Traditional Muzzleloading Association

Craftsmanship => Gun Building and Repair => Topic started by: prairie dog on October 16, 2015, 10:57:43 AM

Title: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: prairie dog on October 16, 2015, 10:57:43 AM: It's been pretty quiet around here lately, thought I might try to get something going.

I always have a "next rifle" in mind. This one has moved from the planning stage to the parts collecting stage. I take my good sweet time putting one together so it will be a while before it gets finished.

So here we go with show and tell;

Rice barrel- A weight, .40 cal, 38 inch, swamped contour. It weighs 4lb. 3 ounces on my postal scale.

Chambers Deluxe Siler lock.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/Sells/Sells%20firearms/09e9dcfa-73e4-4dfd-913a-06ebe273978b.jpg)

This piece of sugar maple is some where in shipping to me now.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/Sells/Sells%20firearms/maplestock1.jpg)

Going to be a Lancaster rifle in the general style of Issac Haines. I intend to use it for small game and match shooting.

That's what I am doing. What are you working on?
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Hank in WV on October 16, 2015, 05:10:34 PM: Getting close to finishing a Bucks Co rifle. 50cal, 40 in B weight Rice barrel. Over a year in the making. Have to build the patchbox latch and then do the finish.
Steve, are you building the pre-carve or the plank? Either way, a nice piece of wood.
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: prairie dog on October 16, 2015, 08:49:11 PM: The plank.
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Eric Krewson on October 16, 2015, 11:40:13 PM: I just sent a nice blank and 40 cal Green River barrel to Pacatonica for inletting and shaping. I ordered all the furniture today from TOW couldn't decide if I wanted a double set trigger or not so I let it off the list. I am building a southern rifle when I get my blank and barrel back. I have a late Ketland lock as well.
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: One Shot on October 17, 2015, 02:32:32 AM: Looking forward to seeing regular progress reports on the build,,,,,,,,
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Uncle Russ on October 17, 2015, 12:32:46 PM: Great to see you guys working on something fun.
Right now I'm up to my neck in so many "should have done yesterday" projects that I have to wonder if I'll ever be able to play again.

Hank, when you get to the lock on that riflegun bring it on out and visit a while again. I would love to tune it up for ya!
Don't know how many times I've laughed at that silly old caplock we worked on, but I did learn a great lesson...walk away when ya get so involved in something you are overlooking the small stuff.

Good on you guys!
You are an inspiration indeed!

Uncle Russ...
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Hank in WV on October 17, 2015, 06:48:57 PM: I guess I can thank my lucky stars I'm past the lock stage, Russ although another road trip west does have a certain appeal.
There's no doubt in my military mind that you would've figured that lock problem out once you stood away and thought about it for awhile.
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Ridge Runner on October 19, 2015, 10:50:54 PM: Having built two Chambers kits, I have started my first build from a blank. It's going to be an English inspired southern style early rifle. Using a 41" swamped D weight 54 caliber Rice barrel, Chambers Colonial Virginia lock, and other hardware similar to what was seen on English fowlers. So far I have finished inletting the barrel and am now moving on to the ramrod groove and hole.
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: 509thsfs on October 29, 2015, 10:03:17 AM: Hoping to start another Bedford Co., but in .50 cal this time. Last one was in .45 cal
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Blackbruin on January 21, 2016, 04:20:42 PM: Finished a bucks schimmel in .50, doing a Lehigh schimmel in.40, than a fantasy gun, big .66 caliber early transmission rifle. With a dog lock, yeah! 5-6 after that.
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Bigsmoke on January 21, 2016, 05:18:04 PM: Quote from: "Blackbruin"
big .66 caliber early transmission rifle.

Is it going to be a 3 speed or a 4 speed? Maybe a Hydromatic? :notworthy

Mrs. Smoke is really urging me to get my derriere out into the shop and make a powder horn. I have almost forgot how to get started on that. Maybe this month, stay tuned...
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Eric Krewson on January 22, 2016, 09:21:28 AM: Tennessee squirrel rifle with Bogle like iron furniture, 42" 13/16 .40 GM barrel, Chambers late Ketland lock, stock wood from Dunlap precarved by Pecatonica.
I have the barrel in with tang, lock inletted and am started on the triggers today.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/Squirrel%20rifle/squirrel%20rifel%20start%20001_zpshxgkzphl.jpg) (http://http)
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: prairie dog on January 22, 2016, 03:48:54 PM: Looking forward to seeing some of these finished. Especially mine.
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Uncle Russ on January 22, 2016, 04:32:02 PM: Quote from: "prairie dog"
Looking forward to seeing some of these finished. Especially mine.
Great! :(

