A more detailed look at projects.
June 2, 2013
Despite all the delays, the 10/22 project is complete for now. You can see what it looks like below.
It’s not quite what I wanted it to be, but it’s pretty close. I was hoping to find a bull barrel – either plain or fluted – with a threaded muzzle. That turned out to be quite a bit more difficult than I imagined. I searched every distributor I could find; I looked at every manufacturer I was able to find; I even tossed around the idea of having one made.
In the end I stumbled into a Ruger 10/22 Tactical in Cabela’s. Turns out they had one in the store for a price pretty similar to the barrels for which I was shopping. So I ended up with a pair of 10/22s out of this project, one stock and the other dressed up a bit.
This 10/22 is a bit special in that it has a factory threaded barrel. My searching has led me to believe these are a bit harder to find and usually more expensive than the ‘plain’ models. If, in the future, I find the barrel I was looking for all along, I will pick it up and switch it out then.
To recap, this simple project involved switching the stock out for a Hogue overmold rubber stock, adding the red-dot sight, and mounting the suppressor. Internally I have done some work as well. Since this appears to be a higher model, the bolt is polished already but I cleaned it up a bit with a stone. I also deburred some of the trigger parts just a bit, but they were pretty good out of the box. The last bit of internal work was perforing the auto bolt release mod. This allows the bolt catch to release when the bolt handle is pulled back. Turns out this is much better than messing with the tiny bolt release lever.
I have a few more minor things planned for this gun. I would like to install a non-metallic bolt stop – hopefully this will quiet the action down a bit. The bolt/charging handle will eventually be replaced as well since the factory one is a bit lacking. I am sure I will eventually swap the red-dot sight for a scope at some point as well. The red-dot is only on it because I already had it. I have no major issues with the trigger so I will skip that upgrade until it is needed.
Over the next few weeks I will work on writing up how to modify the stock bolt release into an auto bolt release.
April 21, 2013
Amidst the chaos that is work, I have finally managed to get something done. Last summer, or the one before, or even the one before that one, I decided I needed a different sheath for my Ka-Bar because I didn’t want to trash original one while stomping through the woods and camping. The original is nice and all, but it doesn’t have an easy way to attach to something like a belt or backpack strap either. My version will have snaps on the belt loop. I like snaps on belt loops. A lot.
I did a bit of planning and came up with the ingenious idea of copying the original and changing it just a bit. I drew a quick and dirty template by tracing the blade and adding half an inch or so for stitching and the spacer to keep the blade off the thread. It just happened to end up the same size as the original sheath.
The basic process is to make the pattern, trace the pattern, cut the leather, and sew the pieces together. Of course it didn’t work out that simple. The sheath needed some subtance to it so I made one of the pieces the full length to add some substance and serve as the back of the sheath. The front of the sheath is just the length of the blade. The middle layer is made up of a full length piece with a cutout for the blade. This layer also has enough extra to serve as the belt loop and fold over the back. One additional layer is in the blade portion of the sheath to open up enough space for the blade to slide in.
All of the pieces were glued together with Gorilla Glue because I like using it and it works good on leather. Once the glue is dry, the sheath was marked for stitching, drilled, and sewn. I’ve found punching for stitching doesn’t work on leather this thick, especially once glued. Drilling with a small bit in the Dremel is what I have found to work the best.
Stitching required much more thread than I anticipated due to the thickness of the sheath. My process on this one was to stitch down and back up each side of the blade independently. This formed the basic sheath.
Next was to stitch the top half together. First though, the handle loop needed to be attached. This was done by making a strap long enough to wrap around the handle then putting it through a pair of slots cut into the front layer. The back layer also go the snaps for the belt loop. Doing it this way keeps everything hidden inside and looking clean.
Stitching the top was done along the bottom, just above where the blade slides in – which was triple stitched for durability – then up the side, across the top where it will be folded for the belt loop, then down the other side.
The final step was to oil the entire thing with Obenauf’s Leather Preservative. It still needs a few more applications but in the end it will match the axe mask and hanger I made a few months back.
I wasn’t really paying attention to the orientation of it, but ended up making a left handed version or maybe it’s backwards right handed. Someday I may make another one to fix this issue, but it will work as is for the intended purpose.
Total time from gathering materials to finished product was maybe two to three hours. The most time consuming part was the stitching just because of the amount of it. Hopefully I’ll have the chance to try it out soon and see how it performs.
November 29, 2012
The Hogue 10/22 stock finally got here from AAC! The bad news is it has to sit for a while because I have to travel for work. That will give me some time to keep looking for barrels though. I still haven’t found the one I want, but I haven’t put a lot of effort into it either. When I get back and get settled in I will work on doing a writeup on switching it over.