Drill press jig

[JonBishop]

Hello all. New member here and I would like to ask about drilling the lock and tang bolts. Where can I find a center to center drilling jig? If they aren’t available, are there any plans out there to build one? This is the only thing I’m really worried about on this, my first build. TOW Bedford County parts kit. I watched some youtube videos but they didn’t really say where they got them. The search engine on this site didn’t come up with much.

Thank you, Jon

 

[brawny man]

Jon
Look in the "gun builders bench" forum. Use the search tab and use "center drilling jig". A lot of information will pop up for you.

Good luck.

 

[Yewbender]

Welcome to the site! And what Brawny man said and if your still not sure ask away there.

 

[billraby]

Get piece of 3/8 inch round steel. File the end to a point. Drill a hole in a block of wood and put the pointy piece of metal in it. Clamp it in a vise on your drill press and you are ready to go.

 

[Phil Coffins]

I use a bolt that the end of the threads are turned to a stub that will go in the hole of the lock screw. With some washers and two nuts I put this bolt in the drill press table with the stub up. Aline the drill point to the stub by moving the table and bolt around and tighten the nut. Place the drill point so it doesn’t touch the stub that way you don’t harm the threads. Then place the gun on the stub and drill threw.

 

[Davey Boy]

I really like Bill Raby's YouTube videos of building muzzleloaders. He shows in great detail building from start to finish. If you look through his videos you will find exactly what you are looking to do in a tested method.

 

[billraby]

Not all of it is really all that tested. Rifle I am working on now has a lot of stuff that I have never done before and don't actually know how to do. I am making it up as I go. At least I can do a job at sounding like I know what I am talking about! It is all coming out fine so far. Here is an early sneak peak at the video that shows how to center drill and put in the tang bolt. I made the jig from a short piece of steel rod and some scrap wood. This rifle is a 4 bore so its massively over sized and the trigger plate is a bit different than what you would use in a Bedford rifle, but it is the same idea.

 

[Sidney Smith]

Ive drilled several tang holes and have never used one if those jigs. A straight line drawn on the side of the stock, and an extra set of eyes to guide you is all it takes.

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

Hello all. New member here and I would like to ask about drilling the lock and tang bolts. Where can I find a center to center drilling jig? If they aren’t available, are there any plans out there to build one? This is the only thing I’m really worried about on this, my first build. TOW Bedford County parts kit. I watched some youtube videos but they didn’t really say where they got them. The search engine on this site didn’t come up with much.

Thank you, Jon

First of all, welcome to the forum. Bill Raby is right on with his 1:00 am post. You don't need to get fancy, just have the drill's exit from the work lined up with a pointed metal to keep the work alighned. If you don't have a drill press vice (highly recommend) just C clamp a piece of wood with a vertical point.
Flintlocklar

 

[Sam squanch]

Drill slowly! And sharpen the drill bit!

 

[tallpine]

Here's mine, just a piece of 3/8 all thread and a piece of angle iron with holes drilled in it for bolting to the drill press table. A center drill is highly recommended for spotting your hole locations.

 

[JonBishop]

Thanks everyone. It seems I was over thinking this. Bill, excellent video. I’m confident now I can do the tang bolt. But a new problem has risen. I cut the barrel breech too far back in the stock. Now there is a gap between the breech and stock. I can’t set the barrel back anymore. I need to add material to the stock. Is there a way I can do this without ruining the rifle? I have several ideas but I would like to hear from some pros. Image enclosed.

Thank you, Jon

 

[billraby]

Just glue a little bit of wood in there and inlet the breech into it.

 

[LawrenceA]

It only looks about 50 thou.
What is preventing the breech coming back.
Have you inlet the barrel rear against the wood?
This is the point of most recoil

 

[JonBishop]

Lawrence, I attempted to inlet the barrel against the wood. I got it a bit out of square. Look at the bottom of the picture. If I take more wood out to square it up I won’t have any space to drill my lock hole through the breech plug/tang. Adding a piece of wood is something I’m thinking about. Epoxy and glass bedding are also things I’m thinking about.

