After letting the new finish cure for several months, I finally got around to fitting my Beretta stock and fore end. I bought Beretta factory wood thinking that I would just bolt them on. Boy was I wrong. You would think that a mass produced shotgun like the Beretta 686 would have a stock that bolts right on; but it required much more hand fitting than I expected.
After realizing that the stock would not just bolt on I got out the soot lamp and started fitting the wood. I use a home-made soot lamp to coat the metal in a thin layer of soot, then bring the wood and metal together. The soot transfers to the wood where it comes in contact. I then remove the wood where the soot is and start the process all over until there is the necessary clearance or the parts are mating firmly (whatever is needed).
Here you can see the black marks left by the soot lamp, you
can also see some of the areas that I have removed with a scraper. This is a tedious
process and one that should not be rushed. Little bits of material are removed
and then the fit is checked. This process is repeated several times.
After the buttstock was fitted the lamp was turned on the
barrels to fit the fore end.
Again, I was surprised how much material needed to be
removed.
A scraper and sandpaper (with a block backing) were used to do most of the work on the fore end.
Here I have the pieces together and am using a piece of paper to confirm that there is clearance between the barrel and the fore end.
Here is the final job, it looks much nicer than the plain factory wood.
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