Gun Building Tips

This page is designed to be a collection of information about building black powder guns of all types. Sections will be added as they become available from the members of MLML, or are gleaned from discussions on the list. This means the page will be constantly under construction, and will grow over time.

Drilling Holes

One of the best ways to make sure that hole you are drilling comes out in the right place is to use this special fixture I learned about from Homer Dangler and some of my machinist friends. This setup works especially well for tang and lock bolts.

You will need a drill press with at least a 2" stroke and a 1/8" thick by about 4" x 4" wide steel plate. In the center of the plate tap a 10-32 hole. Get yourself a 10-32 screw or bolt about 3" long and sharpen it like a pencil. Don't make it too sharp or you may draw blood accidentally. Screw the screw into the plate and clamp the plate into your drill press table so the screw is pointed straight up. Now line up the screw directly under your drill bit and lock the table in place.

Now if you're drilling the barrel tang bolt, center punch where you want the barrel tang screw to enter the tang and also punch the exit point on the trigger plate. I usually try to drill the tang screw hole perpendicular to the surface of the tang so the screw head will rest flush.

With the barrel and trigger plate in the stock, set the trigger plate punch mark on the screw point in the 4" x 4" plate and drill down with your tap drill into the barrel tang. If you don't have enough stroke on your drill press or your drill bit is just too short, just turn the stock over and finish the hole from the bottom. Drilling from both sides is also a nice way to avoid drilling into your pointy screw.

What's nice about this method is not only does your hole come out where you want it but other then the 4" x 4" plate and screw, you don't need any other clamps or fixtures. To finish, re-drill and counter sink the barrel tang for your tang screw and then tap the trigger plate "through the stock" from the barrel tang side while everything is still in the stock! I keep an extra long tap for just that reason. Oh, BTW, if you plan on using #10 screws then maybe your pointy screw should be a 1/4-20 instead of the 10-32.

Happy rifle building!

Dick Raffl

Another consideration to drilling an accurately line up hole is to have a drill press table that is perpendicular to the drill bit. I ran across this tip somewhere and have used it numerous times. Take a piece of stiff wire (I  use 1/8 inch brass rod), just about anything will work. Bend a 90 degree angle about two inches from one end and then another 90 degree bend about two inches from the other end, but in the opposite direction (like a big "Z"). You need to adjust the length of the piece to fit the size of the table, so that when you put the wire in the chuck it doesn't extend over the edge. All of these measurements can be adjusted to suit your drill press. To use this jig just put one of the two inch sections in the chuck, raise the table so that it is very close to the wire (or lightly touching) and turn the chuck by hand very slowly. If the wire touches or hangs up you need to adjust your table to make it perpendicular to the drill bit.