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Author Topic: hammer / nipple alignment  (Read 2373 times)

Offline RobD

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hammer / nipple alignment
« on: May 14, 2016, 07:45:36 AM »
i'm a flintlock guy and this is only the third caplock i've owned, it's an investarms kit sold by dixie, .50 caliber.  

the lock is inset well and right up against the barrel, so there's no way to move it further left, in order to get the hammer to align with the nipple.  see what i mean .....



... looks like i need to remove the hammer and bend it a tad.  i've read where some folks have done that cold and some with heat.  looking to get the best advice from my TMA family ... thank y'all in advance!   :wave

rob.

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Re: hammer / nipple alignment
« Reply #1 on: May 14, 2016, 06:01:11 PM »
Rob, this is how I line'em up,.... place a pencil on the wood with the point contacting the hammer,.... pull the hammer back so as to scribe a line on the hammer's left side with the pencil.
Remove the hammer from the lock, and clamp the hammer in a vice making sure the scribed line is BELOW the top edge of the vice jaws.
Using some soft leather to pad the vice jaws,.... carefully tap the exposed part of the hammer to the left with just enough force that you think it may have moved.
Remove the hammer from the vice and re-install on the lock to check if it lines up with the nipple to your satisfaction.

In extreme cases, I've had to remove some wood from the stock so the "bend" in the hammer isn't too abrupt,... judging from your picture, your's shouldn't take much adjustment to line up perfectly,.... in fact, some folks might not even worry about a similar "mis-alignment" as long as their caps are firing reliably.  :rt th
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Offline RobD

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Re: hammer / nipple alignment
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2016, 06:15:53 PM »
ah, great scoop, rondo - thanx!  gonna give a good shot (pun not intended!) tomorrow.  thank you sir!  :applaud  :wave

Offline RobD

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Re: hammer / nipple alignment
« Reply #3 on: May 15, 2016, 05:08:53 AM »
not at all familiar with caplocks, so to remove the hammer ...

leave the lock on the rifle?

leave the hammer down, half cock or full cock?

thanx!

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Re: hammer / nipple alignment
« Reply #4 on: May 15, 2016, 11:21:30 AM »
Quote from: "rfd"
not at all familiar with caplocks, so to remove the hammer ...

leave the lock on the rifle?

leave the hammer down, half cock or full cock?

thanx!
I bring the hammer/cock back to "half cock" and remove the lock from the rifle, then I let the hammer/cock back down to release the tension on the lock's mainspring, then I remove the hammer/cock screw.

Then,.... holding the lock in the palm of my left hand and using a small brass punch that just fits in the hammer/cock's square tumbler hole (it might seem a bit tricky holding the punch with the same hand holding the lock, but it can be done), I start tapping the punch with a small hammer to drive the tumbler shaft out of the hammer/cock's square tumbler hole.
Sometime it takes a while, and you WILL be tempted to use a screw-driver to help pry the hammer/cock off the tapered shaft, but resist that temptation, as most times it leads to marring the lock plate.

Both,.... the hole in the hammer/cock, and the tumbler shaft itself,... are "tapered", so things don't have to move much until you can gently wiggle the hammer/cock off the tumbler's shaft by hand.  :rt th

HTH
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Offline RobD

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Re: hammer / nipple alignment
« Reply #5 on: May 15, 2016, 12:01:33 PM »
took off the lock and this is what the she looks like ...



... behind that plate is the hammer screw.  the two top screws removed easily but the one on the bottom right is a bugger!  am i doing this correctly?  if i remove the plate i can bop out the hammer assembly, or .... ?

Offline RobD

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Re: hammer / nipple alignment
« Reply #6 on: May 15, 2016, 12:29:59 PM »
here's the out facing side of the hammer ...


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Re: hammer / nipple alignment
« Reply #7 on: May 15, 2016, 02:02:46 PM »
Quote from: "rfd"
here's the out facing side of the hammer ...

Yup,...... now you need a brass punch that fits in the square hole of the hammer/cock (BUT NOT IN THE SCREW HOLE OF THE TUMBLER SHAFT, don't wanna mess up those threads).  :rt th

Knocking the tumbler shaft out of the hammer/cock tapered square hole with the hammer/cock floating free, is done by using the "inertia principle".

