polishing the lock

[ncmtmike]

Will one of you knowledgeable folk e-mail or PM me on the correct way and benefits of polishing the lock? Thank You.

 

[Billnpatti]

Fist of all, you will need a mainspring vise to remove your mainspring. If you are working on a flintlock, you will need the same vise to remove the frizzen spring. These springs are fragile and if you try to take them out with a pair of pliers or vise grips, you stand a chance of breaking them. Okay, lets assume that you have the needed vise and know how to disassemble your lock. Most likely it will have a fly in the tumbler. It is tiny and you must be most careful not to loose it. When you have your lock apart, examine the lock plate for signs of rubbing. If you see any such signs, these are places that need to be polished. I use a Dremmel tool with a polishing wheel and some polishing compound such as jeweler's rouge to do the job. Polish it nice and bright and then polish the part that is rubbing. I would tell you to dress the part that is rubbing but unless you are very knowledgeable about what you are doing, you could cut through the case hardening (if the part has been case hardened) and that would just make the problem worse. So, just polish the part nice and bright. Once you have these spots polished, you will need to polish the trigger seer and the full cock notch in the tumbler. This is a very ticklish job and if you don't get it exactly right you can cause your gun to slip out of full cock and fire unexpectedly. What you have to do is use a fine ceramic or Arkansas stone with a very square edge that will allow you to get into the notch and just polish it but not change any angle. Carefully polish the full cock notch. You will likely need some sort of magnifying lens to see what you are doing and to make sure that you do not make any change to the angle of the notch. Once you have it polished, you can polish the trigger seer. Again, you must not change the angle. Just carefully polish it. Next, examine the tumbler screw. The one that the tumbler rotates on. You can carefully polish it so the tumbler moves smoothly when you rotate it. Examine the underside of the bridle for rub marks and polish it if you see any. When all of these places have been polished, thoroughly clean off all polishing compound, reassemble your lock. Oh, if it is a flintlock, you will need to polish the tip of the frizzen where it rides on the frizzen spring. I would not do anything to the spring but buff it with some jeweler's rouge on your Dremmel tool. Just buff the part where it rubs on the frizzen. Now, with your lock reassembled, you can apply a lubricant to the moving parts. Do not use grease because it just attracts dirt and crud. Use something like 3 in 1 oil or a gun oil. LIGHTLY oil the moving parts and replace your lock in your gun. Done correctly, you should notice a difference in the smoothness of your lock. When you replace your lock in the stock, do not over tighten the lock bolt as that can cause the operating parts of your lock to rub on the inside of the lock mortise and cause problems. The lock bolt needs to just be snug, not TIGHT.

I did not address any changes in the geometery of your lock because that is much more advanced work than you may want to do or have the tools and skills to do. In fact, I do not know anything about how to do it correctly so I will leave that up to someone else to tell you how to do such things as bending your hammer or cock. It can be done and, as I understand it, is not all that hard if you have a torch to heat it with. But that is for someone else to tell you about.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Excellent instructions. Should be a sticky. :thumbsup:

Most likely it will have a fly in the tumbler. It is tiny and you must be most careful not to loose it.

For emphasis. Lose IT and you will lose it. :shocked2:

 

[Many Klatch]

What BillnPatti wrote is good. The only thing I do differently is to flatten the lockplate. Most of the lockplates are cast. They aren't always perfectly flat. I take a file and flatten the inside of the plate until there are no high spots. Then I sand the plate with various grits until I get up 400 grit. The polishing of the lockplate will take care of a lot of the rubbing problems.

One other thing is to VERY SLIGHTLY remove a small amount from the back of the flexing part of the main spring. I'm talking a thousandth or so here, just enough to clear the lockplate. Leave a small knob at the end of the mainspring so that is the only part of the spring that actually touches the lockplate when the spring flexes.

Many Klatch

 

[flintlockmdj]

Never lost one... and found it again always had to make or buy another. When they hit the floor they go into that next dimension that there is no return from.

 

[StewartLeach]

Gee, White Bear, I always thought small parts like a fly turned into fired caps and spent modern primers.....

White Fox

 

[tomovich]

Is the fly not "attached" to the tumbler? Staked or pinned or some such method?? In other words if you disassemble the lock can/does the fly just fall out??? :idunno:

TIA

 

[Many Klatch]

The fly can and will fall out of it's attachment when you disassemble a lock and if you aren't watching for it, it will fall onto the floor and never be seen again. You only need a fly if you have a set trigger. I don't use set triggers so I remove the fly from all my locks.

Many Klatch

 

[AZbpBurner]

Coupl'a years ago I disassembled a brand new, never-been-fired lock to polish and tweak some. I've never been the type to leave something alone, even though I'm usually aware of the consequences. I need a plaque over the workbench (or couch) stating that simply being aware of something guarantees that it will happen.

I carefully put a towel on my lap, while seated on the couch, watching a ball game. Of course, the fly flew out, but I wasn't worried, it landed in the towel. As I got up to gather all corners of the towel to secure the fly, the towel snagged on a couch cushion, and the fly flew ... off into oblivion. No luck with a search, dragging a magnet, or even bright flashlight, it was forever gone.

