Building, lessons learned

[54ball]

My first real build is nearly complete. It's a North Carolina Mountain Rifle circa 1810. It's a very simple rifle. It needs the sights, nosecapped poured and a final tweak here and there.

It's the hardest one thing I have ever done. Hours involved, well I bought the set in 2008. No I have not worked on it steady for eight years. Realistically I would say at least 6 months worth of work if I did it a few hours every day with a several full days. A lot of those hours are double as you correct mistakes and re-do. Unfortunately some of those hours will be repair. Each step towards completion can threaten the previous work.

New builders seem intimidated by cutting barrel dove tails and by inletting the parts. This my be just me, but I find cutting dovetails and inletting to be one of the more enjoyable and easier tasks.

Tools...for this rifle here is my tool list. I have a few but here is what I found to be essential.
Reading glasses but I really need an opti visor. You cant work on what you cant see!

1/4 inch chisel...
I use a English made Stanley Sweetheart socket chisel. This chisel has proved to be the workhorse of the build. I also have a 1/2 inch but I could have gotten by with the 1/4.

Swiss Gouge just slightly smaller than the lock nose. It's almost too big a little smaller would have been better.

I really need a 1/8 chisel or smaller. I used one when I when I inletted the lock at a lesson session with a master. The small chisel is useful for curves. I made a tiny one out of a screw driver bit just to make due.

A set if riffler files...
These have been so useful for shaping and cleaning up inlets. I use these a lot, that may be why I'm turtle slow but they are forgiving.

A set of Cobalt small files....
This little set come with a selection of files the flat diamond and the round pointed diamond have been my go toos from that pack.

A 3/8 Round rat tail file...
This has been one of my main shaping tools it's been really good for the lock panels in combo with the other files.

# 50 Pattern makers rasp...
I bought this late in the build but it has proven to be indispensable shaping tool for the lock panels and general wood removal. I might consider a European made one instead of the Nicholson as it's made in Brazil and has seemed to dull a good bit and this is it's first build.

A depth gauge...
I made this out of a piece of flat wood and a 10-32 turnscrew from Lowes. I tapped the wood and sharpened the point of the screw to get down into the bottom of the ramrod channel and mortises. It;s indispensable for laying out pin locations and marking lay out lines on the side of the stock. With a pencil you can slide it down the stock to mark your file or rasp lines.

I have a good many files but I use a big flat medium mill file a lot and of course a safe sided triangle file for dove tails.

A good bench vise
A have 3 and use two in combo but One could be used. The bench vise acts as an anvil, a saw/file guide, a shaping tool for pipes a crimping tool for pipes and folded barrel lugs. It's a must have along with a sturdy table or bench. Don't forget wooden, carpet or leather pads for your work.

A big slack jawed wrench...
I use an ancient 1800s made steam wrench steamwrench for breech plugs.
Big Monkey wrenches and crescents can be used but I must caution you with the crecents...being tight jawed they may have to be shimmed to prevent marring. They do make purpose built breech plug tools.

A torch and solder...

A handrill
I do have a drill press but this for this build a handrill has sufficed. Since it's a Southern Mountain with a screwed tang, I did not need a press for the tang bolt. I have found that for pins and lock bolts its best to drill straight and horizontal(holding the drill motor like a pistol) rather than trying to dill down with the hand drill motor vertical. Clamped in the vise the drill motor can act as a makeshift lathe.

I have a set of scrapers but sand paper and various sized and shaped sanding blocks can be used.

My wife is screaming for this machine so I'll cut this short for now....more to come with photos.

 

[54ball]

Here is back when I started. The parts set came with the barrel fully inlet.


Here's my plug wrench.


Here's the stock with the new lock plate laid on it. As you can see the tail hangs off the the lock panel. That was no problem I planned on that by studying locks with the aid of a Track of the Wolf catalog. I chose the lock by the sear bar location.
The lockplate after some cutting and filing. Now it's an American or English hardware lock appropriate for a Southern rifle. This is a Davis Common lock, cousin to their 1803 Harpers Ferry.


Here are the sides of the forestock sawn down close but still in the square. I did this with a coping saw.I would not do this again. Now I would keep in in the full square and plane, chisel or rasp off when I was close. I was just starting so I wanted to do something. Note too that the ramrod groove is off center. This shows up later when shaping the upper forestock.


stock being taken down. I squared that up with a combination square, a pencil and a scraper plane.



Here I have compared to an original and have taken down the stock rails on each side of the barrel revealing more of the side flat of the barrel. Note how it tapers to the lock. Also note how dark that cherry has turned in storage.


I inletted the breech plug attached to the barrel straight down. Comparing to an original I shaped and filed the tang. I also reduced the thickness tapering it from the plug to the end of the tang to about 3/16 at the point. Here is the tang and a little relief behind it. I bent the tang with the aid of a coat hanger wire to get the shape. I did not bent it until the breeh plug was inlet down. Shhh :redface: To bend the tang I guessed the angle with the wire put the tang in the vise and using the barrel as a lever made the bend. One bend and it was done.




