Locating A Drum

[Zonie]

As those who have built guns know, the precussion drum must be located on the barrel so it fits the recess in the locks bolster.
I have located the hole for the drum on several guns by measuring, re-measuring, marking, center punching and drilling small pilot holes to guide the tap drill.
No matter how carefully I measured, things still didn't line up exactly right (at least for perfectionests like me).

On the pistol I'm building, I decided to let the drum and lock locate the hole for me.

By superglueing the drum into the locks cutout, it becomes a custom made drill jig that looks like this:

Notice that the drum is installed backwards so it can fit the "clean out" hole right up aginst the barrel flat.
By using a drill (shown loosly inserted into the drum in the picture) which just fits thru the cleanout hole threads, they guide it to exactly the right place on the barrel flat.

To remove the drum from the lock, just apply some heat and a light tap will knock it off.

 

[jh45gun]

Good idea I bought a drum Jig from Track O The Wolf and it worked fine for me.

 

[Zonie]

jh45gun: The only Drum Drilling Jig I see in TOTW is for locating the drill for the nipple hole in the drum.

The setup in the photo doesn't locate the nipple hole in the drum. It uses the drum to locate the tapped hole for the drum in the side of the barrel.
Maybe TOTW has another jig that does this?

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Great idea, about a custom fit as one could achieve.

 

[jh45gun]

jh45gun: The only Drum Drilling Jig I see in TOTW is for locating the drill for the nipple hole in the drum.

The setup in the photo doesn't locate the nipple hole in the drum. It uses the drum to locate the tapped hole for the drum in the side of the barrel.
Maybe TOTW has another jig that does this?

Yep your right its been so long since I used it and it was only on one gun that I forgot exactly what it did. It worked good for locating the nipple hole though. Sorry about the confusion.

 

[B.Habermehl]

There's certainly more than one way to skin that cat! I have allways installed the drum first, then inlet the lock. Before I inlet the lock, I shim the breech end of the barrel up about four thickness of paper so there will allways be a solid support for the drum from the lock plate cutout after the inletting is complete. BJH

 

[B.Habermehl]

PS I use a temporary wood screw in the tang and the barrel is pinned in place before I inlet the lock. BJH