The lock went into a ziplock bag, until I could get around to ordering another. It became forgotten, until about a month later, the cat was swatting something around on the freshly mopped (and slippery) bathroom floor. He's quite fond of milk jug lid rings, and slobber treated crickets, so I didn't pay any attention to it, until later when I stepped on the fly/cat toy and it stuck to the sole of my foot.

By then it took another few days before I remembered where I put the disassembled lock - atop the refrigerator inside a small box, where I'd be able to 'easily' find it later ...

 

[Wes/Tex]

By then it took another few days before I remembered where I put the disassembled lock - atop the refrigerator inside a small box, where I'd be able to 'easily' find it later ...

You too...thought I was the only one afflicted with cussing over the easy-to-never-find disease! Still looking for a couple of the 'easy finds'!

 

[ApprenticeBuilder]

Still looking for a couple of the 'easy finds'!

You'll find them when you give up looking, at least thats how it works with me.

 

[tomovich]

That answers THAT question........thanks!

 

[M. De Land]

With me it's when I no longer need them after ordering or making a replacement.
I actually have found several dropped small parts after praying and thanking God profusely upon the discovery!
The ones that get me are the coil springs and detents that take off and the last contact was when I hear them hit the sealing or the far shop wall. :rotf: MD

 

[Len Graves]

When dis assembling a lock I either put the fly onto a piece of tape and tape that to a place that I can find it later. I also have several small zip lock bags which I have from catalog ordered parts and I will put the fly in one and the other parts together into a larger zip bag. There have been times that I have had more than one lock apart on my bench at one time and I don't have time for puzzles.. Just remember to label each bag. I try to learn from my mistakes, if only I could remember.

 

[MSW]

Is the fly not "attached" to the tumbler? Staked or pinned or some such method?? In other words if you disassemble the lock can/does the fly just fall out??? :idunno:

TIA

in a word, no.

the flye will come out of the lock as soon as you disassemble it. it will fall on the floor (or so you think)

OK - here's the real deal: the flye never reaches the floor... somewhere in its descent, it blinks into another dimension (que scary music here) where it joins the lost socks and that spare part from the transmission.

if you find it, it's not really the flye you dropped - it's someone else's part, accidentally returned to our space time continuum ...
That's the quantum physics lesson for today.

To avoid further problems, use the plastic bag, use a sharpie to mark the bags, and admit that the forces of nature are greater than the forces of man, and buy a few spares... they're not expensive.

Make good smoke!

 

[M. De Land]

Yup,I save and use the little zip lock bags that the replacement parts come in for the ones I lost. Kind of like closing the barn door after the cows are out. :rotf:
Seriously though they work great! I also have started to take digital macro shots with my camera of complex disassembles and broken parts before hand and this has saved the day more than once.
I also have several small bread pans that I use to segregate various gun break down parts that are handy as can be.
Magnet pans are great as well.
I had a double gun down a few month ago and the camera macro shots made re-assembly a breeze as it involved some very heavy V spring positioning before compression to get them back into the proper place. MD

 

[tomovich]

OK - here's the real deal: the flye never reaches the floor... somewhere in its descent, it blinks into another dimension (que scary music here) where it joins the lost socks and that spare part from the transmission.

if you find it, it's not really the flye you dropped - it's someone else's part, accidentally returned to our space time continuum ...
That's the quantum physics lesson for today.

I'm a gunsmith, I know about this phenomenon..........you forgot the cuff of your pants leg, in your shoe opening, and a few others!

 

[vulture]

Ok, so this happened and I really didn't want to have to try and order a new fly, so I carefully swept up all the ash and trash under my feet, put it into a gallon can of water and washed it good, letting all the floaties come to the top to be removed. I then took all the junk in the bottom of the can and went over it one little bit at a time with a magnet, believe it or not I actually found that stupid little junk of metal. It took me well over an hour to accomplish all of this, but it saved me getting in touch with L&R and ask them for a new fly. When I take one of these locks apart now days I do it over a nice white closth and the lock is down close to the cloth on a clean table, NOT in my shop amoung all the junk that lives there. If you are going to tinker on these locks then please do yourself a favor and order at least one spring vice, they are wonderful ittle tools, I wouldn't be without mine, and yes I busted a main spring one time trying to use some vice grips!

 

[Zonie]

Glad to hear you found it.

If your L&R fly is like most of them from that builder, it is a small flat cam shaped item with a hole thru it.
Because of this design, it can be installed two ways.

If it is installed upside down, it won't work right so, after installing it, be sure to try bringing your lock to a full cock.
Then, with your thumb on the cock/hammer to control the speed of its fall, release the sear.

The sear should bump against the fly and then climb over it allowing the cock/hammer to continue to fall.

If this works, raise the cock/hammer to the half cock position. If the sear easily enters the half cock notch your fly was installed correctly.

If either of these tests fail, remove the fly and invert it. Then try the test again.