Theoben Rapid Mk2

[YEMX]

Not much of an update- I got my Z-Poxy in, along with my measuring cups and brushes (those cheap acid brushes)...  I started coating the foam and the inletting in the Z-Poxy.  It seems pretty darn nice so far!  When the time comes, I'm going to just sand the inletting a bit for tooth and spray paint it black...  Tomorrow I'll get to work on shaping the rear of the stock.  I did order some bedding pillars as well.
 Getting closer!  I'll definitely be done mid-April!

[YEMX]

A little bit of stock work.  This thing is turning into more of a craft project, than a stock project!   

Anyhoo, pics:









I've still got to add at least one more guide (I'm calling those ribs guides), then I'm going to glue some foam in between and run my foam cutter along the guides, making the shape I want.  Before that though, I'm going to brush some epoxy over them to really lock them in.  I've also got some epoxy clay to fix the the grip area that I stupidly ruined while trying to fix the back of the stock...    I have to use epoxy clay, because I found out that polyester resins don't stick well to epoxy.  It's fine the other way around though, go figure.  Bondo is made up of polyester resins...  Polyester resins eat foam.  I can seal the foam... using epoxy.  Which the Bondo doesn't stick to...  It's a vicious cycle...  I know I could seal the foam with something like Mod Podge, but I dunno...  I want to make a good solid substrate for the CF wrap.  Mod Podge and a dicey bond between epoxy and Bondo doesn't sound to me like the makings of a solid enough substrate...  Or maybe I'm over thinking things again.  I dunno. 

Anyhoo, word vomit over.  I'll update again when I have something better to show.

[Motorhead]

Personally find such projects very satisfying & time invested far better than watching TV or other mindless endeavors.

Loving it ... as you were 

[YEMX]

Personally find such projects very satisfying & time invested far better than watching TV or other mindless endeavors.

Loving it ... as you were 

Agreed!! 

I should be getting the stock screws and bedding pillars soon as well...  Making progress!!  I should be ready to do the CF wrapping sometime next month!!

[YEMX]

I got both the bedding pillars and the stock screw(s) from RAW...  Also- a bit of good news:

My gambit paid off!!  Remember, I bought those stock screws for a "gas ram rifle"...  I was hoping one of those screws would work in the rear screw hole...  IT DID!!    Honestly, both screws look like M6 or something.  I'm going to the hardware store tomorrow to check on the threads...  I hope they ARE normal metric screws...  That way, I can get some longer ones...  Anyhoo...  More to come!

[YEMX]

Here's to hoping I didn't just glue my Rapid to my stock!!  Here's a pic of the pillars:



Oh, for anyone who's interested, both the stock screws are M7 coarse.  Which the hardware store doesn't have   

Front pillar is 17mm long and the rear screw is 7.8mm long.  Or there about.  More than enough thread engagement in the receiver.  I'll let y'all know tomorrow how it turns out! 

[YEMX]

I...

Did NOT glue my Mk2 to my stock!!    There's some clean up, and some double checking, but I'm pretty satisfied with the pillars... 

I'll get to work on the rest of the stock soon...  I've got to order the epoxy clay...

[YEMX]

Long time, no updates... 

I've finally got my mini mill mostly set up, so I've been thinking.  I'm going to redo this stock.  I've been re-thinking what I want to do with the airgun, what features I want, and how I want to transport it.  What I've got so far is I want a folding stock.  I want this rifle to be as compact as possible.  I really want something like the Manners folding tactical stock:


But that hinge is proprietary and isn't for sale.  So I'm leaning towards an Accuracy International AT 2.0 chassis:


Or at least something similar.  Not exactly sure yet.  Maybe a stock that's similar to the AT chassis, but uses a KAK Shockwave pistol brace w/butt plate to keep the weight down.  I'll keep y'all updated though!

[Pelletjunkie]

If you can pull it off, your gun will be awesome. Wish I had one of those actions. What a great foundation.

[YEMX]

I'm gonna absolutely try!!

[YEMX]

After some thinking and really rough fitting, I'm going to use the Armada chassis I have.  Well, parts of it anyway.  I've already started work on it, milling away the plastic I don't need.  I'll post some pics when I have something better looking...

[YEMX]

Not too much of an update, but this is what's left of the Armada chassis:



I also trimmed down the EBR hand guard, so that both sides are about equal. This "chassis" is going to be dirt simple...  There's going to be very little work involved.  I'm still going to cover it in CF to really seal in the flavor... 

