Buttoning Up

[Hoyt]

Bow season comes in this wk-end and I'm trying to get my Pecatonic Early Virginia smoothbore buttoned up so I can lay it down a while and do some hunting.
I've got the barrel pinned, tang & trigger plate tapped, bolted and large Siler Lock inletted. I would like to get the Lock and side plate bolted and tapped but don't have a mainspring vise and don't want to take lock appart..can anyone tell me an easy way to drill and tap large siler Lock without taking the mainspring off..front bolt will go right inside the bend of mainspring.

First build attempt
Thanks for any advice.

 

[2158]

hey hoyt, all the rifles i've built the front lock bolt
passes in front of the main spring, so it doesn't need to be removed. but the frizzen spring does, for the tap to
run through. one thing ive learned when building guns
is they can't be rushed. order the right tools for the
job the springs on a gun are both brittle yet strong
and relieing on vise grips or plyers will end sometimes
with bad results!!! or injury. :m2c:

 

[Hoyt]

Thanks for the reminder WPa..I got too much going on at once..got the frizzen mixed up with mainspring...
You're right I need to order a mainspring vise..is one better than another?

 

[brushbuster]

i bought my vise from jim chambers it is a very simple and user friendly vise. i had to learn the hard way by breaking a spring using needle nose vise grips (it was'nt pretty,six stiches ) you can order one from several b/p suppliers .theyre worth the money believe me.you can get into enough trouble without asking for it ,(ask slowpoke)
remember "safer iz gooder"

good luck :relax: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :m2c:

 

[Zonie]

Dixie has two Mainspring Vises for sale.
One for about 10 bucks and one for about 20 bucks.

Track has one for sale which the same vise as the 20 buck Dixie offering for about the same price.

Get the $20 one. I have the $10 vise and although it is big enough to work on the Large Siler, it is really too small for the Big Locks like the Davis Jaeger and French Trade.
These locks have a very short upper leg and the $10 vise doesn't really have the length it needs to work well on them.

You may not need the larger vise now, but if your like the other people who have built guns, there will come a time when you will.

As you are talking about the frizzen spring and there is a vise made for removing it, my advise is you really don't need to buy it.
If you pad the frizzen spring with something soft like a brass sheet to protect it, a pair of locking plyers will work fine. Just remember, you only need to compress it enough to remove the pressure from the frizzen. If you over compress it, it will sometimes break.

 

[Hoyt]

I had full intentions of getting a mainspring vise on my next order..but had read on-line where you didn't need to take lock appart when building on pre-inletted stocks. I guess they were talking about another lock than large siler.
I also was wondering what was the difference in a $10.00 and $20.00 vise and now I know.
Thanks for the info..great site.