Cylinder loader

handofzeus

handofzeus

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Trout Creekish Ontario.
I wanted a cylinder loader and didn't like the pivot design because it doesn't keep direct downward force. I went with a rack and pinion system from an old cheapo drill press.



press by handofzeus, on Flickr

Basically, get one of those old presses where you clamp in a power drill, then remove everything you don't need! Stick a post in a block of wood aligned so that your cylinder chambers mate up with the plunger and there you go! Enjoy.
 
That is a great idea... I have a pivot design and find that it tends to tilt the cylinder particularly when the wood gives out under the pressure. It looks like you have hardwood on yours so this may not be an issue.
 
cylinder loading press

Nice job - but why, unless as you said, you enjoy making the peripheral stuff more than actually shooting.
I bought the nicely made Italian cylinder loading tool when I got into cap & ball revolvers. I used it once, as I found that cylinder removal between stages was a PITA, fuggedabout Clint Eastwood changing cylinders in the movies.

In July, three members of our club elected to shoot 'Frontiersman' cap & ball at a major match, along with several others. No one there used a cylinder loading device of any kind. We placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the category.

We just had yesterday our 2nd annual 'Frontiersman' cap & ball event, and again, no one used a cylinder loading device. I was the maverick, using a folding stand to hold the gun upright, a gadget my pals regard as 'gamey' and unauthentic.
 
I don't want to wear the ram by bending the pin. I figure the longer I can keep it in perfect shape the better. I like making the extras too. I'm noticing a major scarcity in GOEX around here so I'm looking at powder manufacturing options too.
 
powder?

Whoa - don't let word out re: making BP! And I hope that you live rurally.

The plants that make this stuff have a history of occasionally going skyward. Like a lot of kids, I played with making BP and was lucky not to have suffered injury after a close call.

All I got was a sore hand and my first hearing damage.
 
Yeah, you're probably right. Guess I'll bend over and take from the retailers in the name of safety! Still, it boggles me how some places can gouge for the same product. Shooter's Choice Waterloo=$29.99, Hummason's in Ancaster= $22.99 . Usery, plain and simple.
 
Not really that well versed in the characteristics of those types of mixtures, it can be used as a rocket propellant. The pickings are slim for black powder sources in Canada, and as you said it's pricey. That is probably one of the reasons I am not into it. Also homemade blackpowder is this incredible taboo it seems. People can't fathom that their arms are essentially driven by the controlled combustion of gun cotton, which has a vod of around 5000m/second, yet if you confess about owning a tablespoon of saltpeter, people just fly off the handle and start threatening to report you. :rolleyes:
 
For the sake of being edumacated about the process, there is a pretty good write-up on building ones own BP on the homegunsmithing forum.

It starts with the basic presumption that one is adult enough to be responsible for ones own actions, and the effects that they may have on others. And that one is aware of which laws are in effect in your own jurisdiction.

Educational.

I was told, by a participant in same, that there is somewhat of an amateur pyrotechnics community in Canada, that is or was, working on getting some of the laws changed to allow such to take place. There is quite a large, and safe, community on the other side of the US border, and there is a fair bit of info online, including safety precautions.

Yep. Enough dynamite, Black Powder, and fireworks plants have gone up over the years, that they have a pretty standard set of safety rules. Usually stuff like distances, berms, qty. limits per batch, and the like.

Simple things, like not having a lit cigarette (ignition source) in your gob, while scooping flash powder out of a five gallon plastic bucket (static risk)with a plastic scoop (static risk) while making firecrackers, while the customers stand around and watch (proximity risk) for example. (true story, street vendor in Honduras)

But those firecrackers were fun! :D

Cheers
Trev
 
My only B.P. source will be store bought I think. I'm not about to jeopardize the house insurance over saving a couple bucks! I must admit though, as a kid, my buddy Sean and I had a couple accidentally good mixtures that got our little 'rocket-plane' screaming out to about 150yds. I miss those good old days when the old man didn't care about us trying to make gunpowder as long as we didn't P.O. the neighbours!!
 
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