Found this old thread while searching for info on the same topic - building lock from castings... It was a most interesting and educational conversation that Jeff started; wish I had found it earlier, as I might not have bought the lock set that will arrive soon.
I should receive tomorrow a set of TRS Poser Jaeger #653 lock castings I purchased from a member on another forum. I have been looking at doing a TRS Jaeger of some sort, but now I'm rethinking that idea. In the past I built reproductions of 1877 Sharps BPCR target rifles from castings, including the English shotgun locks used by Sharps on those rifles. In order to get into it, I spent a week in Montana with a great gunsmith who had built jigs and fixtures to use with the castings. My partner and I purchased the jigs and fixtures from him and got to it. We had a lathe, knee mill/DRO, surface grinder, heat treat oven, etc. to do the job correctly. Everything said here about working with castings is true: voids, undersized parts, casting slag, cleaning/truing them up, odd shapes, etc.
So, I'll be doing a one-off lock and without the tooling sounds like from what has been said it will be much more difficult. This lock has the engraving shadows that someone commented are aggravating. There are no instructions, so the experiences written here will be most useful.
I know Mr. Ron Scott has made castings from originals and there must have been some fine rifles made from those, so it can be done. I guess the cast parts other than the lock are easier to work with. I'm on the waitlist for one of Mr. Laubach's locks that I plan to use for my project, so I guess the TRS lock will be a learning experience that will sit on the bookshelf in the office!
