Side Lock Stock Machining: Part 3

With the demons removed from the blank I then place the blank and pattern back into the machine and cut the OD surface of the stock to what ever the client requests. Then I get set up to finish the inletting. Now I set up a rotary steady rest to virtually eliminate the vibration and flex from both the pressure I apply to the pattern with the stylus and my hand and the vibration generated by the cutter on the stock being cut. A dial indicator is used to zero the pattern and stock in the rotary rest. The rest lends rigidity to the procedure that allows you to cut the inletting very, very accurately.

As this machine will allow the operator to cut in 5 axis draft angles and radiuses following the glass bedded inletting footprint is no problem. The excess wood is removed from the inletting by using a progressively smaller diameter stylus until the cutter and stylus are matched quite literally 1to1 if so desired. Different thickness's of shim stock under the tip of the stylus regulate the depth of the cutters path.

If the machine used is accurate, if the barreled action is accurately glass bedded into the pattern, if a series of styluses are made to match each cutter +.001 to +.002 larger than the cutter, if the rotary rest is used on both the pattern and stock, the operator doesn't have a coffee buzz on and if the phone is unplugged the results can be pretty damn impressive. Thus saving time on inletting and shaping that can devoted elsewhere on the project.