[YEMX]

A small update:

My mini mill is pretty awesome!!  I still haven't fully trammed it, but it'll do for this project...  The "inletting" is much more accurate and clean this time!!  There's still lots of work ahead, but you get the idea.

[Hobbyman2007]

Tom , maybe I missed it bu what happened to the fibreglass stock ? I was really looking forward to seeing it completed . Wish I had the patience for this type of work .

[YEMX]

Tom , maybe I missed it bu what happened to the fibreglass stock ? I was really looking forward to seeing it completed . Wish I had the patience for this type of work .

That was a wood/XPS foam/carbon fiber stock...  I still have it.  I'm deciding how I want to proceed with it- I kind of got myself into a corner and need to figure out how to get out of it.  I'll finish it sometime this year.  I may even start over with it... 

I'm on this folding stock/small package for transportation kick right now.  Hence the change.

[YEMX]

After thinking it over, I'm going to start over with the other stock- I still want to finish it, but I definitely didn't think enough on the process when I started it.  I WILL get around to doing up Ver. 2.0 of the "Tactical Elan" stock, but I want to finish this folding one up and enjoy the gun for a while.  I'll probably get started on that V2.0 at the end of summer or some such.

Not too much progress today- I've finished gluing  the two sides together, filled in a few spots on the Armada carcass, and am now just waiting on glue and epoxy to dry.  Once I have the Armada carcass epoxied to the chassis, I can fit the EBR hand guard.  I should be finished assembling this "chassis" by the weekend.  Then I can smooth it all out, round the edges and do any little finish work while I wait for the 1st.  Then I'll be covering it in CF.  So maybe middle of June I'll be completely done with this chassis. 

After that, I think around August I'll start on V2.0 of the Tactical Elan stock.  With the processes I've been thinking on, that stock should only take me a month to make, from start to finish.  I'm actually going to start on some parts for it real soon... 

Okay- change 1 billion...     The pattern I've been using is an airsoft stock.  I'm just going to modify it and just use it...  It's the same overall shape that I was trying to make in the first place- the trigger guard will be a little different though.  Not sure what I'm gonna do with that.  Anyhoo, I'm doing initial fit right now.  I'll post again for sure.  Again- same game plan, wrap it in CF once all the modification and inletting is done. 
 

[YEMX]

I did some more work on the stock today- I'll post more pictures tomorrow...  It's coming along.  I'm kicking myself for not doing it this way sooner.  There's still a lot of work yet, but *knock on wood* things seem to be moving along smoothly.  We'll see after tonight. 

I trimmed down all the ribbing that was in the way of the action, and partially filled what was left with resin.  That'll give the stock some stiffness back- it IS just an airsoft stock afterall.  I pretty much filled in the grip area's ribbing, and right now I'm working on the butt area.  What I did was partially fill the butt area with resin, then I rough cut some XPS foam to fill the butt area in, and cut it flush w/the stock half.  There's still a gap between the resin and the XPS.  So I sprayed in some expanding foam (probably too much) and capped it off w/the XPS foam.  *crossing fingers* Once I capped off the expanding foam w/the XPS foam, I flipped the stock halves face down, so that everything is flat, then put some weight on top to keep everything as flush as possible.  I really hope this works. 

[YEMX]

Some more work done on the stock...

Overall:


The cutout I made for the Mk2 receiver- This was originally shaped for the airsoft clone of a Rem 700, but I cut it square for the Mk2 receiver:

You can also see the resin sections between the trimmed down ribs of the stock.  I also need to fill the bolt handle cut-out.

Clean up of the butt area.  The deeper gouges are fine, as it'll give the gorilla glue somewhere to go, and it makes a really good key for the gorilla glue.  Another good shot of all the resin fill:






There's still more work of course, but I just wanted to update the thread a bit.

I hope I can find some small screws at the hardware store- Of course I either threw them out or lost them, thinking I wasn't going to actually use the stock like this.    

[Motorhead]

That is simply put ... AWESOME fabrication skills !

[YEMX]

That is simply put ... AWESOME fabrication skills !

I appreciate that!  I truly do.  I'm kinda muddling through this...  I'm just doing things based off of what makes sense to me, and what I've seen done on youtube videos of various different hobbies.  I'm kind of just combining all these ideas together, and hoping for the best.  It's kind of why I keep going back and forth with the stock build.  I can't decide how I want to do things...  I'm going to see this version through though, no doubt.  I have about 2 weeks left until I can get that CF wrap kit, so I should be done w/the work by then.  If not, cool...  I'm really not trying to mess this up at this point!!