Thank you, Jon

 

[billraby]

Skip the bedding. It will work, but it will leave a big ugly spot in there. Add a piece of wood in there. Try to cut it so that the grain runs the same direction. Then inlet the barrel into the new piece of wood. That will give you a repair that does not show.

 

[Col. Batguano]

The center point jig guide has been well described as per above responses. Kudos!

Because the (drill) bit will be fairly long hanging out of the chuck it will want to wander some in drilling through 2 1/2"-3" of wood if you try to do it all at once. (There. are harder and softer places in all pieces of wood that will want to bend your bit around.) I suggest you shorten it in the chuck to maybe 1/2"-1" hanging free. Drill one side 1/4 of the way, and then the other side 1/4 way. Then lengthen the bit a bit more, and repeat the process a couple more times until the holes merge. Then you can drill it all the way through to have one continuous hole. If you want to pack it afterwards with epoxy putty to fill in any wallowed out portions you can. Then re-drill in one swoop. The epoxy putty is softer than the wood so the drill should naturally want to follow the trued up hole. It takes a little bit longer this way, but everything will be nice and smooth and true when you're done.

But the good news is that if you're a little off center on your exit point in the floor plate nobody is going to notice. If you're off even a little bit in the tang it will (visually) slap you in the face every time you mount the gun.

A note about locating that top tang hole is in order here though;
You want that tang bolt located perfectly tangent (on the arc of the tang curve) to the location of the exit point on the floor plate. Please resist the temptation to drill it before your tang profile is really really close to final dimensions The temptation is to drill it too soon, before you've removed more metal from the tang and wood, which will result in the bolt being located too far aft. That will result in the front of your tang bolt being proud to the tang where it's drawn tight. You want it nice and flush all the way around.

Another note on drilling the tang hole (in the metal);
Drill bits are notoriously independently minded in wanting to walk on you, even with a center punched hole. Start that hole with a very short and small bit. (like a # 62 or MAYBE as big as a 1/16"). Drill it in increasing diameters. If it's off a little bit, you can move the hole a bit as you increase diameters. Having an adjustable X-Y drill table vise is an invaluable tool in drilling these holes in the tang.

Going slowly and doing it right the first time is a LOT faster than rushing and spending time figuring out how to fix things afterwards.

 

[billraby]

Absolutely true. Drill bits wander all over the place. Especially with tang bolts. You are drilling through metal, then wood, then back into metal. It is almost always going to hit the metal surface at an angle. Start off with a center drill. They don't wander but they are short. Don't drill from wood into metal. Go through the metal then stop from each side. Don't pass a drill bit all the way through until you have a hole through metal on each side.

 

[Col. Batguano]

Time expired on my ability to edit so see below. I take slight disagreement with Bill as to drilling the floor plate before the wood hole is drilled. Reason-- where you START the wood hole isn't always where it ends up at the end of the day, and the TP exit is of much lesser importance than the tang side. It certainly works though. That exit hole angle is pretty critical, as that's where the threads are cut. If the bolt is a bit sloppy on the tang side it doesn't matter as much as if it's sloppy on the trigger plate side and for the threads. everybody is different, I'm just not that good to get things right on the very first pass.

Steps I use that work for me;
1.) Drill you metal tang hole first. (You can adjust the angle later as well as the countersink.)
2.) Use the metal tang as your jig to find the spot in the tang wood for your bolt hole (this is a full sized bit now).
3.) Just START the hole (in the wood) enough to be a guide for the tang bolt bit
4.) Locate the spot in the trigger plate (center) you want the bolt to exit.
5.) Start the hole
6.) Drill your bolt hole through the wood as per above
7.) Once the hole is nice and smooth (if you packed it with putty and re-drilled), with the floor plate in place attached to the wood, use the drill to drill through (from the top side) the floor plate.
7a. alternative) You COULD use the bit to mark the underside of the TP and drill partially through with an undersized bit just to make sure your full sized bit finds the center.
8.) Tap the floor plate from above
9.) Stand back and admire your work.
10.) Go to bed. You've done enough for tonight.

Drilling holes or using power tools like a Dremel or Foredom tool is ALWAYS one of those major "pucker factor" operations in the course of a build.

 

[ChrisWest]

This is what I purchased from RE Davis/LogCabin:
http://www.redaviscompany.com/0883.html