Gonzo Long Barreled P08 Project

[sheepherder]

Got all my long-barrel pieces assembled, and doing a trial fit of the forearm. It still needs work (or maybe a whole new forearm) but it seems to be coming along...



I'm not a woodworker, so it's definitely rough. However, the pic shows my Gonzo cartridge-counter grips and modified magazine, the scalloped toggle knobs, the Tomek magazine bottom, the strawed parts, and the new blueing. It started to snow while I took these pics, so I didn't have time to wipe off oily fingerprints...

Modified Remington M700 30-06 barrel chambered in 7.65 Parabellum, shortened FN/Mauser carbine rear sight, custom front sight.

[sheepherder]

After doing some experimenting with my corner rounding end mill on that soft pine, I felt confident enough to do some more corner rounding on my forearm...

(106) Extending the flat on the bottom further forward.
(107) Extending the rounded corners of the bottom forward to the Schnabel tip I created in 106.
(108) Lightly sanded and rubbed, then attached to the frame lug for inspection. My brass inlay needs to be milled down 10 or 20 thousandths, and I made a couple mistakes doing these additional tapers. A chip here, a cutter line there. It's not perfect, but I'm not either, so this will do for now. Still needs more work of course, blending the taper curves together, maybe rounding the top line.

A member suggested that I have the forearm checkered. That would hide/detract from my mistakes, but is this 'Gonzo' Luger long-barrel really deserving of checkering??? I'll have to mull that over for a while and maybe consult a higher power...

The checkering on the grips is awful coarse, and the grips themselves are quite thick...And my 'cartridge counter' mod to them isn't all that great...

Also, the brass inlay would interfere with a traditional checkering pattern...And the side checkering would need to be different...

My brain hurts...



I just noticed that Herbert Werle's carbine does not use the forearm 'wedge' to hold his forearm on (pic in post #1 above). It seems to be held on by the sling stud. That's cool; I managed to copy his idea without knowing it...

Continuing on with a couple of small refinements...

(109) Thinning the brass inlay. I put a .004" shim between the inlay and the wood so I wouldn't cut into the forearm.
(110) Milling down the brass screws, so they won't hit the barrel.
(111) I still need to finish the tip of the forearm. I don't have good pictures of how it should be shaped, so I'm going by guesswork. The tip seems to be rounded from the side and from the top. I made up a quick and dirty fixture to hold the forearm level (along the barrel axis) so it could be sanded to a round contour in the side view. I'm using my pine 'practice' forearm to see how it would look. It worked excellently. In hindsight, I should have sanded the front tip round after milling the sides and bottom flat but before using my corner rounding end mill on the bottom curved surface. That would have allowed me to draw my round contour directly on the flat of the wood and then I could have easily sanded it and then gone on to the corner rounding of the bottom. As it is, my surface is curved and I'm not skilled enough to sand it freehand without a guide of some sort. If I totally ruin this Walnut forearm, I'll make a new one the right way. But I'm too far advanced to trash this one and start over without a compelling reason.
(112) I've been looking at pics of Luger forearms on the net and mine looks 'thick' by comparison. Looking closely, I notice that the forearm upper deck height is right at the centerline of the barrel, while mine is approximately 3/32" above that centerline. Mulling over how best to cut that much/little off the upper deck, I decided to try side milling it, both sides at once, and climb milling to minimize chips. Here is one of my practice pieces being climb/side milled to see how well this works. Note: It works great!



Next up is to 'thin' my good Walnut forearm. Same technique as in the previous pic. Climb/side mill the upper deck - comparison of pictures from a recent auction show I need to mill .125" off my deck to get the correct height.

(113) Side/climb milling my good forearm, upper deck.
(114) Re-cutting the deck taper of the forearm.
(115) Tip profile curve marked on tape; sanding curve with forearm clamped in Gonzo sanding fixture.
(116) How the profile now looks, with top deck lowered and front tip profile sanded curved. I still need to sand the bottom/top of the tip to a curve also. Pictures show this curve to be rounded in both axes; I'm not sure how to do that. I'll have to think it over...Maybe with a corner rounding end mill or router bit in my rotary indexing head???

[sheepherder]

I didn't like the 'curl' at the tip of my forearm, so I made another one. That makes a total of five forearms I've made, and except for a chip, this last one came out just the way I wanted. So, more pictures.

Quick & dirty rundown...

(1) Donor wood stock, a Steyr straight-pull.
(2) Milling the inletting for the forearm lug.
(3) Milling the slot for the brass inlay.



(4) Milling trigger guard cut.
(5) Milling scallops with 1/2" ball end mill.
(6) Milling bottom flat, up to curl.
(7) Two views of squared-off forearm.



(8) Rounding bottom of side with corner rounding end mill.
(9) Same on other side.
(10) Chamfering top sides with weird burr.
(11) Two views of rounded-off forearm.



(12) Modified fixtures used to hold forearm for milling.
(13) Milling brass inlay to size.
(14) Rounding ends of inlay.
(15) Drilling & counterboring inlay for attaching screws.



