Pedersoli Pennsylvania .45

[Gonzo]

Adice you ask:

I bought my screwdriver set from MIdway. It has about 20 different sizes flat head bits. I dont know the brand offhand. Anything they sell will be fine. The set also has little punches for those pins.

Before you try to remove the breech plug dont forget to remove the touchhole liner. I clamped the barrel in a large vice with a thin peice of leather to pad it and used a very large about 18" crescent to turn the plug. There might be a better way but that is what I did.

Regarding the drilling. Find some one with a drill press and it will take him less than a minute to drill it out. Lacking a drill press clamp it in the vice and I would go for it with a hand drill on low speed. I think it will work leastways if it doesnt I dont think you will damage anything. I drilled mine to 5/16 (31cal). There seems to be some debate here on what diameter is best. If I was doing it again I would think hard about drilling it out to 7/16 44cal so the cleaning jag will reach the bottom of the barrel.

After you drill the plug shorten the touchhole. The professional way to do this would be on a lathe. Lacking that use a pair of pliers to hold it up to a grinder and remove a couple threads.

When you put it back together slather up the plug with some zinc antiseize so the next time is easier.

This took me about an hour one afternoon after spending half the day with a ball puller fighting with it. I was pretty aggresive about fixing a gun I was about to throw away.

Go for it. "Failure is not an option". "LIVESTRONG" and all that

 

[Muskeg Stomper]

B-Square make a very nice little set of interchangable gunsmithing screwdriver bits with handle. I think that I paid just over $20 a few years ago. I have another set that I bought at Walmart that works but the choices for bits was limited.

 

[mbokie]

Ok guys, I'm going to Bass Pro today to pick up tools and patches.

Who knows, maybe I'll pick up the Josey Wales.

Been thinking about cleaning the rifle with that rig that puts water through the flash hole(?), from what I've seen, I think I could make one that's better than I could buy.

Does anyone use those things?

 

[ohio ramrod]

I made a simple "tube cleaning kit " for percussion from a shot out nipple by drilling the flash hole larger and puting a small o-ring on the base of the nipple.And a three foot section of plastic tubing from the local hardware store.For about fourty five cents. But I don't think you would want to remove your flash hole liner every time you clean a flint! :hmm:

 

[Muskeg Stomper]

I have flush tubes for both my flintlocks and for my percussion guns. As purchased, the percussion kits work very well. As purchased, the flintlocks kits leak like crazy and I hate having dirty cleaning solution spluging out all over my stock. Many folks on the forum here have modified their flintlock flush tubes by adding a rubber faucet washer as a gasket where it clamps onto the barrell. Some folks never use them at all. I like them fine once modified. I think that you could probably fabricate one for yourself with no problem.

 

[mbokie]

and Ramrod,

Would you be able to post any pics of your setups?

It has been impressed to me how critical cleaning is and I really want to get it right and do it well.

 

[paulvallandigham]

To get more leverage to turn out a threaded item, put another piece of pipe over the handle of your wrench, or "spanner" to extend the length of the grip/handle. The further away from the jaws of the wrench, the more leverage you have.

I once helped a friend remove the Breechplug from a T/C, using one of their spanners, which he held in visegrips, with a 2 foot steel pipe over the handle of the visegrips, while I used a plumber's pipe wrench, under the vise, clamped to the padded barrel to help the vise hold against his turning of the plug. We broke it loose with almost no effort, and NO damage was done to the barrel at all, nor to the plug. Without my holding the barrel with my pipe wrench, the bench vise jaws simply could not have held the barrel tight enough. :hmm: :surrender: