On with the project! When we left off I had the gun essentially finished but for the abbreviated loading lever and front sight. Good thing that I had one to practice on, because I messed up the one from my gun. So I took the loading lever from my friend’s gun and went to work on it. First I bored a 3/16″ hole down the length of it, mounted it and marked the tip of the cylinder axis pin and drilled a 3/32″ hole in the end of that. I took a piece of 3/16 inch steel rod, chucked it up in the drill-press and turned the end down to 3/32″, then polished it to insure it would slide freely and engage the 3/32′ hole in the cylinder axis pin to lock things firmly in place.

I made a cross-pin out of a pair of nails and secured it, slotted the loading lever to accommodate the cross-pin. The retaining assemble was then trimmed to length, inserted with a coil spring and pinned in place with a 1/16″ brass escutcheon nail. The head of the nail acts against the barrel as a stop when the loading lever is closed, and is held by spring-pressure when it is open. It can easily be pried out with a fingernail or knife-edge for disassembly.

Here’s the gun, finished but for the front-sight.

Close-up of the loading-lever latch. To open the loading lever grasp the pins on either side, pull forward and down. Reverse the process to close it.

Loading lever in the open position. It can actually be used to load the cap-and-ball cylinder, or will make for quick and easy loading of the cartridge cylinder. This is a fully drop-in piece, so I will finish the other cylinder-axis pin with a more conventional set-screw, and my friend can choose which system he wants.

So, the next part of the project is to mount the front sight on this gun and convert my friend’s gun.

Addendum: Done except for front-sights and a little finishing work.

Here are some detailed shots of the retaining mechanism for the loading lever.