Here's how we do it at Ironwood Designs. On this page you will see the machinery and methods we use to manufacture our products. We use a mix of old and new technology to put out the best possible product for the shooting public. I hope this will provide a better understanding as to the committment and capabilites that we have here at Ironwood Designs. I've always loved to see how things are made, for those of you who have the same curiosity, enjoy. Thanks, Matt IWD

This is our Zuckermann copylathe, a 6000 lb., 15 ft. workhorse. This machine profiles and sands the part automatically. It feeds the blanks via a hopper, pictured in front of the machine. It can hold up to 30 blanks. Zuckermanns have been used in the stock and furniture industry for over 30 years. There are only three of these machines in California, I have one of them. Fender Guitar Co., in Southern California, uses one to profile their guitar necks. The ability to create a shaped & sanded part saves thousands of man hours, and creates a uniform easyto finish product. Watching it run is amazing, setting it up is the real art.

Pictured below is our twin spindle CNC router. Made in New York, from German, Italian and American components. This machine can hold very tight tolerances, part after part.

Some production facility shots.

Pictured to the left is a G1 FAL buttstock being turned on the Zuckermann.This is a select piece of Claro Walnut. Itis being cut oversized to stress relieve the wood before it is cut to it's proper size. Notice the belt sander above the part is not making contact. The part will be sanded on the final cut.

STG FAL butt stock tang cut.

Finish cut STG butt stock.

Same stock, midway through the cut. You can see the cutters below thepart, spinning at 6000 RPM.

Nearing the end of the rough cut pass.

FAL Metric hand guard, slot cut.

Metric FAL grip blank loaded and ready to cut.

Pictured below, from right to left an Inch pattern FAL butt stock blank, a profiled & sanded blank, and a final CNC cut part.This is a simple overview of our manufacturing process.

FAL grip in the middle of the cut. Notice the belt sander contacting the grip.

FAL grip finish cut, ready to drop.

High grade Claro balnk cutting.

How a master template is made for the Zuckermann.

Drilling FAL butt stocks before profiling.

Zuckermann set up to run Master Template. Notice G1 original stock in left fixture, this stock will be copied 8mm oversized on to the white Delrin cylinder. Delrin is a very slippery plastic, it can last for thousands of copies. It is very expensive and very heavy. To set up and run a master takes about a half a day,not including the master template build up.

First pass Delrin rough cut. It takes several passes due to the large diameter of the cylinder.The copy wheel, which you can see just under the G1 master, has to be manually guided until enough of the Delrin is cut away to allow the wheel to roll on the actual G1 master part.

Mixture of AK/FAL butt stocks, grips and hand guards.

FAL butt stocks cut and uncut.

Final pass, all machine guided. Only .050" is removed at this time, this creates an extremely smooth surface.

A batch of Inch pattern butt stock

FAL metric pistol grips & hand guards in process.