lock drawings

[Clint]

Making flint locks from scratch is a very interesting and demanding exercise. I regard lock making as a separate and distinct project and not part of a rifle build. It is only when the lock is finished and tested that it becomes a rifle part, the lock is often the root inspiration for the rest of the gun. Through reading the forum it seems to me that the first stumbling block to lock making is some sort of drawing, so I am posting these two drawings of lock parts. I have used these drawings to build locks from 3 3/4' up to 6' in length. The forum wouldn't let me easily up load pdf files so these are png. The printed lock plate should be 4 7/8' long and can be scaled with an editing app or a zerox. For anyone who is interested, I can email the pdf files or the Adobe Illustrator files so you can edit them accurately. If there are members who are interested, I will focus on finishing my manuscript on lock forging and assembling.
Clint

[BOB HILL]

This is a very generous offer. Thanks for posting it.
Bob

[Greg Pennell]

Clint,

I am absolutely interested in both the .pdf files, and your manuscript (book?) when finished. I don’t know that I’ll ever actually build a lock, but I’d sure like to know how. 

gregory.pennell@hotmail.com (no worries, the spammers already have this address  )

Thanks!

Greg

[Wayne Holcombe]

Looks good.I'd be interested in the prints and the manuscript.
Wayne Holcombe. jmarionh@yahoo.com

[mony]

I am with Mr. Pennell 100%, with the exception that I am certain I will never build a lock. I am neither that skilled, that talented, that patient, nor so inclined, but I think it is the most fascinating part of any flintlock gun.

[Clint]

Email me at gardengatesmith@gmail.com and I will send you the pdf's and the illustrator files. The 'manuscript' so far in in pdf format and I will post it in segments here as text. I have a few more pictures to take before I can post the lock plate project. (each piece is a project and the whole is the lock.

[Bob Roller]

Lock MAKING from bar stock IS a job and I would not attempt it
without the equipment I have now,lathes (4)drill presses(2)
milling machine (1)and an assortment of tools,mostly files. In
England these people were called lock FILERS and there was a
man on another forum,I think his name was Chris Clark that posted
about Wolverhampton Lock Filers and it was a large number of
people involved.Investment casting here in the USA varied so much
in quality that lock purchases were a roll of the dice.Today the CNC
machines are involved and that should be a major upgrade in locks,
triggers and long rifle making in general.
I will no longer take orders for locks and the labor intensive nature
of these mechanisms has no more appeal to me.A few triggers every
month is IT as far as shop work is concerned.
Bob Roller
In the equipment I forgot bandsaws (2)one horizontal and one vertical.

[Ben Quearry]

I’d like to get a set of your drawings. Thank for all your work and especially offering it up to ALR members.
Thanks again

Ben Quearry
Chairman NMLRA Gunmakers Hall

[doug miller]

    I think for me, the hardest thing to understand is the best configuration or relationship on a flint lock of the tumbler shaft , cock, and frizzen face and pan.  Those dimensions or relationship make the difference between a lock that sparks well and for many strikes and one that sparks poorly and flint has to be frequently knapped

[Jackp]

Clint, I would be interested in a PDF of your drawings.
Also your manuscript  when it's finished. I am an practicing blacksmithing and this would be a great project.

Thanks

Jack

[Goo]

How do you accomplish a successfully functional lock without dimensions on the drawings?   

[Bob Roller]

How do you accomplish a successfully functional lock without dimensions on the drawings?

It's done by intuition and high powered guessing .

Bob Roller

[dogcatcher]

How do you accomplish a successfully functional lock without dimensions on the drawings?

That is why the lock makers were called "Filers", they filed until the parts fit and worked.

Making a lock is labor of love and insanity.  I did, and yes a lot of people think I am crazy. 

[Bob Roller]

How do you accomplish a successfully functional lock without dimensions on the drawings?

That is why the lock makers were called "Filers", they filed until the parts fit and worked.

Making a lock is labor of love and insanity.  I did, and yes a lot of people think I am crazy.

There is NOTHING crazy about doing this with very limited tools on hand.
I am used to machinery and have what's needed and a bit more but no longer
have the level of interest to do it.There are any number of people that can do
the tumbler,sear and bridle but the springs are the bug in the soup bowl.
These are a trade/skill in and of themselves.I think I mentioned my methods
of spring making when I first came on this forum and was told they couldn't work.
My reply was that 50 years of success says it does work and locks in long service
here and in Europe with nothing reported pertaining to failures.
I started with a tiny shop on the back porch and had to enclose the porch so it
could be heated.I had one lathe,a nearly new Atlas 12x36 and a hand drill and
that was the power tool assortment. Files were only a few and a hacksaw and a
desire to do this ancient trade.I had the good fortune to have Bill Large as a
friend and used his new Bridgeport Milling Machine whenever I needed it.
I helped Bill in his shop and learned a lot from him.My payment was the experiences
and know how I accumulated there and I will trade time for knowledge any time.
After July of 1963 after being discharged from the Army I started to work in the
then new building I still have for a shop but with more machinery and tools to
work with.I addition to locks and triggers I made parts for cars and got a lot
of one of a kind jobs by being willing to do only one piece so a restoration can
be completed.I made bronze bearings for obsolete automatic transmissions as
well as being an aggravation to captive market parts suppliers that thought they
had a captive market to loot as they pleased. .
I am approaching my 84th birthday and have no further interest in labor intensive
mechanisms such as a gun lock of any kind.The triggers are now my only gun related
thing I am doing and that's IT.
Bob Roller