Refinishing the Restocked Remington Summit Part 1

Mentioned a while back that I wanted to refinish the stock currently on the Remington Summit.  

Backstory:  My original Remington Summit stock had started to crack.  I bought a replacement stock from Crosman for the Benjamin NP2 and managed to make the retrofit.

Really just wanted a darker finish.  Easier said than done when the wood in question is beech.  Beech is notoriously difficult to evenly tone.  The wood tends to look blotchy when a dark finish is applied.  Guess I'm saying I wanted to do this even though I didn't expect to be thrilled with the outcome.

Here goes anyway.

 

The original finish was pretty tenacious--probably an epoxy.   The chemical stripper didn't really do much.  Had to sand most of it off.

This got me further in an hour than the stripper did over three evenings. 

About here, I was reconsidering the refinish decision.  But before I threw down some color, decided to revisit the palm rest addition I had made years ago on my B26-2.

This entailed a quick side trip to the milling machine.  The blue on the table is painter's tape.  Was hoping the tape would be kinder to the wood stock than bare metal.

 A couple toe clamps with some wood shims as padding.

Had this short piece of Anschutz rail.

Not reinventing the wheel here.  The B26-2 is so comfortable to shoot, I want to make this almost identical in function.    Just need to recess a short section of the t-track rail so I can add an adjustable palm support.

About this deep.

 

And about this much for vertical adjustment.

Then cut and ground the rail stub to fit.

Eventually, a couple coats of a walnut stain from Varathane got rubbed in.

Not shown:  Didn't think it was nearly dark enough, so a coat of red mahogany was added as a top coat.  

Which got the color to here.  I gave it three or four days to dry.  And yeah, I'm not thrilled with it.  Too blotchy in spots.    

Anyway, onward, upward--or something like that.  Started rubbing in multiple coats of Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil to fill the grain.

I am pretty happy about how much more grain is visible now.  That original epoxy finish hid almost all this nice wood grain.

Rubbed the finish out then gave it a coat of paste wax.

Dropped the action back in.

Blackened the stub of Anchutz rail with Aluminum Black then screwed it home.

Still need to make the palm rest.   

Appreciate everyone who's following along.  

More soon. 

Not a Review of a Fuseend 3X28 IR Compact Scope

I'm not an influencer.  Not a reviewer, not an authority, not an idea guy.  My experience is limited and terribly biased.  Lets just get that out there first.

Bought a Fuseend 3x28 scope a couple weeks ago and thought I'd share my experience.  

Nope, never heard of the brand before either.    I saw it on eBay, liked the size, thought it would work great on my Crosman CO2 carbine project and took a $40 gamble.   Here's what I got.

It is REALLY compact.

Has a red/green illuminated mil-dot reticle.  30mm body.  Parallex focus.  Lens Caps.  

The scope is adjustable for focus--obviously not with the rear lens cap in place.  I was able to get it to focus from about four FEET to infinity.  Close focus for a low-powered airgun is a huge plus.

Size comparison to the red dot I was using.  

And size comparison to some compact scopes

Top.  Old model UTG Bug Buster 4X

Middle.   Tasco 2.5X Bantam

Bottom.  Fuseend 3X

Yeah, its really small.

However, Fuseend's quoted 3X magnification seems optimistic.   I have dozens of rifle scopes and this isn't 3 times anything.   The image through the UTG 4X is huge in comparison. The image through the lower power 2.5X Tasco Bantam is also substantially larger than the Fuseend's.    I'd venture that the actual magnification of the Fuseend is closer to 2X though the clarity is excellent.  

The other issue I ran into is a manufacturing error.  The directional arrows for both the elevation and windage are marked backwards.  Before I figured that out, I thought I was losing my mind while trying to achieve a zero.

In the pics below, I've remarked both arrows with some white paint to match reality.

Double click on the images to enlarge and you can see where I blacked out part of the laser etched markings.

The turrets are pulled outward to adjust.  They don't lock when pushed back in,  though the effect is the same.  

Despite the issues, I think it's absolutely perfect for my carbine project.  

Don't know if its rated for a spring pistol air rifle.  I've asked, but there's just been radio silence.  Maybe the question was lost in translation.  Given the low cost, I'm tempted to risk trying it anyway.  

But again, I'm not an influencer and I'm not making any suggestions or recommendations.   I just think its a cool little scope. 

Mounting a Fuseend 3X28 IR Compact Scope to my .20 Cal Crosman 2050

My simple red dot equipped .20 cal carbine project didn't stick.  Mostly because the red dot wasn't doing it for me.  Or, mostly because I'm weak and wanted a shiny new toy.  I was scrolling ebay for I don't know what, when I found a small 3X illuminated compact scope. 

And just like that, some 30mm dovetail rings from UTG almost finished the project.

 

 "Almost" because that front ring ate up too much real estate on the tube.  I'm not a die hard lens cap guy, but a thinner ring would hold the scope AND allow for the cap.  Of course, no one makes that.   

Off with the ring.

The set up in the milling machine was a bit tenuous.  The 1-2-3 block gets the clearance above the vise jaws.   Couldn't find a great way to hold the ring as securely as I wanted.  Lighter cuts will have to suffice.

Want to remove half of the 30mm clamping band and allow clearance for the scope cap-- but leave the two-bolt dovetail portion untouched.

And I didn't want a sharp corner at the bottom of the cut left by the endmill. 

A gage block stack representing HALF of the original ring thickness.

This went on the 1-2-3 block the ring is supported on.  Changed to a 1/4' ball mill and touched off.

Set the Z-axis to zero. 

Brought the base of the ring to zero with the ball mill.  

This gave me a radius--rather than a sharp 90 degree corner at the transition

Repeated with the flat bottomed milling cutter.  Touched off on the same gage block stack.

And re-zeroed the Z-axis.

Looks OK

Deburred and gave it a quick hit with some sand paper and a scotchbrite pad.

Ready to retouch the color on the milled surface.

And it's ready to install.

Cap-Less

 

Cap-Ped.  Good clearance and fit.

And I don't think it looks like I messed with it.  So, that's a win, right?

I have some brief thoughts about the scope I'd like to share next time around.  It won't be a product review.