Uncle Russ...
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Bigsmoke on January 22, 2016, 04:36:14 PM: Selling that rifle, Russ, rates among the top 3 "Wish I wouldn't a done it's" of my gun selling life.
Hoping I would have first call if Mike ever wants to sell it.
This is not the place to get into the cars I wish I wouldn't have sold. That list is pretty long.
John
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Keb on January 23, 2016, 09:41:17 AM: I'm just finishing up a maple 28 gauge by 44" oct/rnd barreled English fowling gun. Davis English lock with sheet brass fittings. All I have to do now is find the energy to finish sand & apply the finish. I have a .77 cal by 46" Bess barrel inlet in a piece of walnut next on the list. It's gonna be a long winter.
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: CoSnipe on January 26, 2016, 02:34:22 PM: Just finished this.

.58 cal c weight beck next
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Uncle Russ on January 26, 2016, 02:54:07 PM: CoSnipe, now THAT is powerfully nice!
Plum handsome I would say!
None of my projects have ever gone from this, to that, in such a beautiful artistic way.
Really. Nice. Work.

Uncle Russ...
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Hank in WV on January 26, 2016, 05:13:01 PM: Really fine piece of work. One end to the other. What is the purpose of that angle iron welded to the end of your bench?
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: CoSnipe on January 26, 2016, 06:27:39 PM: Thanks for the compliments. Its for holding round objects when welding. Or a handy tray if im on one of my vises.
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: CoSnipe on January 26, 2016, 07:26:26 PM: I made the pistol to complement my rifle.Here is a few pics of my rifle and pistol together. Not great pics but...
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: CoSnipe on January 26, 2016, 07:30:15 PM: :)
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Two Steps on January 27, 2016, 05:12:53 AM: BOTH look great! Thanks for sharing them with us
Al
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: gunmaker on January 27, 2016, 12:11:44 PM: Well I was going to say parts on order, lock-stock & barrel (make the rest here) for a .45 SMR. After seeing cosniples duo, I'll keep my mouth shut.
Those look like Dixons fair material to me....Tom
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Hanshi on January 27, 2016, 03:06:44 PM: Those two flinters are gorgeous and that's an understatement.
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: CoSnipe on January 27, 2016, 10:24:12 PM: Thanks so much guys. I still have lots to learn and many projects ahead of me.
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Eric Krewson on February 05, 2016, 08:56:03 AM: Moving along slowly when the mood hits me.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/Squirrel%20rifle/set%20triggers%20in%20001_zpsrqmwpsyi.jpg) (http://http)
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: prairie dog on February 08, 2016, 10:48:40 AM: Quote from: "RussB"
Quote from: "prairie dog"
Looking forward to seeing some of these finished. Especially mine.
Great! :(

Uncle Russ...

The original post Russ. I've had a set back when the deal on the wood fell through. Got something else on the way that might be nicer.

Anyone have a .390 round ball mold for sale or trade?
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Woodys50Cal on February 20, 2016, 10:53:17 AM: Hey guys (and Ladies if any) Newby here so please excuse the questions.

What is a A, B, C, D... weight barrel? What makes them different. I know what a swamped barrel is and a hex/round barrel is.

Also what dictates the style of Lock you decide on? Examples are great please. Sorry if this is not the right place to ask these questions.
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Eric Krewson on February 20, 2016, 12:48:05 PM: A-D designates how big a barrel is, this is for swamped (tapered and flared barrels). An A weight might be 3/4" at the breech, a D weight might be 1 1/8" at the breech.

An A weight barrel is slender with a .40 cal as big as you can get in this configuration, B weight would go to .54, C weight to .58 and D weight to for big bore stuff like 10 or 12 ga, or large rifled bores.

The style of gun you build will determine what lock is right for it, for instance, a Lancaster style gun will have a Germanic lock like a Siler most of the time. A southern rifle will have an English lock similar to a late Ketland most of the time.

Of course lock styles intermix on the originals but they do tend to go one way or the other most off the time.
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Woodys50Cal on February 20, 2016, 12:56:17 PM: Quote from: "Eric Krewson"
A-D designates how big a barrel is, this is for swamped (tapered and flared barrels). An A weight might be 3/4" at the breech, a D weight might be 1 1/8" at the breech.

An A weight barrel is slender with a .40 cal as big as you can get in this configuration, B weight would go to .54, C weight to .58 and D weight to for big bore stuff like 10 or 12 ga, or large rifled bores.

The style of gun you build will determine what lock is right for it, for instance, a Lancaster style gun will have a Germanic lock like a Siler most of the time. A southern rifle will have an English lock similar to a late Ketland most of the time.

Of course lock styles intermix on the originals but they do tend to go one way or the other most off the time.

