Update:
The lock is now functionally inletted and I've outlined a pattern taken from Henry Mauck's rifles No. 13 and 153 on Pgs. 340 & 341 of Kindig's Thoughts on the Kentucky Rifle in it's Golden Age.
I like the lines of these two rifles as they appear to have a slight belly on the buttstock underside, similar to the Bethlehem school. I also like the lines of the cheekpiece of his work
Mauck also has the lock pan fence forward of the back side of the barrel. That gives me some visual on how to work that out.
My concern is that due to the skinny nature of the pre-carved stock that the round off from the tang to the reveal around the lock is going to be excessive. A possible drawback of a 13/16 barrel.
I was disappointed by a punch through during inletting, seen below in the mainspring area. Another downside to a 13/16 barrel that didn't occur to me until it was too late. If the rest of the rifle turns out OK I'll fit a drilled maple plug into the routed slot behind the punch through.
A contributing factor was the routed barrel channel of the pre-carved stock which left the walls quite thin in that spot.
Another fun fact I discovered while I was stumped as to why the lock would't cock is a difference in tumbler position of the bridle/tumble system.
In the pic below you can see that at times the tumble hangs just below the lock plate. I was considering grinding it down but the pressure point of the spring it VERY close to the end of the tumbler.
I relieved some wood under the lock plate inlet level to get it to function.
This morning I noticed that it'd moved and there's no obvious play in the action of cocking.
The only thing I can think of was that I didn't have the hammer fully seated while testing function. It was hitting the wood above the plate prohibiting a normal plate angle in the inlet. Could the hammer at 50% tumbler post engagement have caused the lock to rotate further in the uncocked position? That's something to pay attention to in the future.
The next step is to drill for lock screws I'll need to use 6-32 screws due to limited space in the lock screw areas. Can anyone recommend a source for appropriate screws for this task? The screws at the hardware store and McMaster Carr are not suitable due to tiny head sizes or the wrong drive.
Other lessons learned details.
1.) I did a practice run on the bridle inlet using my Bosch trim router with a 1/8" bit. There's little visibilty to follow a line. I found I needed a headlamp and magnifying visor along with strict head positioning and a layerd depth removal of about 3/16".
The following day, when I tried to inlet the bridle the router started jumping and was difficult to control. I went back to chisels.
A couple days later when I went to put the router back in the box I discovered that I never tightened the nut that holds the bit. I "T"'d it up again and used it to inlet the mainspring channel without a problem.
I'll be doing more router inletting practice using a large siler lock and scrap blocks.
2.) Next build I'll be studying the lock carefully before I start. Things I'd like are nice bolster thickness in both directions, decent distance from the rear of the pan fence to the center of the pan, and enough room between the internal components and the edge of the lock plate in order to shape an inletting taper on the lock plate edge.
3.) in my opinion a 13/16 barrel with a lock bolster width of .3" results in a gun that's too skinny. An 8-32 tang screw on this rifle is going to pass a little over 1/32" clear of contacting the bridle and must be layed out to miss the bridle screw head that hold the sear. Depending on what kind of control I can get with my drill press on the lock plate screws I may go to a 6-32.
4.) I'll be using a sideways slicing action with a chisel to clean up my work in areas where the material is thin behind the inletting.
Live and learn. I really am enjoying this!
Best
Knobs
The lock is now functionally inletted and I've outlined a pattern taken from Henry Mauck's rifles No. 13 and 153 on Pgs. 340 & 341 of Kindig's Thoughts on the Kentucky Rifle in it's Golden Age.
I like the lines of these two rifles as they appear to have a slight belly on the buttstock underside, similar to the Bethlehem school. I also like the lines of the cheekpiece of his work
Mauck also has the lock pan fence forward of the back side of the barrel. That gives me some visual on how to work that out.
My concern is that due to the skinny nature of the pre-carved stock that the round off from the tang to the reveal around the lock is going to be excessive. A possible drawback of a 13/16 barrel.
I was disappointed by a punch through during inletting, seen below in the mainspring area. Another downside to a 13/16 barrel that didn't occur to me until it was too late. If the rest of the rifle turns out OK I'll fit a drilled maple plug into the routed slot behind the punch through.
A contributing factor was the routed barrel channel of the pre-carved stock which left the walls quite thin in that spot.
Another fun fact I discovered while I was stumped as to why the lock would't cock is a difference in tumbler position of the bridle/tumble system.
In the pic below you can see that at times the tumble hangs just below the lock plate. I was considering grinding it down but the pressure point of the spring it VERY close to the end of the tumbler.
I relieved some wood under the lock plate inlet level to get it to function.
This morning I noticed that it'd moved and there's no obvious play in the action of cocking.
The only thing I can think of was that I didn't have the hammer fully seated while testing function. It was hitting the wood above the plate prohibiting a normal plate angle in the inlet. Could the hammer at 50% tumbler post engagement have caused the lock to rotate further in the uncocked position? That's something to pay attention to in the future.
The next step is to drill for lock screws I'll need to use 6-32 screws due to limited space in the lock screw areas. Can anyone recommend a source for appropriate screws for this task? The screws at the hardware store and McMaster Carr are not suitable due to tiny head sizes or the wrong drive.
Other lessons learned details.
1.) I did a practice run on the bridle inlet using my Bosch trim router with a 1/8" bit. There's little visibilty to follow a line. I found I needed a headlamp and magnifying visor along with strict head positioning and a layerd depth removal of about 3/16".
The following day, when I tried to inlet the bridle the router started jumping and was difficult to control. I went back to chisels.
A couple days later when I went to put the router back in the box I discovered that I never tightened the nut that holds the bit. I "T"'d it up again and used it to inlet the mainspring channel without a problem.
I'll be doing more router inletting practice using a large siler lock and scrap blocks.
2.) Next build I'll be studying the lock carefully before I start. Things I'd like are nice bolster thickness in both directions, decent distance from the rear of the pan fence to the center of the pan, and enough room between the internal components and the edge of the lock plate in order to shape an inletting taper on the lock plate edge.
3.) in my opinion a 13/16 barrel with a lock bolster width of .3" results in a gun that's too skinny. An 8-32 tang screw on this rifle is going to pass a little over 1/32" clear of contacting the bridle and must be layed out to miss the bridle screw head that hold the sear. Depending on what kind of control I can get with my drill press on the lock plate screws I may go to a 6-32.
4.) I'll be using a sideways slicing action with a chisel to clean up my work in areas where the material is thin behind the inletting.
Live and learn. I really am enjoying this!
Best
Knobs
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