Facing the tumbler when assembling a lock from a set of castings

[Rich Jakowski]

What’s the best way to face tumbler axles and sides when assembling a lock from a set of castings? I’ve seen Steve Wardlaw’s excellent website showing the assembly of a Manton V pan lock from a set of Rifle Shoppe castings in which he turned his tumble with a method used by clock makers. He centered and turned the tumbler by holding it to a section of 1 inch diameter brass rod with hard wax as show in this photo from his website.

http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/mantonlock/manton_pics/tumbler_axle_turn.jpg

I was wondering how other folks on this forum perform this operation. Could a proper sized  collet allow centering and turning of the tumbler just as well?

Any help appreciated

[smart dog]

Hi Rick,
I spin them by the axle at slow speed in a wood lathe fitted with a 4-jaw chuck.  I use fine files and sandpaper backed by a wood or metal block to polish the faces.

dave

[dannybb55]

I wonder how Eric Kettenberg does it in his cozy shop? What is the old way?

[davec2]

I do all the machining in collets.  If necessary, I use "emergency collets" and bore them to the required size.  I hold the rough cast main shaft first and turn the tail shaft clean and to size.  Then turn it around, holding the tail in the appropriate size collet, drill and tap for the cock screw and countersink slightly.  Then bring up a long nose live center and place it in the screw hole countersink and turn the main shaft and face of the tumbler (and a raised anti friction ring, if desired).  Turn the tumbler around one more time and finish off the back face and anti friction ring.  Takes 10 minutes in a lathe.

[Clowdis]

If you don't have a lathe another possibility is to take the tumbler and chuck it in the drill press and use a file or emery to finish the axle and sides of the tumbler. This method will clean and polish but won't correct any runout on the axle. Quick and simple though.

[Acer Saccharum]

Do a search of the archives.

This showed up: http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=973.msg10088#msg10088

But you need a lathe for this.

[fix]

I did the drill method for mine. Chucked it up in a drill that I mounted in a vise, used a safe file to get it close to size and smooth everything up, and then polished it with emery cloth.

Might not be the best method, but it seems to have worked.

I did manage to pick up a lathe since then, but it will be a while before I get it working. Perhaps the next one will get turned on the lathe.

[chris laubach]

What is the old way?

A Tumbler Mill.



Chris Laubach

[Dphariss]

You really need a lathe for this kinda work.
Even a little cheap bench top lathe from Harbor Freight etc will do pretty well. The other option, if you don't want to buy communist stuff, is to buy one of the old American 7 or 9 inch lathes Atlas etc.

Dan

[Rich Jakowski]

Thanks for the replys. I've used the drill press method in the past and also rigged something on a wood lathe to turn a few tumbers, but neither of these seem to produce truely concentric font and rear tumbler axels in my opinion.

I do have a Harbor Freight 7 X 10 mini lathe which I purchased a few years back. I've had lots of fun with it - does a great job on small lock screws. The head stock spindle has a 3 MT in it when the chuck is removed so I'm going to order a set of small collets which should allow more precise tumbler facing and turning.