Measuring Pillars

[robdaniels]

Getting ready to pillar bed and full action bed a Remington CDL stock for a light varmint barrel, so I thought I would ask the rest of you how you measure the pillars.

I will be measuring the pillars after I remove the wood from the inletting, leaving only a small amount on the rear tang area and using some tape on the barrel on the forearm to center the barrel and give me a good center line running the length of the rifle. I check the depth from the bottom of the stock at the trigger guard action screw holes to the bottom of the receiver 4 to 5 times to get a consistent measurement. That will be the measurement for the pillars plus adding 3 to 5 thousandths to insure good metal to metal contact with the trigger guard and the bottom of the receiver.

What are your techniques?

 

[tinkerer]

I'm pretty easy on this.

Mount pillars to action with action screws. Insert into inletted stock and make sure they protrude out the bottom at least 1/4". Devcon into place and cut/sand pillars flush with stock. Since I only do this on stocks I am building, I finish them together for zero clearance.

See? Easy.

Larry
Tinkerer

 

[Pdvdh]

Devcon into place and cut/sand pillars flush with stock.
See? Easy.

Larry
Tinkerer

Which tools/machines are you using to cut/sand the pillars flush to the stock?

 

[robdaniels]

I have a set of calipers, drill press, files and the such. No lathe.
In another member's video (Phil) he did the pillars with a drill press and it is very doable. Chuck the pillar, use a hack saw blade to cut and then sandpaper to fine tune.

 

[robdaniels]

Come on Guys. Am I thinking right or way off base?
Just want to be sure to do it right the first time.

 

[tinkerer]

After the pillars are in the stock, I cut them off with a band saw, if necessary, and sand flush with a rotary drum in the drill press, and finally sand by hand with sanding block until satin finish.

I try not to start with too much extra so I don't have to wrestle with them after.

I usually start with the pillar pushed through the stock and pencil mark them about 1/4" long. Trim at band saw,

Next I counterbore for the stock bolt head (1/4 X 28 socket head cap) so it sits just below the surface of the stock once bolted to the action.

Again, this is when I am building the stock, so I don't mess the finish up as it is not on yet.

Larry
Tinkerer

 

[robdaniels]

Thanks Larry.
I have some aluminum tube stock that is 3/8 OD (aircraft grade ) and will have 25 thousands clearance of each side of the action screw once the screw is centered in the pillar. Is that enough?

 

[Pdvdh]

Appreciate the information. I have some 9/16" diameter aluminum pillars I need to set into a Manners stock. Never done this before so I'm in the research phase of my project also.

 

[tinkerer]

My front pillars are 1/2" and I end up with the socket head below the surface of the wood. Heads are about 3/8" so with clearance , we're talking about 50 thousandth per side or so.

My rear pillars are 3/8" and buried in the stock, so the socket head sits on top. Can't be seen.

Look at the pillar bedding tutorial at 6mmbr.com for great advice.

9/16" pillars are plenty big I would think.

Good luck, post pics.

Larry
Tinkerer

 

[Clark]

I make my pillars from Aluminum.