Marauder Makeover .25
Decide to strip the stock and fit it to me better.
I started with 180 grit on my orbital sander to narrow down the butt and remove the diamond grip and BENJAMIN stamp. I then hand sanded with 220 before moving to 500 and now I’m ready for the 1000. I’ll keep this updated as I may do some CUTTING 😉
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Ok the short of it is. First pics, burnt, Green, sanded with 180,
coverd entire rifle in sap yellowish green. sanded again and added black. wait till morning sand again,
start with green again. I got a Ton of work into this.
Well no luck, with geting a hold of my friend with the wood shop.
Fathers Day weekend and all.
Happy Fathers Days Weekend, Gent’s. 😉
I Wish Your Familys, The Best.
I took my stock over to grandpas today. Started with the hundred year old Belt sander. About a gallon of sweat later and a free manicure.
I got it pretty well shaped. Pop’s bandsaw got stuck, half way through trimming the front of the stock.
So I gave it the ol framer, 1 handed skill saw trim.
Look’s like about 10 inches or so of the front. (I’d say 13” myself) 😆
I ground the left side of the butt down alot. I sanded with 80 uo throught the stages to 1200 this time.
of course I had to go back several times. once I’d get it super smooth I couldn’t feel but I could see croos grain groves from the 80. So id go from 220 back up 1200 whew. Ok I went to Low’s today and bought . Stain that they are able to pigment several colors. I got ebony, lillypad green,(wife’s going to love that) she’s a frog collector and sapling which is a yellow sap color. The Brand is Cabot. I also got that brand polyurethane.
So far I have got it shaped the way I want. sanded to 1200. I used a hand held propane torch to burn a few patterns on the wood, sanded 1200 again. I then used a drawing to look at as I hand painted the stain on in a camoflauge pattern. I’ve only applied green so far. I used a sponge on a stick from lows $0.69. it went on with perfect line
no bleeding from what I’ve seen. I did not use tape. when they mix these colors it’s thick, goes on like paint. It look’s really bright at the moment but when I resand it tomorrow and the wood grain show I think it will look cool. the burning looks as an added color and once the poly goes on the wood will be a color also. What do you think? What I noticed.. When you sand wood as fine as 1200 before you stain. it dosen’t seep or spread especialy with the pigemented stain.
Burned
GREEN
I’d use an electric hand planer to get that wood off in a hurry.
Harbor Freight has these for low cost and I’ve used mine on 2 X 12’s and had great results in skinning down the surface. It has about 3.5″ cutting surface and can be adjusted from onion skin thin up to 1/8 inch.
It’s a really neat tool to get wood close to where you want it before you start final shaping and sanding.
Good luck.
Hoot
You have great ideas and you are correct. I was thinking I need to
get the belt sander down and thin it much more too.
Maybe wait till I go by th wood shop and use some neat tools.
Or better yet let rick use them for me 😆
I was being timid, I mise well dig in.
How much is a replacement stock.Lol
I ‘m still watching youtube to get ideas.
I seen some nice blue gun’s
The Marauder .25 has a lot of potential.
What it doesn’t have is good balance and a stock that is functional.
An adjustable butt plate, adjustable cheek piece, adjustable palm rest would all make sense. I think the first step is to get that huge stock cut down some more, especially in front. Try to move the center of balance backwards.
I would remove that straight line on the forearm bottom and cut/sand it so it has a long curve in it. Serves two purposes…less weight, better looks, moves center of balance backwards. To better explain this, first make it thinner, then, in front of the trigger cover, start an upwards curve until you get about 4 inches from the end, and then curl it over.
The butt section of the OEM stock looks like a big block of wood. At least you got rid of the ambi cheek rests. I’d thin it down much more. Make it more streamlined.
It’s not like you don’t have a lot of wood to work with!
Just my thoughts.
Hoot 😯
lol. Thank you. I’m going to search localy for some dye if not found
I’ll order it. (Dang may be out longer than I planed)
I’m going by the cabinet shop I used to work at to pik my bosses brain.
He’s a few fingers short, but good with wood.
Seeing maybe about building an ajutable cheek piece and see if he’s got some cool ideas.
What do you think?
I think you’ve got a solid plan to address those little “crossovers”.
There have been major advances since I’ve worked on stocks.
My most grim memory is having to start sanding all over again when the oil based stains of that time soaked in unevenly, or collected in an ugly grain curl that then turned out several shades darker than the rest of the stock, and made it stand out like a fat girl in a thong bikini!!!
Good luck.
Hoot 😯
PS: One of the most interesting kits I saw recently was a water based film that you soaked, it floated off the carrier paper, and you carefully laid it on the stock to set up while drying. Very very delicate process, easy to ruin. Absolutely beautiful if it was applied just right. Looked like shit on a white horse if you messed it up. I’ve messed up a lot of white horses in my time!
I wish I had wood working talent mine would be no where near that nice.
I bet it comes out real nice taking some of the chunkiness out of the original design. Cannot wait for more pictures.
Hoot.
Yes I have staind and painted many a cabinet.
And resanded and started over. Have you seen The powderd wood dye
that is cut with alcahol to make the solution. My plan on the pin stripe is just to keep the two colors seperated and I plan on the colors in those areas being lighter than the end stripe between them.
So I imagin it like this, remove the tape reaveal the seepage. hand stain with little brush the semi line that’s left. use a much darker color for the stripe to get the broke up affect. if I don’t like it. I think with those light colors I could go super dark blue after that and then black for an extra dark finish. And the grain will be visible.
What do you think?
Now, I am confused.
Why camo a nicely re-shaped, and well grained stock? Camo to me is for a stock that has no cosmetic potential, and is best covered up.
I agree that choice is yours entirely, but few home applied camo finishes I’ve seen have turned out well. And the one’s that did were painted, not stained. It’s an art. There are some excellent (exensive) kits out there to apply a digital camo finish to wood, but even those are difficult to work with.
Technically, your idea of pinstripping and stain concerns me. Beech is porous, allowing the stain to soak under the tape and absorb into the covered wood grain. Remember, “stain” is a penetrating wood color, and that penetration is lateral as well as vertical. Beech is not the hardest of hardwoods, so exact lines of different color, in a stain at least, may not work well at all.
My AA S510 was walnut stained beech, and the finish/grain was beautiful.
As for cutting, take a look at the undercuts that AA S510 has in their stock. Not technically difficult, but really appealing to the eye.
You’ve got a lot of hours invested. Think and research very carefully before, and how, you add color. This from bitter bitter experience making black powder rifles back in the ’70’s!
Regards,
Hoot 😯
Ok so I re hand sanded starting with 180,220,500,1000.
This is what she looks like so far. I’m still going to wipe with a damp rag and resand again with 1000. Maybe a few times 😆
(FOXBACK) every time I see you kill score. I’m jealous, I haven’t kept trac. 😛
I’m searching the net. Are you familiar with water based powderd wood dye. I’m thinking of a classy camo. Maybe use pin striping tape for the
pattern. Fill in the patter like color by #s. Remove tape and hand brush
that 1/8″ line with black dye or maybe brown. I’m Not sure yet.
Very nice work so far. ISNT THIS AIRGUN STUFF FUN?
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A little late , but i would of liked to see something like this on the forearm, and maybe try the butt stock,
