Enlarging Flashhole

[ebiggs1]

ebiggs,

Are you shooting White Lining liners?

No I am not. I have about every brand there is except Whit Lighting.

 

[Rifleman1776]

group size suffered when I tried 3F, 90 grains of 2F goex cut holes within holes at 75 yards, so since it is a huntin' gun.....think I'll call it good!!

Except for certain safety rules, there ain't no absolutes in this game.
Wat works for ye is what ye need to do.

 

[Brim]

shot it again today....made a 6 in. X and shot away at 50 yds. Gun shoots so much better now after opening it up....can hit a pie plate off-hand at 50 yds. now every time! hope to improve that to 75 very soon.....

 

[tg]

I use a plain hole (no liner) on my Fusil toa size under 5/64 as I wanted to duplicate what the originals were like for the same experience, I coned the inside a bit but not the outside, this is a heavy barrel wall in the .58 bore, I certainly do not see anythinhg dangerous in this situation, one must take care not to reduce the web to much. I saw a hole blow out after half a trail walk in a .32 rifle a friend had bult and took the hole down as far as he thought he could....wrong with this particular gun. Going in stages is obviously the best when enlarging from what has been posted here in the past the coning of the outside is a toss up it seems to me. Good luck with the project it will present the best combo in time in time

 

[Pigslayer]

I've built two flinters. The first being an Issac Haines in 50 cal & the second being a Southern Mtn. in .45 cal. I used a stainless steel flash hole liner in each and both are coned inside & out. Never a problem. No danger there. Am building a .40 cal. Tennessee Mtn. Rifle now & will do the same with the flashhole in this too. Haven't needed to enlarge any of the flashholes though. :idunno:

 

[Dphar]

i did find it fired faster and more consistant than before I enlarged and coned it. But like I said before it is not much larger and not a deep cone, but it seems like it fires every time now(if I keep my flint sharp) as before it would fail to fire 1 in every 12-15 shots.
It will be mainly used as a hunting gun, not a rendevous gun, have other flinters for that!

You should have tried it before coning.
While some people like larger vents and exterior cones. I see no reason to enlarge over 1/16 with a properly made and installed liner.
Coning the exterior is of no value. I have a coned in one barrel of my swivel breech and a flat face in the other.
Coning is only of value if the liner is not counter bored to within .030-.040 of the pan with the liner installed. It should look like this.

If it does coning is a waste of time. Coning the exterior will make the "web" part of the vent liner too thin with this vent. This will reduce vent life.
Remember the flash does not enter a loaded barrel. The vent allows radiant heat from the 2000+ burn temp to "see" the powder charge.

7/64" is OK I guess, but its larger than I would want. If the vent is a simple drilled hole then 7/64 of even 3/32 will be needed.

Dan

 

[nkbj]

I just use an old set of little bitty files. When it works I stop filing at it. The geometry of the interior and exterior is what it is why I get it done.

 

[Pigslayer]

i did find it fired faster and more consistant than before I enlarged and coned it. But like I said before it is not much larger and not a deep cone, but it seems like it fires every time now(if I keep my flint sharp) as before it would fail to fire 1 in every 12-15 shots.
It will be mainly used as a hunting gun, not a rendevous gun, have other flinters for that!

You should have tried it before coning.
While some people like larger vents and exterior cones. I see no reason to enlarge over 1/16 with a properly made and installed liner.
Coning the exterior is of no value. I have a coned in one barrel of my swivel breech and a flat face in the other.
Coning is only of value if the liner is not counter bored to within .030-.040 of the pan with the liner installed. It should look like this.

If it does coning is a waste of time. Coning the exterior will make the "web" part of the vent liner too thin with this vent. This will reduce vent life.
Remember the flash does not enter a loaded barrel. The vent allows radiant heat from the 2000+ burn temp to "see" the powder charge.

7/64" is OK I guess, but its larger than I would want. If the vent is a simple drilled hole then 7/64 of even 3/32 will be needed.

Dan

Vent life with the modern Stainless Steel vent liners is dramatically extended due to the SS not reacting to the corrosive effect of Black Powder. Stainless steel will take a lot of heat as will ordinary steel over & over again without pitting or eroding the metal. Remember, even with the "Old Style" drilled flashole, those weapons were fired many many times without a high degree of flashole erosion.
I have used, in all of my flinters a 1/4-28 SS flashole liner. All liners had to be cut back due to protruding into the barrel too far therefore drastically reducing the cone. So much for the cone on the inside!
The SS vents I use come from Dixie gun Works & Track Of The Wolf. The head on the vents are much like a woodscrew meaning that the underside of the head has a bevel of about 30 degrees & the drilled hole in the barrel must be chamfered to accomodate that so as to save the screw slot in the head of the vent . . . whew! That being a given would and does indicate that in many instances much of the vent will protrude into the inside of the barrel which of course must be cut off therefore doing away with much of the "cone". So much for the cone effect.
According to the book "Building The Pennsyvania Longrifle" by Dixon it is clearly stated & illustrated that the very center of the vent liner or hole shall be directly in line with the edge of the face of the breech plug with a corresponding tapered groove in the face of the breechplug. Again, so much for the cone effect due to exactly 1/2 of the vent liner entering into the thinner threaded portion of the barrel breech where even more of the cone must be removed.
I do understand the reason for the cone on the inside of the liner but in many cases it's effect is drastically reduced by having to shorten the liner which negates the benefits of the cone.
Coning the liner on the outside must be done with caution as one can make the face of the liner thin to the point of enlarging the vent hole. Coning the outside of the liner does in fact enhance the ability of the liner to gather & direct heat to the central focal point which is of course the flashole which will enhance ignition & ignition speed.
If I were not using a SS liner & simply drilling a flashole in the barrel . . . I would drill as small a hole as possible as long as it did not affect ignition.

 

[MJMarkey]

I use Chambers White Lightening Liners in all my flint locks. I don't do any modifications to the liner except to open it up to 1/16", which was recommended to me by Jim Chambers. Shooting 3f main charge and priming with 4f I can't imagine it firing any quicker. In my opinion it fires as fast as any cap lock I've ever seen.

 

[nkbj]

STRAIGHT FLASH HOLE

CONED ON THE INSIDE

Shortening the through wall distance increases the angle and the amount of available heat energy that the powder can be exposed to.

 

[Deadeye]

FWIW, I make my own liners from stainless, big cone on the inside, none on the outside. When installed they look just like Phariss's picture.
IMHO there's no way to make them any faster or more reliable. My flashholes are 5/64th.
Deadeye

 

[zimmerstutzen]

All my guns look like Dan's picture. The liner doesn't need to be removed for cleaning. I want nothing to do with allen wrench sockets or screw driver slots pushing the interior cone further back into the barrel.

 

[Pigslayer]

All my guns look like Dan's picture. The liner doesn't need to be removed for cleaning. I want nothing to do with allen wrench sockets or screw driver slots pushing the interior cone further back into the barrel.

It isn't that screwdriver slots have anything to do with pushing the liner into the barrel. It is just that sometimes liners are too long for the thickness of the barrel & have to be trimmed. Screwdriver slots are there to screw the liner into the barrel & depending on the liner one uses, sometimes the slots are removed in filing flush with the barrel. No harm either way. No the liner does not need to be removed for cleaning but, for whatever reason one may want to removed the liner . . . hence a screwdriver slot. Sure beats a drill & easy out!