After cleaning up the insides of the drip bar it is time to solder it to the barrel. I wanted to insure that it would be tight against the patent breech, and I did not want any solder to stick to the breech or find it's way into the plug threads - so I used a sharpened soapstone marker to fill the joint between the patent breech and barrel, and coated the front of the snail while I was at it. I put a thin coat of self fluxing solder paste on the inside of the drip bar and the barrel where the drip bar will sit. The drip bar was clamped in place and I cleaned up the solder that squeezed out. Then I heated the parts with a propane torch.
Then the drip bar was filed flush with the breeches:
Next I begin the process of inletting the drip bar. The standing breech was put back in the stock and then the barrel was put in place until the drip bar contacted the stock. I remove wood where the inlet black leaves a mark. The process is repeated until the barrel is all the way down.
Once the barrel is seated I begin inletting the lock. After some careful positioning and test fitting with the hammer in place I determined that the some metal will have to come off the lock bolster area as indicated with the blue marker.
Holding the plate tightly in place I scribe around the plate, then stab in the scribed line with some shop made tools. The straighter lines are "roll stabbed" with the larger tool.
As the lock started to go in I painted the surfaces contacting metal with a blue Sharpie and carefully filed where interference was indicated.
Tapping on a wood block helps to seat the lock in the inlet and gives good color transfer.
The lock panels are tapered towards the wrist, so once the bolster contacts the standing breech, I file the bolster to reflect the appropriate angle. This will require some adjustment as I go deeper with the lock. The angle of the bolster can be seen against the machinist's square leg. The front face of the bolster requires some tapering as well.
Once the lock plate is close to being down I positioned it firmly against the standing breech and drip bar and clamp it in place. I then drilled through the side panel into the lock bolster with an undersized drill, then a tap drill, clearance drill in the wood and then tapped the lock plate.
When I drilled for bolt clearance I used a numbered bit one size below the recommended clearance drill, then slightly relieved the top and front side of the hole with a small file to encourage the plate to be pulled slightly up and forward.
Now I can use the lock bolt to pull the plate tight into the mortise and remove any markings that show interference. I inlet the plate with the bridle and tumbler installed.
It fits tightly in place and I am ready to install the remaining lock internals and adjust the inlet to fit them.
Notice how the nicely tapered spring sits low on the plate, for barrel and ramrod hole clearance. Also note how the tumbler rests on the bridle and prevents the spring from being able to bust out the bottom of the lock mortise if the lock were accidentally tripped without a hammer or nipple in place.
Thanks for looking,
Curtis
