Can I improve this?

[tgfrench]

Congratulations you moved past being and Assembler to Builder.

 

[Joemolf]

Sorry about your purchase, hope you are feeling better soon.
Not inherently incorrect. What I was getting at is breech plugs back the were much shorter than now, therefore they didn’t have the problem we do having to hack into the plug.
Building from a plank all that is avoidable.
Let me illustrate: original plug 3/8” long, vent located 1/2” from breech end of barrel, no problem.
New plug 5/8” long, vent located 1/2” from end of barrel- hole hits beech plug.
TRS copied the outer dimensions of their original Harpers Ferry rifles, and they mortised for lock accordingly.
Naturally the vent hole hits the longer modern plug. Fun.

I may be a bit harsh on this. It’s not a perfect world I get that. If all it takes is boring the breech face that should have been done I don’t see anything wrong with doing it. And as we can see from the examples that were done they are done neatly. For guys who have doing this a long time it’s probably SOP. Once done you have a reliable rifle if this is the situation. I’m just annoyed after all I learned from this thread I did pay a lot of money for It the builder should have known better. Anyway no big deal I am looking forward to fixing it. I did order Rice Barrels Breech plug remover and there octagon vice clamps for future. They are currently on back order so I’ll be doing it with my bionic adjustable wrench some very thick leather to prevent marring and the vice clamps I currently have. I have removed two breech plugs in the past with no marring of the barrel or breech plug.
Thanks for great info!

 

[Joemolf]

Looks like Log Cabin Shop has them.

http://logcabinshop.com/oc30/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=24884

Spike buck! Thanks I ordered a few of each 8/32 and 10/32 just now. A clever idea. I typically have good success with boiling water and a few turns of tow but that’s end of day cleaning. I can see these coming in handy God forbid I run out of Swiss and have to use my fallback powder Shutzen LOL. Despite Schutzen fouling I have found it works well in Metallic cartridges! So long as you’re using a bullet with a big fat lube ring. Lots of fun and lots of smoke LOL!
Thanks!

 

[Joemolf]

Figure how far down the hole is from the front of the plug. Get à piece of tubing to go in the barrel. Weld a drill on a rod and counter bore the plug to the figured depth. Finish drilling the touch hole into the counter bore if needed.

Bang I’m comfortable with removing the Breech Plug. It will also enable me so see the touch hole liner and clean up whatever extends thru the barrel. If it’s finicky to remove it is a great option. I’m hoping a good soak in Kroil works as it has in the past. Thanks for your input.

 

[Joemolf]

So back to this! I had revision spine surgery 10/20. Initially I was feeling pretty bad but for whatever reasons things became more uncomfortable with time. My son took me to the house we have in NH to recover; but this is going to be slow. Missed Thanksgiving very disappointing my favorite holiday next to Easter. Any bac to this besides not feeling well I was going stir crazy. Got home late Thursday. Had my son bring the rifle in. Removed the lock and stock. Plugged the flash hole added some kroil and set it aside to this morning. I put the barrel in the vice and removed the breech. I put it aside standing still bothersome. At first glance it doesn’t look too bad but I want to check it closely. I take more pics and post up when able. I’m going to drill out existing flash liner; hopefully I have the correct size easy out.

 

[Joemolf]

So this is what I did. I used a 9/16 counter bore to back cut the breach plug. Then I opened up the original notch the builder cut. I didn’t go crazy polishing it up it’s nice and smooth. Ran the 10/32 tap through the touch hole. I was surprised at the thickness of the barrel the white lightning touch hole liner only extends half the thickness of the barrel. I cleaned it all up applied some anti seize on the breach plug and the barrel lightly. Reinstalled. Installed the touch hole liner. I’m currently touching up the browning. I may ultimately draw file the entire barrel because the builder hastily browned it. There’s a lot of rough spots. I don’t think it was done deliberately other then sloppy. As I am learning it takes many light coats and scaling of the solution with hours in between to get a fine finish. Right now I just want to get it shooting. So another few days of browning I’ll have it ready for the weekend. Curious I generally open the touch hole up to 1/16 inch. What size is the hole as it comes and do users use it that way without flashing the pan?
Thanks for all the great advice!

 

[Joemolf]

While I was fiddling with this I contacted Rice Barrel company for some advice. I may have mentioned that earlier in my post. Any at the time some had concerns about indexing the breech plug back to original location and just getting it lose. So while I was chatting with the Gent from Rice I ordered their breech plug tool and the barrel clamp they manufacture. At the time they were on back order but I’m a easy sell for special tools. So they recently showed up in my mailbox and figured for you guys who do this all the time and didn’t know about them I’m posting them up. I think they were less than $90 for both shipped. A nice to have. The breech tool you slip a 3/4 black pipe on and off the breech plug comes. Just figured I’d share not really something I will use all the time. But they are like the Rice Barrels nicely made.

 

[TDM]

Those are nice.