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Manufaturing and Installing a Sliding Tumbler Safety on a Chambers Late Ketland

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Curtis:
Currently I am working on an English sporting gun, and thought it would be a nice touch to add a sliding tumbler safety to the lock.  I am using a Chambers late Ketland for the gun.  The bridle and sear screws on the back of the lock are quite close together, which presented a design challenge in adding the sliding safety.  A common safety design on English locks employs a sliding bar in a slot on the lockplate, with a stabilizing tab on the inside that engages a slot in the bridle.  Here are a couple of photos of a P. Bond lock on a pistol I have by that maker:





I have a pair of old German locks that were once very nice that have a much simpler yet effective safety that does not use a bar in the lock plate or a tab in the bridle, so I used them for my design.  The Brits will just have to forgive me!  Notice the fly in the center of the tumbler in the second photo:





Other than a few critical measurements I just made the parts to fit each other, mostly by "eyeballing" and trial fitting.  First is a photo of the tumbler as it came from the manufacturer:



The tumbler had to be modified to allow engagement of the sliding safety.  I filed a flat spot on the tumbler, removing enough material so I would have a solid solder joint below the point of engagement.  Then I cut a wedge of steel and filed it to fit the tumbler at two points and soldered the two together, then cleaned the assembly up with a file.











I marked and cut the slot for the safety engagement:









Next I began the process of manufacturing the safety and the activation knob assembly.   Hopefully the photos are pretty much self explanatory.  Everything is in the rough at this point:













Doing some file-fitting:





Sawing out the safety mechanism:





First dry fit:




I must apologize, I live in the boonies and my internet connection has been horrible since a storm blew through here a couple of days ago, so I will have to continue this thread later.  What should normally take an hour to post has taken about four so far....

Thanks for looking,
Curtis

Ed Wenger:
That’s some very fine work, as usual, Curtis.  Looking forward to the progress and end result!


          Ed

smart dog:
Hi Curtis,
That is looking very good. When you fit the bolt into the slot on the tumbler, make sure you allow a tiny bit of slop in the fit. You generally need that so that when you want to disengage the safety, you can pull the flintcock back a tiny bit so that pressure from the tumbler and mainspring is taken off the safety bolt allowing it to be slid backward without a lot of force. That will save a lot of wear on the bolt. Also, don't underestimate the force applied to the bolt by the tumbler when engaged in the tumbler notch.  That force is why British makers supported the other side of the bolt in a slot in the bridle.  Good luck.

dave

James Rogers:
Leaps and bounds Curtis! Great work. On my bucket list.

PPatch:
Shaping up to be a fine tutorial Curtis, enjoying your progress.

dave

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