What is inertia?
The tendency of a body to be in rest when stationary or continue moving when in motion is called inertia. Inertia comes from the Latin word, iners, meaning idle, or lazy. Thus, it is the tendency of a body to resist any change in motion.
2. Reference to First law of motion:
The term "inertia" is more properly understood as shorthand for "the principle of inertia" as described by Newton in his First Law of Motion; that a body shall continue to be in state of rest or of uniform motion until and unless acted upon by an external unbalanced force.

3. Inertia in Physics:
Physics and mathematics do not use the conceptual idea of inertia but rather employ the mathematical idea as:
Mass is the quantitative or numerical measure of body’s inertia, that is of its resistance to being accelerated. Consider equations like: p=mv and F=ma. Here, m is the Inertial mass.
Rotational Inertia:
Another form of inertia is rotational inertia which is the quantity analogous to mass in rotational motion. It refers to the fact that a rotating rigid body maintains its state of uniform rotational motion.
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Re: hammer / nipple alignment
« Reply #8 on: May 15, 2016, 02:17:41 PM »
This might explain "inertia" a bit better,.......

Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to any change in its state of motion (this includes changes to its speed, direction or state of rest). It is the tendency of objects to keep moving in a straight line at constant velocity. The principle of inertia is one of the fundamental principles of classical physics that are used to describe the motion of objects and how they are affected by applied forces. Inertia comes from the Latin word, iners, meaning idle, sluggish. Inertia is one of the primary manifestations of mass, which is a quantitative property of physical systems. Isaac Newton defined inertia as his first law in his Philosophić Naturalis Principia Mathematica, which states:[1]

The vis insita, or innate force of matter, is a power of resisting by which every body, as much as in it lies, endeavours to preserve its present state, whether it be of rest or of moving uniformly forward in a straight line.

In common usage, the term "inertia" may refer to an object's "amount of resistance to change in velocity" (which is quantified by its mass), or sometimes to its momentum, depending on the context. The term "inertia" is more properly understood as shorthand for "the principle of inertia" as described by Newton in his First Law of Motion: that an object not subject to any net external force moves at a constant velocity. Thus, an object will continue moving at its current velocity until some force causes its speed or direction to change.

On the surface of the Earth, inertia is often masked by the effects of friction and air resistance, both of which tend to decrease the speed of moving objects (commonly to the point of rest), and gravity. This misled the philosopher Aristotle, to believe that objects would move only as long as force was applied to them:[2][3]
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Offline RobD

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Re: hammer / nipple alignment
« Reply #9 on: May 15, 2016, 02:20:31 PM »
ok, no problem, have a good set of brass punches ... but don't i need to get that plate off first - the one attached to the hammer's screw shaft?

which means the main spring coil and doggs and whatnot all need to be removed, too?


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Re: hammer / nipple alignment
« Reply #10 on: May 15, 2016, 02:40:16 PM »
:oops:  :rt th
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Offline RobD

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Re: hammer / nipple alignment
« Reply #11 on: May 15, 2016, 02:54:28 PM »
yikes - these parts don't wanna get un-parted all too easily, but i've GOT to get that dang hammer off .......

Offline RobD

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Re: hammer / nipple alignment
« Reply #12 on: May 15, 2016, 03:24:21 PM »
ok, popped off the coil mainspring and tapped out shaft, vised the hammer and bopped it over about 1/16th+ inch ...



now how the heck do ya get the coil spring back into its stop and on the hammer dog - need a special tool, or ... ?


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Re: hammer / nipple alignment
« Reply #13 on: May 15, 2016, 03:43:44 PM »
Quote from: "rfd"
ok, popped off the coil mainspring and tapped out shaft, vised the hammer and bopped it over about 1/16th+ inch ...



now how the heck do ya get the coil spring back into its stop and on the hammer dog - need a special tool, or ... ?

Put everything back together saving the mainspring and it's shaft for last.

To re-install the coiled mainspring, put it's shaft back in the spring, put the end of the spring back on it's little stud ,.... then use a pair of needle-nosed pliers on the small end of the shaft, and push the spring forwards until the small tip of the shaft can slip back into it's pocket on the tumbler.  :rt th
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Offline RobD

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Re: hammer / nipple alignment
« Reply #14 on: May 15, 2016, 03:56:48 PM »
wow, vulcan mind meld happening here - that's just how i got the mainspring back on!



lines up well from the front ...



off a good 1/16" from the side, gotta take it all apart again but at least now it's a piece of cake - thanx rondo!!!  :toast  :wave