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[sleek]

Jaw dropping

[JW_Halverson]

Jaw dropping

There is a reason that maple of that quality is hard to find and expensive when it shows up. There are types of curl that are even more expensive, shellback, flame, etc. Degree of difficulty in working seems to go hand in hand with the rising price. The more you pay, the more you curse!

Nice glow in that wood, Eric. I like it.

[Eric Krewson]

I did an assembly for a photo op, shop pictures always look dingy but it is raining outside. I haven't had the lock in the mortis for a long time, it didn't fit right so I did a little re-inletting for a good fit. Now the ramrod won't go in without force, I will fix that tomorrow.

[Eric Krewson]

Before I put finish on my gun the had to adjust the ramrod entry pipe to realign it with the drilled hole in the forestock. My ramrod groove was drilled with a distinct bow to the right which threw everything off. After the adjustment I could finally get a ramrod down with just a little friction on one side.

After I assembled the gun the ramrod wouldn't go in, I blacked the rod and found it was hitting the top of the hole with a lot of friction. Today I am going to try a few things to relieve the wood in this area inside the hole to open things up again.

I don't have all the attachment pins in the forestock, this may have caused the misalignment so installing these pins will be my first step.

If installing the pins doesn't help I am going to glue some 80 grit sand paper on a 5/16" dowel and shim up the entry hole so when I insert the dowel it will sand the tight area. One has to be careful with any work in the ramrod hole to make sure you don't stick anything in it that you can't get out.

If the sanding doesn't work then I will use one of my homemade ramrod hole drills to enlarge the hole, on a finished gun there is very little wood between the hole and the bottom of the forestock so breaking out is a possibility.

This build has been very problematical, this is the latest saga.

When I solve this problem it is time to make smoke, the gun is completely finished, it is absolutely beautiful (if you don't look too close).

A quick edit; I couldn't stand the wait so I hustled out to the shop in my jammies and installed the barrel pins. I could get the ramrod down but not easily, I sill need to relieve the hole a little bit or taper the ramrod.

[Eric Krewson]

I actually stared at the celling in bed last night trying to figure out a way the best way to fix the ramrod hole problem.

I went out to my shop and looked in my storage tube for old ramrods and found a 5/16" ramrod hole drill that I didn't know I had. I decided to upend the blunt end with a ball peen hammer and turn it into a scraper.



I didn't notice this picture was blurry until I assembled everything after the fix.

I removed the entry pipe and used a piece of leather to shim up the scraper and get it to make contact with the tight area of wood that needed to be removed.

I would run the scraper in and out a dozen times and try to get a ramrod in the hole, it went in slightly better after the first scraping, 5 more scraping sessions and the ramrod went in normally with just enough resistance to hold it in place.



Success! I had an old 3/8" ramrod that I cut off to fit this 38" barreled gun, It will be my temp until I make a new one that is stained right to match this gun.

[Eric Krewson]

Ramrod day, all hickory ramrod blanks a oversized in diameter, you have to chuck them up in a drill and run the drill while you sand them end to end until they will go through the ramrod pipes.



After you get the blank down to size you need to cut a tenon for the brass tip. I use a pipe cutter to lay out a straight line cut around the rod and and chisel down to my cut until the brass tip will fit.



I glue the tip on and put a nail through the brass and wood to hold the tip on permanently

At this point my $15 camera fried it's brain went belly up so I missed showing a lot of the steps. I didn't want to walk back to the house to get my spare.

[sleek]

Your scraper at the end of a rod idea was brilliant.

[Eric Krewson]

In gun building it is common to put the front lock bolt partially into the ramrod channel when you drill the hole from the sideplate to the lock plate.

There are several ways to make room for the ramrod go in a restricted hole; Tapering the end of the ramrod to be smaller on the end that goes in the wood would be the first and most common option, using a smaller lock bolt would be second to have less restriction in the hole.

On my first build I put the front lock bolt into my ramrod channel, I tried notching the screw to give the ramrod a pass but often forgot to pull the ramrod before I pulled the lock, rotating the screw to  loosening the lock bolt would cause the sharp notch to cut a chunk out of the ramrod.

I ended up making a wasp waist lock bolt for the ramrod to pass, this bolt doesn't need any special orientation to go in and miss the ramrod

Here is the wasp waisted bolt;



My scraper would have been an easy option back then if I had thought of it back then, it removes a surprising amount of wood even with that tiny bur on it, after I upset the metal I sharpened the bur with a file to get it like a razor.

[Eric Krewson]

What does this mean? I haven't seen the top of my workbench in 2 years.



It means; IT'S DONE. It is a copy of a Lancaster rifle made in 1760 by Isaac Haines.

[sleek]

Wow. Im extremely excited to see that finished. Looking forward to seeing it make smoke and how well it shoots!

[Eric Krewson]

The rain is supposed to quit and the temperature is going to to warm into the 60s this weekend, bang time!

[PaulN/KS]

Fine work as always Eric. Your innovative solutions to the trials and tribulations of the build are inspiring. 
"Never give up. Never surrender."   

[Eric Krewson]

Range report;

The gun hit a foot low with first shots, I started filing the front sight down.



Then I dryballed, I don't remember the last time I did that, it wasn't coming out with a ball puller. The good thing about building a gun, pulling the breechplug is no problem. I had to drive the ball out.



When I was just about out of front sight to file and I was still 4" low but grouping well at 50 yards. As sights go my rear is pretty low, I will either make or buy a taller one to get on target.



The gun in the sun on sandbags.

[sleek]

Absolutely beautiful and very nice grouping! I'm looking forward to seeing it all dialed in

[GlisGlis]

Great work and good reading!
thankyou