WHITE LIGHTNING

[ian45662]

I was told a White Lightning touch hole liner may not fit inside a 45 cal 13/16 barrel. I wanted to ask you guys how much truth there is to that.

 

[Zonie]

I wonder who said that?
The White Lightnin' liners come in 1/4, 5/16 and 3/8 thread sizes and I can't imagine why a 1/4 or even a 5/16 inch thread wouldn't work in a .45 caliber 13/16 barrel.

Of course, none of the liners are simply screwed into the side of the barrel without first cutting it to the proper length first. It needs to be flush with the bore.

The only other thing that needs to be recognized is that these liners all have bastard threads not commonly found on other liners.
They all have a 32 pitch thread so they are 1/4-32, 5/16-32 or 3/8-32 threads.
This makes it necessary to buy the special taps for them and I can easily say that none of the common hardware stores will have them.
They also need a tap drill that is made for this series of threads.
zonie

 

[Birddog6]

Yes, the 1/4" one will fit but you need it dead center of the flat, so be sure you have the barrel lined to the pan to exactly the correct position to insure the center of the vent liner is just at the to edge of the top of the pan.

:thumbsup:

 

[ian45662]

How do these touch hole liners stack up to the rest? Is it worth the extra effort? I am yet to get a liner and since it is almost time I wanted to make sure and get the best for my money time and effort. I am sure that I can assume that since it is made by chambers that it is probably the best but I just wanted to ask. Thank you for all your help with this project. This is something I have wanted to do for almost 10 years and things would have been really bad with out all your help

 

[MSW]

yes, they are most definatly worth the extra effort. If you have a Track of the Wolf catalog, there is a drawing of a White Lightnin in cross section. one glance at this diagram will explain how and why these gadgets work so well. no more or less difficult to install than any other liner, and just a few bucks more. instructions are fairly straightforeward, and i can't imagine using anything else.

good luck with your build!

msw

 

[Birddog6]

IMHO, they are definately the most efficent vent liner as far as ignition goes & they wear very well. Normally I use them & when I don't it is because the customer wants a removable one or if I am building one for s relative I know is gonna dryball allot or have a cleaning issue, then I use a modified Ampco vent liner. I feel the White Lightning is the strongest one as it has threads all the way to the shoulder & more threads.
:thumbsup:

 

[kevthebassman]

For a second there I thought we were gonna have a moonshine discussion. Got a little excited.... :grin:

 

[flashpanner]

down boy! You probably get excited when we talk about balls too!(lead of course!)

 

[CoyoteJoe]

We'll have to disagree on this one guys. Some years ago I wanted to see just what all this White Lightning thing was all about so I installed one on my Blue Ridge .45. That simply ruined what had been the most reliable flintlock I ever owned. With the old liner I never got a flash in the pan nor a hangfire and I never even bothered to pick the vent. With the White Lightnin I got nothing but flashes. I now always pick the vent and still even get occasional flashes. I think the best form for a vent liner is a deep cone on the inside and a shallow cone on the outside. You can't cone the outside of a White Lightnin liner because the web is too thin and once you tap to those odd ball threads you are pretty much stuck with it.
It seems to me that when ever one has problems such as slow ignition and hang fires the first thing they want to do is change vent liners when, in fact, they should be working on the lock to try to get a stronger and better shower of sparks into the pan. One spark will fire a flintlock but a strong shower of white hot sparks will give a much faster and more reliable ignition by lighting off the pan in dozens of places at once.

 

[bioprof]

With the 1/4" White Lightening vent liners that I have used, I don't recall ever having a flash in the pan that didn't fire and I never have to pick the vent. I don't swab the bore between shots either.

I ran into one problem with them however. The instructions that I received with one said to lightly countersink the touchole. I found that if you don't countersink it enough, you will file away the face of the touchole and the touchole will erode with the first couple of shots. I just replaced one that eroded out to 3/32" with the first three shots. I got consistent ignition though. Replacement wasn't much of a problem. I bought a set of screw extractors for $6.99 and it screwed right out. I countersunk the hole a little deeper so it was sunk down to near the top of the shoulder and filed it flush with the barrel. I haven't tried it out yet with the new ventliner, but it should work flawlessly like the others I have used.

 

[kevthebassman]

down boy! You probably get excited when we talk about balls too!(lead of course!)

I have been known to make both in my back yard. :grin:

'Course if a 'revnooer asks, I'm just manufacturing my own E-85...... :wink:

 

[Ohioan]

Is it possible to cut a slot in the face of the white lightning so you can remove it with a screwdriver? ( i want to be able to convert my rifle from caplock to flintlock)

 

[Birddog6]

No, the way it is made if you install it & cut a slot you would cut into the cone.

 

[Zonie]

I may be wrong, but the experience you are having with the WL vent liner sounds a lot like one that I had when I had forgotten to trim the length of the liner back so that it matched the bore of the gun.

In that case, the liner was protruding about 3/32 of an inch inside the bore. It was enough that a cleaning jag would stop on it giving the false impression that the jag had hit the breech plug face. It was only when I looked down the bore with a bright flashlight that I noticed the threads and figured out what was happening.
After trimming the plug the gun fires first time, every time. :grin:
zonie

 

[tg]

A plain hole coned a bit on the inside will work quite well also, seems we have really got hung up on "improving" the good old flintlock system.

 

[hoke]

A plain hole coned a bit on the inside will work quite well also, seems we have really got hung up on "improving" the good old flintlock system.

learning moment: how would one cone the inside of the plain vent hole? removing the breech plug?
then what? i can't see much room to work with.
please instruct me.
thanks,
sewerman

 

[FPDoc]

Recent extensive thread on that describing a very simple tool and how to make it. Try search, but someone else will prob remember exactly where it is.

 

[Ian Pratt]

For what it's worth, I am a full time builder, I make only flintlock guns and Jim's liners are the only ones I will use any more, have used nothing but for maybe two years. When installed and set up right I have found none that work better. Direct drilling and coning the barrel itself does work well enough but with the steel used in most of the barrels made today the vent hole will burn out in time. The performance of the removable types I have used does not compare.
Jim makes a non stainless version -12L14 I think, don't quote me on that though - if you want the performance but don't want the liner to be visible. The downside of that is that it will erode quicker than their standard version.
No reason why you can't use the 1/4 inch liner on that barrel, keep in mind that these are installed / filed flush and you want to do it before you do you metal finish

 

[ian45662]

I am not worried about the liner being visible I am after preformance aspect of it.

 

[Herb]

Joe, I had the same experience. Don't remember which rifle I put the 5/16" WL in, but I think it was an Issac Haines .40, don't remember which lock. I had a drilled flash hole, about .080", very reliable but Swiss 3F would run out. So I installed the WL. Had about 25 flashes in the pan with the first 50 shots. The flash hole is about .055, and the liner does not come with instructions. After I drilled it out to about .070, it worked reliably. Just installed a 3/8" on a .58 flintlock Hawken I built, Manton and Ashmore lock, and it gave some flashes in the pan with Goex 3F and 2F and Swiss 1 1/2. Chronographed a load and then opened it up from .055 to .0625. Lost about 20 fps velocity, but only an occaisonal FIP, usually with Swiss 1 1/2. About .070 to .078 would be a better hole, from my experience.