(16) Finished forearm and brass inlay.



This completes the long-barreled part of this project. All metal parts are either blued or strawed (or brass) and forearm is finished except for final sanding and treating with BLO.

On to the next part!

[sheepherder]

When I dug out my sales receipt from 1992, it was for a 1917 Luger. So, it could have been for a Luger carbine. I have both a 13" and a 16" barreled receiver for this Luger, so here's the period buttstock for it.

Finding a buttstock was very frustrating. I wanted a '1902 style' profile but all I could find were '1920 style' repros or duplicates. So, I ended up getting a used semi-finished 1920 style and sectioning & gluing it to look like a 1902 style.

(1) Buttstock as received from eBay seller.
(2) Milling a .060" thick x 10mm Walnut 'popsicle stick' for stock iron groove, both top & bottom.
(3) Popsicle sticks glued in & being milled to fit iron.
(4) Milling butt flat, and at an angle like 1902.



(5), (6), and (7) Milling lever reliefs in gooseneck with ball end mill.
(8) Stock iron fitted.



(9) Sawing eBay buttstock in half. EEK!!! What is this madman doing???
(10) Sawed pieces. Actually, two saw cuts, to create a ~5/16" taper/drop to the stock
(11) Milling sawn end of stock flat.
(12) Milling 3/8" slot for reinforcing wedge.



(13) Milling sawn end of gooseneck flat.
(14) Clamping stock pieces together to mark gooseneck for slot.
(15) Milling 3/8" slot in gooseneck.
(16) Pieces slotted and stacked to admire.



The slots have been milled at different angles, so the filler piece cab be wedge-shaped. Maked fitting easier.

(17) Milling a piece of Walnut down to .375".
(18) Clockwise - Spare piece of 3/8" Walnut; cardboard form; 3/8" wedge inserted between two sawn pieces.
(19) Wedge & two pieces glued together with Resorcinol glue and left clamped under mill quill.
(20) Glued buttstock 24 hours later, ready for shaping.

[sheepherder]

Glue has cured, excess wood of wedge has been band-sawed off, I'm now rough sanding the wedge and slots.

(21) Sanding the top of the wedge/slot. Bottom was next.
(22) Filling in some chips & low spots with the Resorcinol glue. Olle told me that Aircraft Spruce Co. had industrial-strength Resorcinol glue ("Cascophen") for use on aircraft and marine applications. The Resorcinol glue you get in hardware stores is watered-down and regulated to the point that it's no longer effective. This is the good stuff. Can be sanded, sawed, drilled, etc. When cured.
(23), (24) Rough sanding finished.



A buttplate is next. I could not find anything suitable. So I made one out of black Delrin. I love Delrin. It's lathe-turnable, millable, drillable, you can even tap/thread it. Nice hard Acetal plastic.

(25) Milling a piece of Delrin flat.
(26) Drilling attaching holes.
(27) Drilling the butt to match the buttplate holes.
(28) Rough belt-sanding the Delrin buttplate to shape.



(29) Buttplate fitted to stock; final marking of edges. Screws used are from an 1891 Argentine Mauser rifle. And, at this point, disaster struck. One of the old screws snapped the head off. Crystalline fracture. I couldn't grab onto the piece in the stock, I had to drill the piece out. This left a ragged hole, so I enlarged it and glued in a Walnut plug.
(30) 1/2" hole drilled for plug. Finished plug is in lathe in background.
(31) Resorcinol glue used to secure plug.
(32) Milling plug flat.



Following that setback, it was time to finish off the buttplate.

(33) Drilling the plug for the Mauser screw. I have several.
(34) Milling/thinning the buttplate to 5/16" thick.
(35) Rounding the edge with a 1/8" radius corner rounding router bit.
(36) Final sanding & fitting of buttplate to stock.



Time to finish sand and prep the forearm and buttstock for BLO. I followed the instructions given at Ironwood Designs for finishing their gunstocks (http://ironwooddesigns.com/IWDfinish.html). Five coats of Boiled Linseed Oil, let dry 24 hours, then buff.

(37) After first heavy coat of BLO. Waiting 15 mins then wipe excess off, then 4 thin coats, let dry 24 hrs.
(38) Finished stock/forearm after buffing.
(39) The finished and assembled Gonzo Luger long barreled carbine. It's no beauty, but it sure is...different...

[sheepherder]

Here's a comparison pic of original '1920 style' duplicated stock as I got it (and fitted the stock iron) and compared to the finished stock before final sanding. It's not an exact match for a '1902 style' buttstock, but it'll do for now.



Here's a pic taken in the early hours of an April morning, outdoors, of the assembled finished 'carbine' with attached stock. All Gonzo - scalloped toggle knobs, 'cartridge counter' grips & modified Tomek magazines, Mauser rifle rear sight, and generally rough barn-job fabricating.

7.65 Parabellum caliber. I have no idea if it will even shoot. And I don't care.

[Jim Solomon]

Very nice work. Thanks for photos of the process. Quite creative.
Jim