I went and bought a kit gun. Should make for a few days of distraction.
Any pointers on this one?
Any pointers on this one?
Traditions Blunderbuss kit .54
- Thread starter cynthialee
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Fifty Four
32 Cal
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- Dec 23, 2018
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Is this your first kit?
A friend of mine sent me one of these kits when I was laid up after Achilles tendon surgery. It was a blast! He got it at an auction, so it had one minimal instruction sheet & no outer box, just the styro packaging. No missing parts, fortunately.
It was my first kit and a pretty straightforward build. I had to do some inlet fitting for the lock, but not too much trouble, just made sure my tools were SHARP! Lots of sanding and filing, again, no big deal... except:
There was a pretty significant offset btw the barrel body and the muzzle bell. It was all preassembled - breech plug/tang/bbl/muzzle bell - but there was a "lip" of about 1/16" all around, raised one side & recessed t'other, where the bell met the barrel. THAT took a lot of work, and I don't have a machinist's lathe. Feathering that lip with hand tools without changing the profile of the barrel, and then trying to smooth out & even up the finish all along the barrel length, was a challenge.
If your kit's barrel has that lip, I would consider (in hindsight) contacting the supplier & requesting a replacement. If yours is better aligned, you shouldn't have too much trouble. As I mentioned, everything else in my kit was good enough and fitted together with minimal tweaking.
I used cold blue (oxpho blue from Brownell's) on that barrel (easy peasey!). One of these days, I may rework my donderbus; then, I'll probably hot blue the bbl and refinish the stock to a darker brown.
(Rats! Can't find a picture.)
Still goes BOOM! when I ask it to!
It was my first kit and a pretty straightforward build. I had to do some inlet fitting for the lock, but not too much trouble, just made sure my tools were SHARP! Lots of sanding and filing, again, no big deal... except:
There was a pretty significant offset btw the barrel body and the muzzle bell. It was all preassembled - breech plug/tang/bbl/muzzle bell - but there was a "lip" of about 1/16" all around, raised one side & recessed t'other, where the bell met the barrel. THAT took a lot of work, and I don't have a machinist's lathe. Feathering that lip with hand tools without changing the profile of the barrel, and then trying to smooth out & even up the finish all along the barrel length, was a challenge.
If your kit's barrel has that lip, I would consider (in hindsight) contacting the supplier & requesting a replacement. If yours is better aligned, you shouldn't have too much trouble. As I mentioned, everything else in my kit was good enough and fitted together with minimal tweaking.
I used cold blue (oxpho blue from Brownell's) on that barrel (easy peasey!). One of these days, I may rework my donderbus; then, I'll probably hot blue the bbl and refinish the stock to a darker brown.
(Rats! Can't find a picture.)
Still goes BOOM! when I ask it to!
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