How bad does this look

The Appalachian said:

A little tip if you don't have the set up on a drill press

A little tip for getting holes to line up on both sides.

If ~~ you don't have a drill press set up like in the picture, with a pointed alignment fixure that is lined up with your drill bit. You place the pointed fixture in a center punch mark on the exit side of your hole, and the drill bit point will follow that path and your hole will be correct on both ends.

Then ~~ drill your hole from both sides and meet in the middle. I would rather have both exterior holes placed correctly and deal with a slight misalignment on the interior of the gun than deal with a hole that exits in the wrong place.

Just some suggestions since you mentioned that you weren't lined up correctly.View attachment 143284

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Yup... I'm installing one of those points this week and getting a couple of center drills.

I'll not go into full detail on how I accomplished such a poor drilling job.

.

The hole has nearly disappeared. I cut off the threads of my lock bolt because I have an extra and cut it so that about 0.020 or a bit more protruded from each side of the hole. Then I used a couple different sizes of hex screw driver bits and my shop press to press the bolt down into the hole to fill the threads since I didn't have a good way to peen it without risk of breaking fingers or bashing my lock plate into a rainbow. With the bolt protruding just enough, I was able to look between the lock plate and the press plate to ensure I was putting pressure on the bolt and not the plate.

It worked surprisingly well.

Now the question is, do I absolutely need to stay away from the edge of that hole when drilling the next? I would assume so since the hole isn't welded up, but I have no experience drilling on the edge of a pressed in bolt.

As long as your behind the Bolster and under the Tang your in good shape.

The question is? Did you build it for YOU or someone else? My guess is, most folks "that don't build" wouldn't know one way from another.
If you don't like it, FIX IT!! Me? Could see more work and more chances for mistakes.
Kinda like, don't fix it if it ain't broke?
Someone mentioned "The Purest's"? They'll get you every time.
And from what I see, you're a First Class builder!!

Nor Cal Mikie said:

The question is? Did you build it for YOU or someone else? My guess is, most folks "that don't build" wouldn't know one way from another.
If you don't like it, FIX IT!! Me? Could see more work and more chances for mistakes.
Kinda like, don't fix it if it ain't broke?
Someone mentioned "The Purest's"? They'll get you every time.
And from what I see, you're a First Class builder!!

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Thanks for the kind compliment!

It is my own, and it's my first muzzleloader. It has taken me from February till now to get to this point from a blank, so the amount of time I will have spent by the time I finish this, that misplaced bolt head and bolt that's is way out of level would drive me absolutely crazy even though it's purely aesthetic.

My wife said to leave it alone if it doesn't hurt the function due to the chance that I could mess it up worse. I told her that there is someone out there that can fix it for me correctly if I screw it up worse and then I wouldn't learn how to fix this kind of mistake!

I do have plenty of room in the lock bolster left to drill a new hole and stay far enough away from the old threads and old clearance hole in the stock. I will just have to notch the rear surface of the reach plug bolster because I don't think there's enough room there to go through it and stay away from the other holes.

HighUintas said:

It is my own, and it's my first muzzleloader.

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You did GOOD (VERY GOOD) but, if it bugs you, fix it. If you don't, it'll drive you crazy. Perfection can be a killer.
My first build only got about 1/3 rd. of the way done before I passed it off to someone to finish up for me.
If I hadn't, it would still be unfinished with parts hiding out "somewhere". Had to get it done.
Parts DID go into hiding for a while and when I found them again, that's when I decided to let someone else take over.
Last I checked this morning, it should be delivered to it's NEW OWNER today sometime.
I'll say it again, you did VERY GOOD!! You better be proud of your accomplishments!! Not everybody can be that good.

deerstalkert said:

you might leave the hole in the lock plate there. if anyone asks about it tell them it is to relieve pressure if powder residue ignites behind the lock!
what size is it 8 or 10?

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Or a drain hole, useful in swamp combat..

When I was a tool and diemaker, the only time a center drill was used was when in a radial drill press or a vertical milling machine. W/ center punched hole locations, a small drill was used because it flexed to pick up the center punch....center drills don't do that and will spot the holes off center. Have a lot of center drills and never use them.....Fred

Vaino said:

When I was a tool and diemaker, the only time a center drill was used was when in a radial drill press or a vertical milling machine. W/ center punched hole locations, a small drill was used because it flexed to pick up the center punch....center drills don't do that and will spot the holes off center. Have a lot of center drills and never use them.....Fred

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Interesting! I never thought of that being an issue as long as the center drill is lined up with the punch correctly. How small a bit was used and how much bit extended out of the chuck jaws?

I did use a center drill and it worked well. I spent a good amount of time making sure my center drill point was lined up as perfectly as possible with my punch.

It turned out well! Now I just need to cut a face grain maple plug to hide that birch dowel and I'll be back in business please ignore my quick and dirty horribly drawn panel