kwag
Welcome to the campfire! I have built a stock or two, have never used a duplicator or a pre-inletted blank of any kind, so I know nothing of how to set up that kind of machine work... I have made a few stocks for people to use for their duplicators though. CAD and CNC only help for multiples and only if you know what you want to build ahead of time.
For "one off" stocks like you would use for yourself I see little value in a duplicator. While it would be nice to build one stock and get it right for later dulication, what you will find is that there is no one perfect stock and different rifles will dictate different stock shapes, weights, grips, fore ends and cast.
The total beauty of starting from scratch is the fact you can build virtually anything from any piece of wood of adequate size. All the trouble you will go through setting up your machines will be wasted unless you build enough stocks of that shape on that action to justify the time.
Once you lock yourself into the shape and action, subtle changes will cost more than simply starting from scratch in the first place. Also, what escapes dupliacator users is the fact the final inletting and the final shaping are where the time is spent in building a stock. The time the duplicator saves is not the critical time, nor the hardest part.
I can see where building a stock from scratch can seem daunting, but starting with the measurements one wants to build to and getting the reference lines drawn is the only difficult part. The rest is just filing and checking for true; filing and keeping surfaces flat; filing and keeping the proper sequences flowing.
The idea of using laminated wood for a stock gives me the cold shivers. I do not like the look of it, at all and it will not accept checkering properly as the little pieces of wood cut off over the gluelines will not hold on the way solid wood does.
The little increase in stability created by laminating comes at great cost, in work, glue cost (sizeable) and weight in the finished product. Properly sealed solid wood stocks will not have stability problems, will weigh as little as you would like them to weigh and can look incredible.
Understanding what you are building ahead of time will help more than all the fancy machines. If you give us an idea what you are trying to have in the end there are a number of folks here that can give you a lot of help in deciding how to get there.
Dean, Rick,
THanks for the pats! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
art
