need help with percussion hammer striking nipple to high

[Rawhide67]

Maybe the OP can post a clear side view of the whole lock and bolster?

Just making the distance longer between the tumbler pivot and hammer face may not accomplish anything. The angle of the nipple is rotated clockwise from where it needs to be. See attached.

I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I’m lost as to how you increase that distance without changing a lot of things on the lock.

 

[Scota@4570]

I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I’m lost as to how you increase that distance without changing a lot of things on the lock.

Between autocorrect and dyslexia many of my posts are messed up, sorry to the readers.

You install a longer hammer. The lock plate probably needs to me moved back. Take the hammer off. Cut out a fake lock plate from paper card stock. Move you hammer around until it is correctly positioned on the nipple. Mark the card. You will find it is back from the current tumbler position. It will probably be up too. You want the tumbler to be in the middle of the plate relative to up and down. A longer hammer will take care of that . Track of the wolf has printable pictures of the various locks with hammers. Print to scale and cut them out to try out. Ideally the angle from the tumbler to the nipple face is 90* Lots of old guns were not done well in this respect.

I look for the main stem of the hammer to be 90* or a bit further clockwise, when resting on the nipple.

We still need a good photo taken of the lock area taken 90* from the plate to figure this out.

It looks like there is significant mismatch of parts from what I can see.

Some random Track hammer is unlikely to fit your tumbler or clock correctly. That requires a bushing to be silver brazed in the new hammer and the square hole made from scratch.

 

[Rawhide67]

Are longer and taller interchangeable here? I’m sure replacing the lock plate won’t be an option but it sounds like you’re saying use a paper lock plate just to get the appropriate hammer dimensions?

 

[Eterry]

Looking at the photo , the hammer isn't striking squarely on the nipple due to the drum being slightly rotated clockwise , beyond where the nipple should be pointing to the center of the hammer nose. This can easily be corrected by removing the drum , and installing a shall piece of say , .007 thick shim stock cut into a washer fitting under the drum. This will cause the drum to stop directly under the hammer nose. This over rotation of a percussion drum , these days , is caused by unknowing persons unnecessarily , removing the drum to clean the rifle . Most rifle barrels are made of soft iron , or today , soft lead bearing steel that can't take repeated tightening of a drum , and threads are stretched in barrel steel. I've had to put shim stock under a couple rifle drums to fix this problem. If done neatly , the shim stock is not visible. To safely drill the drum thread hole in sheet metal , clamp it between two PCs. of wood , them using metal shears , cut the excess away.

I did this on the first kit I assembled. Well, my 8th grade shop teacher did it. Definitely works better than grinding on a nipple or bending/replacing the hammer. You fix the problem, not just a bandaid response.

 

[SDSmlf]

Looking at the photo , the hammer isn't striking squarely on the nipple due to the drum being slightly rotated clockwise , beyond where the nipple should be pointing to the center of the hammer nose. This can easily be corrected by removing the drum , and installing a shall piece of say , .007 thick shim stock cut into a washer fitting under the drum. This will cause the drum to stop directly under the hammer nose. This over rotation of a percussion drum , these days , is caused by unknowing persons unnecessarily , removing the drum to clean the rifle .

I did this on the first kit I assembled. Well, my 8th grade shop teacher did it. Definitely works better than grinding on a nipple or bending/replacing the hammer. You fix the problem, not just a bandaid response.

Curious to hear how you (or your shop teacher) rotated the drum (aka breech plug) to align the nipple as shown in the OP.

 

[Eterry]

Curious to hear how you (or your shop teacher) rotated the drum (aka breech plug) to align the nipple as shown in the OP.
View attachment 303732

He used a large Crescent wrench to remove the drum, inserted the shim, and tightened it up. The shim made the drum bottom out sooner, so the hammer made complete contact with the nipple.
We caught a huge break and the first time worked fine.

 

[Eterry]

Curious to hear how you (or your shop teacher) rotated the drum (aka breech plug) to align the nipple as shown in the OP.
View attachment 303732

Upon a closer look, it looks like a Snail drum. In which case the drum may not be able to turn.
If that's the case, then replacing the hammer may be the best option. I still think modifying the nipple is a stop gap measure which has to be done on every nipple.
Mea Culpa.

 

[SDSmlf]

He used a large Crescent wrench to remove the drum, inserted the shim, and tightened it up. The shim made the drum bottom out sooner, so the hammer made complete contact with the nipple.
We caught a huge break and the first time worked fine.

The OP’s gun does not have a drum. It has a breech plug /bolster type design. Removing it and adding a shim between the breech plug and barrel will rotate the nipple away from the hammer and create a gap between the breech plug and barrel.

 

[Eterry]

The OP’s gun does not have a drum. It has a breech plug /bolster type design. Removing it and adding a shim between the breech plug and barrel will rotate the nipple away from the hammer and create a gap between the breech plug and barrel.

I just noticed this. I blame it on dirty glasses.

 

[cynthialee]

There ain't no easy fixing that and making it right. The lock was placed wrong and the way it has a snail there is no adjusting that part.
I'd work on the hammer and either lengthen it and bend it our just do some unsightly Dremel work on the hammer nipple interface to make it more square of a strike.

 

[The Crisco Kid]

If you can heat the hammer red hot you can bend it so the nipple is in the center of the hammer face. This will make the angle even worse but the hammer can be set up in a milling machine at the correct angle so that the hammer face can be milled square to the nipple. A longer hammer is the best answer if you can find one but the face that hits the nipple may have to be squared up anyway. There are a couple of ways to index a different hammer to the tumbler, neither of which are too hard to do. Moving the lock on an original rifle opens up a whole nuther can of worms you don't want to get into. I suspect what happened is that the original hammer was lost, hence the replacement that doesn't fit.

 

[SDSmlf]

I just noticed this. I blame it on dirty glasses.

Dirty device screen and CSS according to the bride.