touch hole liner install ooops

[509thsfs]

After measuring umpteen times and carefully drilling, I found my touchhole liner is about 1/32 or so of an inch too far back.  How bad do you think this will effect ignition?  Should I try to shim the barrel or something to move it forward?  That would involve elongating the tennon pin holes and lock bolt hole through the tang a tad. I can fill in the gap it would create in the tang inletting.  Anyhow, any opinions/suggestions?

Slot on liner is a bit messed up. Had a problem countersinking and torqued it a bit too much as I worked on it.  May replace later. I plan on opening the hole a tad bit. Don't know if that might compensate a bit for being slightly off.

By the way. this is my 1st build attempt. Pretty ticked off I blew this after so many measurements taken

[rollingb]

The usual fix for such a mishap, is to "plug" a misplaced hole for the touch hole with a bolt of the correct size and to the correct depth,... saw off the bolt, then file flush with the barrel,... and then re-drill in the correct place.  :rt th

[ridjrunr]

I would definitely shoot it first,it may surprise you. In fact shoot it several times before really deciding,imo.
Let us know how it turns out.

And welcome to the fire!

[Eric Krewson]

Did you drill a small pilot hole first or go straight to the full diameter bit?

I am a beginner as well and mark the hole location with the lock in place, punch a divot at the correct spot and follow up with 5/64" drill bit first, then an 1/8" and step up to the full size bit for the liner. I do have a cross slide vise on my drill press that makes hitting the mark much easier.

Here is my slopped up first gun, at least the touch hole liner location is correct. I am proud of my second gun but not so much the first, although I have killed a pile of deer with it. Some day, when I have nothing to do, I am going to redo the gun in the picture to correct all my goof-ups. Between gun #1 and gun #2, I discovered Optivisors, amazing how much better work you can do when you can actually see what you are working on.


Here is the same gun marked and ready to punch. Sometimes my punch mark might be slightly off but I can move it to the correct spot with a little sideways tapping. Of course I take the barrel out of the stock to mark my spot and proceed.

[509thsfs]

The location was scribed and checked with the lock in place. All lines looked good. It was punched then put in a drill press vise and lined up before drilled. Maybe a small pilot hole would have helped. But everything was checked multiple times. Heck, was an hour and half job with locating, marking, removing breach plug,  drilling,  etc... Lessons were learned and notes taken and corrections made to all the instructions.  This is my "learning" gun.  Next half dozen will be easier

[Smallpatch]

Won't hurt a thing. Leave it like it is, it will work fine.

[509thsfs]

I'm thinking (hoping) that with the shape of the pan, the flash will still be "funneled" to the touch hole ok.  I also prefer my touch holes to be slightly larger than what it is now. But I will work on all that when shooting tome comes. Right now  it "just don't look right".

[Eric Krewson]

I had a TC gun with the touch hole in the back corner of the pan, I even sent it back to TC because it was so misplaced but they said they didn't see anything wrong with it.

The gun went off OK but I sure hated looking at that touch hole placement, that and the fact that the lock inlet was filled with hot melt glue to take up the slack from bad inletting turned me away from TC guns

[509thsfs]

My 1st flintlock, years ago, was a tc pa hunter. Hated that rifle. Well mostly hated the trigger pull on it. It was so tough it actually hurt my finger. Did everything I could to make it usable. Even wrapped the trigger with electric trial tape to make a sort of trigger shoe to spread the pressure. Shot ok though and introduced me to flintlock hunting. And heck, I got it for free. Finally traded it in on a different flintlock

[snake eyes]

I'm thinking (hoping) that with the shape of the pan, the flash will still be "funneled" to the touch hole ok.  I also prefer my touch holes to be slightly larger than what it is now. But I will work on all that when shooting tome comes. Right not it "just don't look right".

509thsfs,
             Maybe I missed it,but have you ever shot the gun from the original question?
snake-eyes  

[509thsfs]

Nope. Still in the build stage. So far just the barrel and lock installed. No major work on it again until this weekend. Hopefully trigger and guard will be installed then. The trigger anyhow.  It's a TOW Bedford County kit. 45 cal

[snake eyes]

Keep us appraised (with photos if possible). Pictures make us   [/color]

[509thsfs]

Well, here's some pics as to the status so far. Been keeping a photo journal of it.  Easiest way to get them all on here for now.  Pretty rough on some of the inletting, but will be cleaned up as the build gets closer to the end. My 1st, so bare with me. Any suggestions welcome.

[Daveco]

Hey 509thsfs! I'm on my first build too, and like you I have discovered that no matter how hard a feller tries, some things seem to have a mind of their own and spin completely out of control at their first opportunity. Then when the smoke clears and the dust settles, I'm left with the final results.    I am having a great time building and researching though, and the boo-boos are just part of the learning curve. As a plus, I always think that most (if not all) of the folks that will see this first rifle of mine wouldn't know the difference between the result of my oops and the way that it's "SUPPOSED" to be just as long as it usually goes boom when you pull the trigger. That's assuming I don't point it out to 'em....    

Dave.

[509thsfs]

Heck this was supposed to be an easy one compared to my lock bolt. I had a 1/4 square inch  to work with with absolutely no room to fudge and nailed it dead center. It was my biggest worry of all the drilling. Cold not have paid to have it done better. No biggie. Not as concerned about the function as I was. Only the range will tell and that is a ways off. Other things to worry about now. Like the trigger and guard this weekend.