it's one little element that makes everything fall into place. For example, your suggestion to push abrasive cloth into a wrench socket was the key to allow me to do engine turning. Hopefully readers will find those "pieces to the puzzle" in what we write here.

I really lucked out when my father-in-law gave me this $30.00 USD garage ("boot") sale drill press. I've gotten spoiled. It's a radial arm design, so the quill can be tilted and positioned anywhere on (or off) the table:

Even more so if you make a tilt table out of free scraps from the cabinet shop:

With the cross-slide ("X/Y") vise you can do light milling and evenly spaced holes:

And overarm rout, or use it as a thickness planer:

Or smooth straight lines on longer pieces with a sliding table:

Or use it as a jointer:

Or a stationary sander. It's wise in this application to unplug the drill press, just in case your natural impulse is to hit the press switch instead of the sander switch. Don't ask me how I know:

I have read that they now have things called "drill bits" that let you bore holes, too.

Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

Like I said Ingenuity unlimited, that extra axis on the drill press makes all the difference. Does Norm Abram come by for tips? Laughing

And as for drill bits your talking hi-tec now. Cool

Al

Slavia · Moderator

Slavia · Moderator

I had to remove some wood to level and straighten the top of the compression tube channel. I replaced the wood, and tapered the flat, straight sides. This also gives a rounded cross section to the nose:

I got the adjustable cheek piece roughed in. I didn't think a saddle type would look right, and separating the comb from the buttstock leaves a gap and weakens the wrist (like on a Beeman R11). So - I overlapped the cheek piece and placed the pillars slightly off the center line:

broommaster2000 · Moderator

Hey, that's pretty neat!

Roy · Veteran Member

I really like it. This is your best work yet.

sniper · Silver Status Member

Brutuz · Senior Member

Looks very pro Slavia Cool

Slavia · Moderator

All the "new" wood is roughed in:

I had hoped to have the bottom of the forearm come down to the level of the trigger guard, but that looked too massive. I got the nose caps on, and cut the bottom profile of the forearm to slightly higher than the trigger tip. It's starting to look like the design Broom came up with over a year ago http://www.airgunhome.com/agforum/viewtopic.php?t=887&start=15:

I've done a half dozen palm shelves, and have settled on a reliable design method. I take an oval the size of my fist, and rotate it about 30 degrees from the gun's center line. The top surface is slanted with the grip, and the bottom is cut horizontally:

I chose to fasten the palm shelf with machine screws and anchors, rather than glue or wood screws. This is so I can adjust it with washers if need be (like when shooting with heavy gloves):

The screw cups were turned from .223 shells, spinning them in the drill press while cutting with a Dremel and file. The rough surface is so the epoxy glue will have something to grip:

Originally I wanted to install an accessory rail like I made for my Slavia, but the cocking arm on the Mendoza takes up too much space:

I came to the conclusion that I'll have to forget the sling stud and hand stop, but I did find an example of a hand rest that was possible:

In order to have enough wood for the machine screw anchors, I had to drill fairly far back - so the hand rest is cantilevered forward. The pillars consist of electric lamp barrels, which fit nicely in the .40 caliber pistol cases I used to line the holes. The tubes are under compression, with the screws inside under tension. Black vinyl tubing from a previous project will hide the threads. The rest is easily removable, and can be adjusted with new spacers and screws:

Slavia · Moderator

All the carving is done:

Using this:

Much different from the original stock:

But not too far off from Broom's concept drawing:

BTW - that Dremel Multimax is wonderful. Similar to the Fein detail sander, but cheaper. I'd recommend it to anyone.

Roy · Veteran Member

Looks really good.

How well does it shoot ?

broommaster2000 · Moderator

Slavia · Moderator

Getting close enough to the end so I'm starting to think about finish. I wanted something dark, with hints of red to unify the reddish Mexican wood with the Minnesota black walnut. The photo is just stain, no clear finish. I'm planning to do a few coats of Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil to fill the pores, and then switch to a wiping poly for durability. I figured it would be better to do my experimenting on the palm rest, since it would be easy enough to replace if I screwed up:

After reading a bunch about stippling, it seemed the conventional wisdom was to use a Dremel. I tried it and it looked terrible. So, I went back to a method I've used before, which is to bounce a punch up and down:

The punch is a sharpened file tang, held in a vise grips to give it some weight. You need to hold the punch perpendicular to the surface, or it will gouge out little chips:

The borders were done by scribing a guide line with a knife, and then widening the line (after stippling) with tools cut from a discarded hacksaw blade using the Dremel. The "set" of the teeth was ground flat with a diamond hone: