Lock mortise

[Uncle Alvah]

I'll be inletting for my lock soon. Considering this is my first build, can some of the center wood of the mortise be removed with a drill press and small Forstner bit, or should I stick with the chisels?
 

[SingleMalt]

For internal lock parts, certainly.  Mark the bit with tape or a collar for your stop point.  In fact, mark it a bit short of final depth.  For the lockplate and bolster, stick to chisels.  Make certain the lockplate is square with the top barrel flat.  Using a small square, check it often and make corrections.

[smallpatch]

Alvah,
Inlet the plate , with no internals FIRST.  Full depth, bolster tight against barrel.
Then you can mark your screw holes to lay out the internal parts, and use a drill press to get the holes augered out.
As with any power tool,  be careful, you can do a lot of damage......fast.

[L. Akers]

That is how I inlet my locks only I use a small, straight router bit instead of a forestner bit.

[Chowmi]

Yes,
Just like single malt said.  Acer did a tutorial on piece by piece lock inlet in the tutorial section.  Unfortunately, the photos are held hostage by photobucket.  There is a temporary fix that you can do so that you can see the photos.  Look in the over the back fence section.  there is a thread about fixing the photo bucket thing. 

Acer's tutorial would be a good thing to look at for your first lock inlet.  If you can't see the photos, then certainly reference a good building book.

As single malt said, start with the bolster and lock plate using chisels.  Once you get that in just as you want it, pencil in all the screw holes and the cock hole, through the lock onto the background.  That will tell you where most of the lock internals go.  You can then trace the pattern of the lock internals and use a drill bit or forstner bit to take out wood.  Don't take too much!

Cheers,
Norm

[moleeyes36]

Take a look at Mike Brooks' tutorial on gun building; it's in the ALR tutorial section.  It covers a lot of things quite well, including the inlet for the lock.  Lots of pictures as well.  http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=31173.0

Mole Eyes

[Nordnecker]

[Acer Saccharum]

I just updated that tutorial.

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=23601.msg226144#msg226144

[PPatch]

Other than inside the lock mortise there is one other hole you will want to drill and that is immediately below the hole where the sear bar will be. The hole 1/4" dia., and on the exact centerline marking where your trigger bar will be inlet. The hole allows you to see the sear bar and to exactly position the triggers for inletting.

The only pix I have is of a plains rifle trigger bar inlet but it shows the hole I am speaking of (below)



When you've completed the lock plate and bolster inlet, prior to drilling the holes for the lock internals, it ought to look something like this...



Go slow, be sure.

dave

[SingleMalt]

Go to a hardware or Lowe's/Home Depot and pick up a depth gauge.  They're not expensive, but worth their weight in gold.

[Acer Saccharum]

A mechanical pencil works as a depth gage. Just stick the lead way out, touch the bottom of the cavity, and then let the lead retract as you push the pencil into the mortice.

Works great for checking the rr hole spacing thru the bottom of the barrel channel.