THANK YOU. I knew I was in the right spot.
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Hanshi on February 20, 2016, 02:33:54 PM: In the way of an example, I have a .40 and a .50 with swamped barrels. Both are "B" weight and so the .50 is, of course lighter. I also have a .32 with an "A" weight barrel. The tiny hole works well in a lighter barrel.
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: One Shot on February 21, 2016, 01:46:32 AM: Very beautiful pieces of work...Congrats
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Eric Krewson on February 22, 2016, 10:52:37 AM: I stopped gun building for a major shop clean-up and remodel. I had accumulated so much "stuff" I couldn't walk through my shop with out stepping over stuff.

I burned, threw away, sold, made shelves for things and generally put stuff up where it belonged.

Done!

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/shop%20pictures/shop%20clean%20up%20complete%20001_zpssvrz0pd6.jpg) (http://http)
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: 509thsfs on February 22, 2016, 12:18:15 PM: Eric, that is my next project after I finish my current Bedford Co. build. The wife has taken an interest in doing some woodworking. So now I need to reconfigure my little workshop into something with room that will handle both of our projects. On the upside, I'm acquiring some new equipment to "make it easier for her" to do what she wants to do. That got the bandsaw, with a planer in the near future. Possibly a dust filter too
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Eric Krewson on February 22, 2016, 12:35:48 PM: I have a 2hp Griz dust collector. It is so loud running I have it in the adjacent room with piping run through the wall and installed a wireless remote starting switch for it. I couldn't run my wood working tools without it, the dust would be overwhelming.
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: 509thsfs on February 22, 2016, 07:35:56 PM: I have a small exhaust fan I put in a few years ago. works fine for fumes when staining and such. But with running the table saw a lot more than I used to, we're getting hammered with dust. I did buy a small dust collector that hooks up to my shop vac and saw, etc.., works fine on the bandsaw, but have not tried the table saw yet. We know we will still need more. a very small basement shop, so looking at a Rikon 3 Speed Air Cleaner, 400 CFM from Woodcraft, should work fine for us

This is about a third of the shop (shop is about 30'x10'). Bandsaw, table saw, and router I set up just behind his view. the last third of the shop is my load bench and some storage cabinets

(http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww187/USAF-SP/Flintlock%20Build%20No2/shop_zps5sqfsekh.jpg) (http://http)
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: 509thsfs on March 07, 2016, 03:36:18 PM: Current project. Bedford Co. in .50 cal. This is only my 2nd build. Shaping and sanding now. A lot of work in the lock area yet. Once that is all done I can get to work on the inlays.

(http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww187/USAF-SP/Flintlock%20Build%20No2/sanding2a_zpsnxjnhwbu.jpg) (http://http)
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Bigsmoke on March 07, 2016, 04:02:20 PM: In my horn shop, I found that a LOT of dust was created with my belt sander (2 x 72). That was the major source of problems, although the wood lathe did generate a lot of wood on the floor.
I built a containment box around the sanding belt and hooked it up to the shop vac, which worked really good, but I found I had to clean the filter at lease daily, if not more often. I then hooked up a little Cyclone between the vac and the sander and life is really good. About once a month, I clean the filter as part of monthly maintenance and dump the junk out of the Cyclone tank. That's it. Personally, I think it is a lot better than any other dust control that I have used.
In my shop in Idaho, I had two sheds placed about 4' apart, the shed on the left was the "clean" shed and the one on the right was where I did all the sanding. I built a manifold system between the two shed and had a 750 cfm fan drawing dust out of various areas of the shops. Then I also had a Shopsmith dust collector in the sanding room hooked up to the belt sanders. It was ducted to the dust collection system and vented outside as well. I think the shop vac with the Cyclone worked better than that. No doubt.

John
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: prairie dog on March 20, 2016, 04:02:07 PM: A little progress on my Lancaster rifle. After my first order for a plank of sugar maple fell through, I finally got a nice plank of black maple. Gave it and my lock and barrel to my favorite rifle builder and he showed me this last Sunday. He has the barrel inlet, the ramrod hole drilled, and some profiling started.

The photos don't show the curl real well, but it looks to be the making of a nice stock.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/Sells/Sells%20firearms/021.jpg)

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/Sells/Sells%20firearms/023.jpg)
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: prairie dog on March 20, 2016, 04:04:30 PM: A couple of more pics.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/Sells/Sells%20firearms/024.jpg)

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/Sells/Sells%20firearms/020.jpg)
Title: Re: Here's my next project. What's yours?
Post by: Roaddog on March 21, 2016, 06:34:38 AM: That's some good lookn figur in that wood.Just wate till ya get her all shaped up and oiled.What stain are ya going to go with?I realy like Lancaster rifles,there lines are so graceful.