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This stock was built for the Tippman A-5 paintball marker and it functions as the name says. This project was done in my materials class during my senior year of high school. I give you the basic details of how I completed the part and a nice photo gallery.

I had been craving a sliding stock for my paintball gun, but I wanted something that would allow me to get the existing sights on my marker. I have seen some folding solutions on the internet, but the price tags for different adapters and the stocks themselves kept me away. At the time I also needed a project for materials class, so I hit up the drawing board.

This was the initial concept drawing. It has a lot of flaws and obviously there were many revisions, but I don’t have a scanner to put them up yet.

The chosen materials ended being hard maple and steel. Hard maple is more consistent and has less defects making it more reliable and easier to work with than walnut. The main piece that would hold the stock in place would consist of two pieces of maple. I used a table router to dato a groove on each piece. The two pieces would then be glued together to form a solid rectangular block with a square hole running through it.

Unfortunately the table router wasn’t making consistent cuts so it took several tries before I could get two pieces that sort of lined up. After I glued them together it took quite a bit of sanding to smooth out the uneven cuts so the bar stock could slide through it.

Instead of buying a Lapco adapter to connect to the A-5’s grip I decided to make my own out of wood. After spending a night drawing the piece to scale I glued two pieces of maple together and then cut them down into an even block. I used a table saw to cut accurate angles on the block but the piece was too small to safely cut rabbits. I had to carefully cut the rabbits by hand. Needless to say this part took several hours. After the tedious hand sawing was done I glued the adapter to the top of the main piece.

More stability was needed so I curved a hand grip out on a wood lathe. At home the main piece was drilled and the grip was set up to screw onto the main piece and the nut were the old plastic grip on the A-5 use to go.

At home the bar stock was cut down and two pieces were wielded together to form a right angle. For the butt I once again glued two pieces of maple together and then carefully shaped the piece on a belt sander. On the table saw about a dozen cuts were made to give the butt a butter grip. A single dato cut was made down the other side of the butt so the bar stock would fit inside. The bar stock was then drill and the butt was attached.

Once a good stock length was determined holes were drilled through both the main piece and the stock. A spring loaded pin would hold the stock in place until another solution could be found.

Back in class on the table saw I made some cut on the sides of the main piece to provide a nice grip and to trim the weight down a bit. After some intense sanding by hand the wooden parts were ready for paint. Some generic hardware store paint was chosen as a temporary solution.

Hope my brief description gives you an idea of what I went through to make this beast. I have only played one game with it and it has proven itself to be very effective. It does add a lot of weight to the barrel, but so does my homemade hand grip and the Palmers Brass barrel. It evens the marker out and I’d rather have one that’s heavy but balanced  than lightweight but nose heavy.

Here’s the finished project.