Anyone familiar with fabricating the old fashioned flat screw plates that were replaced by dies and handles.  I watched Wallace Gussler in the Colonial Gunsmith of Williamsburg using one he made to fabricate a breechplug for a muzzle loader.  He said he makes them, but didn't say how.  I have an odd ball 11/16 x 20 breech plug thread in a section of rifle barrel I thought making up a screw plate might be a good starter project to get out a suitable threaded plug.  Anybody know any of the tricks before I start reinventing the wheel?

why not shoot him an Email C/O Williamsburg

Because he retired in 2004?

You might try reaching out to Richard Sullivan, who's the current master gunsmith at CW and has been demonstrating at Quad-State for many years. I don't know if he's still using such a threading plate, but given how dedicated CW is to research, I'm sure they will at very least have records of Gusler's tooling.

I plan to retire next year, but I aint going anywhere

There is a good article/thread here    about screw plates.           practicalmachinist.com/forum/threads/screw-threads-in-the-17th-century.

Can't post a live link but a search should find it. One of the contributors is G. Wilson who worked at C. Williamsburg for 39 years. All in all an interesting read.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

 

I had one of those screw plates in the tools that I inherited from my grand father that some miscreant stole from my van in about '81-'82.

Thanks for the site Randy. Interesting as far as I read tonight. Seems to be a good forum, I wonder how many post here too?

Frosty The Lucky.

6 hours ago, Frosty said:

I wonder how many post here too?

I for one Jerry. The Practical Machinist has been one of my primary information sources for many years because of the breadth of experience represented in the community there. Don Thomas, the originator has established rules to keep the site focused on professional applications which has in turn provided a good home for many professionals to exchange knowledge. It is a much larger community than IFI but is similar in the sense that there is a goodly collection of wisdom, often offered by a smaller group of lovable curmudgeons. Non-professionals are certainly welcome, but discussions of junk machines are squelched. Aside from the many machine specific sub-forums, there is also a very worthwhile sub-forum discussing transformers & phase converters, and another focused on historical machines. Lots there to fuel your interest in a vertical mill!

--Larry

Cool, you can cross pollinate the two fora. Dad was a metal spinner and machinist so I worked in his shop till OSHA said I couldn't. I think it's one reason I never went that route and became a welder fabricator with a penchant for beating poor steel into submission with hammers.

I've spent time on machine and spinning lathes, even own a 13 x 40 Jett but I'd never call myself a machinist, not even close. If I stumbled across an end mill for cheap it might find a home in my shop but would be poorly utilized. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Here is a picture of a couple of original screw plates.  I like this design.  I have some forged leaf springs and similar remnants I have squirreled away, perhaps quenched in canola oil blocks made from this material mounted in a mild steel carburized frame would do the trick.

You will have to make a tap first. Might as well cut the thread on the plug the same way. While you can lay out 16 marks per inch on a 11/16 plain, wrap in string to connect the marks, scribe the string then file a thread to follow the scribed line, it is way easier and less frustrating to use a lathe…