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mooncoon

mooncoon

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Photos below of a couple of specialty tools I made recently. Definitely not fancy but they work (at least sometimes)

First up is a modified spring vice. I am sure at least a few of you have had springs that were a pain in the bum to compress prior to removing or installing. Short upper arms or wide V shape so that they keep slipping out of the vice. What I tried today was to put an adjustable hook at the end of the spring vice, which kept the spring from slipping forward. The hook can be screwed in or out according to need and where it is in the way, it can be turned sideways or upside down or removed completely. Almost forgot to mention that I silver soldered a block onto the spring vice, to give enough material to drill and tap





The second gizmo is intended for guns where the front lock screw blocks the ramrod hole. I have seen at least a few guns where the front lock screw had a notch ground in it to let the ramrod by. I milled a piece of 3/8 round stock into a long taper and ground and filed a shallow groove in the top of it. The outside end, I bent down so that there was something to hang on to and remove the metal wedge when drilling was finished. I had to use a gouge to make the entrance of the ramrod hole into an oval to let the drill pass above the small end of the wedge. I used a very blunt pointed 3/8" drill to raise the top of the ramrod hole, back as far as the screw. Then used a 5/16" home made end mill to drill past the screw for another 2". Reason for the end mill was to prevent the hole from wandering. In practice, the metal shim rotated slightly so that the new ramrod hole went sideways slightly. I also had to glue a short wedge ahead of the front lock screw to guide the tapered ramrod up and over the screw. In the case of guns where the front screw only interferes a small amount, you probably do not need that wooden wedge

cheers mooncoon



 
i like your drill bit extensions. was wondering where they got the long bits for that. i need to do that for my ram rod hole as I am partway through my first build. not there yet, just finished all the hair pulling drilling and tapping of a Jim Chambers small Siler lock kit. first lock build. not exacty sure it meets the definition of a kit, and definitely not for the faint of heart. now to take it all apart for the hardening and tempering process.
 
Last edited:
MC One Shot said:
When will the spring vice be available???
Click to expand...

answers to both questions;
I think I will rent the spring vice out by the hour; more profitable than making and selling them :>) :>) Actually my reason for posting the photos is to give other shooters a solution for troublesome problems

I make the extension drills in the basement. I start by drilling a hole in the shank of the drill and turning a matching tip on a length of rod. (obviously with a metal lathe). I have what amounts to a long V block and is basically a length of angle iron with a hole in the bottom where I intend to silver solder (don't want to solder the work to the angle bar. If the drill and the extended shank are different diameters, I put bushings on them so that everything lines up in the "V block"

cheers mooncoon
 
I love the spring compressor. I'm going to take advantage of your fine offer and make one of my own.

I'm thinking that I'll put serrations along the lower side of the "beam" and matching teeth on the compressor so it can deal with any variations in spring length of the short tail or issues of clearnace from one lock to the next. I'll post pictures of it when I get to making it.
 
BCRider said:
I'm thinking that I'll put serrations along the lower side of the "beam" and matching teeth on the compressor so it can deal with any variations in spring length of the short tail or issues of clearnace from one lock to the next. I'll post pictures of it when I get to making it.
Click to expand...

would not the screw thread on the "hook" take care of the variations? The hook can screw in or out to fit different springs. I can't think of a way to use this method on a spring with stirrup link to the tumbler

cheers mooncoon
 
I'd still use the same adjustable hook on the end as you did. But I want to make the cross piece that draws down on the spring adjustable for positioning over some range to allow for different sizes or styles of locks I might run into.

My thinking is that if the cross piece pin happens to slide up along the upper arm as it is compressed that the pin will be in the way during assembly. Or in some cases it may not sit far enough along on the short arm. But I suppose that the screw and pivoting arm can be forced back out of the gap with the leverage it has. So perhaps I'm over thinking the issue. So far I've only worked on maybe a half dozen flint and percussion locks and I'm not sure what the future will bring.

I'm also going to do a version for compressing the frizzen spring to go with the mainspring compressor tool.
 
BCRider said:
I'm also going to do a version for compressing the frizzen spring to go with the mainspring compressor tool.
Click to expand...

I will have to dig through my photos; somewhere I have a photo of a clamp or vice intended specifically for frizzen springs. I have intended to make one but never got around to it.

cheers mooncoon
 
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