One comment about the tang I think is important. I had the rifle secured in the vise while I inletted the tang. I knew it was inlet pretty good. Mow when I had rifle out of the vise the tang would stand proud be out of position. Enough so I thought my inlet may be bad. The inlet breech and tang was good.The reason for the change of position....a stock has flex. When the tang was screwed down it fit perfect or at least as perfect as my inlet is.

Here is a side plate view. Note the swoop at the breech of the barrel channel. I cut that in with a sharp 1/2 chisel.


OK fast forward some....
In the mean time I made and installed the barrel lugs. I made them out of folded brass and cut the dovetails. For the center one I made a very shallow dove tail and soldered it in. (Swamp Barrel)
I pinned the barrel and screwed the tang down.
I inlet the lock.

Here are the triggers. I had a mishap here. The curve of the stock had me thrown off a little....I was not diligent about really thinking it through or I would have caught it. Anyway I was a little forward with my triggers and that Davis Lock's trigger bar sits high. So I had to bend the sear a little to get good function and contact.

The pencil shows where the adjustment screw should be.

You can see just the tip of the trigger bar. By the way, when I drilled for my sear bar when I inlet the lock the sear bar was off center in the hole to the front of the lock. When you drill for your sear bar ...the hole should be placed slightly to the front of the sear bar. Centering it put too far to the front. I hope that made sense.

A note on the inlet. Note the big scratch on he lock panel. That was done by the chisel as I cleaned up the inlet. While I was cleaning up the inlet where nobody sees, I was chewing up the lock panel with the tool where everybody sees. Another reason to pay attention. Fortunately it was filed away as I brought the panel down.

Here you can see a little of the lock panels. These were rasped in with the pattern makers rasp and worked with a series of files. It's hard to explain in detail how to do these....you just have to keep working at them.

Front of the lock panel starting to take shape.

Here you can see how high that lock's sear bar is.


I'll have some more coming.

 

[Major Dorman]

That's great. Can't wait to see more pics and read more.

 

[frogwalking]

Good job and good pictures. I did the save thing with the triggers. I bought a new trigger plate, moved the triggers back a little, adjusted the inletting and retapped for the tang bolt. No one will ever know. I had cut off the first plate, so there was no hole left by moving it back. Alternately, you can glue in a piece of wood, and most or all will be covered by the trigger guard.

 

[MSW]

good looking build you have going - I like the photos ... it's making sense and it's coming together well.

many folks seem to get all 'wrapped around the axle' about the amount of time it takes to build a ML ... I don't understand this: building a ML is (since I don't and can't make money at it) a hobby ... there - I went and said it!! - the process itself is fun ... there are rifles in the house that have never been fired (made for my wife who never got around to shooting them) ... that's OK - I don't consider this some sort of insult or desecration ... there is as much joy (for me anyway) in going down the road as there is in the arrival at the destination.

Keep up the good work - your build looks great!

 

[54ball]

# 1 is complete. It needs some tweaking. I'll have to get into the triggers once more to adjust the spring and a little fine tuning but construction is complete. I also have to cut a rear sight notch and decorate the front sight base.
The original that provided the inspiration...

My rifle, my first...

 

[Swamp Rat]

I think that came out pretty darn good, especially for the first build. Your patch job at the wrist I had to go back and look for, can barely make it out looks natural. Only think that stand out and could be the picture is the dip at the side panel.

 

[faste350]

nice rifle!

 

[Pete G]

Looks good, but next time (Oh Yes, there will be more )shorten that check piece a little bit.

 

[54ball]

That dip is a feature on the original rifle. Many rifles have that or similar. You see it a lot on very early 18th Century guns, early Southern rifles from Virginia, SW Virginia, NC and Tennessee.

The repair that really come out well was on the lock panel behind the tail of the lock. Somehow a gouge appeared. Some tite bond and cherry rasp dust filled the groove and it finished nicely.

Pete, the cheek was already formed, that part was duplicated off the original. I could have refined it some. I did mess up on the decorative groove...too close to the bottom of the cheek panel.

 

[Pete G]

That dip is a feature on the original rifle. Many rifles have that or similar. You see it a lot on very early 18th Century guns, early Southern rifles from Virginia, SW Virginia, NC and Tennessee.

....
Pete, the cheek was already formed, that part was duplicated off the original. I could have refined it some. I did mess up on the decorative groove...too close to the bottom of the cheek panel.

That can be a particular problem when trying to build a working copy of an old gun, especially Southern guns, which can tend to be more of a "form follows function" in some cases. A lot of the southern guns were made by folks who didn't necessarily follow set rules or study architecture like a modern builder would do. If you study the Foxfire 5 articles on gunbuilding you will see pictures of what most folks today would perceive to be rather crude rifles, but they served their purpose and the builders were proud to show them off.

Personally, I would rather not try to make an exact copy (which can be a very difficult task in itself) but rather make the best gun I can "in the style of" an original. That is a decision that every builder has to make for themselves.

Having said that, I have often be somewhat enamored with the idea of building something along the lines of RCA 136, a blacksmith built piece. Should make the perfect "loaner" gun. :youcrazy: